Other things besides birthdays...

We've had lots of other things going on the past couple of months, that I thought I would quickly blog about.  I don't have pictures for everything, but would still like to get it recorded. 

Waaaayyyyy back on April 14th, Maggie went to a one day dance clinic that Glencoe high school put on as a fundraiser.  It's an all day thing where the Glencoe dancers teach girls from Kindergarten on up, a dance in their different age group levels, then they perform it for the parents at the end. I of course forgot my regular camera, so only have a video that I took on my iphone.  She had a fun time. 

It was a beautiful day when Maggie was in her dance clinic, so we played outside for most of the day.  Here are the kids digging in the dirt in our garden boxes. 

This was Maggie's science fair project for the year.  She wanted to test what would help flowers stay alive longer.  The things she tested were sugar, aspirin, the "plant food" that comes with cut flowers and just water.  The flowers that lasted the longest were the ones with sugar and plant food in it. 

On April 17th, the Activity Girls leaders put on a "Cute as a Button" Mom and daughter Party.  It was really cute.  They had a couple of people demonstrate different hairstyles for girls.  Then we made button bracelets and had button cookies.  They took pictures of us there, but I haven't seen them yet.  It was a cute activity. 

The top picture is the bracelets we made and in the second picture I am wearing one of the button pins that Maggie and Lydia made for me. 

On Maggie's birthday, she got to participate in a Piano Festival.  This is where a group of kids at the same level pick 2 songs that they have to memorize and they play them in front of a judge, the other kids in their group and their parents.  They are not competing against each other, but playing for the judge. The judge critiques their playing and gives them advise on ways to improve and then they get a score.  This was the first time that we've participated in the festival.  Even though it's nerve wracking, I think it's a good experience.  She did very well even though she said she messed up a few times.  It was all due to nerves because she plays the songs perfectly over and over at home.  I was really proud of her for doing it, even though she didn't want to.  She's holding her certificate a few days later, because I didn't take a picture that day.   

 Old Yukon

Newer Suburban

Out of the blue one day, Garrett tells me that he's found a new car that he wants to get and that we were going to go the next day and trade in our Yukon.  So, the next morning, we drove out to Sandy by Mt. Hood and traded in our Yukon for a very similar Suburban.  The suburban is newer and it has 8 seats instead of our 7, which is really nice. 

 At school, the 3rd graders were learning about famous people in history and they each had to pick one person they wanted to learn about.  So they researched their person and wrote a one minute speech and were supposed to memorize it (most didn't).  Then they put on a Wax Museum.  They each had a paper on the floor with their person's name on it and a button.  So, if you wanted to learn more about that person, you'd "push" their button and the students would come alive and give their speech.  Lydia really wanted to do Amelia Earhart, but a couple of people had already chosen her.  So Lydia picked someone named Babe Didrickson, whom I had never heard of before.  Turns out she was this really great female athlete who competed in about every sport possible.  She was a really great golfer though, so that's how Lydia chose to dress up.  I was really proud of Lydia for finding someone new to learn about, even though she wasn't able to have her first choice.  It was fun, but a little chaotic with so many students in one room. 

I started something new at the beginning of the year.  I really wanted my kids to get into the habit of writing in their journals.  So I found a bunch of journal prompts off of the internet and printed them off and put them in a journal jar. I bought them each a composition notebook to write in, nothing fancy.  Then, every Sunday, we would pick out a topic and write for about ten minutes.  It was perfect when we had our 9:00 am meeting time, because after we got home from church, we'd eat lunch, then write in our journals and then there was free time to do other things.  Now that we have 1pm church, it's a bit harder because we sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, Garrett has meetings starting at 11, then sometimes I'm still finishing my lesson or something, so it hasn't been as easy to keep up.  But I'm still trying.  So, I took a picture of the kids writing in their journals awhile back.  Noah and Bella usually just color, but I like that they know that we take time to do this.  A lot of times, they fight back saying that they don't want to write anything or they don't know what to write, and sometimes they only write one sentence.  But I keep reminding myself that it's okay, they we're just trying to establish a habit.  It'll be fun to go back and read/look at their pictures even a year from now. 

Garrett lets Noah do a lot of things that I don't let him do.  One of those is to sit on the table and eat.  Garrett does this sometimes as he eats his own breakfast.  Noah things it is the coolest thing to sit on the table and eat eggs and toast with daddy.  I think it's hilarious!

Lydia totally surprised me one day.  She told me that one of her friends taught her how to crochet at recess.  They don't use hooks or anything; just their fingers, so I'm not exactly sure if it's really crocheting or something her friend made up.  But after getting back from taking one of my girls to dance, Lydia told me that she had made me a scarf.  And this is what it looks like:

 I was pretty impressed and I think she was quite proud of her accomplishment!  One day she took some of my yarn to school so she could crochet at recess.  So cute!

May 15th was Bella's last day of her first year of preschool.  They sang some songs and then they had a little hot dog luncheon for all the kids and parents. She really loved school and learned lots of fun songs.  We really love her school and her great teachers, Linda and Chris. 

Linda, Bella and Chris

Paige's allergies hit earlier this year. Seems like she can't get a break from these darn allergies, even though we try to be faithful with her eyedrops. I try to keep her inside, keep the windows closed put a cold rag on her face, but she still ended up with puffy eyes.

 This was one night before bed time.  Her eyes were really red and you could see little red welts under her eyes. 

 This was the next morning.  I kept her home from school for two days, so she could be miserable in the comfort of her own home. 

This was later that night...surprisingly better.  The cold rag brought down the swelling a lot. 

On Mother's Day, Garrett went out of town.  He was originally going to Brazil, Chile and then Argentina, all in one week.  After being in Brazil, he cancelled the Chile part and stayed in Brazil until he left for Argentina.  He served his mission in Brazil and hasn't been back since, although not for lack of trying.  He really enjoyed being there and speaking Portuguese.  The last night that he was in Argentina, he and his coworkers went to a Tango show, with a live band and awesome dancers.  He said it was really well done and really entertaining.  Here are a few pictures from that. 

On Saturday May 19th, our Stake went on a Mini-trek to get us ready for our big Handcart Trek in July.  Garrett and I are going to be a Ma and a Pa for one of the families.  We all had to wear our pioneer costumes and bring a sack lunch.  We hiked 8 miles that day!  What a sight it was though to see hundreds of youth dressed in pioneer clothes walking along a trail.  It was neat.  I didn't get pictures, though.  Garrett was supposed to go, but didn't get back from Argentina until the day after. 

Whew!!  Done!