Six With Sticks

by Six Kennedy kids and their parents


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Hot on the heels

Eden is getting hot on the heels of her big sister.  At school, there is an upcoming race, called the ‘Race for Education’.  It is some fundraiser that they are requiring the kids to raise money for and participate.  They are told to run around the school field for 50 minutes.  That’s right, 50 minutes.  That is a long time for a 5th grader, let alone a 3rd grader or 1st grader.

Anyway, they have been training for the race.  For the last several days, they have been running a mile a day at school.  Eden has been coming in either 1st or 2nd girl in her grade and among the top 5 finishers (boy and girl) in the whole grade.  Pretty fantastic.  It sounds like Lydia Lesnevich is besting her on some of the runs, but that is okay, Lydia is in a track and field club at the high school, and has been doing very well in 5Ks, a good athlete and a good kid.

On Monday, Eden was very dejected after school.  On Monday, when they ran the 1 mile, Eden was the 1st girl in her grade to finish.  When some of the other girls finished, they made some snide remarks to Eden that she must have cheated and told people that Eden didn’t run all of her laps.  Same girls that have been little shits to Eden all year.  On a day when she should have been very proud of herself, she was put down and felt bad on the inside.

And so it goes in this town that we live in.  Bobby recently made a comment, that Eden will pass them all many times as they follow the long road to mediocrity.

Eden is ready to soar.  She needs some breaks in her favor.  Come on man.  Give her one.


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Noah’s first concert

Noah went to his first concert last night.  No idea where the concert was.  I think the band was called ‘Lone Bellow’.  I didn’t even know he was going to a concert.  We got a call at around 9:00 PM from the parents of his friend that they were headed out of the city from a concert.

It must have been cool because he got a beach ball from the concert.  He had fun.


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Early morning art

Liz has shown an aptitude for art.  She has designed the Hillcrest Elementary School yearbook cover the last 2 years.  And she created a 3 dimensional Hedgehog on a book for the county superintendent of schools who came to a special event at Hillcrest.

The art teacher, Mrs. Black, has invited Elizabeth in to school several early mornings before school starts to work on special projects.

Liz working on hre MD Blue Crab and trout

Liz working on her MD Blue Crab and trout

I dropped her off a few days ago and snapped a photo of her working on these paving stones that will line the garden at their school.


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Going to work with dad

3 of the 6 came to work with me the other day.  How exciting is it to work in a library?  You be the judge.

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Getting their maps assignment from Jim Gillispie

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Hard at work. Got to inventory all of these maps of Maryland

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Maryland and the kids’ learning assignment

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Elizabeth, Eden and Noah with Jim Gillispie

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Learning to draw their surroundings based on their observations

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Participating in a study of user behavior with our User Experience Director, Steven Heslip

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In awe of Peabody Library

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Scholars

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Writing on the walls and windows in the blue room

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I hope the kids are interested in coming to see me at work again next year.


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The embarrassed plumber

On Tuesday morning, the downstairs toilet was clogged.  This has been happening a lot lately with this toilet.  I got out the plunger and went to work.  But I couldn’t get it to clear.  I had to go to work, so I told the kids to create an out of oder sign and not use it.

I didn’t get around to it until Wednesday night.  Late Wednesday night, after midnight.  I removed the toilet and then snaked 25 feet of the drain.  All clear.  I snaked the toilet.  All clear.  So I reinstalled it.  Flush.

Nope!

Bowl just filled up with water.  Expletive.  Expletive.

Marcia walin.  “Did you plunge it?”

“Of course”

“Here, let me try”

Plunge, plunge.  Flush.

Everything drained properly.

Marcia tried to make it okay, “maybe you knocked something loose in there with all your jiggling”


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Hillcrest highlights

3rd place - Science Fair

3rd place – Science Fair

Liz won 3rd place in the science fair at Hillcrest. It was a pretty cool project that Marcia and I also got into. She measured how much weight different glues could hold. The winner, Gorilla Glue, held 368 lbs!

100%

100%

Noah and Eden each received 100% scores on tests this week.

All around, it was an academic week in the Kennedy household.


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Sole of the City

Liz and I ran our first 10K together. This was a week after she garnered 3rd overall female finisher in the LOGjam 5K at Centennial Park. She ran that one alone, but this race was twice the distance, and 3500 people! So I decided to run it with her.

Liz and Dad run their first 10K together

Liz and I started the race together and ran the whole thing together. At the starting line, she got all the way up to the front with the professional runners. It was a good day to run, just a few days removed from the Boston Marathon where there was a bombing. Liz said she wanted to run for the victims in Boston, especially an 8 year old that was killed.

We run for Boston

We run for Boston

Liz ran hard the whole race. The other runners made lots of positive comments to Liz on the course, about her shirt and how awesome of a runner she was. Coming to the finish line, Liz picked up her pace and finished strong. She finished first place in her age group with a time of 51:38. Congratulations, Liz.

Liz Wins

Liz Wins


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Not a Solitary Act

Working out has become a family affair in the Kennedy household.  The kids have been doing Soft-Hands workouts, which involves stickwork daily and workouts 3 x a week.  Noah and Maggie wanted to get into the act, and so did Luke.  “My turn,” he kept saying and would lay down on the mat for situps or pushups.  It was very cute when his siblings were helping him perform a situp – he did 4 of them.  Marcia and I are working out as well and it feels good.  I’m still ahead of the girls, but not by a whole lot!


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Super Bowl Bound

The Baltimore Ravens won the AFC Championship last night.  All of the kids were home.  They  all watched the first half but then went back and forth between the play room and the TV room for the 2nd half.  They would come in every time there was a big play to give me and Mom high fives or knuckles (Poundcake … French Fries).  The game itself was awesome; we beat Tom Brady and the Patriots, 28-13.

After the game, we drove into Baltimore City to partake in the celebration.  We all piled in the mini van.  As we drove through the city streets, everyone was honking their horns and hanging out their windows.  People with sun roofs were hanging out of their sunroofs.  Some people were just riding on top of their cars.  People walking the streets were slapping hands with every car.  Eden and I were hanging out of our windows slapping hands with the passers-by.

A joyous celebration.  I can’t wait until two weeks from now.

This is the first time in any of the children’s lives that Baltimore went to a Super Bowl.  Only the 2nd time so far in my lifetime.  So we are going to celebrate and we are going to cherish the moments.