Smile That Frown Away

Erika is perfectly on time for daily fifteen minute breaks at 10am, 12pm, and 2:30pm.  Because of their job schedules, these are the only times that she and Bret have to talk on the phone.  He works from 5am to 2:30pm and she works from 2:45pm to 11pm.  Once in a while they also have a brief evening conversation to say goodnight.

Though Bret has her full attention she also has to be playing with or doing something else while on the phone.  I can completely relate to this but I'm usually doing laundry, dishes or other no-brainer tasks around the house.  She, on the other hand, likes to show off her brainy skills and play strategy games or speed games on her iPod or even solve a Sudoko Rubik's cube.  Those kinds of activities make my brain hurt without being on the phone.  

She still doesn't like it when I pull the camera out and usually gives me a pouty or frowny face 

and once in a while I'm lucky enough to get a tongue face.  

In my best primary voice I sang to her to turn her frown upside down and this is what I got:

Dining Etiquette

One of the things we learned from Vivien was how to properly use our utensils at the table.  Sure, we always had a fork or spoon but seldom a knife at each place setting.  Now, we have knives out for almost every meal and we often use our newly acquired European table manners.  As we were sitting at the table together one late evening when dinner had been overlooked and we settled on a $5 Hot-N-Ready there was a sudden pause as we looked around at each other and busted out laughing because we were ALL using a fork and knife to eat our pizza - even the little boys.

Nathan wanted so much to eat "how Vivien does" that even when he was flicking waffle across the table and scraping the stripe off of his plate he did not give up.

Victory is celebrated with each bite
that has not hit the table or floor before it gets to the mouth.

Love Thy Neighbor

We couldn't have chosen better next door neighbors if we had done interviews.  We aren't chatty, hang out on each other's patio and party kind of neighbors but our kids are completely content to use our combined yards as one big playground.  Their six girls and one boys perfectly compliment our five boys and one girl.  Well, the ages don't quite work out but their four younger girls (ages 6 to 13) and their two year old boy have a great time hanging out with our three younger boys (ages 4 to 13).   The girls have complete crushes on the boys and the boys are clueless.

One of the first days of summer break the boys started hauling out every stuffed animal they could hunt down    in our house.  When I looked outside I could see a huge pile of stuffed animals on our trampoline and a huge pile of stuffed animals on the neighbors trampoline.  They ranged from the tiniest key chain creature to the overstuffed Tigger, which each family proudly had one of.  I stood back and watched for a minute before grabbing my camera.

Instead of playing the back-in-the-day game of My Dad is Bigger Than Your Dad, they were playing the updated We Have More Stuffed Animals Than You Do version.  What I found so funny was the method each team was using to do the counting.  The girls kept all the animals on the trampoline, taking great care to not let one fall to the dirty ground, while pushing all of them to one side and tossing them to the other side as they counted.  The boys gave up trying to keep them on the trampoline and scooped them all to the ground to then toss them into piles of ten, not even taking into account that the animals might get dirty.

Final Score:  97 to 68
They won

When the weather finally warmed up enough to warrant a little water play each family scrounged through cupboards and drawers to find balloons to fill for a water fight. After drenching themselves trying to fill the balloons with the hose and several pinched fingers attempting to tie the balloons, the imaginary boundary was set and the water bombs were let loose.  Somehow, little Brock next door could tell that we were the boy side of the battle and came to our side of the yard to throw balloons at his sisters.

The trampoline is this years main attraction.  Even though we had it last year, the playhouse hosted most of last years games.  Our trampoline has somehow snuck across the lawn to stand next to their trampoline so that they can jump from one to the other, have the sprinkler under one but not the other, and to create a big enough shade area for everyone to enjoy a cool lunch area in the heat of the day.  On the individual trampolines we often find Justin hanging out with Brock while the others all play imagination games or Justin is teaching someone how to do gymnastic tricks.  On more group days they can be found playing Duck, Duck, Goose or Crack the Egg or just sitting there talking like best of friends do.

The neighbor's cousin, Bailey, joined the fun and by the end of the day also had a crush on Justin.    
How can boys be so oblivious to the obvious?

Yellow Belt

Nathan has worked hard during class and at home to master the requirements necessary for belt advancement in Tae Kwan Do.  He practiced kicks and formation as well as yells but he also had to have his parents signatures to declare that he lived the Tae Kwan Do rules of the home such as respect, keeping his room clean, being helpful with siblings and keeping his body clean and healthy.

At his belt test he was surprised to learn that he had to break a board with one fast hit.  With encouragement from his coach and his dad, he stood firm in formation and with an enthusiastic I-ya and in a flash of arm movement his single board become two.  Unfortunately, I tell this from second hand experience since I was out of town when he had his belt test and LeRoy didn't have the camera with him.  Luckily, he gave me a private demonstration when I got home.

Two weeks later we attended his award ceremony to receive his new yellow belt and his advancement certificate.

Graduations 2012

Before the last trimester at Madison High started, Erika only had one required class left to take.  Rather than spend a full trimester and five classes finishing the year she decided to transfer to Central High and do the block course in two weeks to finish and graduate.  In four days she finished all of the required work, took the two tests and the final and was done.  A week later, on March 8th, they called to let her know her diploma was ready.  She had no desire to cross stage, wear a gown, send out invitations, none of the hoopla that goes with a typical American graduation.

Without even a glance back at high school she is moving on to ISU with a major in Psychology.

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Vivien was taking a Child Development class and for 4 weeks of the class they did a preschool for local kids.  Hyrum got to go to preschool for 4 weeks and he loved it.  Actually, he would tell us every morning that he didn't want to go but every day when I picked him up he would tell me the songs he sang, the stories they told, the activities they did and the treats they had.  After the first day he told us that a girl had kissed him on the cheek and he was embarrassed that the teachers thought it was cute.  Every day I got an update on whether or not "that girl" was in class.  She never did kiss him again but I think he was watching out for her and stayed away from her.

Vivien had to do a portfolio for the class and chose to do it on Hyrum.  That meant we got to have some cute preschool pictures of him and a description of his class time and what he learned there.  He liked to brag to Nathan that Vivien was one of his teachers.


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Nathan's kindergarten class had a final program with a circus theme and a graduation after.  Nathan was one of the fierce lions who jumped and rolled through a big ring of fire (hula hoop with streamers).  I wondered why he wouldn't smile through any of the songs and looked like he was about to cry when they gave him his diploma.  After it was over he ran over to me in near tears, threw his papers to me and ran off to the bathroom.  He had to go through the whole program!  After he got back we were able to get a couple of pictures with him smiling instead of concentrating on not wetting his pants.  

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Vivien's graduation came all too fast!  Though we were so ready for school to be over, we were not ready for our time together to be over.  She did get to experience an American graduation, silly cap and all.

Her favorite teacher (total sarcasm), Mrs. Ashton. American History was a tough class!

Final pictures with some of the other exchange students and the host mom

There could be several reasons for these pictures:

1 - the water fountain was spiked

2 - the school is really scary between the hours of 10pm and 3am

3 - Mrs. Ashton was chasing them down for another essay or political cartoon

4 - Vivien and Solver were super hyper that night

Anything is possible at a senior all night party.

Smoothies

These have been a great to have as a quick breakfast when we're on the run, a light lunch during the summer heat,
or an evening snack as we wind down for bed.  

The kids like to help pack the greek yogurt (frozen into 1 TBSP dollops), juice ("muffins" frozen in mini muffin pan) and fruits for smoothies.  It is so much cheaper (and healthier) than buying them from Jamba or buying the prepackaged ones at the store.  Each time we bag them up we use different fruits depending on what is available and on sale.   One baggie makes enough for two small ones or one large one.

Even Hyrum knows how to grab a baggie from the freezer, dump it in the blender, add the water and make his own,
though he likes to have a "big person" in the kitchen with him because the blender is "loud". 

The Proof is in the Picture

I love it when I download the pictures from my camera to my computer.  I usually have some

surprise photos that tattle on my kids.  

When I woke up to see every other key on the piano taped down I was a little irritated.  I have to admit it did take skill to do that with my head asleep on the other side of the wall but Justin does have plenty of skill.   Erika took the blackmail photos of the piano, which didn't really work in her behalf since I liked the pictures 

  

I did not like the sticky tape residue left on the keys.

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One late night in April, Derek went to bed to find this note and knife on his bed.

The note says "Merry Christmas! Luv ya Brudduh!  Levi"

We have no idea what prompted him to give this to Derek and I was fine with it until I saw the late night pictures of Derek looking like he was about to stab the camera with it.  I'm glad Justin felt so safe with his brother making stabs at him and swinging a knife around in his excitement.  

I did find humor in the picture as I looked at the background images on the wall.  A poster size picture of Enos praying, two pictures of Christ, a picture of a temple, and a picture with the scriptures referring to the Armor of God.  I like to pretend that this isn't Derek being threatening but it's his stripling warrior pose.

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Before Erika got an iPod that could take pictures, my camera was overloaded with pictures 

of Bret and Erika together.  

They are so cute!

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And my favorite

I have no idea who took it or why this picture was taken but it is a mother's dream 

to have a picture of her four year old using his special middle finger.

Jedi Nathan is Six!

April 7, 2012

Bret and Erika introduced Nathan to Star Wars.  He was immediately hooked.  He watched each video at least a bazillion times, could quote movie lines, knew who had what color lightsaber, and often played out his favorite roles.  Picking a theme to plan his birthday party was a no-brainer.  

We ate foods named after some of our favorite, and not so favorite, characters. 

Womprat on a Stick, Leia Rolls, Fett's Fruit Salad, Vader Veggies with Droid Dip, Hutt Dogs, Jabba Jigglers, 

Wookiee Fries, Yoda Soda, and Jedi Juice

Using cheap bed sheets, I made robes for Jedi training. 

Each person was given a challenge card and the real fun began. 

The kids loved saving Princess Leia as they attacked Darth Vader and the storm troopers with silly string. Next they did Yoda Skill training.  They had to pick a card and do what it said with Yoda sitting in the hood of their robe.  The goal was to not drop Yoda.  My favorite was "Dance Like a Wookiee".  After they had all the right moves it was time to rescue Han Solo from his frozen state.  Unfortunately, one team tore his legs off and the other team dislocated his head. Not sure we could consider that a rescue.  We each made a blue lightsaber for our last challenge which was to destroy the Death Star.  They geared up for their final battle by beating each other up with their new lightsaber/swimming noodles.
 

Destroying the Death Star

With all that training the older kids wanted to test their skills and took off around the block. On bikes. In their robes.

Holding lightsabers.  Try that Darth Vader!

It's always a challenge to come up with a cake that Nathan will eat.  He would prefer a fruit or veggie tray instead.  But, he was thrilled with his lightsaber cake.  Even though I used sponge cake rolled up with strawberries in it and the fondant was easy to peel off he didn't eat more than a couple of bites.  Still, he talked about it for days.  That makes it worth it.

The monkey around his neck was a gift from Vivien.  He loves that noisy thing!  Every night I make sure to take it off his bed after he is asleep because he has a tendency to roll over onto it during the night.  Waking up to that is a bit scary.