Death Star, Award, County Fair, Program, Baseball, End of Year Excitement

Wow the end of school is just right around the corner!  Since school is wrapping up that means the end of year testing for all the kids.  The elementary school teachers want the kids to do well on the tests so they have sent reminders to the parents to make sure the kids go to bed early and get a good breakfast.  My kids took this advice to heart and made sure to have a good breakfast.  They wanted hard boiled eggs to eat so since that is an easy thing to make, I had them make their own.  Sarah was pretty excited to learn how to boil her own eggs.  Daniel already kind of knew how to do it by watching Josh, but was glad to be able to make his own eggs, too.  My kids are becoming chefs--haha if you count knowing how to make quesadillas, Pasta Roni, burritos, hard boiled eggs, pb&j sandwiches, cereal, oatmeal and macaroni and cheese.  I need to teach them how to make more types of food, but these are the go to things when I don't get around to making dinner.  Daniel was pretty excited when he shelled one of his eggs and it had a dent making it look like the Death Star.  He made me take a picture of it because he was so excited about it.  What a funny kid!

 Last Thursday was a busy day.  Daniel had his first Hope Squad meeting for parents and nominated kids.  It is a suicide prevention program.  The rate of suicide in teens has really gone up the last 20 years and they are trying to do something about it.  We learned about the program and what Daniel will be doing throughout the next few years.  It sounds like a great program with a lot of student support.  Daniel is excited to get started.  The Hope Squad members will be the eyes and ears for the students and knowing when and how to get those who need it help.  I hope it will be a good experience.

Later that evening was the Evening of Excellence for the Jr. High kids.  Josh was recognized for his awesome grades for the year.  Wahoo!  Here he is getting his certificate:

 We were glad G&G T were able to attend.

 I can't believe Josh is not going to be in Jr. High anymore!!

 Great job Josh!!

 Speaking of Josh Aaron has been having him practice driving. Yup that's as scary as it sounds--haha! He still is in need of lots of practice.  Aaron offered to let him drive home from the church which is about a half mile from our house.  He was too nervous to drive that far on the actual road with other traffic.  I am glad he has a healthy respect for the importance of driving safely.  It still makes me nervous, though!!

Last week my nephew got his mission call.  My sister Johanna did a Facebook Live event where Nathan could tell everyone where he was going.  G&G T's internet wasn't working so they came over to watch with us.  Sophie and Noah were pretty excited to see them.  We were excited to hear that Nathan will be serving in the Mexico, Tuxtla Guiterrez Mission.  Wahoo!

 Aaron was on a business trip for part of last week.  He got home and then got to help out at an all day 11 year old scout day camp on Saturday.  While he was gone Saturday I took the kids to the Bountiful Chalk Festival.  I have wanted to go the last few years, but there was always something going on where we didn't make it.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the awesome chalk artwork all along Main Street.  The kids thought it was pretty cool, too.  The kids really liked seeing the chalk art from the Guardians of the Galaxy:

 They had all kinds of different stuff the artists had painted a few days before.  The kids liked the Scooby Doo and the sea turtle:

  This one was our favorite, though.  It was a pretty intricate pirate ship:

 The kids saw an open bench they all had to try out:

 It was pretty cool. I am glad we got to go this year.

The youth council got to help out with the Ogden Marathon Saturday morning.  We were dreading waking up and taking Josh to the city building at 3 am.  Thankfully, our neighbor offered to pick Josh up and give him a ride at 2:45 am so we wouldn't have to.  From the city building they took everyone over to Ogden to help with loading buses and with crowd control.  Here's the youth council members that helped out bright or I should say dark and early 3:30 am Saturday morning:

Saturday night Josh got to go to his end of year track pool party.  One of the team member's grandma had a pool which she let the track team and their coaches along with their families use.  It sounded like it was a fun night of swimming, eating and watching a movie.  Josh loved doing track this year.  He is looking forward to cross country starting up soon, though.

Daniel got to go on a campout Friday night.  Here's the boys that went:

 They left Friday afternoon and got up to their campsite early enough to go on a hike to a pretty waterfall:

 I was glad the scout master took pictures and shared them.  It looked like an awesome trip:

 Friday afternoon Sarah had her dance team pizza party.  Her dance teacher made certificates for all the girls that attended.  Here's Sarah's award:

 It was the Snickers award for always having a smiley attitude.  I thought it was sweet:

 Yesterday Sarah had her grade wide County Fair project we could go and see.  All five 4th grade classes learned about the different counties in Utah.  Then each student was assigned one of the counties to do a report about and make a parade float.  We got to see their finished projects and learn about each country Friday afternoon.  Here's my cute pioneer girl showing her Iron County parade float and telling us facts about that county:

 Afterward the 4th grade put on a program about Utah.  Each student could either dress up as a pioneer, Native American, Train Conductor, cowboy or just wear a white shirt with jeans.  Sarah really wanted to dress up as a pioneer.  In order to save my sanity I ended up ordering a costume off of Amazon instead of making it.  Wahoo--Amazon to the rescue--haha!  The funny thing was that our neighbor did the same thing so Sarah and Lainee had the same pioneer outfit on.  Wahoo for Amazing again--haha!  Anyway here is Sarah getting ready for the program to start:

 Sarah even had a speaking part on the program.  I was nervous for her since she is a quiet, shy girl, but she had her part memorized and nailed it.

Here's Sarah's speaking part:

They sang quite a few songs, but this one was one of my favorites where it lists all counties in Utah:

It is fun watching all the end of year programs the kids are involved in.  Here's my cute pioneer girl:

 After the program we checked Sarah out of school for the rest of the day--it was only about 30 minutes before the end of school so it wasn't a big deal.  Aaron took Sarah out for some father daughter time.  They went and got the oil changed in the car.  Sarah loved it because she got to get some soda and popcorn.  She also got a carnation flower as they were leaving.  The oil change place we go to gives out flowers to customers and I love it--so did Sarah!

Yesterday afternoon Daniel had his first baseball game of the season.  Wahoo!  He is at the age where his games are fun to watch.  His team ended up winning which was awesome!  Here is Daniel up to bat:

 Aaron is an assistant coach again. Here is Daniel on 3rd base with Aaron as the third base coach.  It was an exciting game and makes me glad for the rest of the season!

I still LOVE that Noah picks me flowers as he comes home from school.  I know it won't always be this way so I am trying to savor every flower he brings me!

Sunday Matthew got pretty wound up.  It was his turn to bless the sacrament this week so he made sure Aaron got him there early.  As he was sitting up at the sacrament table he ended up seeing someone he knew from school.  We were having a missionary homecoming talk in our ward and one of their friends that came to see the talk knew Matthew.  Matthew went berserk on us!  He was jumping up and down, screaming, flapping his hands and waving.  The poor priests next to him tried to calm him down, but there was only so much they could do.  I hadn't gotten to church yet because I was still doing Sarah's hair.  Aaron had to go up to calm him down three different times right before church started.  He did calm down as church started, but when it came to his turn to bless, he wanted to make sure everyone heard him and he was so loud!  The bishopric member who usually controls the volume wasn't there Sunday so the poor bishop forgot to turn down the volume before Matthew started praying.  That meant everyone was jolted awake when Matthew started praying since he was so LOUD.  After sacrament meeting was over I had to grab Matthew right as they said amen for the closing prayer before he took off running to see his friend.  I talked with him and told him he could go see her, but he couldn't yell, jump or flap.  He said he understood, but as soon as he was outside of my grasp he did what he wanted to anyway.  UGH!!  He grabbed his friend's hand in a death grip and marched her all over the chapel to introduce her to all the people he knew.  Luckily, she had been Matthew's peer tutor in seminary a few years ago so she knew him and this didn't come as a surprise to her.  We got to meet her very quickly before Matthew marched her off to the next person to meet.  We finally got a hold of Matthew and asked him to go to his class.  Afterward I was able to speak with his friend, her sister and her mother who had all come to listen to the returned missionary speak.  They were excited to meet Matthew.  They had heard about him from their daughter so they were glad to get a chance to meet him.  The girl was excited to see Matthew at church and said that she really loved being his peer tutor.  It is always nice to hear about people having good experiences with Matthew.  It helps when we feel like we have no control over the kid at times which can be frustrating.  I am glad that we live in a ward that has been really accommodating and seem to really enjoy having Matthew around despite getting jolted out of their head whenever he gives the sacrament prayers--haha!

Speaking of Matthew he has a piano recital coming up.  He is doing a duet with the piano teacher's daughter who he LOVES.  He invited her over to practice Wednesday.  I think they only practiced a few times before he made her go on a walk with Sophie.  Luckily, she was good natured about it and went along with him.  She has agreed to come back to practice this week so we will see if they get any practicing in or if they will spend more time walking Sophie.  I also got texted last night from one of Matthew's other peer tutors from seminary for this current semester.  He signed Matthew and himself up to do a musical number for an upcoming seminary assembly.  Matthew is going to play the piano while Jace, his peer tutor, sings.  This was news to me since Matthew didn't tell me anything about it!!  Luckily, this peer tutor was in our ward before it split so he knew Matthew and was excited to be his peer tutor this semester.  They are getting together to practice this week.  I am having Matthew go to his house since there would be less distractions at his house (since Sophie wouldn't be there and there wouldn't be any sibling squabbles either).  I am hoping things go okay for their musical number!!  Matthew can be a bit of a wild card at times to say the least....Keeping my fingers crossed!!

Mother's Day, Honorary SBO, Chunkles, Track, Field Trip, Leadership Conference, Bike Riding

This past week has flown by.  Noah finally has learned how to ride a bike!  Wahoo!  He has been pretty cautious and to get him to even try was like pulling teeth.  However, this spring he was more open to trying things out as outside warmed up.  He finally got the hang of it!

 However, as soon as I try to take a video of how good he is riding, he crashes into our neighbor's fence--poor guy!  I felt bad because he was going great and then last minute he ran right into the fence--I am ashamed to say I chuckled a little bit...Anyway, luckily, he wasn't hurt and hopped up to ride again so I could get a better video.  Here's his crash and burn:

Now we need to get the other bikes ready to ride and go for some family bike rides!

I have been so amazed with the kindness Matthew receives from so many people.  I got this email from his high school teacher and just reading it I teared up: 

I am SO GRATEFUL for all the wonderful kids his age who have taken him under their wings!!  Matthew is beyond excited to be an honorary Syracuse High SBO (Student Body Officer) Human GPS and to walk in the parade this summer.  He is telling anyone and everyone who he can get an audience with.  What a funny kid!  Also his teacher included the video of him in the middle of and entire high school wide (around 2000 students plus staff) assembly giving driving directions to Prom.  You can see his excitement as he jumps around before he gives his directions and afterward as he jumps around again to come back to give another announcement and it ends with everyone giving him huge applause.  What a crazy kid!

We were playing a family game the other day.  It isn't an intense game until someone ends up crying. We were playing the game Cover Your Assets (which is a really fun game) and let's just say things weren't going in Noah's favor--poor guy!  Don't worry he got his revenge the next round!!

 Two weekends ago Josh got to attend a Youth Leadership Weekend with his fellow Youth Council Members.  Usually there is a regional leadership camp they go to, but they didn't make the deadline for that camp this year so their adult leaders decided to do their own camp.  They left Friday afternoon and were able to listen to a few inspirational/motivational speakers.  Then they went to dinner, bummed around the mall, and then swimming at the hotel pool.  They spent the night at the hotel and got up the next morning for breakfast.  Then they did some team building exercises.  Next they went to lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe.  After that they went and did an Escape Room together.  It sounded like they had an amazing experience.  Here's a few pictures Josh showed me:

 One of the speakers was a hypnotist.  Josh said a few people got hypnotized and gave each other hugs:

 Here's the big dinner with everyone who works with the youth council:

 The table was too big to get them all in one picture:

 Here's the people that attended the leadership weekend:

 Here's the group before they entered their Escape Room (and Josh is not standing on anything he is just really tall!):

Josh has really enjoyed his time serving in the youth council.  He will for sure be trying out again for next year!!

Thursday I got to help chaperone Noah's 2nd grade all day field trip to the Planetarium.  I want to applaud all the second grade teachers for taking on such a crazy field trip.  Instead of riding a bus down to the Planetarium we got to ride Frontrunner and then transfer to a Trax train to get to the Planetarium.  What a crazy undertaking with roughly 125-150 energetic students give or take.  Luckily there were quite a few parent volunteers there to help.  Noah got paired up with one of his friends.  Here we are on the train platform waiting for our Frontrunner train to arrive. As we were waiting we got to watch a Union Pacific train drive by and they did honk their very LOUD horn for us.  All the kids thought that was pretty cool!

 I was glad to get these two on the train because they thought it was pretty funny to play by the edge of the platform which made me pretty nervous--ugh!  We ended up riding down on the top floor of the train.

 Whew we made it!

 Seeing how a tornado is made:

 Looking at the Foucault Pendulum:

 Trying to lift a meteoroid to see how heavy it is:

 Playing with the Gravity Floor Exhibit while waiting for their star show to start:

 Playing with the green screen camera:

 Looking at the Mars atmosphere exhibit:

 Playing with the remote controlled rovers at the Mars exhibit:

 Seeing how much you weigh on different planets:

 Finally it was time to catch the Trax train back to the transfer station and eat lunch:

 After that it got a bit crazy for the teachers.  The bus schedule didn't line up so instead of riding the Frontrunner train back to the Clearfield Station the kids had to be picked up at the Salt Lake station and bussed back to the school.  That meant that all the parent chaperones got to ride Frontrunner back to the Clearfield station without any kids with us.  Unfortunately, the Frontrunner train showed up before the buses did.  That meant that all the parents had to leave all the kids and teachers at the station without any extra help so we could make it back, too.  The teachers looked a bit anxious as they saw all the parents leave them and board the train.  Luckily, the teachers didn't have to wait much longer before the buses showed up.  Noah's teacher did send out an email letting all the parents know they they had all made it back to the school safely.  Phew!!  It was a fun day and I was glad I was able to go with Noah.

Don't you love surprise pictures on your phone?  It appears Noah and Daniel took my phone and went to town with the pictures of themselves.  Here's what 99% of all the pictures they took look like:

 Love that they figured out the black and white photo features--haha!

We got Sarah's dance pictures back.  She looks so grown up and beautiful!!  I love them!

 Here's her team:

 Josh had his North End meet Friday.  He had to qualify to be able to even be in this meet so that was an awesome accomplishment!  He ran the 1600 meter run (which is a mile) and the 800 meter portion of the medley relay race.  The medley relay race has 4 people who run.  The first two runners run 200 meters, the third runner runs a 400 meter and the last runner runs an 800 meter part.  Here's Josh as the 1600 meter race starts and they announce all the runners' names:

Josh running the 1600 meter:

 Here's Josh waiting for the baton pass in the medley relay:

Passing the baton:

 Finishing the relay:

It has been fun watching Josh's track meets this season.  Track is now over, but cross country starts up again really soon.  No rest for the weary--haha!

Friday afternoon Aaron and I went out to run a few errands.  When we got back home Josh showed me his 'original' Mother's Day present.  He mowed 'M💚M' into the backyard grass with the lawn mower.  I was pretty impressed with his idea and his straight lines.  That was pretty awesome!!  He made it so big the only way to get the whole thing in the same picture was to take a panoramic shot--haha!

 If you were ever wondering what we do on a Friday night here's a perfect example:

 Aaron and Noah fell asleep while we were watching a movie.  We keep things pretty exciting around here--haha!

For Activity Days last Friday we did something for Mother's Day.  The girls learned how to make a pie crust and a pie.  Then as they were baking the girls made their mothers a card to go along with the pie.  I felt bad because I had to leave in the middle of it to try and make it to Josh's track meet.  However, things looked like they turned out pretty well.  Sarah was excited to present her cherry pie to me along with her sweet Mother's Day card.  I am not much of a pie person, but it was pretty good!

 Saturday was Bark in the Park which is a local fundraiser.  The Youth Council was asked to volunteer to help run things.  Josh was more than happy to help.  He even volunteered to be 'Chunkles' the mascot.  The hardest part of that was not being able to talk, though.  Let's just say Josh LOVES to talk so it was hard for him to keep silent the whole time--haha!  They asked for someone with lots of personality to sign up to be the mascot so the Youth Council adult leaders let the organizers know that Josh would be perfect--haha!

Here's Chunkles debut:

 His handler was a T-Rex, but I can't remember her name, though.

Here's some of that personality I was talking about as they turned on some dance music Chunkles went to town:

 We brought Sophie along to the Bark in the Park since a lot of other dogs would be there.  She was not a fan.  She was afraid of everything.  They even tried to give her a dog treat and she refused to even pick it up let alone eat it.  Every chance she got she would jump on my leg to show me she wanted to be carried.  When it was time to go she made a beeline right for the car.  I thought she would enjoy being around other dogs, but I was really wrong about that.  She is an antisocial dog. It didn't help that at the beginning of being there one of the bigger dogs nipped at her.  Oh well, at least we got to see Chunkles/Josh perform.  When Josh got home he told us he made a few kids cry and took quite a few pictures with dogs and families, though.  After we picked him up we headed up to my sister Johanna's house to have a Mother's Day family dinner.  It was nice to have dinner with my brother Bryan his family, Johanna her family and my parents.  The cousins had fun playing together while the adults talked.

When we got home Sarah had to start on a school project.  It is a Utah state County Fair school project where each child is assigned a county in Utah they needed to do a report and build a mini parade float about.  Sarah picked Iron County.  We worked on doing her float together Saturday night.  She definitely is starting to have her own opinions.  I would give a suggestion on how to put it together and she would say she had another idea and that is what we would do.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but it turned out pretty cool.  We ended up using a shoe box, paper mache, lots of glue, molding clay, paint, rocks, popsicle sticks and a small wooden birdhouse.  Here we are working together:

 Sarah's class is doing a countdown to the last day of school.  Yesterday was super hero day.  They all had to bring in an old T-shirt and they cut them into capes.  Then they decorated them at the end of the day.  Sarah was Studio C man:

 Here's the kids from her table and their capes, too:

 Ever since Sarah broke her front teeth her retainer has not fit right.  She was finally able to to make it into the orthodontist this morning.  He was able to shape her teeth a bit better (grind down the edges) and fix her retainer to keep her teeth straight.  He did also tell me to plan for some crowns for those two front teeth in the future, though.  DOH!!  There are still a few touch ups the regular dentist will need to do, but for as hard as she fell things are looking alright for now.  Here's Sarah modeling her reshaped teeth that look a little closer to what her normal teeth USED to look like:

I always tell Aaron that motherhood is a thankless job.  You never get recognized for cleaning the house, doing laundry, helping kids with homework, etc.  I explain that it isn't like his job where he gets awards or recognized for his contributions at work.  So for Mother's Day he thought he would get me an 'award'.  Sunday morning I got to open a big box and pull out a trophy.  I was confused until Aaron told me to look at the inscription. 

He said this is my award just like the ones he gets at work.  I think he got tired of my complaining, but I think it was pretty sweet.  Now where to put it--I was thinking right in the front window like the leg lamp in the movie A Christmas Story--haha!!  Just kidding it was an awesome and thoughtful gift!

 Sunday morning I was 'surprised' by breakfast in bed.  It is hard to be surprised when you hear the kitchen being torn up for an hour, but I can act pretty well if you didn't know--haha!  It is more known as breakfast for everyone on Mom and Dad's bed.  There were plenty of pancakes, bacon, omelet and toast.  This isn't the most flattering picture, but I still love how my kids like to surprise me:

Noah gave me a Geranium that he grew in his classroom.  I loved it!

 Daniel gave me a note with a Fizz gift card attached that said, "Dear Mom, I 💗 you.  When you walk into a room you make everyone Fizzy or excited.  We 💗you mom.  you light up our day! From Daniel".

 Noah made me a note in computers that said, "Dear Mom, You're the best mom ever.  I like you a lot.  Love, Noah."  Glad to know that he only likes me--haha!

 Aaron has been gone on business trips a lot lately.  He is gone this week, too--ugh!  Anyway to try and make things easier for me he helped Matthew pick out a Little Caesars gift card for me so I don't have to worry about what to feed the kids for dinner while Aaron is eating steak and lobster at a restaurant while away on business.  It was a pretty awesome gift and I think I might be using it for dinner tonight--haha!

 Sarah made me a few cards saying that she loved me.

 And another of Sarah's cards said, "Dear Mom, I love how you cook and care for me.  from Sarah"

 A third card she made for me was a card to give back to her after I put my message about how much I loved her in it.  I thought It was pretty funny:

 Sarah also made me a sweet booklet of Mother's Day things to give me.

You are the best mother because "you love and care for me":

 If I could buy you anything it would be "anything you want".

 I love you more than "me".

 What is Mom spelled upside down? "Wow"

 Here is a picture of you (she even got my purple and blue hair!):

 Thank you for helping me "by loving me".

 I will help you "Do everything".

 She even made me some coupons to use.  This first one is for one clean my room.  Good for one use:

 Good for one: Clean out the dishwasher:

 She scribbled out and put good for unlimited you and me time--haha!  Also good for one breakfast in bed, too!

 Noah wrote me a note that said, "May 4th, 2018 Dear Mom, I love you.  You're the best mom.  You're supper nice.  I really love you.  Love Noah"

 He also illustrated it, too:

Noah filled out a booklet with questions about me.  The questions are in black and his answers are in red.

Let me tell you about my mom.  My mom is 36 years old.  She likes to cook.  The best thing she cooks is mash taters.  Her favorite food is shrimp.  Her favorite thing to do to relax is shoulder mausshats (shoulder massager).  We like to have time together.  She is really good at Cover Your Assets (game).  As you can see, my mom is special because she takes care of me.

 1.  What is your mom really good at?  Assets Cover Your
2. What does your mom do to relax? Shoulder Masager
3.  Where does your mom like to shop? Smith's (grocery store--no wonder because my kids eat so much!!"
4.  How old is your mom? 30
5.  What do you love most about your mom? Her cooking
6.  If you could buy your mom anything what would it be? a trophy
7.  What does your mom do while you're at school? Relax (I wish!!)

 My mom is as pretty as a mom.
She is as sweet as nice 
She is as smart as a smartie
But most of all, she is as special as me

 I love the picture he drew of us, too:

My favorite things about Mother's Day are these sweet gifts from my kids.  I will be sad when I don't get these cute things anymore!

I want to say thanks to my own mom for being such a great example and good mom as I grew up and even now.  I love that she is an involved grandma and loves to be around her grand children!!  Happy Mother's Day Grandma T!!