Governor Sean Parnell's Inaugural Gala

Lem and I attended Governor Sean Parnell's Inaugural Gala last weekend. It was a much different affair than what we experienced 4 years ago at Sarah's ball, a different program, different setting, different crowd, not necessarily better or worse, just different.

It was not quite the celebrating party we went to 4 years ago and was more of a formal, ceremonial event. There were photo slide shows from across the state, a formal, sit down, multi course dinner, and a dance presentation including hula, native and ballet dancers. After the formal program was finished the dancing started, but most folks had cleared out around then. We spent a little time on the dance floor before heading home.


We did enjoy getting to visit with lots of friends from the Governor's office and picnic committee, like Angelina and Tara, as well as our pastor and his wife, old family friends including the Colianders and former Lt. Gov Loren Leman and his wife Carolyn. We did do some networking and meet some new folks as well.

Chinook Elementary's Literacy Night

I was invited to be a Guest Reader at Chinook Elementary's Literacy Night. I shared one of my favorite picture books, The Kissing Hand, a story about a raccoon named Chester heading off to his first night of school and feeling sad about leaving his mom. She gives him a kiss in each hand which warms his heart as he carries them off to school with him. At the end of the story he gives his mom a kiss in her hand to carry with her. It's such a sweet, heart warming story for a mom. It's especially sentimental to me because as a young child, my mom did put kisses into my hands each morning as she headed off to work. To this day, she still finishes a phone call with "What's in your hands?" I was happy to share this book with the students and families of Chinook. Sycely helped serve as my page turner :)

Families gathered at Literacy Night dressed as their favorite story character and enjoyed art activities, a dress up and puppet area, guest readers, free food and most importantly, free books for every Chinook student! My favorite costume, by far was Chinook principal, Anita Stevens' Very Hungry Caterpillar outfit. It was a fabulous rendition of the famous Eric Carl character and it was no surprise what book she chose to read: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle!

Target helped sponsor this event, providing hundreds of free books for the students in attendance. It was so great to be a part of an event encouraging literacy and supporting families in imparting the importance of reading within their own homes.

Crown Making at Providence Children's Hospital

I had the opportunity to visit the Children's Hospital at Providence and do some crafts with the patients there. I brought along some crowns that we decorated together as we visited and got to know a little about each other. In addition to meeting with children in the play area/craft room for crown making, I also visited some of the patients that weren't able to leave their rooms for our activity. I visited children in both the pediatric unit and the pediatric intensive care unit.

The Pediatric Center is dedicated to providing a full range of services to infants through adolescents. They are committed to working with children, families and professional staff to create a comfortable setting to help families through the hospitalization of their child while maintaining the highest quality of care specific to each patients needs. A team of professionals representing many specialty areas offers their expertise to support families and the child throughout their hospital experience. They believe that families play an important part in the development and well being of children including their recovery from illness or injury. They understand that this is a stressful experience not only for the child but for the entire family.

I was so impressed by the work of the Child Life Specialists overseeing the care of the young patients here. Their genuine care and nurturing character was so apparent in their every interaction with the children. It seems to be such an emotionally demanding and yet rewarding job. I feel so grateful for all the care providers, including the child life specialists, at the Children's Hospital. It's comforting to know that Alaska's families as getting superior treatment and care. Even more so, I am thankful for my healthy children. My prayers are with all those Alaskan families dealing with childhood illness or injury.

Anchorage Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference

I was thrilled to be a part of the Anchorage Association for the Education of Young Children's recent early childhood conference. I have been an Anchorage AEYC board member for 9 years so when the time for the statewide early childhood conference came, there was no question I would be involved as always. This year, as Mrs. Alaska, I was invited to deliver a speech during one of our morning general sessions to our conference attendees. It was quite an honor to be following our school district superintendent on the morning's program.


The Anchorage Association for the Education of Young Children is an Alaskan affiliate formed under the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).Anchorage AEYC promotes quality care and education for young children and their families by offering professional development opportunities to early childhood educators and by supporting families and those who have a vested interested in the young children of our community. In addition, Anchorage AEYC participates in the development of standards which strive to ensure high quality programs for young children. Anchorage AEYC supports advocacy by disseminating information about public policies and pending legislation and interpreting issues and alternatives at the local, state, and national level. Anchorage AEYC collaborates with community members, organizations and agencies to meet the needs of young children and their families.

In addition to providing training and resources for conference attendees, networking with colleagues is also a huge part of this three day event. The networking is one of my favorite aspects of the conference. It's so great to have an opportunity to meet new folks in the early childhood field, to learn what other programs are doing, to catch up with friends you haven't seen in a year and to just feel generally encouraged in your work with young children and their families.

For more information about AAEYC, our mission or the conference you can visit our website at : www.anchorageaeyc.org

Anchorage Wedding Expo with Anderson's Bride

My oldest daughter Sycely and I modeled dresses for Anderson's Bride, one of my sponsors, at the Anchorage Wedding Expo. We'd done this last year for the onstage fashion show and it was a little different this year as we were tasked with touring the crowd in our fancy bridal duds. She was a pro and super precious in her flower girl dresses and carried our Anderson's Bride sign. People were so captured by her cuteness that I think they barely noticed me or my gowns! We had a really great time in our beautiful dresses feeling extra pretty and girly all day.