Claudia's Big Project

Claudia has been busy working on a really big independent study project for school. She is in 5th grade and has an assignment based on the PBS special Building Big. Each student has to pick a large structure that could include a bridge, dome, building, or like structure and do a presentation on it. The presentation needs to consist of a 20 minute oral presentation, a promotional piece (Claudia chose to do a series of ads) and the big one- a model of the structure. Claudia had her list of choices but they were assigned on a random basis and by the time Claudia had the opportunity to choose she was left with a short list.


Pete and I reviewed the list and I noticed St. Peter's Basilica was still available. I knew that this structure was a dome and had some of the most beautiful art inside so I recommended she choose it. I should have done my homework better. for those of you who don't know what St. Peter's looks like it is an amazingly beautiful structure that is very, very detailed (see photo at top). The structure was built over many years and had influeces from Michaelangelo and Bernini to name a few. There is quite a bit of symbolism represented in the structure so recreating it has been challenging.

We are taking photos of Claudia's progress and the final structure is due at school next Friday. We will post her final results but any of you engineers out there that have advice on the structure let us know. We have the basic body and are starting to work on the details now.

Claudia also had an observation that the structure as she currently has it looks like Mikey Mouse but she assures all of you it is not and you will see the final results.

Look back for more updates soon.

Karate Tournament Update

Sophia and Luke were entered into an in school Karate tournament this last weekend. They both did well and ended up with trophies and medals. Sophia is in Tiny Tigers so her trophy was for best punches in a form, and her medal was for best combinations in sparing.



Luke is a 2nd degree recommended Black Belt (two tests away from full fledged 2nd degree)and ended up with a trophy for 2nd place in his form, 3rd place medal in sparing and 4th place medal in weapons form.

They both had a great time and are really proud of their prizes.

Snow Days

Ahh the days we all longed for as kids. We would hope and pray when we would be going to sleep at night that when we awoke the next morning the ground would be covered with white snow and school would be called off.

Well the Corbi kids got their wish today along with all their friends and family in the greater Cleveland area. The snow is nothing out of the normal 8 inches that we get out here and the streets are clear. Then why is it they don't have school today? According to the news it is because of the cold temperatures.

This leads me to ask why is it that our kids have so many damn days off? I feel like everytime we turn around they have a day off. My kids have 1/2 day next Tuesday for a teacher training day, I know my neices have off this Friday for what reason I don't know. Can anyone explain this recent trend toward so many days off?

This is the first of a few posts that we are going to make today. The kids want to catch everyone up on their recent advantures. For those of you in warmer climates enjoy the weather!!

Good old cartoons

After getting Scott's last comment Sophia wanted me to post some information about the cartoons he mentioned. She has no idea who GI Joe is. She does like Scooby and thinks that it is a great show even though she did not list it. One of her favorite channels is Boomerang. For those of you who don't have this it is a Cartoon Network channel that shows all really old cartoons. Sophie has watched Hung Kung Phooey, Topcat, and Scooby Doo but her favorite is The Flintstones.

For those of you who have heard my (Christine's) philosophy on the parallel universe of the Flintstones characters and the Cicero/Zagorski clan then you know why I find this so funny. Sophie has heard my theory and thinks that Fred does look and sound just like Grandpa. Bubby does not have the red hair anymore but she sees how she used to look like Wilma.

Sophie just wanted Scott to know she does like the older stuff too but she was listing her favorites and we had to stop somewhere.