Quarterly Catch-up

I’ve been in a bit of a blogging slump for the last few months (or years).  I’m trying to do better.  Even when I was more consistent about blogging, there were lots of little things that were overlooked.  In an effort to stay more current and to have a place to put all of the little things that don’t make it into their own blog post, I’ve decided to do a quarterly post that will act as a catch-all for all of the things that were missed.  This first installment will span January-March of this year.

Minor Surgery:

Nate had a mole on his leg removed and the lab results came back saying that the surrounding tissue was abnormal.  He went back in and had a chunk of skin about the size of a quarter removed from his leg.  He thought it was pretty cool to watch the whole procedure as they cut open his leg, took out a hunk, and sewed him back up.  He regretted that he didn’t take a video to show me.  I assured him that I was fine with missing it.  He was tough and was running around playing laser tag with the kids later that night.

Morning Scripture Study:

Ben and I are having a contest to see who can read the Book of Mormon first.  I’m giving him a head start.  I told him to let me know when he finishes Alma.  He likes to sit on the heater vent in the morning to do his reading.

Lockets:

The girls got gift cards to Claire’s for Christmas.  They bought some clip-on earrings and a set of Best Friends Forever lockets. 

Bella Dancerella:

We were watching home movies one day and Abby saw the girls (and Ben) dancing with the Bella Dancerella DVD.  It’s been so long since the girls used the DVD, that Abby didn’t know we even had it.  She pulled out the dance mats and wands and spent the next few days watching the DVD and doing the dances over and over again.

Baptisms for the Dead:

My mom was watching the kids on a Saturday and, due to a series of miscommunications, Ben missed out on going with the young men to do baptisms for the dead at the Brigham City Temple.  He had really been looking forward to it and I felt bad about him missing it.  Nate called the baptistry and they said we could bring him right up.  It turned out to be a great experience for the three of us to be in the temple together and to have Nate baptize and confirm Ben.

Skiing:

Nate went skiing with the scouts.  He helped Ben and Tucker earn their Snow Sports Merit Badge and spent the rest of the night hanging out with the girls.  All four of them had a great time.

Hockey Game:

We got free tickets to an Ogden Mustangs hockey game.  It turned out to be a really fun family night.  Abby made friends with Murray the Mustang and he gave her a hockey puck.  She couldn’t have been more excited.

Stadium Chairs:

We scored a killer deal on some stadium chairs at RC Willey.  Our crazy kids hung out on them for hours playing telephone and “Would You Rather?”

Hobbit Feet:

The kids dared each other to run through the backyard barefoot, “like hobbits.”  Everyone but Abby made it to the gate and back (multiple times).

Henny Penny:

Emily was Henny Penny in her class play.  She had a big part and did a great job at memorizing all of her lines.  (I didn’t have my camera, but my friend sent me a picture she took with her phone.)

Scandinavian Cookies:

Jody gave us a set of rosettes to make Scandinavian Cookies over a year ago and we had never used them.  Ben decided we needed to make some for our family home evening treat.  They were amazingly delicious!  We decided that we need to bust them out more often.

Friends:

Our kids spend lots of time with friends, but I rarely take pictures.  Here are a few cute ones from the last couple of months.

Artwork:

Ben had to do a twist on American Gothic for an art project.  Nate named it American Gotham.

Emily did a mirror image of a picture from a magazine.  It turned out amazing.  She has mad art skills. 

Trampoline:

We set up the trampoline the first week of March.  I love that every year it is like a whole new toy for the kids.

Zoo:

The kids had a random Friday off school a couple of weeks ago.  When we found out Jody and Sarah were going to the zoo, we decided to head down and join them.  The weather was lovely and we had a fun day together.

Sarah:

I babysat Sarah while Jody was getting her taxes done.  I forgot how busy a two-year-old can be.  This is what happened when I left her alone for two minutes to wash her hands.

Daddy’s Girls:

Just a couple of cute pictures of Nate with the girls.  They are sure lucky to have him for a dad.

Notable Quotes:

Elise (in the JCPenney bathroom): “They charge 25 cents just for a napkin?  What a rip off!”

Ben: “Do you have an armpit stick I can try.”

Reflections and Science Fair

***I’m a little late with blogging about these things, but better late than never.

Nate and I were both kind of hoping to just skip the whole Reflections thing this time around.  After last year’s ended so nicely (with all three kids getting trophies), we figured we would just call it good and be done with Reflections projects.  The kids had other ideas.  Emily was the one most enthusiastic about it.  She did five different projects.  In the process, the other kids caught the bug and we ended up with all four of them participating. 

The sixth graders made paper mache masks for an art project.  Ben decided to do Chewbacca.  He was planning on cutting 7,000 pieces of brown yarn and gluing them onto his mask.  To save his time and my sanity, I introduced him to the concept of faux fur.  His project turned out super cool.  After turning it in for a grade, he decided to enter it in Reflections as 3D art.  The theme was “The Magic of a Moment”.  It was a stretch to make his Chewie mask fit that theme, but we worked it out and he ended up winning.

Emily entered projects in five catagories: 3D art, visual art, literature, photography, and dance.  Some of them were high effort; others were just last minute “insurance plans” to improve her odds of winning.  Ironically, the only trophy she won was for the dance (to Do You Believe in Magic) that she did the night before the projects were due.  Her other projects were a 3D scene out of model magic, a poem, an oil pastel on canvas (picture of a sunset), and a photo of a reflection on a pond (my personal favorite).

Elise did three projects.  She made a bunny popping out of a hat, choreographed a dance (to Under the Sea), and wrote a story about losing her tooth at Disneyland.  She ended up winning for both the dance and the story.  Her dance actually went on to win at the district level and got 2^nd place in the region, which leads me to believe that either the judges were going for creativity over actual skill, or there weren’t very many entries. J

Abby decided at the last minute that she wanted to a project too.  I gave her a piece of cardboard and some model magic.  She made a cute little 3D fish.  She started at the tail.  By the time she got to the head, she had run out of room to put bubbles coming out the fish’s mouth like she had planned.  Instead, she put them behind the fish.  The judges loved her little tooting fish and, much to my surprise, she won a trophy too.

I was very pleased that we lucked out again and all four kids won trophies.  I know that things won’t always be so equitable, but it is nice when they are.

We also had our first science fair experience this year.  Ben had to conduct an experiment for one of his homework assignments.  He tested different brands of batteries to see how cost effective each one was.  Entering his project into the science fair was optional, but since he had already done the bulk of the work, we encouraged him to make a display board and go to the fair.  He took 2^nd place in the school science fair in November which qualified him to go to the district science fair in February.  The district fair was at Weber State University.  Ben thought it was super cool to spend the day on a college campus.  He had lots of fun and ended up with a 2^nd place win in his category.  We didn’t get the best picture of Ben at the award ceremony, but I love that he has his arm around the superintendent. Every other kid stood with both hands in front of them holding their certificate.  Not Ben.  He walked up and put his arm around Superintendent Stephens like they were old friends.

We thought that was the end of the road, but Mrs. Barney called and said that if Ben wanted to go to the state science fair, the school would pay for his registration.  The fair was Monday at the Dee Events Center.  It was a long day for Ben and not as much fun as the district fair.  He came away with an honorable mention and a $1,000 scholarship (to Westminster College . . . along with everybody else who participated J).

Leprechaun's Day

Last year we totally dropped the ball on St. Patrick’s Day.  It fell on a Saturday and I had just had foot surgery.  That was a bad combination.  Elise and Abby made an elaborate trap to catch the leprechaun, but he never came.  No green food.  No clues to find a pot of gold.  Nothing.  It was a big parent fail (leading Elise to declare it “the worst Leprechaun’s Day EVER!”) 

This year was much more successful.  Nate started us off on the right foot with yummy green crepes for breakfast.

The girls made another trap based on the idea that leprechauns are super strong, but can’t lift Styrofoam (a little “fact” that Emily picked up in 2^nd grade).  They taped a Polly Pocket to a Styrofoam cup and hung the cup from the ceiling of their little leprechaun house.  They figured he would get trapped under the cup in the process of freeing the cute Polly, but that sneaky leprechaun managed to untie her and push her under the cup instead of getting himself trapped.  Better luck next year. 

We came home from church to find that the leprechaun had been here and left clues leading to a pot of gold.  He also took a little pit stop in our bathroom.  Abby is the only true believer left in the house, but all of the kids got a kick out it.  It was a fun day. 

Daddy Daughter Pinewood Derby

Nate and the girls went to the Daddy Daughter party on Thursday night.  They had a great time!  This year’s activity was a pinewood derby.  The girls were so excited to get to make their own cars.  As soon as Elise got her kit she started searching the internet for ideas.  After looking at 453 different cars, she decided to make a Hershey’s bar car (very fitting for our candy-loving girl).  Nate did the cuts, Elise did the sanding and painting, and I helped her to put the foil and wrapper on.  It was pretty easy to make and turned out super cute.

It was no surprise that Emily wanted something art related.  She found a cute car online that looked like a box of crayons that she wanted to copy.  It seemed complicated, so I suggested that she do watercolors instead.  She thought that was a great idea.  We had an old set of watercolors with removable cups (they don't make them like that anymore).  Most of the paint was used up, so Emily washed them out and put in the little discs of paint from a new set.  Nate drilled out little ovals to put the paint cups in and cut a groove for the paintbrush.  Emily was in charge of sanding and painting.  The finished product looked awesome.

Nate made all of the strategic adjustments (adding weight, polishing the axles, and using graphite).  When he tested the cars out here, they were equally fast.  Emily’s did better on the night of the race and she finished in 3^rd place out of 22 cars.  Elise was a little disappointed (more about only being able to race once than about not placing), but she got over it.

I’m glad the girls have such high effort Activity Day leaders and a great dad that will go out of his way to make them happy.  Abby is already planning her car.  She helped the girls make one when Ben had his pinewood derby, but she wants one of her very own.  Hopefully this activity will make an appearance again in a few years.

Dr. Seuss and Gooney Bird

Thursday was Dr. Seuss day at the elementary.  The kids decided (at the last minute) that they wanted to dress up.  It made for a busy morning doing some quick cutting and sewing, but they were happy with their simple costumes and looked pretty darn cute.  I was glad that Ben was content to just wear a hat and that Abby didn’t have to be ready until noon.  She really wanted a tail to go with her costume, so I whipped one up and she spent a good part of the morning stuffing it.  She was so proud of the finished product.

Elise got to dress up two days in a row.  Her class had a Gooney Bird Greene party on Friday, so she put together a wacky outfit for the occasion.  She looked adorable and had a great time.

Shark Tooth

Abby was talking to me on Monday afternoon and I thought I saw something funny in her mouth.  I had her open wide and realized that her permanent tooth had come in behind her baby tooth.  I called my friend Angie (a dental assistant) to ask about our little shark girl.  She said that it actually pretty common, but that we should take her in and have the dentist pull the baby tooth.  We were lucky enough to get an appointment on Wednesday morning.  Abby was super excited.  Her kindergarten teacher puts the kids' names on a chart when they lose a tooth, and Abby was getting worried that she wasn’t going to make it on the chart before the school year was over.  Thanks to laughing gas and a prize token, the whole process was pretty painless.  Abby thought it was all great fun.  It looks like her next tooth is doing the same thing.  I told her to start wiggling it so we won’t have to shell out another $57 for an extraction.

The tooth fairy brought a gold dollar, a bag of gummy bears, and a cute freckle-faced Polly Pocket.  Abby couldn’t have been happier.