Music To My Ears

Daphne has been playing the trumpet this year.  It was her first year playing in the elementary school band.  They only have lessons once a week for 1/2 hour, but she has come along way.  (She did have some help from her older brother.)

Here she is after her concert.

Last night was the boys concert.  

Rez and Ocean walked down before hand to be there early, and I came with the rest of the kids, and Trip met us there.  Mo and Harvey, got out of the car and headed off down the side walk as I got the rest of the kids out.  When we were ready to go, Mo and Harvey were no where to be seen.  I figured they had walked down to to the doors and would be waiting by the doors for us.  When we got there, they weren't there.  They weren't inside or anywhere I could find them.  AAAAAA!  I sat Daphne, Julius and Zelda in some seats and went out to look of the boys.  I met our neighbor and he started looking with me.  Outside I met Trip who had just arrived.  We all looked inside and outside of the school.  Finally, our other neighbor, who had just arrived, said she had seen them out in the back parking lot when she pulled in.  Trip and I went out to the back parking lot and split up.  I walked up by the upper field thinking I would have a better view of the parking lot, and started calling.  

Pretty soon I heard a voice echoing mine back as I called out, "Mo".  "Mom", "Mo",

"Mom, Where have you been?"  

It is hard to be mad when they are just as upset at having lost you, too.  

They had gone to that back of the school instead of the front (who knows why) and been waiting at the back door for me, then had gone back to the car when I didn't come.  

We discussed staying put when you are lost.  

We missed the first 20 minutes of the concert.  

Luckily, it was the 4-5 grade bands and orchestras. 

Here are the middle school bands.  Beginning is on the left and advanced on the right.

I didn't get any pictures of Ocean playing, but here he is watching the advanced band.

Zelda and Trip liked the concert too.

Harvey, Mo and Julius quietly played games to keep them occupied.

Daphne just watched and listened.

We couldn't really see Rez.  He was on the 3rd row behind the girl in the center playing the flute. 

If you look closely, you can see the bottom of his baritone peeking under her music stand.  Occasionally we would get a glimpse of his red head.

and when they stood at the end, we caught him.

And one more of Ocean.

They did a fabulous job.  It is amazing how good the full band sounds compared to just hearing their parts.

A Little Out of Hand

As you know, Zelda loves her "babies".  She carries them around and takes them to bed with her, but this is a little ridiculous. 

Horses and Ponies!

This year Daphne, being in 4th grade, gets to go to horse camp.  During the year, they learn all about horses, they write about horses, they sculpt horses out of clay,  a horse came to school for them to see it in person, they learn to take care of horses and how to ride.  Then they are rewarded by going for 2 days and a night up to a horse and pony farm about an hour away.   They are assigned a horse or pony for the two days and they ride that horse, they groom that horse, they tack that horse,  they play western games on the horse and they muck out their stalls.  Daphne is so excited to go!

 However, the teacher that has the "in" at the horse and pony farm is a 2nd grade teacher, Mo's teacher.  This year, they decided to take the 2nd graders on a one day field trip to the farm.  They got to learn about horses before hand and then go and get hands on experience with them.  And the whole family was invited!  I end up taking just Daphne, Mo and Harvey.  We had a great time.  

The farm has animals to fit every size and riding ability from

miniature horses and ponies.

To Clydesdales, 

We got to rotate through stations where we learned general horse and specific to the farm information.

Learned tacking and grooming, horse riding safety and of course the actual trail ride.

Here Mo is practicing.

Daphne wanted to practice too.

And of course Harvey had to have a turn!

It was so exciting to get on a real pony.

Here is Daphne riding Iceman.

Mo getting on MaryAnn.

They were great at matching horses/ponies to each rider.

Harvy is getting on Cody.

I walked along beside Harvey holding Cody's reins.

Here is Mo riding Harvey.

We ended the day with a BBQ and potluck dinner and the kids in heaven, running wild through the woods.

(It all just served to make Daphne even more excited to go to horse camp!)

  

Science Fair

Last week was the school science fair.  

Rex and his friend got to display their findings on the catapults they had tested.  

They get to go on to the District fair in a couple of weeks.

And Ocean had his own board about his experiments with how a magnets shape affects its pulling ability.

It really was a fun night, with getting to see about everyones experiments and eating ice cream.  They also had some students from the university with a hands on table with liquid nitrogen.  One of the demonstration involved balloons.  The kids could blow up a balloon and put it in a container of the liquid nitrogen, and the balloon would deflate, then when it was taken out, the balloon would re-inflate.  It was really cool.

MESA Day

Rez and Ocean are in the MESA club at school.  It stands for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement.  They do really cool math/science/engineering activities and then have a competition near the end of the year.  This year Rez and Ocean were on the same team working of the windmill challenge.  They had to design and build a windmill that would pull a car so far and lift some weight so high, plus create a display board about it and write up something about it.  They had been working so hard to get ready for the competition.  Their teacher had hurt her hand and had been out for a few weeks and so they were all behind leading up to the competition.  The week before it, they were at the school every afternoon and the day before MESA day (the competition), Rez got sick.  He was sick all afternoon, so he couldn't go the next day.  Ocean and the rest of their team were at school the day before until 8pm and came home that night with still more to do before the competition the next day.  They were gluing their display board together on the car ride over. Ocean wasn't sure he wanted to go without his brother, but we convinced him to go (his best friend was going too.)
And it all paid off.  Ocean came home with 4 medals!  Two gold first place and 2 bronze 3rd place.  He even brought home Rez's 3 medals he had earned for their team events they had placed in.  One was the windmill competition.  They got first place for middle school and 3rd place out of the high school competition with that.  They also took first place for their balsa wood glider and Ocean got 3rd in the Math Olympiad.  I am so proud of them.

They now get to take their windmill to the State MESA competition in a few weeks.

They have had a 4-5 days to write an expanded paper on their windmill.  They are so burned out, staying at school Thursday and Friday afternoons and going in Saturday all morning to work on it.  They came home from school on Monday, the due date for their paper, and told me that Rez had worked on the paper for 4 periods that day.  Ocean had worked for lunch, one period and some after school.  They also had the other members of their team and some other students helping.  

 Their paper is 17 pages long.  Not bad for middle schoolers.

That was not all though.  They had to stay after school on some of the other days too.  They expanded their display board and had to prepare an oral presentation.  They also had to fix some problems with their windmill.  The kids in MESA club really came together, the team that had the best board before, helped them with their new board and the boy that had a better windmill design helped them incorporate his pulley idea into their windmill to make it even better.  The kids that were good writers, helped with their paper.  It is too bad that only their 4 team members could go because they had so much help from some of the other kids in their club.

Finally the day came.  Trip was able to go with them to the State competition.  They had more problems with their windmill.  Mostly it was that the table at the state competition was a different hight then the one they had used before and so when their windmill was lifting the weight it would hit the table.  They tried to make it work by raising the windmill up higher, but then the fan that powered it was the wrong hight.  Oh, well.  There team did place 2nd for their display board and paper and 3rd for their oral presentation.

Here is team Moose Hippo, with their wonderful teacher in the middle and some other MESA people.

Here is a close-up of their display board.

And how they looked for their oral presentation.

I am so proud of them for all their hard work and seeing it through.  

(Ocean doesn't speak in public if he can help it, but he did!  and did well.)

Sunday Afternoons

Ruby, one of our chicks, is exploring the Hazelnut tree.

The family relaxing after church.

Harvey has been throwing dirt around.

Daphne holding Summer and Ruby.

Zelda (and Rez)

Mo

Zelda trying to hold Summer and Ruby.

And trying again.

That is the look of success!

Zelda is getting pretty good at holding chickens.

Happy Mother's Day

Rez gave a talk in church today.  It was of course on Mothers...

Here is what he prepared.

"Hi, some of you know me but for those who don’t my name is_____________.  Last Sunday brother Lear gave me a talk.  He said that it could be about anything that had to do with mothers but it had to relate to mothers.  My mother has always been a good example to me.  When I did a report in third grade I chose to research komodo dragons.  Komodo dragons are not good mothers.  After they lay their eggs they leave them and live life like before.  Not only that but when the babies hatch they must climb up trees so that the adult komodo dragons (including their mothers) don’t eat them. 

In the Family-A Proclamation to the World it states that, “HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.” This means that you must set an example and love and care for them. 

They look up to you mothers.  The Proclamation also says “Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.” 

On the other hand parents should still have fun.  They should not be so serious that they never enjoy themselves or fulfill their other obligations such as visiting the temple.  One of the many times that my mother showed her ability to have fun was on April Fools Day when she put paper in the pancakes that she gladly volunteered to make us and made just a few for herself with no paper.  We couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the pancakes until we dissected one of them and discovered the paper.  Then we dissected mom’s pancakes and there was nothing there.  I bear you my testimony that…(he said something about mothers loving us and then said that his is always right.  I am going to have to remember that.) in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

It was a very sweet talk.  Later, Trip was asking him about his classes and he told us about one teacher that was asking him what his mother did for him.  As he was thinking the teacher prompted, "Does she do the dishes?"  

"No," replied Rez, "my dad does those."   

"Does she clean the house?"

"No, my dad does."  

Then the teacher said, "Don't tell my wife this."

I have a great husband!

Rez did come up with things that I do.  And for the record, I do do dishes and clean, but Trip does them much more, and more often when the kids are home.  I do them more when they are gone and when they are home, I have them do it.  

The kids had been wanting to make me crepes for breakfast in bed.  I got them about 9 pm complete with flowers in a vase on the tray.  Daphne had told me something like, "Why don't you go lay down for a while,  we will take care of things here."  

I love my kids.  Mo gave me some flower plants he had gotten at Cub Day.  They were in a cool wooden box with a handle he had made there, but he informed me that the box wasn't for me, well, we could share it.

Julius and Harvey gave me dish cloths that had their hand print turned into a fish on them they made at preschool  and Harvey gave me a tile with his hand print on it he also had made at preschool.  

Daphne gave me a card she had made at school with jobs on flowers that I could pick for her to do this week.  And she made me an omelet for breakfast.

Rez kept telling me what a good mom I was and how he was glad I was his mom.

Ocean made his own omelet for breakfast.  

Trip made dinner and got a cheesecake for us.

I LOVE my family!