Warning: New Driver!!!

It’s official, she’s a driver! In mid June, after what seemed like FOREVER (to Emily) the final step was taken and the test passed!

The process started in late October 2010 when Emily took her written test for her temporary driver’s license. She was required to drive 50 total hours in the car (including 10 hours of night driving) with one of her parents. The first few attempts were nerve racking on everyone’s part. Emily’s first time driving the minivan and her whole family was in the car! She liked to hug the white line on the right side of the road and cars passing her threw off her concentration. However, Emily quickly found her focus and proved to be a very skillful driver. By her second month driving I felt I could close my eyes and take a nap in the passenger’s seat if I needed to, but of course I didn’t.

Emily finished with her 50 hours in March or April, I can’t remember, we were keeping track on a notepad but after she reached the required number of hours I stopped keeping tabs. Emily started driver’s ed class the end of March and due to spring break in April she had to miss a few classes and wait until May to make them up. The kids are required to wait until the 7th out of their 8 classes to begin their in-car training. In the world of this teenager that was a looooooooong time to wait, and I quote “I’m NEVER going to get my driver’s license!”

Despite her lamenting Emily got her in car training done in one week, the end of May/beginning of June. She scheduled her test for the first opportunity available once she was sure she would finish her in cars on time. We practiced maneuverability multiple times, thankfully a local church has a course set up all the time just for this purpose! Emily was extremely nervous and the consensus was that IF she were to fail, it would be this part that would do it. I had every confidence in her abilities as a driver and never doubted for a second that she would pass her driving test with flying colors.

Test day rolled around on June 14th and the younger kids and I took Emily to test for her license in Lebanon. We arrived early and waited almost 30 minutes past her appointed time until the tester was ready to take Emily out. Emily said that she whizzed through the maneuverability and only got nervous once she got on the open road with the tester. Less than half way through Emily reported that the lady she was testing with closed her notebook and started chit chatting with her. Emily pulled back in to the BMV and showed us her 100% score!
Next stop was the license bureau where Emily sat texting and calling family to report her success while waiting her turn to get her new driver’s license. Needless to say it is wonderful now to have another driver in the family.

All we need now is to complete getting her car ready. The plan is for her to drive a early 90’s VW Corrado that we are purchasing from one of Jason’s friends and that we have been storing for a few years. It’s not a beauty, and it’s a stick shift but to Emily it’s freedom. We still have the manual lessons to give her but that hasn't dampered Emily's enthusiasm. Also, we’re waiting on the title to arrive and during the wait, Emily has been cleaning the inside and outside of her new car.

Emily’s first trip out by herself was the same day she got her license. She loaded David up in the minivan to take him to the library and karate lessons. As she and David pulled out of the driveway you could hear Emily yell “Wooo Hooo” with excitement as the freedom of driving on her own was finally, literally in her hands.

Ella's Sock-A-Pillars

Ella had a very interesting assignment at school toward the end of the year. They were going to have a "Entrepreneurship Day" where each child was to produce their own product and sell it (for a max of $2 per product). They had to keep track of the expenses they had, sell their product and figure how much profit they made. The kids were allowed to pair up but Ella opted not to do this. She was so excited about the prospect of creating and selling her own crafts! She stayed up late one school night, unbeknownst to me, and came down at 11pm that night to show me her plan for her product. Here are the plans, I've retyped (in her spelling what each one says)...

Ella's Exellent Caterpillars
What you need:
-socks
-stuffing
-string
-scizzors
-glue gun
-googly eyes
-pipe cleaners

Enterpenuer Day Plan
1. Stuff section of a sock
2.Tie with a little peice of string
3.Repeat step 1 & 2 until you have only the last section left
4.Tie the last section in a knot
5.Use a glue gun and glue googly eyes on to first section
6.Cut a pipe cleaner in half and glue to first section

If you get a white caterpillar you can color it and have your own color-a-catepillar. Otherwise they make a great toy.

We did tweek a few things from her original plan. We ended up using tiny rubberbands instead of string to make the sections in the sock-a-pillars and left the ends untied and folded them back over the last section. Lastly we didn't glue on the pipe cleaners but rather stuck them through the top of the first section in one place and had it come out another, they stayed a lot better that way. I'm so proud at how inventive she was and her enthusiasm did show in her work. The only part I helped with was hot gluing the googly eyes on the sock-a-pillars.

Ella ended up making over twenty sock-a-pillars. She sold 17 of them and the rest she gave to various people before she started selling them. She made a profit of about $8.There were a variety of colors of socks, and antenae to choose from, here are some pictures of them.

After Ella got done with a marathon of making the sock-a-pillars we had fun with the largest googly eyes from the pack that she used.

Erin Kelly Mast

Our family had a very exciting event occur at the end of May. On May 31st the newest child was born into our family. My sister Jennifer gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl. Erin Kelly Mast weighed in at 7 lbs 1oz and measured 20 inches long. Although you know that a child must be small to fit in their mother's womb it never ceases to amaze me just how small some of them can be, how tiny the fingernail, and how delicate their features are. I will bore you no longer and will just show you some pictures of this precious little girl.

Visiting baby Erin at home

Here is Erin making an extra special present for Uncle Jason!

Ella's Performance

Ella had a singing and recorder performance at the end of this past school year. She and half of the fourth grade class sang the songs and performed with the recorders that they had been practicing with in school all year. There was a system in place for the recorders in order to advance to more complicated songs and some kids did that. They got different colored "belts" to put on their recorders each time they passed a level. Ella never got passed the second level but then again the recorder did not seem to be her passion. Here's her performance with the recorder.

Here are some pictures of Ella singing at the same performance.

David's Yellow Belt

On Saturday May 14th, David tested for the first time in karate. He started in February with his white belt and tested on this day for his yellow belt. In order to do so he had to receive three "tips". The first tip was for memorizing the creed that I have pictured below. The second tip is for memorizing and doing an 18 move sequence. The third tip was for memorizing and performing three "one steps". Once he got all three tips he was allowed to test for his yellow belt. The testing only happens once a month and this month was it! Jason was taking the video while I took pictures. We were there for over two hours because we had to stay and watch the other belts complete their testing too.

All the kids testing to move up from their white, yellow and orange belts were present at the same time. The white belts went first and they had to stand up and state their name, what they liked best about karate and what four things they had improved upon at home to show self discipline. Here are some pictures of David reviewing and then sharing in the video...

David's Introduction

Next David was required to show his 18 moves. There were three boys up at one time but they went at their own paces. Here are some pics and video of David doing the 18 moves.

David's 18 moves

Lastly David had to do his "one steps". This part is done with a partner and the boys have to take turns in performing them. One person will start and then hold still while the other person performs his moves. A couple times the other boy forgot his part and David was trying to give him hints as to what to do. All together there are three one steps that have to be performed. Here are some pics and video of David doing his one steps.

David's One Steps

I'm happy to report that all the kids who tested received their new belts. There were four judges and the kids were tested on a number of different categories for each test they took. David's instructor, Mr. Patten (pictured below with David) said that he gave David a 5 out of 5 for "intensity" and he thinks it's the first time he's ever given a white belt that score! I think he says as much on the video. Jason and I are so proud of the hard work David has put into his karate and the rewards he has reaped. Hopefully he'll continue on and it will increase his self confidence and self discipline even more! Here are some pics and of David getting his new belt and then some pics of him with his instructor.

David getting his Yellow Belt

Our new Yellow Belt!

Emily's Sweet Sixteen

Emily’s sweet 16th birthday was celebrated a little bit belatedly because we did not host her official birthday party until the first weekend in May. On her actually birthday Masamo and I surprised her at school with sixteen balloons and a birthday tiara. Unfortunately Emily was not allowed to carry the balloons around with her all day at school (not that she wanted to) and had to leave them in the school office until the end of the day. In true teenage form she accused me of being mean (jokingly) when I would not take the balloons back home with me immediately so that she would not have to walk out of school with them at the end of the day (and thus bring attention to her). I explained that the entire purpose of the balloons WAS to bring attention to her on her special birthday. It was her sweet sixteen and she should embrace it! Here are some pics from her actual birthday.

Emily decided to have a big birthday party this year and invited 20 girls to her party from both church and school. About 12 of the girls were actually able to make it and I think they had a pretty good time. It was held from 4-10pm on that Saturday. The girls arrived and once enough of them arrived they played a game until it was time to eat. We grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs, per Emily’s request.

The bucket-head brigade entertaining themselves outside

After dinner they had a little down time while Jason and I set up the main even for the evening which was an “Amazing Race-style” game. We had seventeen different challenges set up for the girls to accomplish each with different point values attached to them. The challenges they faced ranged from doing the “Hokey Pokey” for Ella to riding a tricycle to counting a container full of buttons (there were 709 of them by the way). We did not make them eat anything disgusting as Emily didn’t want anyone throwing up at her birthday party. The girls were divided into five teams and had to wear a bandanna of a certain color to identify their team. The game took about an hour or so to complete and it was great fun to watch them run around completing the tasks at hand.

After the game came birthday cupcakes, ice cream and presents. Emily, Jason and I all worked hard on Emily’s chosen cupcakes. We saw the idea in a Family Fun magazine and Emily decided that is what she wanted for her birthday. Here’s the link to the directions if you’re interested… http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/queen-for-a-day-cupcakes-877102/

Let me just say that they were mess and a pain in the rear end to make. We made full sized cupcakes instead of minis like the recipe calls for. The crowns, made out of banana Laffy Taffy were hard to soften enough to cut and we had to tweak the directions slightly to make them easier to make. Here’s a picture of the best looking one, which I also presented to Emily when we sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
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Masamo enjoying a cupcake

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Video of us singing Emily "Happy Birthday"

Emily opening presents

The girls finished up the evening with a bonfire outside. It had been drizzling off and on all day and the rain stopped enough that Jason was able to go out to our fire pit and start a fire for the girls. We had marshmallows available but I think they had a better time taking pictures of one another with my new camera.

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It’s amazing how quickly our children grow. My precious baby girl is nearly an adult and is very close to getting her drivers license. It is hard to let go but I thank God that it comes in stages and not all at one. I have to keep reminding myself that God gave Jason and I a few short precious years to raise our children and that we are preparing them to live wisely once they are adults. I have shed a number of tears recently with many different emotions attached to them as I watch Emily grow into the beautiful young woman God is molding her into. Jason and I pray that she chooses to serve Him wholly and faithfully as He has called her to do.