Planting

The frost this winter killed a lot of our plants. Aaron grabbed some new ones today and the kids helped him plant them in the yard. Lucky for me my allergies haven't kicked in yet. I am hoping that maybe some of those plants and weeds that make me want to scratch out my eyeballs and rip off my nose have died too. That would be nice.

Training Prep

I've been working like crazy on centerpieces, wall decor, bookmarks, programs, and updating our stake primary website on LDS.org. Little by little we're getting things done. I'll be excited on Thursday to have it all done. This image is one that I chose to put on the walls with dollar store mirrors hung on ribbons. I knew when I saw it that I needed to write the evening's theme on it...reflect the light of his love. It's such a beautiful series.

Feeding Horses

This morning as Aaron and the kids pulled out the bushes that died from this winter's freeze (sad face) they noticed the cries of a our neighbor"s horse caught in the back fence. Aaron called them and they rushed over to help their horse. They told us that we are always welcome to come and feed their rescued horse Ladybug. So this evening they gathered up some apples and walked over to her with complete excitement. She loved the apples.

Bracelets

Mary has been feverishly working each day this week to make bracelets for each person in her class. She finished the last one after soccer practice yesterday and she passed them out today. I love that she thought to give these to her classmates and teachers. It's so like Mary.

Duck the Pig

It's 6pm. The house is silent. Aaron dropped Mary off at soccer practice and took the rest of the kids to the park. It is so sweet to get a break like this every once in a while, especially since I've been feeling a little under the weather the last few days. My mind immediately starts thinking about all the things I want to do in the next hour....sleep, read, relax, blog; and all the things I need to do...church calling stuff, laundry, cleaning (my seriously messy house that I cannot seem to get clean this week at all), pay bills..the list goes on..FOREVER!

But in the end, the blog wins out. It's therapeutic to review my day. It's been a pretty normal day--school, homework, carpool, refereeing, cooking, laundry, cleaning. I did spent a good amount of time after I picked up Noah working on his project that is due tomorrow. Ya, that's me. The ultimate procrastinator.

When Mary was in kindergarten we turned her April sharing project into a movie. The assignment was to decorate a paper pig and create some facts to share. We made a Super Piggie movie that was really cute. Of course, we spent some of Spring Break making it.

This year I thought it would be fun to do the same thing only change the pig story to something Noah finds interesting. We got the assignment about a month ago. We discussed it and decided to make a music video of a pig who doesn't know how to say oink. While living on a farm he learns to say the sounds of all the other animals except his own. This story idea was inspired by the book How to Speak Moo and the song "What Does a Fox Say?"

Here were the beginnings of some of our lyrics...
The pig says oink

The pig says grunt

And French pigs say groin groin

But there's other sounds

My pig only knows...

What does my pig say?

Moo, moo, moo moo (pig standing by the cows)

Quack, quack, quack, quack...(stands by ducks)

Baa, baa, baa, baa...(by sheep)

What does my pig say?

You get the picture...it may have been cute, but oh well. At least it's done. And hopefully it's not too confusing.

Noah the Artist

I got to volunteer in the classroom this morning and hit the book fair while Christine watched my kids. Cameron continued to go potty while he was there, which is a huge success! Noah's teacher sent me this picture of him painting in class.

After I picked them up we headed to Jaime for some fix-it-up haircuts. Yes, there is a good reason why I am not a hair dresser. Then, following piano lessons and dinner Mary and I spent several hours trying to bake a cake from a story that Mary read in school today (I got to read it too, since i was volunteering).

It's another sweet Patricia Polacco story. In it a frightened young girl becomes distracted from the scary storm with help of her Grandmother and her special recipe for Thundercake. She picks the tomatoes (there are tomatoes in the recipe), steals an egg from mean old Nellie Hen, and busily gathers up all the ingredients for the cake.

It came out very tasty. We will send it to Mary's class in the morning so they can give it a try. The only bad part of the day is that the kitchen is a real disaster.  I'll put that off until tomorrow.

Cousins Make the Best of Friends

We had Elise and Estelle over after school today. Cameron and Estelle spent a good portion of the time moving rocks from one spot to the next. They built a forts, played house, enjoyed the beautiful sun....etc.