Red Carpet Event

We had a fun primary activity last weekend for the kids to get to know their new teachers.

First we had them sit with their class and play a little get-to-know-you game while we set up the food table.

They rolled dice to answer corresponding questions about themselves, such as, "What's your favorite ice cream flavor?"

And, "What superhero power would you choose?"

Then we called them up one table at a time to dish up breakfast. We had muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and fruit.

After we got that all cleaned up, they shared with their class several items from home that represented their interests and talents.

Brennan shared dress-ups, an obsidian shard, a spin-art picture and a monkey.

Dallin shared one of his cookbooks, a picture of a chef, a purple slinky, a video game and the book Matilda. He's on a big Roald Dahl kick right now - he reads them in just 2-3 days each.

They were also asked to pack a dress-up item.

Tyler shared artwork, a maze book, a hockey puck, his violin tuner, a pizza box and the book Holes.

The teachers shared things about themselves also.

Spencer shared the book Eldest, an ice hockey puck (thanks Aaron!), a 3D ocean bookmark, an Abalone shell, and a rock-climbing trophy.

Then they proceeded to dress up their teachers.

And one by one the classes escorted their teachers down the "red carpet."

They introduced their teacher to the rest of us and told us all the things they learned about them.

This was the most entertaining part of the activity. The teachers really got into it!



Tyler's teacher even brought some fun music to dance to.

We love our teachers! I especially like her daughter's face (yellow shirt) in this one.

The teachers also shared interesting facts about themselves that we might not already know. Spencer's teacher had his stomach pumped twice in one day when he was a kid.

It was a lot of fun to get to know our teachers and each other outside of class. The kids loved it! And the teachers told us afterwards how much they liked it too.

More Visitors

Aaron and Marrisse came to visit a couple of weeks ago. They both ran in the St. George half marathon, so they figured as long as they were that close they might as well come see us. How fun for us! That's a major advantage of home schooling - they get to take vacations whenever they want.

We had them over for dinner one night. There was something going on every night, since we weren't the ones on vacation, darn it, so we just cancelled violin and tried to eat quick before Spencer left for piano. After dinner we played Hedbanz.

We didn't feel like we'd seen them enough by the time the week was up, so we ran over to my parents' house to hang out with them before they left. Fortunately they aren't early risers, and they were in no hurry to get out the door.

I took some pictures of their kids that morning, but I didn't get any of Aaron or Marrisse. They were out running. Aren't they impressive??

Spencer said he loves hanging out with these girls because it's so easy to make them laugh. It's true - there's a lot of giggling when we get together with them.

I could take pictures of Sophie all day. She's so photogenic!!

As the only boy in their family, Caleb loves to come visit all his boy cousins in California.

Such silliness! He obviously fits right in.

Brennan's been asking me when we can go back to Utah to play with his cousins in the snow.

Treasure hunting in the riverbed

For last month's pack meeting, our friend Ron talked to the cub scouts about finding ancient artifacts. He has a huge collection, mostly arrowheads and fossils, which he found right here in our town's riverbed. So naturally my boys wanted to go there the very first chance they could get, which happened to be the following Saturday. It had rained the day before, so they were hoping there would be water in the river (apparently that's the best time to find stuff, because the water uncovers the treasures), but it was totally dry. Like most places, we've had an extremely dry winter.

Mostly they just found a bunch of junk, and I only let them keep a couple of things. The old paddle made it home, and I have to admit, it looks pretty cool on the shelf behind Spencer's ocean set-up.

The broken fence piece did not make the cut. The boys couldn't understand why I didn't want their "treasures" in my house. Moms can be so unreasonable.

Spencer's friend Caleb came along.

We had a lot of fun, but we didn't find any arrowheads; we'll have to go back after a bigger rain storm. Speaking of the riverbed, Dave was invited by a bunch of guys from church to go paintballing there a few days ago. He had SO much fun! But he inadvertantly landed on a stick during a dive and got a hole under his chin. He put a stitch into it when he got home. Without Lidocaine. We have some, but he didn't think it was worth it for just 1 stitch. He's amazing!

Party time!

There was an especially crazy week recently (the same week of the stomach flu and my photo shoot and my baby shower and the cub scout pack meeting), when my nephews Eric and Luke had birthday parties a day apart. Brennan went to Eric's art party Thursday after school. He had a lot of fun, but I wasn't there so I didn't get any pictures. Then Levi and I went to Luke's Cars party Friday morning.

They were going to ride bikes at the park; but it was moved to the church because it started to sprinkle. Then we didn't see another rain drop once we got there, so the kids just rode their bikes in the church parking lot.

Levi was pretty clingy that day. He just hung out with me, blowing bubbles and eating candy from his treat bag.

Such concentration - so cute!

Levi finally got on his scooter. Then he lost control on a slight (and I mean slight) hill, fell and got hurt. He was done riding after that.

Kristen made super cute car cakelets. Of course the birthday boy got to have Lightning McQueen.

Can you believe how long Levi's hair is? He's the one under Kristen. When it's curly, it's cute. But when it's straight, it looks pretty silly. He's never had a haircut because he was bald for so long, but I really need to cut it one of these days.

Levi was happy as long as he was eating. It was a fun, low-key party. Perfect for 2-3 year olds!

Maternity Pics

I asked a photography friend from church to do a maternity shoot of me a couple weeks ago. I wanted to do it when I was far enough along to have a good sized belly but not so far that I'd be huge all over, so we went with 34 weeks.

We were going to do it the Monday before my baby shower (which was moved up kind of last minute) so I could display them there. I saw that at another shower and thought it was a really cute idea. But then I came down with the stomach flu the night before (it was aweful!!), so we did it the following day instead. I was still pretty sore all over, but at least I wasn't nauseous anymore. She had to photoshop out the broken blood vessels on my face.

She chose an awesome location - just off the side of the road near my house. She checked it out beforehand and wanted to do it here because it actually had green grass. Everywhere else was pretty dead looking. Plus I love the old fence and oak trees.

She kept telling me the whole time how gorgeous I was. You can't help but smile when someone tells you that. It was a lot of fun. I think she has such a good eye for lighting!

My belly kind of disappears when I lie on my back.

I really like how they turned out. I usually just do a quick snapshot right before I have my babies, and they've never been this cute. I'm glad I got them done.

I went to the doctor today, and she freaked out again about me measuring too small. But I don't FEEL small. I feel huge and uncomfortable. I just carry my babies really low. I'm 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced.

Just 3 1/2 more weeks to go!