Tonight is Prom #2 for the weekend, this time St. Thomas Academy’s Mil Ball. Below are some photos of Jesse and Christian and their friends.

Jesse and her boyfriend, Christian, were off to prom this evening at the Wabasha Street Caves (cool place for a prom. Wonder if they’ll see Batman?)

Below are some photos of Jesse, Christian and their friends at Lebanon Hills Regional Park by our house.

Enjoy.

Jesse with her Presidential Award

Jesse received the Presidential Academic Award at Falcon Ridge Middle School on June 3. She also performed before the ceremony with the percussion ensemble. More pictures in the Flickr slideshow below.

Mo money, mo money, mo money...

This is Katie holding the first of many checks we will be sending to Bemidji State University over the next four years. This one reserves her spot in the freshman class this fall, where she plans to study elementary education. Very exciting times and we couldn’t be prouder. Katie will be a wonderful teacher.

Next step on our college odyssey is advisee and parent weekend at BSU. We’ll be heading up nort’ in a few weeks for parent orientation and a chance for Katie to meet her academic advisor and scope out her new campus. We’ll be posting pix and blogging from the road, so keep an eye out.

Note the special senior class party T-shirt Katie is sporting. Laurie designed the logo for the Eastview High parents who are planning the post-graduation all-night party. Laurie has been very active on the decoration committee with Jeni Terzich, our next-door neighbor.

Retro is in....

We had Ojibwe class today at Dakota Ridge School in ISD196. We have culture and language classes every other Saturday. Today, we heard the Ojibwe flood story and learned vocabulary words related to the story beforehand (using the Smart Board and games). It was a blast — a multi-generational class made up of students from many different tribes and some non-native guests. We followed up class with traditional crafts — today we made necklaces, bracelets and chokers out of sinew, beads and shells. Our teacher, James Vukelich, is a real treasure and has melded technology and traditional teachings in a way that makes students want to learn. His teaching style makes what could be a tough language to master accessible to students of all ages. Chi-miigwetch, James.

Art won his election Tuesday night and will serve four more years on the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board, the state’s fourth-largest. Eight candidates were seeking three seats. Art and the other two incumbents were the three top vote-getters. The video above is the report from one of our local newspapers.

Here’s a Homecoming Dance photo you don’t see every day. This is a shot of Katie and her friends at laser tag — still in their gowns — after Eastview High School’s Homecoming Dance Saturday night. I’m pretty sure Jesse Ventura just let out a high-pitched squeal and piddled a little in his Navy Seal boots looking at this picture. Nice job, ladies. By the way, the president is on the line. He has a mission for you. This blog post will self-destruct in 10 seconds…

Ain't it pretty?

Here is a Cherokee double-wall basket I made this evening for our American Indian Education program at school. My friend, Clarine Packineau, one of the women who runs the program, bought the reeds a while back and asked me to make a basket from them so we could sell it the next time we do a fund-raiser. I really like the colors Clarine picked out and think they work well together in this basket.  They’re also thinner than the reeds I usually use (I’d guess they’re a #1 or #2 reed). I had just enough reed to make this basket (a stray weaver or two of each color left), so I guess it’s true what they say: every basket finds its shape and size as you make it.

Laurie is also making a basket using the bigger #4 reed. It’ll be white, since we didn’t have any in the black walnut dye when we decided to make baskets today.

Remember, you can find directions for making these baskets on our web site. Part of the deal when my cousin, Eric, taught us to make these was that we would pass the knowledge along.

Jesse and Cleo at Lone Rock Ranch in Rosemount (Photoshop goodness by Laurie)

Jesse spent all last week at horse camp at Lone Rock Ranch in Rosemount, part of the summer offerings for teens by ISD 196‘s award-winning Community Ed Department (full disclosure: I sit on the school board for the district and approve the CE budget, so take what I’m saying with an appropriate grain of salt). She had fun, even though her horse, Cleo, was “stubborn and mean,” in Jesse’s words. Cleo apparently bit Jesse and kicked her when Jesse tried to put on the saddle. Nice horsey…. Anyway, the camp was a great way for kids to get a taste of life on a horse ranch and to get in some riding time pretty inexpensively.

… in Ojibwe, no less. Not bad for a Cherokee girl. She and her fellow students from the American Indian Education Program in our school district presented the annual resolution of concurrence (required by state law) to the school board Monday night. I videotaped them with our Flip video camera — probably the first time a board member taped the crowd, instead of vice versa. I edited the video using Final Cut Pro, a program I’m taking a class to learn. Enjoy.