Outside of school Activities

The schools around here do a program called Accelerated Reader (AR) where children set point goals for every 9 weeks and they earn points by reading books within their level and then getting 80% or above on a comprehension online test about the book.  Alec's teacher wanted to motivate her students to reach for even harder reading goals by offering to take any student (and a friend) on an afterschool adventure of their choice if they could reach 250% of their AR goal. Alec loved this challenge (he usually reached his normal AR goal maybe half way through the nine weeks) He and another girl reached the big 250% so Ms. Taylor took him and 3 other students to the bowling alley in Columbus. She paid for them to ride the bumper cars, bowl 2 games, get a pizza and play in the bouncy houses. It was SO generous of her and Alec absolutely loved it. 

Also this weekend, Alec and Chris went off for most of the day to a soccer tournament for Alec's Academy Soccer team, and Freddy and I cheered on Charlie and Gwen in their mile-long fun run. 

Gwen didn't really want to do it once she got there and saw all the people. I think she didn't like the idea of everyone watching her run. I tried to explain that most people there were only going to pay attention to their own children and that she would be running by lots of people. I really wanted her to do this and ended up making a deal with her by saying I would help her with her Saturday Jobs and getting extra screen time and ice cream. I knew she would really enjoy having done it, she's just really stressed out with new situations involving lots of people.  We ran into one of her friends from her class, Reed and he was super helpful in telling her she could run by him and that she should do it. 

The started the kids off in waves based on grade which was really smart and they were all organized with pick up after the finish line. The last digit of their bib number corresponded to a corral where parents had to pick up their kids. I was really impressed with the organization of the race. Just like I suspected, after getting Gwen and congratulating her, she told me she was glad I 'made her do it' because she 'had a lot of fun.'  Charlie was so fast, I couldn't even find him in his group at the starting line. He has such natural good form, its so fun watching him to athletic things. Although, Chris and I were thinking the race was slightly less than a mile, the kids ran it super fast! Charlie came in at 8:13. Gwen ran in at 10:10. Pretty impressive. 

We ran into other friends from church, the Duffs and the Leigh's (not pictured) with some of their kids. So fun to see friends. 

Easter!

Saturday the Primary was in charge of cleaning the church so we combined that with the Easter Activity we had been planning. After cleaning, I took the kids out front to do an Easter Activity that actually had something to do with Jesus. I set up an obstacle course that each child had to maneuver through while holding an egg on a spoon. I demonstrated (with a raw egg) how stuck we would be in life without Jesus' Atonement to allow us second (and third and fourth, etc..) chances. I gave each of the kids a plastic golden egg and had them say "Jesus loves me" every time they dropped their egg before they could try again to complete the obstacle course.  While the kids and I did that, some of the other leaders hid eggs for an Easter Egg hunt out back. I wish I would've gotten pictures of the obstacle course activity. 

We gave the kids their own full set of mini scriptures in their baskets this year. Maybe this will make it easier to bring them to church each Sunday. ;)

Despite Chris being gone at early meetings, I managed to snap a few pictures of the kids before church. Such a cute bunch!!

We ate dinner after church with our good friends, the Gines, and then came home and did our traditional Easter Egg Roll.

This year, the winner was....

Freddy! We finished the Easter Sunday with watching the #PrinceofPeace videos online. I am so grateful for our Savior's life and sacrifice and the peace it offers me.

Hailey's bday suprise disguised as a Girls Trip

We wanted to do something special for our youngest sister's 18th birthday, kinda like what we did a while back for my other younger sister's 18th birthday. We surprised her with a sisters girls trip! Hailey found out about it a couple weeks before, but its ok, since she doesn't really like surprises or being the center of attention. So we dropped the surprise birthday part and just had a really fun girls trip to Las Vegas. Since we don't drink or gamble or enjoy seeing scantily-clad anything, the location may sound surprising... but the inexpensive flights, good shopping, shows and food is what won us over. 

I joined the group the last, late at night on a Tuesday and we stayed at a nice Marriott Hotel close to the strip (courtesy of Dad's points!!) I stayed up WAY to late talking and just being so happy to be around my mom and sisters. The next morning we checked out a yummy restaurant Skinny Fats, known for fresh, healthy, yummy food. So. So. Good. 

We wanted to go swimming and relax alot but the pools weren't very big and it was SO WINDY that we only managed to go twice for an hour or so each, but it was still so nice to have some peace and quiet mingled with great conversation. We also walked down the strip to see some favorite hotels: Paris, the Venetian, Bellagio, to name most of them.   We ate at a french bakery for brunch one morning... AMAZING. 

 

I'm always partial to anything French and had to get a picture with my Paris buddy, Mom.

We saw one show: KA, a Cirque De Soleil production. It was incredible: actors flying above your heads on cables, a stage that twisted and lifted to a vertical position, sand and explosions falling everywhere, and amazing acrobatics with hoops, hampster-wheel-type-things, pegs, shadow puppets, spears, and bows and arrows. Seriously Awesome.  

Our last night we came to the hotel earlier for a treat and movie night-in.

It went too quickly, but by Friday AM, I had to leave bright and early to make it home by evening. I surprised Chris and the kids by showing up at the end of our branch's Good Friday Musical Evening. Its always fun to get the biggest hugs and smiles from my kiddos. 

Everyday Cuteness

Freddy helping me practice preschool lessons and take promotional pictures.

One morning I went to wake Gwen up for school and found her and Charlie already awake, reading books to Freddy all cuddely on the floor in the corner.

Freddy loves his giant turtle stuffed animal he got for his birthday from G&G Archibald.

Freddy hung up all his stuffed animals before falling asleep for a nap.

The kids rescued old fan blades from the dumpster and thought they would be perfect Cricket bats (Chris has recently enjoyed watching Cricket on the ESPN roku app)

Gwen sometimes lets me do her hair for church and then asks me to take a picture of it so she can see it.

Charlie and his soccer team during half time...Charlie likes to hide from me when I try to take pictures of him.

 

Frederick had been upstairs in his room during naptime for about 40 minutes before yelling, "I need to go poop!" Chris was home for lunch and helped him go potty and came down to tell me that Freddy told him, "I totally slept for a long time. Is nap time over? I already slept!"  I didn't push him to sleep more but my suspicions that he didn't sleep at all were 'totally' confirmed when he feel asleep within 1 minute of getting buckled on the way to pick up the kids from school.

One afternoon, while waiting for me to pick him up from carpool, Alec folded a paper into 4 little compartments, filled them with dirt and 'planted' a flower and some grass for me...he's so creative and thoughtful.

I love Gwen's ballet outfit. She insists on wearing her boots because they slip on and off so easily. She's always so concerned about being on time and wants to be at least 10 minutes early every Tuesday afternoon. 

One day, Charlie decided to be extra safe and triple buckle himself in after school. Such a cute, silly boy.

We had a cub scout hike one Saturday morning. These rambunctious boys wanted to do a 'dab' pose for the picture.

I've not been able to upload videos from my phone very easily before on the blog but here's an attempt at some cute vidoes I took of Freddy recently. He is working on the trick of raising his eyebrows up and down fast. 

Spring Break

We are totally submersed in the remodel and planned to have our Spring Break just working on the house. We hired most everything out but we were going to do the painting ourselves. We thought the schedule was going to work out perfectly for us to have Spring Break to paint. But not so. I forgot how long the process of mudding and drying for the drywall can take. We did take one day to go do something fun with the kids. We went to Columbus and bowled, and then ate out at Waffel House for lunch.  It was good to get out of the house. 

 I loved watching Chris help Frederick bowl.. those little bums are sticking out are the cutest.

Charlie spent his own money on a virtual roller coaster game. That kid spends money so easily, on the funniest things.

We had sort of planned to go camping one night someone local but it was SO COLD AND RAINY. We mostly ended up staying inside our little playroom, watching movies and making messes.  We had my good friend's teenage daughter stay with us for a couple of nights since her family left for New Orleans and she wanted to stay to attend the multi-stake dance in Birmingham. We took advantage of a babysitter in the house and after the kids were in bed Chris and I went out to eat and then stopped by Lowes to check out this or that for the remodel. On Saturday, we drove her out to Birmingham early and took her up on her offer to babysit the kids for us so we could do a session at the temple together! It was great.  Its always a long day to drive 6 hours and have 2 hours at the temple, but it feels good to be in such a quiet and peaceful place.

YSA Shotgun Shooting Activity

We have some pretty cool YSA's in our branch right now. We've really enjoyed having this young single adults over to our house for FHE a few times this year.  One of them, Garrett, thought our yard would be a prefect location for a shotgun shooting activity. I've never shot a gun before and have always wanted to try so I full heartedly supported the idea.  It got postponed a time or two so we tried hard to make the current date work, no matter the weather. With the renovation fully underway and no kitchen to speak of, hosting a big BBQ was really only a good idea when I thought we'd do everything outside. The day came and it was SO COLD and RAINY.  I got out all our umbrellas and let people congregate in our one room that has heating and seating and look out the windows at the people brave enough to shoot.    I was a little nervous about stray bullets and what the neighbors would think of all the sounds of shots coming from our house. I went ahead a texted them all that morning to give them a heads up on our activity and everyone was really cool about it.. texting back for us to have fun and hit some squirrels if we could.

 Charlie tried it a few times and did well... then one time the gun kicked back and moved a bit on his shoulder so the back of the gun hit him under his eye and he didn't want to try anymore. Alec was brave enough to try shooting too and enjoyed it as well... until the gun moved on the kickback again and bruised him pretty bad on the arm.

Turns out Chris is quite the marksman! He said he'd shot a couple times before and was able after a few misses to hit a the flying clay pigeons 3 times in a row! My friend leaned over to me and told me I wouldn't have to worry in the apocalypse because Chris would obviously protect us all well enough.  The thought made me smile and I told her we'd probably need to own a gun first and she was SHOCKED to discover we didn't already have one.  It is such a normal thing down here in the South to have a gun or a dozen of them.

I tried my hand at shooting a shotgun too. I missed A LOT.  Garrett gave me some advice and I eventually did better and I hit the clay pigeon twice in row.  I tried to go for a third to match Chris, but couldn't deliver. I'd love to own a shotgun and practice some more, it was tons of fun.