Turkey Trot

At Parkside Elementary they have done the Turkey Trot in November for as long as we have had children in school. The children can choose to run laps around the playground at recess.  The boy and girl that runs the most laps from each class wins a turkey.  The school called on Friday and left a message that Dallin had won for his class. Mr. Jones handed out the turkeys on Monday at lunch.  I took Joshua and Lydia and went to watch Dallin receive his turkey.  He was surprised to see us there and wondered what was up.  The winners hadn't been told before.  He was excited to win and that now we could have two turkeys for Thanksgiving.  Great job, Dallin!

Mr. Jones awarding Dallin his turkey

The winners from kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades

You know it has been a cold week when...

You know it has been a cold week when Neil's bike stays parked all week.  He didn't ride his bike at all this week since it was below zero or snowing everyday he went to work.

This morning we woke up to more snow and you would have thought Matthew and Dallin had never seen snow before.  I think they forgot they live in Wyoming and snow is a common part of winter.  Matthew challenged Dallin to lay down in the snow for one minute together.  Matthew made it, Dallin didn't, but they had some good laughs giving it a try.  We had fun watching them.

Eight!

Dallin turned eight on Wednesday.  It was a very busy day so I was really grateful that he wanted grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. It made it very easy.  I went in to school at 1:00 to take brownies to his class.  Next, I went to a Relief Society Presidency meeting.  When school got out I picked up MaryAnne and Dallin and took them to the church for activity days and Dallin's first cub scout meeting.  While they were there I went visiting teaching and then we all came home just in time for dinner.  Dallin wanted a baseball on his cake.  I got most of it done before I went to town, but not all.  When I went to make the frosting for the baseball part I discovered I was out of powdered sugar.  We were on a tight schedule to do cake and presents before the girls went to Young Women's so I didn't have time to run to the store.  We used whipped cream instead of frosting for the white. It worked pretty well.  Dallin was happy with it.

Dallin was so excited to turn eight and get his own set of scriptures.  He is looking forward to his baptism on David's birthday.  I am grateful he has the desire to be baptized.

I love you, Dallin!

8600

Neil is a math guy and likes numbers.  He has been keeping track of how many days we have been married.  Tuesday, November 11, was day 8600 of our marriage. We decided to do a little family activity to celebrate together.  We worked together to count our 8600 beans.  We thought about doing M&M's, but thought that would be expensive.  It would have taken more by the time we snitched a few.  No one snitched any beans, but we did hand out a treat for every two hundred counted.  We had a good time together.  Now I know that 8600 beans is almost  a gallon of beans.  Thanks for 8600 wonderful days together!

MaryAnne turned 10!

 MaryAnne turned 10 last week.  She wanted a strawberry cake shaped like a rabbit.  She also wanted coconut on her cake, but I didn't think coconut and strawberry sounded too great together so we also made a chocolate rabbit.  They turned out pretty cute.  It was a good thing they were easy cakes because it was a very busy day for me. I think she had a happy birthday.  I hope we made it a special day for a special girl.


MaryAnne had a party at the park on Saturday. I forgot my camera, again, so no pictures. It was a nice weather day which was such a blessing.  The kids had fun decorating cupcakes, doing a scavenger hunt, and playing games together.  MaryAnne was excited to have a party and invite her friends from school.  She has made a lot of friends at school and I am grateful for that. I think this is the first real birthday party she has had.

Happy Birthday, MaryAnne!

Emma's birthday (a late post)

Emma turned 14! She is a fun teenager.  She is excited to go to her first stake dance this month.  She wants to wear makeup now.  It's a good thing she got some for her birthday.  She loves her guitar so I wasn't too surprise when she told me she wanted a cake shaped like a guitar.  I was nervous about making it, but it wasn't too hard.  It turned out cute, except I didn't really like the color the frosting turned out.  Emma was happy with it and that is what matters.

Emma had a party with her friends to play volleyball after her birthday.  She has such a nice group of friends! I am grateful for good friends for our children.  The girls had fun eating cake and playing volleyball together.  I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures. 

Here are some pictures from Emma's birthday.  Happy birthday, Emma!

Middle School Band Concerts

About a month ago David and Emma had their first band concert of the year.  They did great! This is David's first year playing in the band. He has really enjoyed playing the trumpet.  I think they sounded pretty good for playing less than two months.  This is Emma's second year playing the clarinet in the band.  She really enjoys music.  I am so grateful that our children have the opportunity to play instruments and develop their talents.  They have a great teacher and they enjoy band.  I recorded a bit of each song and put it together in a video.  Hope you enjoy listening to their concerts.

School Bus fun

Joshua and Lydia have loved going to Preschool together.  We didn't have preschool the last two weeks because Miss Holly their teacher had some health problems.  She called us Tuesday morning to let us know she was back and there would be school that morning.  She also told them they were going to get to ride a bus.  They were so excited! They got ready for school so fast and started watching for the bus.  They were disappointed when I told them we would drive into school and then get on the bus there.  They really wanted to ride a bus into school like the other children.  They had fun on the bus.  We rode from the preschool to the Middle school to learn how to get on and off the bus.  It was fun to see how exciting it was for them to ride the bus.

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Halloween 2014

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. We didn't grow many, actually any pumpkins this year so we didn't carve pumpkins. We did let the children carve pumpkins virtually. The children decided what they wanted to be, some sooner than others. I made Joshua's yellow pikachu pants the day before the preschool party. I made MaryAnne's pirate dress about half an hour before I had to go pick her up. Dallin decided the morning of Halloween to be Harry Potter. He and Adam had planned something else, but it fell through. Joshua found the Pikachu hat at Walmart in July and wanted it for his costume. Lydia wanted to be Elsa, but she didn't tell me until we were out trick or treating downtown. I guess she can be Elsa next year. It reminded me of when Rebecca was two and I made her a Snow White dress. When it was finished she said it was cute, but she really wanted to be Cinderella. I don't think she ever got to be Cinderella. At least this year I did let the children stay and go to the Carnival at the Church. They didn't get to stay as long as they wanted, but they did go. We also went out to Dallin's teacher's house. I thought of Martha as we ate pizza. It has been a tradition for a lot of years to eat Pizza on Halloween. We had nice weather for Halloween and I was glad about that. Here are some pictures of our Halloween activities.

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