Capitol Day 2012

Oklahoma Home Educators Day is held at the State Capitol every year in February. This was our 3rd year to participate and it seems to be getting bigger and better each year. Amazingly, there were approximately 2,300 home schoolers that participated this year! We had fun walking around the Capitol looking at the artwork on display and architecture of the building, sitting in on meetings, and saying "hello" to our State Representatives...

The girls with Representative David Derby

The girls with State Senator, Rick Brinkley.
Rick also used to be our pastor when we first
moved to Oklahoma from Texas & he dedicated
Mackenzie at church after she was born ;-)

This is a picture of Collinsville taken back in
the day. The girls are pointing at the current location
 of Scoops & Grinds, one of their favorite ice cream shops.

One cool thing that happened that afternoon is Governor Mary Fallin gave a speech and made a proclamation that it was Oklahoma Home School Week. It was nice to know that we had her support! We were actually listening in on the floor above where she was speaking. We were watching over the balcony and could hear her but couldn't see her. My daughter, Mackenzie, said, "Mom! I think we need to go down a level so we can see her better." Reluctant on my part, we went down a level and there she was right in front of us. She finished her speech and turned around to walk back to her office. We were right there so my girls gave her a bag of cookies and she paused a minute for a picture with them. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Thank you for making your child's education a priority." Then she was whisked away by her security guards. So the lesson here is I suppose it's good to listen to advice from your kids on occasion ;-)

Afterwards, we took a "field trip" to the Outlet Mall...

Then we had dinner with some of my old friends from back in the day. Always so fun to see them and catch up on life...

We are already looking forward to another great Capitol Day next year!