Fall Forum

Yesterday we went to the North Carolina Junior Classical League's Fall Forum! It was held at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and hosted by the Classics department, and we had a really nice time!

Travis and Katie were the only members of our local group to attend, but we met up with our group leader (now moved to Raleigh, sniff!), with two of her kids and one other member of her new Raleigh group. It was great to see them, and interesting to see how the Fall Forum went. It seems to be a sort of "warm up" for the Spring Convention -- smaller and rather less action-packed. Still, Travis did a great job with his workshop (his presentation was on "Designing Your Latin Club Website"), and Katie got a chance to compete with the Master's Academy Middle School certamen team (they had a reluctant team member, and Katie was looking for a spot) and they won their first round (competing against high schoolers) and came in second in the second. Travis would have liked to play too, but at least we got to see how it was done, so we will be ready to play at the Spring Convention!

I thought the campus was lovely. Not quite as nice as the Chapel Hill campus, but really nice. And, our registration fee included tickets for lunch in the cafeteria! The kids were absolutely dazzled, and, actually, so was I! It was rather like a Golden Corral, only with better lighting, and with a slender, youthful clientele. Definitely gave us the strength to go on to doing what needed to be done!

My pictures did not turn out well, sadly. Here we are at the opening ceremony...

Our fearless leader & crew!

The "spirit" part, involving a cheer competition. A bit raucous. This is not a competition in which we will ever excel.

 And you can't really see him, but Travis is second from the right on stage with the other officers.

And here he is setting up for his workshop. Unfortunately I had to go be an adult (with absolutely no role to play except be old and fill the requirement for "over 18 person") in the Creative Arts Workshop, so I missed it, but I was told he did an excellent job.

There was a drama...

 and oracles. And other stuff, but to be honest the weather was a bit cold for me to properly enjoy any of it. Still, it was a lovely day!

And here is Katie's second certamen match. She is sitting up front in a red shirt, holding her beeper button, all ready to go, even though they are still setting up. She can be a competitive little thing!

 And here they are at the end of the day, a bit embarrassed to have their mother taking their picture. The cool kids don't have mothers, you know. Or at least their mothers have the decency to stay out of sight. My poor lambies!

Then we went home and I spent a couple hours cooking and baking like a madwoman in order to host the Sunday Coffee Hour at church today. Which was lightly attended but the people who were there said very nice things about my cooking (and Katie's eclair cake!).