Megan's Visit, Days 1-2

We loved having Megan here during Spring Break!  We decided to make it into a little stay-cation with adventures of varying size every day, all within an hour of our house.  As we were talking about the things we might do before, Megan's only requests were that we go to "that bakery" (and I knew exactly which one she was talking about) and that we visit Oma.  We managed to do both things on the first day.

Breakfast at Shirley's?  Don't mind if we do.

After delicious baked yumminess at Shirley's we went to the BYU Museum of Art to see the M. C. Escher exhibit, and spent some time with a cool new modern art exhibit that was an oversized kaleidoscope with mirrors on the outside that reflected images on the walls as it turned around.  Hard to explain.  But the kids loved it.

Then Eliza kept Megan busy doing origami in the car while we drove up to Oma's that afternoon.  We visited for a while, with Eliza showing off her newfound origami skills, then Megan stayed and had a sleepover with Oma.

Suz picked Megan up at Oma's the following afternoon and we met up at the Jordan River Temple for the Open House.  We planned our reservations to coincide with Jamie and Alysa's family so we could have some time with them too.  The temple was beautiful and we really enjoyed seeing the artwork and other features inside.  We could feel the spirit testifying of the significance of the building and the work that's done there.  And, as always, it was great to see Jamie's family.

The boys appreciated having a few minutes to get some wiggles out before we started the tour.

We gave Megan her first ever Cafe Rio experience after the open house (She liked it! Of course!) then headed to the Dollar theater to see "The Greatest Showman."  There were those among our group who had never seen it, and one person who had seen it several times, but we all enjoyed it.

Skittles: A New Favorite Pastime

This post is not in chronological order but I'm squeezing it in here anyway.  I hope you don't mind.

Two Sundays ago I pulled out our very neglected chess set in the hopes of playing a game with one of the kids before Sunday dinner, but as it goes, that game of chess never happened.  Suz brought her family over and the kids and fathers were just hanging out while Suz and I worked on dinner.  I asked Uncle Ben if he could teach the kids how to play chess, and he did, and they all loved it.  They've played almost every day since then.  I hope it continues!

(Eliza is in a coat because it was early in the morning -
when the kids were supposed to be getting ready for school - and she was cold.)

This also happens to be before school, but in this picture the kids are ready
and waiting for their ride to arrive.

When preparing for this post I Googled "Chess lingo" and found this surprisingly long list, which included the following:
       Skittles: Chess for fun or chess without a clock; a skittles room is where you go and play for fun while waiting for your next formal pairing.

Easter + April Fool's

With Easter Sunday falling on Conference Weekend this year, my normal routines were thrown off.  We usually have an FHE dedicated to Easter the Monday before, with scripture reading that week focused on the events of Holy Week, and then a fun non-spiritual Retsae the day before Easter when the Easter Bunny visits and we do an egg hunt and all that jazz.  During the week leading up to General Conference we also do a special FHE and use quotes from General Authorities to help us prepare for Conference during our scripture reading.  We ended up focusing on Easter the week before, with the order of things altered due to extenuating circumstances.

Ben was out of town the first few days of the week before Easter so we had our
Easter FHE on Sunday night.  Cat made our traditional dessert-nests for the treats.

Luke had an egg hunt at school where the kids each had three eggs labeled with their
first name, last name, and initials.  I love that they had to find their specific eggs.
He also brought home an egg he had dyed at school.

We used these pictures from the Gospel Art Picture Kit to discuss the events
of Holy Week.  That Friday evening Whit was over and I was hanging out with the kids
until Ben came home so we could go on a date.  With General Conference starting
the next day, I decided to do a quick version of our Conference FHE, but the kids didn't get
much out of it because they were just bounding off the walls.  I was frustrated, but I pressed on.
I then pulled out the picture of the crucifixion and proceeded to talk to the kids about that part of the
Easter story, per our nightly family scripture time.  Amazingly, the kids were immediately interested
in the picture and what it was depicting.  They were sitting down, listening quietly, and even
asking questions.  It was a small Easter miracle, and a beautiful experience.

Saturday afternoon, after the PM session we dyed our eggs.
My girls were particularly proud of their eggs.

That night after the Priesthood session we made our Resurrection Rolls.

The kids took baths while the Resurrection Rolls were in the oven, and while everyone was
occupied the Easter Bunny arrived!  Nobody even noticed while they were eating their rolls, haha.
But they enjoyed their books and little surprises from the Easter Bunny once they found them.

Saturday night Ben helped me prepare a little Easter-April-Fool's surprise.

Normally we do our Easter Egg hunt the day before Easter so Easter can be more Christ-centered,
but the temptation to prank the kids was just too much for me to withstand.  So we had an
extra-special egg hunt after General Conference and a yummy Easter dinner.

The kids' emotions were all over the place when they discovered their
rice-filled Nerds boxes.  There was surprise, sadness, anger, and betrayal.
Maybe there's another Easter lesson in there somewhere?

Futsal 2018

Cat played futsal for the first time this winter and she loved it!  Futsal is the baby that results from a basketball parent and a soccer parent.  It's soccer, but played with a smaller ball on a small indoor court by opposing 5-person teams.  There's no offsides and the game is much faster-paced and high-scoring than soccer.  It's a great way for soccer players to compete during the cold winter months and really helps them with their ball control since the ball moves so fast.

Almost everyone on Cat's team signed up to play, so her soccer team ended up with 2 futsal teams.  They competed against teams that were a year older, but even then both of the teams won all of their games easily, except when they had to play against each other!

The facility had one futsal court and a few volleyball courts.
The kids took advantage of the empty volleyball court after one of their games.

There was a volleyball tournament going on right beside Cat's game the first time
we came to watch, and my younger kids were much more interested in volleyball
than they were futsal, haha.

Cat was kind enough to invite Eliza's best friend and Jack's best friend to
come to one of her games.  Jack and Eliza loved having them there.
(Okay, they were Cat's good friends, but they made friends with the younger kids
very quickly!  It reminded me of when I used to think myself friends with my older
sibling's friends because they were so nice to me when I was a little.)

Here are a few highlights of the season, with thanks to our friend
Teri who came to some of Cat's games and sent me several videos!



I wouldn't call this last little gem a "highlight," but I think it's definitely worth watching.

Pinewood Derby 2018

Jack was really excited about Pinewood Derby this year and he and Ben spent a lot of time working on his car together.  A couple of weeks before the race, a friend in the ward invited Ben and Jack to join him and another Cub Scout at his huge woodworking shop.  The boys loved cutting out their cars and seeing all the tools in the shop.  They even drilled holes in the bottom and glued pennies into the holes to make the cars heavier.  Jack chose a shark design and it looked really cool.

Soon after Jack's car was cut, I spray painted it silver for him, then we did our best to hide the car away so it wouldn't get ruined before the big race.  As the day drew closer, Jack decorated his Shark-Mobile a little more with a permanent marker, then Ben helped him hammer in the wheels.  The last-minute addition of two more pennies when Jack's car weighed in a little lite meant that he was ready for action.

Though the evening began inauspiciously with a couple of unidentified cars in the line-up, it ended up going very quickly once the leaders were able to get started.  We appreciated that there was a smaller track set up on the stage, along with some previously-used cars, for the younger kids to use.

The boys had a great time racing.  Each car had four turns competing, once on each lane of the track, to be sure that there wasn't an unfair advantage with one of the lanes.  Jack's car was quite consistent.  He won 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, and 2nd in his races.  Then he kept racing once the official winners were announced, just for fun.

Eliza - March 2018

Did you miss me?  Well, after taking a couple of weeks off (not exactly planned, but still a good break) between General Conference and Spring Break, I am back!  I'm going to pick up where I left off and hopefully I'll get caught up pretty soon.

Eliza had the idea of creating this 3D art project for her school art competition
with the theme "Heroes Around Me."  It's a police officer bowling a bad guy into jail.
She did it almost entirely on her own and she was so excited!

While she and Luke were playing school, she helped him spell his favorite name, "Mich(a)el."
(And don't worry about the chair - the seat is dry-erase friendly.)

More school on a Sunday morning.

Eliza started learning origami at school then found our origami book
and teaching herself how to do more.  She even taught Luke.

Making a BIG boat using BIG paper Luke had brought home from preschool,
while we waited for Cat to meet us after school.

Boats of all sizes!

Sometimes Eliza's hair styles look like this.

And sometimes she asks Cat to French braid her hair while it's wet at bedtime
and the next day she goes to school like this.  (Though not very often.)