January Miscellany

(published 3/23/24)

We received this cool wooden carousel from Pops as a Christmas gift.
For a few days, Luke was completely absorbed with putting it together.

Ben helped a bit, but Luke did at least 95% of it by himself.

Michael fixed our Wii! The kids had fun playing it again and
trying out some new games Michael loaded onto the disc.

a fun movie for the kids = a good nap for me

The snow in this picture looks like a filter but I promise it was real.

Jack learned how to make the Nutella mousse recipe
he fell in love with a few years ago.

    We used the Nutella mousse to top chocolate waffles
we made using the new waffle 
iron I got for Christmas.

Homework time

Saturday night bowling! Per Luke's request.

Luke's Sacrament Meeting Doodle

Brownie Batter Bread Slices

Saturday morning colorful waffle experiment.... not very successful.


We met M&K's family for dinner at R&R.

Liza made two cool fleece hats during the MSI sewing class.
She gave one to a designated charitable cause and kept one for herself.

At Winter Fest Ms. G showed off the finished quilt the 8th graders made
in the sewing class. Liza's square is the Bluey square on the bottom left
(the Bluey square on the right was made by another Bluey fan).

For his Dungeons & Dragons Winterim project, Jack drew a scene from his quest.

Holey Naruto Socks, Batman!

Luke and all his fellow 5th graders spent a day at Junior Achievement
Biztown. They'd been preparing for this for months. They learned
about the job options and narrowed down their preferences, applied
for a few jobs, were chosen for their jobs, and then prepared for their jobs
with their future coworkers. Luke was the director at the movie theater,
and his friend was a producer. They were pretty excited to work at the theater together.

Luke's job was to use a tablet to take pictures of all the businesses in Biztown,
then use a film trailer template to create a trailer about their day. He loved it.

Some of the businesses posted advertisements around town. The blue one says,
"Go to Target River we will ADVERTISE your ADVERTISEMENTS."
One from Lending Club (not pictured) said, "Give us our money that we gave you."

Ironic that the two people you can see best in
this mirror selfie were not shoping for a suit.

If you don't see it right away, give it a second.

Six weeks before his State Report presentation, Luke wanted to make sure
he had a trifold board. And the day we brought it home from Staples,
he cut out a spot for the Chromebook and drew a TV around it so that it could
be like Liza's Wax Museum board for Lucille Ball (as seen in this post).

He's also training for the circus.

The art teacher at Luke's school put on an entire glow-in-the-dark art show.
Here, Luke is showing the flower petal project he contributed to.

Smaller works of art and a big dragon are in the background,
with a big mural of an underwater scene one of the grades worked on.
There was even a glow-in-the-dark dance a group of students learned,
and they performed it multiple times during the art show.

That night, Liza and Jack played hard at a
just-for-fun volleyball tournament at the school.

Sunday afternoon family hike: Dripping Rock

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.