Spencer's Winning Choices Essay

The 5th Graders are required to contribute an essay to the County's Winning Choices contest where they describe something that describes one or more desirable attributes. Spencer wrote his about his good friend and classmate, Vivian:

Not Your Average Fifth Grader
By Spencer Martin
Ms. Smeltzer, Grade 5

The American Dictionary defines caring as, “To be concerned or interested.” I believe that my dearest friend, Vivian, exhibits that nearly every day.

In fourth grade, Vivian gave me a gift. It was a handmade pillow with the symbol pi embroidered on it. She chose that because it was meaningful to me, not her. It was a very special gift. The best gift is a gift made with care.

Then, on the Tuesday before fifth grade began, Vivian was teaching me how to embroider. I knew how to stitch, but that was all. She gave me the right fabric. She helped me choose the right thread. She even helped me put the fabric in the embroidery hoop. Because of her, I learned to embroider. The next time I came to her house, I helped her embroider a quilt square with little to no help. We both had lots of fun while showing care, accountability, fairness and a lot of great things. This goes to show you that you can have fun while making winning choices.

At school, Vivian encourages her classmates to follow instructions and is always open to other students. She shows respect towards adults and students alike. She enjoys going above and beyond in everything, whether it be intricate cursive or extremely easy addition. She puts her head and heart into everything.

Vivian shows care towards not only me but everyone in the school. In only the previous two examples, she exhibited commitment, loyalty and a whole lot of positive attitude. Just think, that’s one tiny bit of her life her life. Think of the rest of the great things she’s done for all the rest of her life and years to come. Because of this, I look at her and smile. I know she’s a role model for me and one for you, too.

Dedicated to Vivian Lawrence

Spencer's Scratch Projects

For quite a while now Spencer has been working with a free game development application called Scratch that was designed for kids at MIT. It's a great introduction to programming he's hooked. He has a friend, Davis, who uses it quite a bit and there is even talk of working with it at school. Here's a link to his projects:

http://scratch.mit.edu/users/vtsman

Spencer is definitely our technology guy and Grant is following close behind. They finally got me on Skype, they are both on Facebook, and when the teachers have tech trouble at school they often call on Spencer!

Camping at the New River

Robert and the kids camped at the New River for the third year in a row. They joined the Ifjus, Cooleys, and Cranwells for five days in The Pit (officially - the River Room!) at the Junction campground from August 14-18. Cortney had a race weekend and then started work Monday so she was a bit of a drop in, doing a bit of meal and coffee delivery too.

There was a bit of rain each day, but that seemed not to dampen the spirits. I asked the kids to write up their thoughts on the trip.

Spencer

What I did on my new river camping trip.

• Build the whirlpool
• Iron Chef New River: Popcorn Cook off
• I played in the mud
• I went tubing
• I swam in the currents
• I made river roast
• I learned how to play volleyball correctly
• I went down the rapids
• Overall I had a great time

Of all the things I did at my camping trip, I have selected two to talk about.

The first event I would like to talk about was the Iron Chef New River: Popcorn. The competition consisted of three sub-events, the first of which was kettle corn. I mixed popcorn, sugar and olive oil together to make my popcorn. Before cooking it, the concoction smelled of sugary, sweet, kettle corn and tasted as if made by a professional. I made a tinfoil pan on with I cooked it. I let each kernel pop and let the others burn. BIG MISTAKE! Long story short, 5/5 on presentation, 5/5 on originality an 2/10 on taste. Round two: Original popcorn. I mixed salt and olive oil and put that on my popcorn: Result: FAILURE! As of stage three, I did well. I tied for first. I used butter, all purpose seasoning and sugar.

I also built on our whirlpool. Some people altered our design completely so we had to rebuild it. Basically, the entrance was blocked and the top was ruined. I learned how to pick up rocks correctly and where to put the rocks. The whirlpool was much enjoyed and on Monday night, we lit a fire out there.

Grant

I liked camping.
I had pork and turkey. We cooked it in the river.
We also had Iron chef Popcorn, I made movie mix popcorn.
The best was Daniella’s cheddar cheese popcorn…in my opinion!
We also continued the whirlpool “tradition”!
Someone blocked off the entrance of the whirlpool so we fixed that!

Marcella, Georgia, Keely, Grant, Daniella, and Spencer

The MIRV was Peter's idea. He can't camp without having some kind of project involved!! He's very creative and MIRV was this year's excitement! Here's what Peter had to say about it in an email prior to the trip:

I have this craving to roast huge chunks of meat. I made a poor man’s slow cooker out of a plywood box and a piece of metal roofing. I plan on cooking some beef ribs and other chunks for 8-10 hours starting on Sunday morning. John says he’s going to bring a pork loin. I may throw a small turkey in it also. The box will be lined with aluminum foil and the sheet metal acts as a lid. You just burn charcoal on top of the sheet metal lid and the heat radiates into the box. I built it last night and plan to calibrate it tonight to make sure the temp is in the right range and the new plywood smell gets cooked out. I think I’ll call it MIRV (mobile indigestion rendering vehicle). It has legs, so theoretically we can do the cooking out on the river.

Munchie (1992-2010)

On August 16 we lost our beloved Munchie cat. I had him since he was a kitten. His mom, Raisin, was a stray, found living in my apartment's parking lot and sewer. I took her in and soon after she had a litter of kittens. All of the kittens found new homes and Munchie almost left too, but at the last minute I couldn't let him go. So he stayed and we enjoyed 18+ years with him.



Age had taken its toll on him in the last year, but he remained spry, able to jump to the kitchen counters, much to our dismay. We think he may have gotten a tad senile too, but he seemed about the happiest cat around. Lately we had been calling him "vulture kitty." If you left any food unattended for more than 4 seconds, it would likely be claimed by Munchie! Check him out eating corn on the cob not too long ago!!

Drama Camp

Spencer and Grant participated in a four-week drama camp in which they write, create, and perform a play from scratch! Spencer did it last year, but he was the only veteran in the group of 11 children. The third-grade teacher, Alicia Lloyd, runs this amazing program. The gist of the play is that a group of people were supposed to go through a black hole, but because of a delay, it was a white hole, resulting in them aging 60 years. The play is about restoring their youth and is full of imagination (and requires much imagination to watch as well!)

Below are some photos and video excerpts.

Duet with Spencer and Vivian

Grant (Burrito) and Spencer (Prof Taco Butler)

Grandparent visit!

These posts are very out of order as I play catch-up, but last weekend Ted and Donna came down to check out the play that Spencer and Grant were in that was a culmination of a four week drama camp. We enjoyed dinner at BCC and also a quarry swim!

Spencer diving down-down-down

Claytor Lake

We spent the day at Claytor Lake State Park, about a 25 minute drive from the house. They have a nice swimming area, but one side of it was like a huge terrarium with body-grabbing bushes growing up from the bottom. Spencer made the most of it and then involved Grant.