Jack wasn't excited or happy about it this afternoon, but once he got to work, he folded his laundry like a pro
"I'd like to go in a kangaroo's pouch some day. I think that would be fun."
On Sunday afternoon when I told Jack he could stop reading because quiet time was over,
he said, "I want to keep reading. It's so interesting." I love Captain Moroni, too.
After our cold Saturday morning watching Cat's soccer game in the rain, the girls decided to take a hot bath, then pamper themselves with spa treatments. They soaked and lotioned their hands and feet and painted nails. They let the boys in on the fun, too. When Luke's appointment was over, he walked up to me and said, "Smell my hands and feet!"
We had a pretty low-key St. Patrick's Day but the celebration ended up spreading into the week before and after, so I'm including everything here for the sake of convenience.
You can't even tell, but Luke and two little girls painted coffee filter four-leaf
clovers at our house one morning before St. Patrick's Day.
I tried to have the kids make shamrock prints using green paint and marshmallows,
but it didn't turn out exactly the way it looked on Pinterest...
We had our traditional St. Patrick's Day FHE, which ended in the customary
scavenger hunt for a "gold" treat. I made the clues harder for the big kids this
time, so it was even more fun, with lots of running upstairs, downstairs, back upstairs, etc.
The last clue the kids were using to be able to find the pot of gold was
"when Eliza can't find her Sunday shoes," because just the weekend before we found
her Sunday shoes, which had been MIA for weeks, under her bed.
The morning of St. Patrick's Day the kids were excited to get LUCKY CHARMS for breakfast. In the afternoon, we cashed in on free report card doughnuts at Krispy Kreme after school on March 17th, and it was extra fun that the doughnuts were green. They still tasted great!
Once again, Jack made a leprechaun trap.
Once again, the leprechaun barely escaped.
I didn't make the four-leaf clover waffles we usually have at dinner time because I had a concert that night, but I encouraged Ben to serve a big green salad for dinner in honor of the special day. He found something else instead.
Jack's Pack Meeting the week after March 17th had a St. Patrick's Day theme. The first game, though, "is not a traditional Irish game," according to the big leprechaun in charge.
Jack was chosen to go head-to-head with another boy, using only his face to get five
gold coins off of the bottom of a pie pan filled with whipped cream.
Jack's initial tactic of licking the whipped cream away
from the gold coins, while being delicious, slowed him down considerably.
Since we missed seeing Moana in theaters we decided to have some fun watching it at home. I made grass skirts from paper bags and bought some cheap leis and toothpick-umbrellas and Ben made delicious daiquiris. The kids helped with decorations (apparently we had a lot of sea shells around our house) and then Cat pulled out her ukulele and we had a brief hula-ish dance party before watching the movie. We all loved it. (It's so amazing.)
We've had mostly gorgeous weather for the last few weeks. It's been so nice to go outside without bundling up! We've been spending more time outside, playing, eating, spending time with friends. We've ridden with the windows down and the kids have been wearing shorts to school. And just when I was starting to think that perhaps Cat's spring soccer season would give us better weather than last year's spring soccer season did, Cat's first game arrived with the coldest and rainiest day we've had in weeks. So perhaps last year's pattern of nice weather on almost every spring day except when we had a soccer game just might continue.
After a few minutes of resting on the bench under a canopy, Cat and two teammates are waiting at the sideline under an umbrella to be subbed in during the second half.
In spite of the cold and the saturated field and ball, Cat's team managed a 4-2 win. And have I mentioned that they moved up to a higher competitive level this spring, and that they play against teams that are a year older? The team they played today was much bigger than our girls, but we held our own.
Cat didn't score today but I got a video of an assist she had in the second half. She's the one right in front of the goal.
The kids had a day off of school a couple of weeks ago and even though we didn't do anything big, I think it was still a pretty good day.
We got things started by making cake balls on Sunday night.
We used them for treats when we had friends over for dinner & FHE Monday.
GIANT (whole grain) chocolate chip pancakes.
We had to sample the cake balls in the morning to make sure they were okay
before we served them to our friends that night. They passed!
What did the peanut butter say to the bread?
Quit loafing around!
What did the bread say back to the peanut butter?
You're nuts!
A mid-day trip to Costco meant lunch on the go while we shopped.
I love how the pizza looks even bigger in this picture with little Luke
trying to finish the whole piece.
Minute to Win-It games for FHE with friends.
Google helped me make this little video.
On Sunday afternoon I was looking through Jack's "Faith in God" award booklet and saw that he could pass off a requirement on Monday by planning an activity for kids. So I put him in charge of the Minute to Win-It games for FHE. He chose the games he wanted to play, made sure we had everything we needed, and generally took the lead. He chose Ping Pong Spoons, Bite Me, Junk in the Trunk, Defying Gravity, Suck It, and Peanut Mud. He did a great job!
Cat's Activity Day group had a meeting about the Five Love Languages recently and we were given enough quizzes for all of the kids in our family (found here). So for FHE one nightAct we had each of the kids take the test and we talked about what they mean. Here are the results:
Cat
#1 - Gifts
#2 - Words of Affirmation
#3 - Quality Time
Jack
#1 - Physical Touch
#2 - Words of Affirmation
#2 - Acts of Service
#3 - Gifts
#3 - Quality Time
Eliza
#1 - Physical Touch
#1 - Acts of Service
#1 - Quality Time
#2 - Gifts
Cat's and Jack's top love language didn't surprise me. But some of the other things that we learned did surprise me. Cat's top three were all very close to each other, which is why I listed all of them. And Jack's answers were distributed almost equally among the five love languages. And I just laughed about Eliza, our quintessential middle child, having a three-way tie for the top spot.
Luke was too young to take the test, and even Jack and Eliza are at the bottom of the range the test is recommended for, so we'll have to be sure to do this again in a year or two. But I'm grateful for this bit of insight into how to best express love to and respond to expressions of love from my kids.
I can't usually chaperone the kids' field trips because they take all day and I'm not allowed to bring Luke. Jack's most recent field trip was shorter than a lot of the other ones, though, because everything took place at the BYU Campus, so I was able to make arrangements with two different friends to take care of Luke so that I could attend.
We started out at the Bean Museum. There were six kids in my group and I'd like to go on the record as saying that 8-year-olds are difficult to wrangle, so having six really kept me on my toes. They wanted to go every which way, and I wasn't given a long rope to have all of them hold on to, and I tried really hard to keep my voice at a respectable museum level, and by some miracle I didn't lose anybody.
I get a kick out of these pictures because I had one member of my group who was less than thrilled about the museum when we first arrived. See if you can guess which one. He warmed up a little by the time we were leaving.
From the Bean Museum, we found a quiet place outside to eat our bagged lunches, then we walked across campus to the Eyring Science Building for a show at the planetarium. The only picture I have from here is when we were in the lobby, which is full of interactive science displays, and the kids were gathered around the Foucault Pendulum, somewhat mesmerized. I was nervous that the planetarium show was too advanced for 3rd graders (even though the staff chose a show that wasn't terribly technical) but Jack really enjoyed it and enjoyed sharing facts he learned with his siblings when they were reunited.
In early October Cat and her classmates embarked on the traditional sixth grade field trip to The Capitol in Salt Lake. Cat was really excited to get to do this and had a great time. She had the opportunity to take many pictures as part of her new Yearbook Staff duties, too. (Which is why she isn't in a lot of them.)
The sixth graders took a trip to the Radha Krishna Temple in February, on a day with lots of snow. Cat wasn't as excited about this field trip but ended up really enjoying it. They had fun hanging out with the llamas, learning about Hinduism, and practicing yoga.
Jack has had a great time with Cub Scouts, loving his Den and Pack meetings and willingly working on earning belt loops at home. He has already finished all of the requirements to move up when his birthday comes - woohoo! Thank goodness for organized and diligent Scout leaders.
Eliza helped Jack get ready for his July Pack Meeting.
Two belt loops in August!
Special October Pack Meeting treat: "Dirty" Pudding
Eliza and Luke got to make their own also.
Making something out of things you would otherwise throw away.
November 2016
The girls got to participate in an activity reminding everyone of
what "A Scout is..." during the January Pack Meeting.
Another belt loop for Jack!
January 2016
The scouts received their pinewood derby kits during the Blue and Gold Banquet last month, and The Main Event will take place next month. We're all pretty excited for this; it'll be a first for our family!
