Alas, school is in session...

Nails and toenails were painted...

One last hurrah at City Rock...

And then it was school....

McKay is in high school and totally into football and of course, girls.

Hailey is in preschool, Ashley-7th, Carson-6th,

Savvy-Kindergareten and Logan-3rd grade.

Oh where has the time gone???

The little girls were upset that they were going to be separated all day

which meant no play time until Savvy comes home. So I got heart necklaces, or 'best sister' necklaces as hailey calls them. They were thrilled and said whenever we are sad we will look at our 

necklaces and be happy.

So so sweet-

Our little Kindergartener!!!

She was so excited to go to school!

And we are thrilled she is in the same class as her best friend Avery-

Poor Hailey was so upset, she doesn't start preschool until mid-September so when 

I told her she had to wait and her sister wouldn't be home for 

a while, she spent a good part of the morning sobbing.

The best part of the day?

"When dad came to school and ate lunch with me" Savvy said.

Jason has gone to everyone of our

kids first days of kindergarten to eat lunch with them.

It is pretty special!

 I miss my kids and it's back to the busy routine of school days!

Ashley's Awards-

Ashley got straight A's all four quarters and got excellence in citizenship-

Good Job Ashley!

McKay graduates...

It's so hard for Jason and I to believe we will have a kid in high school next year! 

Where has the time gone?

McKay graduated from 8th grade last week, it was fun to see him with all
of his friends because right now we are 'not cool' to him. Oh well, we love him anyway! Congrats McKay!

McKay was mortified that we had him stand by girls! 

(even though he really likes girls!)

Carson Graduates-

WOW- what a crazy week this has been! 

School is finally out-

now I hope to get caught up on my blog.

Carson graduated from 5th grade this week...he is now an official middle schooler!

Where has the time gone?

Congrats Carson!

He also got an award for doing Battle of the Books-

His teacher was Mrs. Sunada (same as Ashley's last year) she is so sweet and

always gets so emotional at the graduations-

Way to go Carson!

Battle of the Books-

Carson is not too fond of reading so we challenged (or better yet) forced him to 

participate in Battle of the Books. He had to read 20 books throughout the school year

and then go to 3 competitions and answer questions about each book. In this particular

competition that I attended, his team took 2nd and overall his team took 3rd. 

So good job Carson- you did it even though you would rather be creating things instead of reading!

Logan's performance-

Logan was asked to play the prelude music as people walked into his 2nd grade music performance.

He was so nervous but played wonderfully.

You can see in this video people start gathering around, by the end of his song he had a huge crowd and you could hear people saying, "He rocks, he is a professional, he is the man, can you hear him, how long has he been taking piano, etc." It made him smile.

This is the first of many performances, this kid loves the piano and hopes to play for large audiences some day!

Way to go Logan!

Some pictures of him playing-

His music teacher had him stand up for a round of applause-

And one of the songs from his 2nd grade performance-

Way to go Logan... the next Billy Joel!

Kenny G in the making-

Carson decided this year he wanted to try the saxophone. He has enjoyed it but I think he is going to stick with piano. Here is a video and pictures of his Christmas concert.

The whole band is a beginning band class-

INDIA...

He did it!

After months of calling people, meeting people,

sending letters to people, presenting to organizations, clubs and business groups...

McKay raised $20,000 for his Eagle Project.

He raised the money to buy a solar array system for the Fabindia School in Bali Rajastan, India.

The school's power goes out 5-6 times a day for an hour at a time and when that happened the kids would have to leave school.

So he and Jason flew to India to help install this amazing solar array!

Jason and McKay on the plane ride out...

It was a long 24 hour plane ride and they were so happy to finally arrive!

New Delhi airport, the hands on the wall are a Hindu greeting-

Their first stop was in New Delhi, India where they went sight seeing for a day.

This is the Presidential Palace-

The famous India Gate which is a memorial to all of the Indian soldiers who died in WWI-

Different historical sites-

One of the markets-

Riding in a bike carriage in the city-

When I saw this picture of a Cobra snake (yes it's real)

with its face about 6 inches from McKay, my stomach turned a few times!

Mckay and Jason were able to play a round of golf at the Delhi Golf Club while in New Delhi-

They had professional caddies while playing golf, McKay could get used to that!

While playing golf, Jason and McKay met the promoter for Delhi Fashion week who had them come to the opening night as his VIP guests-

McKay trying to be a model-

After New Delhi, they took a 11 hour train ride into the small city where the solar array was to be installed-

This train was quite the experience!

Small, small rooms-

no food-

Bathrooms that just had a hole in the floor of the train for your stuff to

fall on the tracks.

ughhh

They said it was good for them to experience the train because it was how most people travel.

I think Jason's eyes say it all!

"How much longer?"

Jason makes friends wherever he goes!

They finally arrived in Bali and stopped to see one of the Hindu Temples-

Isn't this the most amazing detailed architecture?

The school!

They had a pretty special welcoming ceremony for Jason and McKay-

Here is a few minutes of the ceremony-

The Solar Array-

Mckay taking a break, eating the food and liking it!
(at least for the first few days until he started getting sick)

It took about three days to install and one morning on
the way to the school there was a half mile cow

herd that stopped them for a while-

This is the principal of the school-

she was so grateful!

Let there be light!

It works and now powers 4 of the 7 buildings at the school!

McKay learned how to play Cricket while
there and played some games with the students-

William Bissell, the founder of Fabindia Stores and Fabindia Schools graciously allowed Jason and McKay to stay at his farm house.

Jugga Ram Gi was our host at the farm house. Surbhi and Pritha were also guests at the house. They are education consultants.

Isn't this a beautiful farm house?

One of the nights some people wanted to take Jason and McKay on a leopard watching outing-

they would circle this mountain until the spotted it and even had a goat as bait!

Jason said it looks far away but was only about 20 feet from the jeep!

Jodphur-

A gigantic fort that overlooks Jodphur-

This trip was eye-opening, life changing and an amazing experience for McKay and Jason.

We want to thank all of you who donated to help make this humanitarian service project possible! It was so wonderful!

On the way home, they made a few stops-

Mumbai

A fun restaurant they went to!

And then the final stop was in Singapore to visit some good friends of Jason-

Raj and Vidya took them on a hike in a forest reserve in Singapore-

They stayed at an amazing hotel-

The Marina Bay Sands that had a super cool infinity pool-

Chili crab and shopping in China Town-

A picture of their hotel-

It was an amazing trip and with a 12 hour time change and a 23 hour flight home, they are still struggling to stay awake during the day!

They had such a great time!