The mind of Derrick Lee Bradshaw, Sr.

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

My boys are cub scouts in pack 43 here in Mt Zion and right now is rank advancement time.  I am proud to announce that Derrick has just earned his Bear badge which includes his whittling chip and at the next pack meeting Connor will earn his Wolf badge!  As part of the celebration the pack invited The Amazing Dudley to the pack meeting and he is truly amazing!  I have known Justin Dudley for awhile and I would recommend him for any kid event!  He has been entertaining kids in our community for 20 years now.

This years parent visitation fell on the week of November 14th, 2011.  My son Connor Bradshaw was lucky enough to follow in my eldest son Derrick’s foot steps and have Mrs. Hatayama this year for 2nd grade as well.  We started off with Mrs. Hatayama reading a story to the kids about a turkey attempting to hide from the farmer during Thanksgiving which leads into one of the most fun activities I have ever gotten to participate in at the schools.  We are assigned a task to help a turkey disguise himself so the farmer will not attempt to cook him for the big Thanksgiving dinner coming up next week.  Last year, when Derrick was in Mrs. Hatayama’s class, we created a Darth Vader Turkey Disguise. Connor wanted to stay with the Star Wars theme since it worked so well and he had a great idea for just the right disguise.  We were introduced to our turkey which turned out to be Gibbles, the 2nd cousin of Derricks turkey last year Gobbles.  I mean that does make sense since Mt Zion is such a small town.  This put a little pressure on Connor and I because it seems Gobbles has become infamously known for terrorizing his fellow family members.  The mission, which we totally accepted, was to not only find a costume to disguise Gibbles in, but to also  create something that would rival Darth Vader.  We offered to talk with Gobbles but turkeys can be very paranoid and he would not disclose his location.   However, Derrick was pleased to know that Mr. Gobbles is alive and doing well.  Connor decided we should do The Emperor Palpatine  which I thought was a great idea!! 
Connor started working on the makeup while I started with his robe.  Once Connor created the light saber, I attached everything to him to complete the costume.  Finally, the only thing left to do was create a quote Gibbles could use in the event that his disguise failed him. I have to say that it is highly unlikely that this disguise would fail. After all, we are talking about the person that brought down the entire Republic.  However, in the event it does, we just need to enlighten the farmer to this fact.

Last year after the pirate birthday party for Jessikah and Derrick, all of the kids carved pumpkins which is a yearly tradition in Carmen’s family. We repeated that tradition this year after Derrick and Jessikah’s Movie themed party.  I’m glad to be a part of this yearly tradition and that our house can be used.

   It has been a year since the pirate birthday party we organized for Derrick and Jessikah.  This year we decided to do a smaller red carpet premiere birthday party with family and just a few friends.  An invitation was sent out to all prospective guests informing them they were formally invited to a red carpet movie premiere to celebrate the birthdays of Derrick Bradshaw, Jr. and Jessikah Bradshaw.  Instead of a birthday cake Carmen had this really good idea to make huge rainbow cupcakes with gold glitter, which turned out great both in appearance and taste.  Pictures were taken as the guest arrived and walked down the red carpet.   Once all the guests arrived, lunch was served followed by Zookeeper the movie.  As the kids were eating, I went down to Wal-mart and developed the pictures that  I had taken when everyone first arrived.  After the movie those pictures were put inside a star frame that each guest got to decorate and attach with magnets.  Last, but not least, after the craft was finished and the cupcakes were eaten, we opened birthday presents.  I’ve uploaded some photos from the party and you can see those by visiting the link below.

Here is a gallery with more pictures of the red carpet premiere birthday party.

This past weekend we celebrated a combined 16th birthday party for Jacob Clark and Joey Bartmann.  Most of the photos have been uploaded to Carmen’s facebook profile.  The great photos were taken by Ted, Carmen’s step-dad and he did a fantastic job!  The party was based on a Barbecue/cook-out theme with a pool, thanks to Carmen’s mom, Linda Hoppe.  Carmen’s mother was nice enough to open her house up so we could have a pool party.  Good food and great company is a very important thing and it was nice to see everyone together. The party was a great success and we all got to celebrate both Jacob’s and Joey’s entry into the driving years of life!

As you all may know Mt Zion schools ended this past Friday the 20th.  So we decided to pack up the car and head down to St Louis to enjoy the weekend.  Jessikah is in the bucket seat while the boys are in the back, Connor on the right and Derrick on the left.  Jacob is hiding behind me to the left of Jessikah.

This past weekend I visited Mizzou: University of Missouri to watch Dustin Clark and Devin Clark participate in the MSHSAA State Solos/Small Ensemble Festival.  I have been lucky enough to watch these two kids grow into men over the past couple of years. If you spend any time with them at all, it is clear that they have bright futures ahead of them.  I am honored to call them close friends.  In order for someone to get invited to this festival they must perform in front of a judge at the local level and be awarded a 1 out of 5.  Those students with a 1, are then invited to come and perform in front of judges on the State level and then again rated between 1 and 5.  The first performance, a mixed double quartet (MDQ), was scheduled for 8:30am that morning.  The drive is about 2.5 hours so my day started off getting up around 5am.  The mixed double quartet includes Abby Williams, Devin Clark, Dustin Clark, Elisabeth Keller, Kyle Klemp, Laura Brunette, Matt Harvey and Rachel Anna Chopin.  They sang the songs Set Me As A Seal and Ride On King Jesus. As you can tell by the video, they truly are amazing.  They were awarded a state level score of 2.

Link to: MDQ Brunette singing Set Me As A Seal and Ride On King Jesus at the state level. Sang this April 30, 2011 at Missouri State Columbia.

Dustin Clark also made it to state with the solos Sea Fever and Swing Low Sweet Chariot.  He was awarded a perfect state level score of a 1.  Way to go Dustin!

Link to:  Dustin Clark Solo singing Sea Fever and Swing Low Sweet Chariot