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.

Welcome Spring

It's another gorgeous day. Spring is a beautiful time of year, despite my seasonal allergies which will undoubtedly be here shortly. Emma laid out trying to catch a tan after school. Of course, Nicole sat right next to her the second she stepped into the sun. Hopefully she didn't disturb her studying too much.

On another unrelated note, Cameron didn't have one accident today. He's getting tired of the constant questioning, so I backed off a bit and decided to let him tell me when he has to go potty. Things are definitely going well in the potty training department.

P-Lucks

At our BYU singles ward our group of friends would often pass around a note or two during church. This was before Aaron and I began dating and were just hanging out as friends. Most of the time they said the following: "P-Luck, 5pm, K12" (Aaron's apartment), and spaces to include what you could contribute to the impromptu potluck. (This was only if dinner groups weren't already scheduled for the evening).

Tonight we had a potluck with the family at the park nearby. We also celebrated Ben's 10th birthday. I just love that boy's calm nature and cool smile. The potluck was much tastier than those college gatherings, but equally as fun. The weather was gorgeous and I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude for the beautiful conference messages, my testimony of the Savior and knowledge of His gospel, and the love and people that surrounds my life daily. It's a beautiful life.

Fort of the Year

Today is one of my favorite days of the years. We prepared for General Conference by making a massive reverence tent filled with conference packets and BINGO games to keep the kids busy. We made waffles this morning and snuggled in together for some amazing music and messages. To help us get the most of the conference we asked the kids at family night last Monday to see if there was something we can improve upon as a family. We'll recap on Monday with some of our favorites. But each talk today is bringing to my mind something I need to hear. I love that conference always bring to my heart the sweet feelings of hope and peace.

A few other comments:
Cameron made it to the potty about 50 percent of the time today...we'll get there. You'll also notice that he doesn't know how to play BINGO. Nicole, upon seeing Elder Hales said, "He is really old." Cameron, in the middle of the slightly lengthy afternoon session opening prayer said, "in the name of Christ, Amen!" suggesting that it was time for the prayer to end.