Renaissance Festival and Girl Scouts

I found this saying at work and thought that it was perfect for our lives. (I don't know why everything is underlined, I can't seem to find the button to undo this.)

To accomplish great things
We must not only ACT
But also DREAM
not only play
but also BELIEVE

With this fundraising to bring home Erin, I have to remain positive, even when I am discouraged or dishearten. I continue to pray for doors to open and some doors have open, I have become a stronger person and realized that it takes a lot of pride to ask for help. I BELIEVE we will be successful.
When I finished the last entry, I had said we were heading to the Renaissance Festival. This was the first time Jade, Katie and Jenny have been there. Monika went there in 2003. The weather was perfect. It was Girls and Boy Scout weekend so we were able to get in at a discount and my girls proudly wore their daisy vest, which is the last time for Monika as she is now a Brownie.
Right after we walked in, there was a parade going with the King and Queen coming to their "castle". We were in awe of the beautiful clothing. We sat down and watch the King and Queen and the "performers" put on a show. Once it was all done, we were told kids can be knighted. The younger girls weren't to sure about it, but I helped them along and after they saw a couple of kids be knighted, they were ready to do it.


Monika becoming and Honorary Knight of the Realm and was knighted by King Henry
Katie being Knighted
Jenny being knighted.
We enjoyed some more shows and the jousting. Was a great girls day.
Monday, Monika girl scout troop met. We have 5 new girls and 5 returning girls (one girl decided she wanted to do Karate instead). The picture above is Dave turning Monika around and then she looks in the mirror and says she see herself. There was a story behind it with being a helper.

I had the honors of place the brownie vest on her. She is very happy to be a brownie.
Monika had a interesting concept of color this week. She was reading a book on Jackie Robinson and on how he was the first black major league baseball player. When we were done with the book, she said "mom there is no such thing as black or white people", I said really, then what color are we? she responded "Brown, I am the color of cinnamon and you are tan", I said really, she then proceed to get a white crayon and prove to me that I am not white. I said what color is Jackie then, and she said he is chocolate color. She then proceeds to say everyone is the same color, just different shades.
Jade finished Tennis this past Tuesday, I think she is both sad and relief that it is done. She really enjoyed playing tennis and made huge improvement during the tennis season. She played hard and was a good sport whether she won or lost. I think she is a little relief, because homework has been keeping her very busy, and some nights she didn't get home from tennis until after 6 and once she actually started homework it was around 7. She is gearing up for Speech team and international club. She also was busy this week with a couple of college fairs. She is getting a lot of good resources, has been impressed with a couple of the college representatives (and some of them are close to home or within an hour from home, so I might be able to have her close still). Now she going to work on narrowing it down and start applying.
Jenny came home with a note from her teacher. It was a praising note and that she is doing wonderful, she is loving Kindergarten and she seems like she has matured a lot. Katie has been showing off her homework and she has become a very neat writer and is learning to take her time, we have been giving her a lot of praise for that, last year she struggled with that, was always wanting to be the first one finished and not being neat, so she is improving greatly and has a lot of pride with it.