God's Girlz takes 37th place at Nationals!!!!

 The team being introduced at the opening ceremonies. Each team had a brick to place on the wall they were building to fit this year's theme of "JBQ Builds the Kingdom". Last year's theme was "Shakes the Nation".

 The finished "brick" wall.

 God's Girlz representing the Home Educators of Surprise (HEofS)

 Our girl!

 The team & coaches after taking 37th place in the Nation. They were also the best Southwest ranking team at Nationals.

 Hannah and her patch that everyone gets. I also bought her a JBQ medal to help remember it by.

 Another photo op at the wall.

 Teams only get one plaque so we have to order our own. Usually the team represents a church & the plaque stays at the church. But we will split the cost of getting a plaque for each family.

By now you've heard or figured out that God's Girlz went to Orlando, FL for National JBQ competition last week. They worked hard and earned 37th place out of 80 teams at Nationals. There are over 1500 teams Nationwide & only 80 teams get this far though so 37th place is pretty darn good. In fact, we lost by only 5 points to the team that took 5th place in the nation. It was an exhausting trip but much fun. 

I'll post pictures of our down time later.

Joshua's Room Makeover

 Todd designed this mural with Joshua and favorite players from our favorite teams.

 There's even a hidden Mickey.

 Above-the hockey locker side.

Below-the football locker side.

 Of course we had to have two blankets. See the difference between the blanket in this picture & the earlier one up above.

He always had this valance but now his room is way cooler & I had to include it.

Joshua had a sports theme in his room but we recently made it way better. The locker theme on each side are bookshelves with only the top shelf put on. Todd rigged the other shelves to make a bench & the lid lifts up and toys are stored inside. Very clever idea that I was sure would NOT work. He proved me wrong & I admit it.

Joshua's 9th Birthday Party-Finally!

 Laser Tag Vest Cake

 Above-Charlie Brown & Snoopy didn't plan this!

Below-Ready to show no mercy on the blue team.

 We finally celebrated Joshua's 9th birthday properly today. We went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch with his friend, Logan, and Logan's family. Then we all went to play laser tag. We played 3 rounds. I came in 4th in the 1st round. I dropped to 9th in the 2nd round but that was because I was trying to help Joshua with his gun problem. I came in 1st in the last round. Each time our red team beat the blue team. Lots of fun except for that gun mishap in game 2. His gun wasn't working so we get a free game next time we go.

I tried to make his cake look like the vest you wear complete with a gun attached to the vest by Twizzlers and glow sticks shooting out of it.

Honk! Jr. Select Cast

 Family Picture

 Mother Swan

 (yes she has a mic-that's not part of the makeup)

 TA-DA!!!!!

 Cute siblings

 Hannah with a new friend from another cast.

 Hannah & some Surprise cast friends.

 Hannah & castmates & audience friends.

 Hannah & another new friend from another cast.

 Some more with Surprise castmates.

 Good Grief! Yet another picture of that gorgeous swan.

 Castmates & JBQ friends.

 FUN!

 More fun....

 Can you tell these kids had a good time?

 So pretty!

 Beginning of the show costumes.

 Those JBQ girls again.

 Pretty poultry:)

It was hard to narrow the pictures down. Here's some of the shots from after the 4 performances of Honk! Jr. - the SELECT CAST. Hopefully, I'll have the pictures from during the play this summer as we're not allowed to take pictures during the play.

As you probably know, Hannah had her performances back in April for Honk! Jr. 

In May, Moezart puts on what they call a "select troop or cast" of kids from all their classes from all over the valley. They pick from all the students to perform again for these very special shows. Kids from Surpirse,Glendale,Phoenix, & Chandler got picked to perform 4 more shows of this fun musical. 

Hannah was chosen to be the Mother Swan. She got 4 lines and was pretty excited about the costume & makeup. She was also a duck in the beginning scenes (those are the brown dress pics).  We're so proud of her!

It was quite a feat for the director to pull kids from 4 different areas and get them to perform together in less than 2 weeks. Each city had slightly different choreography and other things they each did differently. Hannah has had 2 straight weeks of rehearsals/shows except for Sundays. Practices went from 6-9:30 or 10pm each night. Four hours on a Saturday. Four nights of shows. After getting home at 10:30ish after each show, she had to shower & then I had to roll her hair in curlers so we were not getting to bed till after midnight. It was all worth the fun though. Hannah will now be suffering from what I call "PPD"-post production depression.  It happens every time. Sadness that it's all over-till the next one anyway:)

I really didn't see how her last play, "Fools", could be topped even though it wasn't a musical. Fools was so very funny. But this show was amazing too. Now I wonder if they can top Honk! Jr. in the fall. I am amazed at these talented kids bringing glory to God!

God's Girlz at Regionals

 The girlz before their first match on Friday.

 Abigail & Hannah

 Getting ready to quiz (above) & Kenzie & Hannah (below).

 The team with various awards.

Our girl. You only get one team plaque so we have to order a plaque for her to keep.

Regional JBQ competition was held yesterday & today. Phew! I'm so glad we won state and didn't have all that pressure these past two days. Yesterday was 6 rounds & today they had 5 rounds. Yesterday they won 4 & lost 2. Today was not as good as they won 2 and lost 3. Some were very close. So over the whole competition they were 6 & 5 and ended up in 5th place in our region. They still would have made it to Nationals but it would have been a little scary if we were still fighting for a spot.

God's Girlz has a reputation though. Some teams admitted they dreaded playing us or that they hoped we'd skip Regionals so they wouldn't have to play us. Teams were VERY excited when they did beat us. I overheard teams saying they got slaughtered by God's Girlz. One California team said they were excited & scared to play us. Another older gentleman told one of our coaches that our team was one of the most professional he's ever seen in 50 years of doing JBQ.  While the girls were disappointed with their losses, I think it'll keep them humble. We'll see what Nationals brings:)

God's Girlz Fun Stuff

Here's a couple pictures from a swim day and ice cream party for God's Girlz.