Spelling Bee F-I-N-A-L-S

Emily made it to the Webber Academy spelling bee finals for Div 1 and Div 2. Div 1 had three students from grades 1-3 (two were from grade 1!!) and Div 2 had three students from grades 4-6 (two were from grade 4!!) Here are all the competitors nervously waiting for the finals to begin:


Emily ended up in 2nd place after missing the word "compromise". She spelled it with a "z" instead of an "s". The fourth grade boy won the whole thing on the word "mustache". Who else out there thought it was spelled "moustache"? Anyway, Emily was very proud of herself and so was I. Here she is taking her turn at the microphone:

Cheer Banquet

Madeline and I attended the Stars cheer banquet on Monday evening. It was a nice event for the junior and senior cheer teams. The gym owner and head coach had great things to say about the teams and how hard they worked this year. Each girl got a trophy for dedication and hardwork. They also gave out special awards on each team. Madeline won the "Outstanding All-Around Athlete" award for her ability to play many roles on the team and her willingness to accept last minute changes and take on new challenges. Yea, Maddie!!

Surprise!!!

Olivia's friends organized a surprise going-away party for her. They got a bunch of girls together for the evening and then four of them had a sleepover. Two of her friends contacted me about a month ago to check Olivia's calendar. Olivia had suspicions but her two friends Arden and Nadia did a good job of playing is cool and Olivia became convinced that it was just a normal sleepover. Here she is just after the big SURPRISE!!!

They gave her all kinds of Canada paraphenalia - a flag they all signed, a shirt, ball cap, and some coasters that each girl wrote a little message on and they put them together on a little ring. It was a great surprise. Never thought I'd say it but thank goodness for Facebook to keep all these friends connected.

One last performance

The Calgary Stars cheerleading teams had a demonstration and cheered on runners at the Loops for Troops road race this morning. This is Madeline's last performance with them. On Monday she has a cheer banquet but this was her last time in uniform. They had fun but Madeline was a little grossed out about hi-fiving all the sweaty palms coming across the finish line!! Here they are in formation. Madeline is one of the "pretty girls" (as one of the parents called them) sitting in front:

They had at bunch of people out promoting the Calgary Stampede coming up at the beginning of July. The girls had a photo op with the Stampede horse (Madeline is just to the left of the horse):

Goodbye Stars Cheer, Hello Pride Cheer!

Wildcats Win!!

The Webber Wildcats varsity soccer team won the league banner!! The championship game was a very exciting one that ended in regulation as a 1-1 tie. They went directly to penalty kicks. Webber won on their fouth kick which was shot by one of the senior girls. It was nice to have a girl hit the winning shot.

Harriet the Hamburger

All the grade 4 classes at Webber put on a production of Harry/Harriet the Hamburger which follows the hamburger through the digestive system. Emily's class is lead by Mr Sprau who is particularly creative. Her play included an appearance by Elvis, a group dance to "Single Ladies", and Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" as the theme song. The play was very funny with parts like Tiffany Tongue, surfer girl Erin Esophagus, Indiana Duodenum (modeled after Indiana Jones), Peyton Pancreas (in the style of Mission: Impossible), and Gloria Gallbladder (played by a boy!)

Emily got to play the part of Harriet the Hamburger for the 1st half of the play. The part was split to spread out the lines a bit. In the second half she played Betty Bladder, who wasn't on stage for long because she "really had to go!"

Here's Harriet the Hamburger about to enter the mouth and meet all the teeth characters:

Mr Sprau says he will give us a DVD. I'll put it up on YouTube for all to watch!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Olivia celebrated her 13th birthday on Friday. All she really wanted to do for her birthday was have her two good Irish dance friends over for a sleepover. It worked out perfectly that they were able to come over after the Irish dance BBQ. They got to hang out for the whole BBQ, come home and hang out some more, have caramel fudge brownies and ice cream, watch a movie and stay up too late.

Here's Olivia with 13 candles - it took a long time to light them all!

Olivia with her favorite friends, Jaydene and Mirabelle. She will miss them alot:

Olivia got her own WebCam for her birthday so if anyone wants to add her on Skype her ID is Olivia.Mount13. She waited to open presents until Sat with Mirabelle and Jaydene but on Friday we celebrated with a meal of her choice. At first she just wanted spaghetti buffet (with choices of sauces and mix-ins) but I told her I would make stromboli if she wanted. This is a Schwarz family favorite that she is always asking me to make but I never do. So, that was a treat!