Mr. Steve Brekke, Ethan's Special Guest

Today we had the pleasure of spending the morning with Ethan's dad, Mr. Steve Brekke.  We were so lucky that he took time out of his day as the store manager at Food Lion to come and tell us his story.  Mr. Brekke grew up in California and he moved to SC with his sister and two brothers when he was 15 years old.  He went to Socastee High and was a Brave!  Mr. Brekke met Ethan's mom, Amy, on the school bus when he was 15 and they have been married for 11 years.  Ethan has one sister named Kayla who is 9 years old.  Mr. Steve began working for Food Lion when he was 16 years old and he has been there now for 15 years.  He has had all the jobs in the store from bagger to customer service manager all the way to store manager.  We had a great time learning about all of his jobs and all of his responsibilities now as store manager.  Mr. Brekke is a huge Gamecock Baseball fan and he has loved baseball for many years.  He plays on a softball league now and he brought in two trophies that were bigger that many of us!  Mr. Brekke also told us about the most exciting thing he has ever done in life and that was go sky diving with his brother Willy in North Carolina.  He, like Kyle's dad, also enjoys running and he has even finished the Myrtle Beach Marathon!  One of the most important messages Mr. Brekke left us with was that in life we should always do our personal best and try our hardest, even if that means we don't win in sports.  It was great getting to know you Mr. Brekke!  Maybe later this year when we are learning about Goods and Services in our community we can take a field trip to visit you at Food Lion!

Mr. Brekke's Myrtle Beach Marathon Award

Mr. Steve's sky diving certificate

Silly faces!

Our group shot!

Ethan and Marcus can't wait for the interview to begin.

Mr. Johnny Calder, Marcus Smith's Special Guest

Yes, you read that right!  Mr. Calder spent part of his morning today in our classroom.  He was invited by Marcus as his special guest because both of his parents are working during the day.  Mr. Calder did a great job sharing with us about his love of baseball.  He showed us some special baseballs, baseball cards, and a signed baseball bat.  He had things signed by Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Sandy Cofax, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, Micky Mantle, Hank Aaron, and Cal Ripkin Jr.  For you baseball fans out there I apologize for any misspellings of those great players names!  Mr. Calder was taking a trip out west last summer with his family and he was able to attend the college world series and see his favorite baseball team the USC Gamecocks win the national championship.  Mr. Calder told us about how the people in his family (his wife Janet, daughter Jennifer, son Jarrett, and son Joshua) all have the same initials JC.  Mr. Calder grew up traveling around the United States because his dad was in the Marine Corps.  His favorite place he lived was in Hawaii.  He moved to Conway right around the time he was going into high school and he has been here ever since.  He also shared with us a great family tradition that his family enjoys sharing.  In his house they have a restaurant jar where everyone writes down their favorite 3 restaurants and then every Friday night they pull out one name from the jar and that is where they all go to eat dinner together.  It was so much fun to get to know Mr. Calder as a real person and not just as a principal who stays in the office and we are so thankful that he took time out of his busy day to come and share his story with us!

Mr. Calder's signed baseball bat.

Learning about baseball cards that used to come in a tobacco box.  This one is over 100 years old!

The poster Mr. Calder got at the College World Series when USC became National Champs!

The whole group with Mr. Calder!

Marcus and his special guest.

We love to make silly faces at Mrs. Costner's camera!

Our West Virginia Girl - Madilynn O'Brien

Can you believe that we got another new student this week?  This is Madilynn O'Brien and she moved here from West Virginia.  Madilynn is a West Virginia Mountaineers football fan.  She loves her family even though she is the oldest and has 3 younger brothers and sisters.  Madilynn loves to dance and she used to tap dance.  She also loves making things and going to church.  After school or on the weekends you could find Madilynn playing with her brothers and sisters or her friends outside.  Madilynn also loves hamburgers and going to McDonald's and Wendy's.  We are so glad to have you here Madilynn and I am sure very soon our classroom will feel like home to you!

Kyle's Special Guest, Mr. Jim Powalie

Today we had our interview with our very first special guest.  We met  Kyle's dad, Mr. Jim Powalie.  Mr. Powalie was born in Ohio and he grew up enjoying the snow and boating on Lake Erie.  He was very athletic in high school and participated in both wrestling and running.  In fact, Mr. Powalie still runs today!  Kyle's dad attended Coastal Carolina University when it was still a part of USC and that has made him a HUGE Gamecock fan.  He even met Kyle's mom at CCU on his first day of school during his first class.  Mr. Powalie has a boat and one of his favorite things to do on his boat is to teach Kyle and his brother Nick and their cousins how to water ski.  Every year the family goes to the mountains to enjoy the snow and they like to take a vacation together in the summer time.  Mr. Powalie works at The Marina Inn and makes sure that all of the guests in the 230 rooms are happy.  He even shared with us some of the names of famous people who have stayed at his hotel.  The boys and girls asked some great questions during our interview and I was very proud of them during our first interview!

Meet our new friend Alayna Bailey

We have a new member of our class.  Her name is Alayna and she came to us from Loris Elementary School.  Alayna came to Forestbrook for Pre-K so lucky for her it is not a brand new place.  We found out during our interview with Alayna that she LOVES her family.  She shared pictures of her brother Alex and sister Alivia.  Alayna enjoys spending time with her family on the weekends they like to go camping and after school she loves to play Hide and Seek and Tag.  If you found Alayna with a book in her hand it would be a holiday themed book because those are her favorite.  She also enjoys playing with her pets and her dolls.  We were so lucky to get Alayna in our classroom and we are happy to be a room of 21 instead of 20!