Piano Recital and Little Chef

We had many adventures the last 2 weeks.

County Fair: The county fair is in April. We look at all the buildings.

The favorites are the old time equipment display, the handicrafts, the photography, the model train, and model airplane video game. The boys made jump ropes from twine.

They would play the airplane game and purposely crash the plane then they would laugh and laugh.

Little Chefs: Hurricane's club made yogurt parfaits and rice krispie treats.

I've taken to making our yogurt in a crock pot at home. It is plain so it is tangy. The children were startled to taste it without the sugar added. We made our rice krispie treats from Fruit Loops and Cocoa Krispies.

Apparently they were delicioso.

Newsies: The 3 Kings brought show tickets for the boys. The last one in the series was Newsies.

Our seats were split by 2s so we split time by having one boy sit with each parent for the Act 1 and then to swapped for Act 2. The dancing was great!

Piano Recital: Underfoot had his first piano recital. He has completed the 3 years of Musicgarten and will begin private lessons.  

He is very excited for private lessons. He played Minka, a Russian folk song.

Teacher Request: Hurricane has decided who he would like as his 1st grade teacher. He asked the teacher if he could be in her class. She said he would need to asked the principal. Hurricane undaunted walked up to Mr. Gt and asked if he could be in Mrs. M's class. Mr. G said he would have to see. It kind of threw Mr. G for a loop that a student was requesting.

Rain:

Sweetheart: hurry hurry to the car it's raining in Arizona. 

Hurricane: that's because I always pray for rain duh. 

Passport: We attempted to renew Hurricane's passport. After 2 court houses, we will need to return and finish the process. Make sure you have time for the process as it takes some time.

Art Institute (AI): An AI for Culinary Arts is located here. We have a friend who is attending and told us about the student bistro. It is a restaurant where students learn how to be waiters and cook on the line in a kitchen. A table can be requested in the kitchen.

Hurricane and I went to lunch in the kitchen with our friend, Nicole. It is loud, busy, and productive. Hurricane was given a paper chef's hat that he is thrilled to own. The Chef doesn't just give his hats away. Hurricane made an impression.

Birthday: Hurricane decided we needed make a cake for Grandpa Kirky's birthday.

Hurricane: What kind of cake do you want? 

Grandpa: Chocolate. Is there any other kinds of cake? 

Hurricane: Yes. White. Yellow. Lemon. What kind of frosting? 

Grandpa: Chocolate. 

Mama: What about Nutella? 

Hurricane: What about Nutella frosting? 

Grandpa: That sounds good. 

We made a double layer chocolate cake with Nutella frosting and boysenberry center. It was delish.

*****

Hurricane's Photo 

Random Pictures

 Broccoli from the Aquaponics

 Jump Rope Making

 Jump Rope Making

Grandpa Kirky's Cake

Wings of Freedom

Swim Team: The boys began swim team. They swim 3 days a week. Since they began swim team 2 years ago, they've made a lot of progress.

Hurricane has started to side breath instead of flipping over on his back. Underfoot learning the 2 strokes he didn't know before and making progress especially on a dolphin kick.

Father and Sons Camp Out: All the men went and camped at a mine. The boys ate dutch oven lasagna, shot BB guns, slept in a tent, slid down dirt mounts, and came home filthy. They look forward to going camp with their Dad.

TILE IS DONE!!! While they were gone at the father and sons camp out, I sealed the floor and we are done.

Sweetheart wrote for this past week.

During the week:
Underfoot was awarded his Bobcat for Cub Scouts and attended his first  pack meeting.

He decided to give his parent pin to his Dad.

Swimming team. Mama started exercising and cleaned out the aloe in front of our house this past week.

Friday: I cleaned up the yard,

took a load of yard materials to the dump, including some of the old carpet. Hurricane and Underfoot went to a birthday party.

Sweetheart played board games with his buddies. He likes to win.

Saturday: We took the boys to Wings of Freedom, toured inside a B-17G and a B-24J,

and rode two rides on a 5 ton truck. First time in back, second time in front. Hurricane really liked it. So much so that he asked to go a second time.

Hurricane wants to improve his photography skills. His hope is to create a book of his own. We thought it was fun to watch him take pictures.

After the Wings of Freedom event, we traveled to Uncle T-Bone and Aunt M's house. Goldilocks' birthday was that day, and we helped prepare for her party. Afterward we went to the temple and then to supper with only the adults.

Sunday: We went to church with my sister and her family. After church we drove home, cleaned up, and had supper and FHE. For our treat, we enjoyed homemade mango ice cream. Thanks, Cyndy Ryan.

Here are pictures from Wings of Freedom - 

Easter and General Conference

Happy Easter! 

 

What a magical season to be reminded of Christ and 

the miracles because of his resurrection in our lives!

Swim Lessons: Hurricane and Underfoot have been taking stroke lessons to get ready for swim team. Hurricane has learned how to side breath, dolphin kick, and improved his streamline. Underfoot has started to learn how to swim breaststroke, dolphin kick, and to improve his backstroke.

Den Meeting: Underfoot attended his first den meeting. He participated in the flag ceremony at the beginning on his first time. He is super excited to go. He learned about international living and how to tie knots.

Little Chefs Club: Hurricane has hosted Little Chefs Club again. We've made Space Burgers  one week. This is a shout out to Pocatello. It is a pressed sealed sandwich.

The next was April Fools Day when we made Green Eggs and Ham. The children learned how to separate a yolk from the white and after the ham was cooked made a ham roll up. Since it was Easter, they also learned how to make frosting.

I think they liked the frosting the best.

Sunday Lesson: Sweetheart volunteered to teach the Sunday lesson for the combined men and women's meeting. He taught about being observant of others and serving because you love a person and not because of feeling compelled to serve out of guilt. As we watch for ways to serve, God will give those opportunities to us.

Clean Bill of Health: I was given a clean bill of health. I can start to exercise again. Pollen has hit our area, and Sweetheart is struggling with allergies. So we swapped roles.

Family History: Underfoot has been interested in genealogy. Since he turned 8, he can have his own FamilySearch.org account. We signed him up for it and invited a genealogist to come and teach him. He had a lot of fun attaching government documents to different family members after verifying the document. We were also taught about Relative Finder and Grandma's Pie. Each is a program from university students. Relative Finder connects how you are related to people like people from the Declaration of Independence Signers or the Mayflower. Grandma's Pie goes back 6 generations saying where your family came from in the past.

Baby Shower: Since we've struggled with having a baby, I've avoided baby showers. I hosted one this last week with 2 other women. Hurricane was here and was a gentleman. When people arrived he offered to help bring in things from the car. One lady had her arms full as were his. He told her to wait so he could get the door for her. It was a nice compliment to have said of Hurricane. He is a kind boy.

General Conference: We love to watch conference as a family. There are treats, time together, and amazing messages. Between sessions the boys were invited to go swimming.

They love to swim and swam until they were too cold. On Sunday we went to have homemade pizza with another family in our congregation.

Easter: After conference the boys colored eggs

and had an egg roll down our driveway.

We invited our cousin, Sadie, to join us via FaceTime. Her egg won. Her egg may have been kicked so it would get the distance to win.

5 Tiles Left: Sweetheart has 5 tiles left to cut then thin set then grout! Then I get to seal all the floors! AND THE PROJECT WILL BE DONE! We are very EXCITED for a light at the end of the tunnel.

Underfoot's Baptism

Underfoot made a choice to be baptized this last weekend as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

We were honored with the family and friends that supported him in his choice. Thanks to the family who came from far away to join us.

Underfoot said he felt happy. He smiled big smiles and gave Sweetheart a huge hug after he was baptized.

The carpet was replaced this week. We emptied all the bedrooms for the second time in 6 months. We find ourselves wandering off the tile to the new floor.

 It feels luxurious on our feet. Sweetheart pushed hard to finish the edges where the tile would go.

After deciding on a pocket door, we reversed the decision and returned the door. We want to be done with large scale projects for a while.

The goal this week is to finish the last few areas of tile and enjoy.

Every 4 years the boys get a birthday party. Underfoot got his party this week. We did a padawan training center.

Each future Jedi made their own light saber (pipe insulation wrap and duct tape), did training games (a.k.a. Cub Scout achievement #1), used the force (kept a balloon in the air), and destroyed a droid (beat up a piñata). Instead of cake, we had root beer floats. Very little refreshment was thrown away.

There was a small accident in the car.

The can of paint opened. The people at Lowe's were nice and gave me paper towels to clean out the car. Lowe's changed their brand of paint so all the paint had to be color matched. It was really unfortunate because I had most the bathroom painted and had to repaint the bathroom.

Hurricane struggled this week because not all the attention was on him.

A wise friend said to begin the discussion that being happy for others in others moments of happiness so that hurt feelings don't take over.

We are grateful for cousins and Aunt Mimi who took care of him during the birthday party.

Be Well.

A few more pictures of the baptism day.....