Snow Days

We ended up with two snow days last week - Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we woke up to about 1 1/2 inches of snow and it started melting pretty quickly. Shannon, Whitney and I went to the library around 11am and the roads were completely clear and dry by then. There wasn't even any snow on the grass down by the library. We still had snow on the grass at our house. Late afternoon we ended up getting another storm and ended up with about 2 more inches of snow. It was because of the second storm that the kids ended up with no school on Friday.


I wasn't too excited about the snow. By the time late February comes around I am ready for spring and not snow and more winter weather. The kids were excited to not have school, but they did get bored. Even though they probably wouldn't admit it. Kirk had to go to work on Friday, so they kids and I just stayed home all day on Friday. They did play outside a little bit, but not a whole lot. Tyler and I shoveled the driveway Friday afternoon because I knew if we didn't it would be solid ice that night and Saturday morning. It was a lot of hard work, but I just kept thinking about all the calories I was burning.
These pictures were taken Thursday late afternoon after the second storm had dumped on us. Lauren was playing in a neighbors yard with friends and Tyler was in the house probably watching TV.

Now today we are back to regular old Oregon rain and boy has it been pouring out. It has been raining pretty heavily since last night. I am definitely looking forward to spring and I'm hoping that we get some warm weather and sunshine soon, but I'm not counting on it.

The Rocket Cake

Last Wednesday evening was the Blue & Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts.  As part of the banquet each Cub Scout decorates a cake.  This year the theme was "space odyssey".  Evan loves space, so he was excited to make this cake. We made a rocket shaped cake to go along with the theme.  I baked the cake and cut it and shaped it to look like a rocket.  When he got home from school he decorated the cake. 

Evan cutting and shaping licorice to make fire coming out of the bottom of his rocket.

Before long he ended up with lots more help than he really wanted.  He was good to let them each help him a little.  He told them where to put what pieces of candy.

I thought the finished product looked pretty good.  He ended up making the A in USA really large and then he put an E on it for Evan.

The finished product.

Evan at the Blue and Gold banquet with his cake and award. All of the boys get some kind of award for their cake.

While we were eating dinner I tried to take some pictures of the kids. The first two pictures I took of Whitney she decided to pull a funny face at the last moment.  I finally told her she had to give me a good face for the third one.

Whitney's good picture with spaghetti all over her face.

I also took a couple of pictures of Lauren and Belle.  Belle sat with us and Evan sat with Belle's family.

Lauren and Belle with spaghetti sauce faces.

It was a fun evening.  Kirk had to work that night , so it was just me and the kids.  I was glad that it didn't start to snow until later that evening because I didn't want to get stuck and not be able to drive up our road. an

Tid Bits from this past week end . . .

The kids had a three day weekend this past weekend. We mostly just hung out around home but here are some of the things that we did do.

*The boys went camping Friday night and hiking Saturday morning with the scouts.  They hiked 5 miles in about 3 inches of snow.  They came home wet, tired and dirty.

*Sunday Shannon gave her first talk in Sacrament meeting.  She spoke about the importance of building our lives on a firm foundation.  I gave her the idea for her topic and found her a talk to read that Elder Neil L. Anderson gave a few years ago.  Other than that she pretty much wrote it on her own.  I thought she did a good job.  She was really nervous about it. Shannon also received her first church calling a couple of weeks ago.  She is now the Beehive class secretary.

*Monday was Presidents Day, so the kids had the day off from school.  Kirk still had to go to work, though.  So it was just the kids and I.  We just stayed home for the day.  We did some chores around the house in the morning and then Evan found an old science kit of Tyler's in the storage room in the basement.  He spent most of the afternoon doing experiments.  The kids also played outside quite a bit with their friends it was a pretty decent day for mid February.

 

*Monday evening we had FHE as usual.  Whitney loves FHE and regularly asks me on various days of the week if it's "family night day".  This week she was in charge of the songs, so she used a marker and very enthusiastically led us in our songs.  She is also into Christmas songs still, even though it is late February.  Her two favorite songs right now are "Away in a Manger" and "Up on the Housetop" . 

*Last Thursday at library story time the theme was on bunnies.  At the end of story time they always do a craft that is related to the theme.  They made really cute bunny masks.  I was surprised that Whitney actually wanted to wear hers and she looked  so cute in it.  I didn't have my camera but luckily a friend did and she took a picture and sent me a copy (thanks Shannon).

Whitney (in the purple coat), Anna and Belle

Last Week at a glance . . . .

Lauren in her new Valentines' shirt

We had a fun Valentine's week around here.  We started the week off on Sunday by frosting valentine cookies.  I forgot to take pictures, but they turned out really cute with mini chocolate chips, pink frosting and some sprinkles.

On Monday morning while I was taking Tyler to seminary Shannon got up early and fixed me breakfast.  It was fun to come home to breakfast.  The younger kids were excited to go to school and enjoy their valentine parties.  While they were at school I heart attacked their bedroom doors.  I saved the hearts from last year, so I didn't have to cut out a ton of hearts again.  I also bought them a Valentine treat that I had waiting for them when they came home.  Kirk also bought them a valentine treat on his way home - not realizing that I had bought them one too.  So they scored double the treats this year.  Evan and Lauren had fun coming home and looking through all their valentines.  Lauren came home with lots of candy and was good to share some with Whitney.  It is fun to have a day to show our love for each other and to see the kids showing kindness and love to each other.

Wednesday we had a beautiful, but short snowfall.  The snowflakes were the biggest snowflakes that I have ever seen.  I tried to take some pictures of it, but you can't really tell how big the flakes were.  The nicest thing about it was that it didn't amount to much on the ground, so we could enjoy the beauty without the driving hazards.

Thursday I went to Shannon's first New Beginnings in Young Women.  The parents of the new Beehives were suppose to write a letter to their daughter to introduce them.  Kirk wrote our letter to Shannon and then I read it to everybody at New Beginnings.  I ended up getting all emotional and it was kind of embarrassing.

Friday evening the boys went camping with the scouts.  The girls and I stayed home and watched a movie that I rented.  It was fun to have a girls evening at home.

We ended the week with a beautiful sunny Saturday.  I went for a walk in the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine.  I ended up walking for an hour and 10 minutes - I walked a little bit farther that I usually walk.  That evening we took the kids to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.  The kids got gift cards for Christmas that we hadn't used yet.  It was pretty fun except for the fact that Shannon kept complaining  that Evan was kicking her under the table.  He wasn't doing it intentionally it was just kind of tight quarters. 

Cowgirl princess Whitney and the play

Last Sunday Evan, Lauren and Whitney put on a play for us.  I couldn't tell you what it was about really.  It was a little difficult to follow, but it was fun to watch their silliness.  Whitney was a cowgirl princess and her costume consisted of a bandanna on her head, an easter hat and sunglasses.  She used a roll of paper as her horse and ran around with that between her legs.  Lauren was the princess and Evan flipped back and forth between a couple of characters.

Whitney in full costume

Evan and Lauren having a conversation in their costumes

Lauren's Award

Last week I went to an awards assembly at Lauren's school.  She has been anxiously awaiting the day when she would get an award.  She never got one last year, so I was excited when I got the letter a couple of weeks ago that she was going to receive an award.  The assembly was this past Wednesday.  Whitney and I went over to the school to see her receive the reward.  Her class was the second one to come into the gym and she spotted us right away, so she knew that she was getting an award.  It's always fun to see the surprised look on their face when they don't know you're going to be there. 

Lauren got her award for doing outstanding work.  She received a great report card this last quarter and is an excellent reader.  She was recently tested and reads 68 words per minute and the benchmark she should be at right now is 20 words per minute.  She and I have been reading chapter books together.  Lately we have been reading Junie B. Jones books, but I think we have just about read all of the Junie books at the library.  We'll soon have to find a new series to read.  We've also read a few Magic Treehouse books.  When we read we take turns reading and each read a page at a time. 

Congratulations Lauren on a job well done and keep up the great work.  I can't wait to see what great things you'll accomplish in the years to come.

Firefighter Whitney

On Tuesday's I usually take Whitney to the local bookstore in town for story time.  This week the theme was on firefighters.  After the story some firemen came and talked to the kids.  Whitney was fine until one of them put his full gear on including the mask and helmet.  At that point she turned to me and said "I want to go home".  I made her stick with it for awhile.  Then they took the kids outside to see their fire truck and showed them all the tools and things they carry on it.  During that part Whitney started quietly crying.  I finally took her home and so we missed out on the hose spraying.  They let the kids each try spraying the hose and try to knock a cone over. 

I forgot to take my camera to the bookstore.  (Not that I would have been able to take any pictures because she was being too clingy.)  Here are a couple of pictures of her at home with her fire helmet that she got.  She insisted on wearing it with the elastic in her mouth, instead of under her chin.  She has chap stick on her face if your wonder what the pink is on her face.

Making Valentine's

Monday night for FHE we made Valentine's.  This has become a tradition that we have done for the last 8 or 9 years.  It is fun and the kids look forward to it.  The kids each made four cards for their Grandparents and 1 for their Great Grandma.  I think that's just the perfect amount to make.  It takes them quite awhile just do that many because they like to put lots of work into each card.  By the time they get to the last one they are definitely ready to be done with it.

I've seen lots of cute ideas on craft blogs for valentine's cards, but I just give the kids some supplies and let them use their own creativity and do what they want.  It's a lot easier that way - for me at least. 

For their classmates at school we just buy cards from the store.  I like the idea of making them, but I know I don't have the motivation or energy to do it.  I know the kids would lose interest in it long before they got the 24-25 cards made and I don't have the desire to make most of them myself.  Plus the kids look forward to going to the store and looking through the boxes of cards and picking out which ones they want to give out.  Evan picked out Iron Man.  Lauren finally ended up with Disney Princess ones that came with lollipops.  She first chose Hello Kitty, by once she saw the cards with lollipops she changed her mind really quick.  Whitney insisted that she needed some too, so she picked out some Barbie Fashion Fairy tale ones.  I'm not sure what we are going to do with all of her cards.  She definitely doesn't have 34 friends to give them too.  Tyler and Shannon are both too old for school valentine exchanges.  This will be Shannon's first year not to do Valentines for school.

 

Family Fun Night

Last Friday Kirk and Tyler went with the Boy Scouts up to Mount Hood for a night at the snow lodge up there.  So I decided to have a fun night at home with the other four kids.  We rented a movie.  The kids picked Open Season 3.  We ate Popcorn and watched the movie.  After the movie was over I put Whitney to bed and then had a game night with the other 3 kids.  I let each of them pick one game to play.  My only stipulation was that it couldn't be a super long game and all of us had to be able to play it.

Evan picked "Twister".  Not my favorite game to play, but luckily I was able to be the spinner and the picture taker. 

Lauren picked Sequence for kids.  That is a pretty fun game and Lauren and Evan were laughing hysterically for some reason while playing.  I think maybe they were a little tired, since I let them stay up late.

Shannon picked Uno.  I forgot to take pictures of our Uno game.  It was a pretty fun evening.  We really should do it more often.  It's great to spend time together having fun and I don't remember there being any bickering.

Kirk only took two pictures while they were up at Mt. Hood.  The one below is the one that turned out the best.  The other one was pretty blurry.  It sounds like they had a fun time even though Tyler had a cold.

Meeting Maycee (& other weekend happenings)

Last Friday the kids had a day off from school because it was the end of the semester.  So we took advantage of the day off to go visit my sister who lives in Vancouver (about an hour away).  My sister had a baby the week before and we hadn't gotten a chance to see her yet.  The week she was born we had a flu type virus sweeping through the family, so we never made it to the hospital to see her.  We also wanted to see Grandma who was there helping with the new baby.  It worked out nicely because my sister's kids were also out of school that day, so the kids also got to play with their cousins.  It was a fun day that included lots of playing, running around, baby holding and a trip to Wendy's for lunch.  I'm sure the people in Wendy's loved to see us coming with all of our kids (between the two of us we have 10 kids - more than half of my parents 18 grandkids).  Tyler didn't go to Vancouver with us, so we only had nine kids there. 

Shannon holding baby Maycee.  She got to see and hold her on Friday and Sunday which she was excited about.

Lauren holding Maycee.  Lauren just held her real quick and then she was done.

Me holding baby Maycee.

I had to include this picture because her facial expression is hilarious - looks like she's trying to whistle.

Whitney had absolutely no interest at all in the baby and didn't want to have anything to do with holding her.  That really surprised me because she is always excited to see babies and loved holding our neighbors new baby last summer.

When we left Vancouver we took Grandma home with us for a quick 48 hour visit over the weekend.  While Grandma was at our house we had the missionaries for dinner on Friday night and then on Saturday we went to the movies and saw Mega Mind. The kids really liked it, but it wasn't my favorite movie.  We also packed in some game playing, coloring, a walk and lots of visiting while Grandma was here.  Sunday we went to church in Rainier, came home had a quick very late lunch/early dinner and then I returned Grandma back to Vancouver, so she could help my sister for a few more days before she returns home tomorrow.

It was a pretty fun weekend for us.