End of the School Year

The last few months of the school year have been super busy.  We completed standardized testing (yuck), took students up river, celebrated Claire's birthday, prom and graduation.  Needless to say we were exhausted when May 18 finally hit.  Lucky, for us we have a fabulous principal who surprised us with root beer floats on the last day of school.

Easter
This was the first Easter where we didn't have a sunny, warm day to hunt eggs.  The  Easter Bunny found us still in Alaska and we celebrated the resurrection of Christ with our new family in Alaska.  The morning of Easter we awoke to a blizzard which caused us to have an indoor egg hunt.  We ended the day, however, with calm winds so our family decided to borrow the schools sleds and go sliding.  It was a fun day.  Below you will see a picture of the ham we ate.  I bet no one in the lower 48 paid that much for their Easter ham:)

Solar Flare
As the days became longer we began to experience some problems with our Internet, satellite, and cell phone connections.  I really don't understand all the science behind it, but I know this is the brightest I have ever seen the sun.  The picture below explains why wearing polarized sunglasses this time of year is a necessity.

Claire turns 8
May 4th was Claire's birthday.  We still can't believe that our oldest is 8.  Time truly flies.  John and I waited 8 years before starting our family.  We often say that we cannot remember life without children. I mean this in a positive way.  John once told me ,when he was 22, that all he ever wanted was a wife and children.  Claire was an answer to prayer and she was brought sunshine to our lives for 8 wonderful years.  Below are some pictures of her celebration with friends.  Her one request for the day was to have Subway, so we called Subway in Nome and had it flown out to the village.  (You don't want to know how much that cost:)

Prom
Since our school is so small, prom is open to everyone.  The evening starts with the elementary kids who stay for a couple of hours and then leave so the older kids can enjoy the night without pesky little kids getting in the way.  John was in charge of the music, but luckily he had Helen Bruns and Angela Olanna there to help him, otherwise the kids would have had to endure Def Leppard and Bon Jovi.

 They both have moves like Jagger.

 John and Claire square dancing.

John and Claire doing the Cha Cha slide.

I love these ladies!  Amy in the middle and Ann Marie on the right.

Graduation

This years high school graduating class consisted of six students.  Since our school is small each graduating senior gives a speech.  One of the elders, Rita, gave the graduates some words of wisdom. A PowerPoint of graduates' baby pictures was shown followed by cake served to the whole community.  It was neat that the whole community attends graduation.  

Another group of students also graduated this year.  The Brevig Mission 4 year old preschoolers graduated from Head Start. Among the graduates was our very own Ella "Cate" Moore.  The guest speaker and presenter of diplomas was none other than John Moore.  

 She was so excited!

 John's speech was short, but sweet.  

Cate with her teachers Liz, Darla, and Hannah.  Oh, and Cate's best buddy Carol.

Saying Goodbye to Friends

On the Thursday before school ended, the Brevig Mission staff put together a dinner to say farewell to two of our teachers who will not be returning in the fall.  Karen and Ann Marie have both decided to take positions on the Kenai.  I will greatly miss them both!

Aurora, doggies, and food

Aurora Borealis
One of the things I have always wanted to see was the Northern Lights.  We saw them faintly in October, but with the solar burst in March they were out and vivid.  John and I went out one night and took some of these cool pictures.  Unfortunately I did not get to enjoy them because I was worried about capturing them on film.  My camera also kept freezing up since the temperature was in the negative.  The next night I let the girls stay up late and took  them out to see the lights.  It was awesome and I truly got to enjoy them.  We also got to see a falling star.  This was one of those moments I will never forget and I am so glad I got to share it with Claire and Cate.

First Grade Artists
My class recently finished an art unit.  We learned about mixing colors and the studied the works of Seurat, Van Gogh, and Picasso.  Here are some of the work they created.

Pointilism

                                                 Picasso's Blue Period

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

                                           In first grade we do not wear our pants on the ground.
                                           We wear them on our head.

                                           We are also rock stars in first grade!

                                                  The coldest day of the year.  Negative 50.


Good Eats

March 14-16 was our spring break.  We were invited one night to our friend Darla's house to try Eskimo salad, tundra tea, stinkweed, salmon, and Eskimo ice cream.  Here is a picture of the salad.  It was beautiful and yummy.  The salad contained wild onions, muktuk (whale), black meat (seal), moose, walrus and crab.  After dinner we went to bingo with Darla.  Thank God she was with us to help.  They call the numbers pretty fast for rookies.  Later that week our friends AnnMarie and CO invited us over to share Alaskan king crab that was caught in Elim by AnnMarie's brother.  This stuff would be expensive if you ordered it at a restaurant, but when you catch it yourself it is free.  Just look at how beautiful that crab is.

Eskimo Salad: Yum!

Iditarod
At the end of our spring break we went to Nome to watch the end of the Iditarod.  We didn't get to see Dallas Seavey win, but we did get to see others.  Cate wanted to pet the dogs once they crossed the finish line and this made me cry.  Cate was attacked by a husky in the fall.  She has some scars from the attack and has been terrified of large dogs since.  When she asked if she could pet the huskies I was so proud that she had let go of her fear.  Here are some pictures from the Iditarod.

                                           Snow?  No problem!

Once upon a midday dreary:)

The furtherest north St. Patrick's Day Parade.

                                            See the ice on the dogs chin.

Cate's big step!

                                                         Notice the ice on his face?

                                            Exhausted pup!
Mocha
Well, we are very thankful that Mocha is in fact not pregnant.  She will be visiting a vet this summer to get fixed.  She is a great little dog!  The girls and I adore her.  Here are some of her latest pictures.

Next Year
We have signed contracts for next school year!

It's a busy life, but it's ours!

     Christmas vacation was awesome!   We enjoyed our visits with our family, and the kids enjoyed a little warmer weather, but getting home takes us about 24 hours.  Sometimes I forget how far north Alaska is.  We returned from vacation on New Years Eve and were able to participate in the village's New Year celebration.  We didn't quite make it to midnight due to jet lag, but we did get to see some fun games and Eskimo dancing.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I don't have pictures to post.  We were overwhelmed with how happy everyone was to see us return.  We really felt like a part of the community.
     Since school started back in January we have been super busy.  We flew to Teller for a teacher in-service in January, and since basketball season has begun we have been busy every Friday and Saturday working concessions.  The girls -- especially Cate -- enjoy concessions because it is the one time a week we allow them to have excess sugar.  My first grade class played a mini-basketball game before the high school boys played on Friday.  We needed one more player, so Cate volunteered.  Here is a picture of her taken by our friend, Darla Tocktoo.

    We have experienced record cold temperatures for the Moore family.  Our Georgia bones got to feel -40 temperatures.  Now, I have to admit that is cold, especially when the wind is blowing.  Luckily the last week has been warm with temperatures in the 20s.

This is what neg. temps will do to you:)

Here are some photos of the snow drifts we have around our house.

     John travelled to Juneau for a week in February to attend the state Headstart meeting.  He is the policy council rep for our local Headstart.  John said Juneau was beautiful but a little grey.  Apparently, the off- season is the time to visit because there are no cruise ships and influx of tourists.  Here are some pictures he took while in Juneau.

     We try to get outside and do activities when it is not too cold.  The girls got ice skates for Christmas so we went to the lagoon to skate; however, because it had just snowed we had only a small patch of ice to skate upon that was not covered in snow.  One of my students, Melissa, followed to watch us.  Check out her beautiful "parkee".

     On February 3, my class celebrated the 100th day of school.  We made the number 100 with the help of the kindergartners.  We had a great day!

     The sun is coming back.  We no longer have just twilight.  We are adding about 6 minutes of sun a day, and it is now staying light until 6pm.  This past Sunday was so beautiful and bright that we decided to ride out to one of the mountains to slide in the snow, snap some pictures, and enjoy the beauty.

    We are lucky to have a grant that fits our students with cross country skis.  Claire is learning to ski and loves it.  John, don't laugh, is the new cross country ski coach for the high school.  Here is a photo of Claire with her friend Shannon.  

    Have a blessed month and keep the Moores in your prayers.  God is good!