Beware the Ides of March

 In our family we are not so good at gift giving.  My sincerest apologies to those who have or who will marry my children.  I have not taught them well concerning giving thoughtful gifts-- please be merciful with them.  But you know what we are good at?  Throwing really fun, really memorable birthday parties!

Bethany's birthday is on March 15th, which is The Ides of March.  

As in, "Beware the Ides of March"-- spoken by the Soothsayer in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.  Over the years we've joked about having a toga party on her birthday.  One day over lunch, we had the brilliant idea to put on our own Julius Caesar play.  

Side note:  If you haven't heard of a beyond delightful book series entitled, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, I encourage you to read them ASAP-- the audio books are especially good.  The fictional city she lives in has a marvelous tradition surrounding an annual production of Julius Caesar.  I suppose that planted the seed of  putting on the play?  But I digress.

Anyway, we did it and it was beyond great fun and now I will share a bunch of pictures because they make me very happy

Andrea was so good as to host us at her Plumfield house downtown.  The wedding backdrop served very well as a play backdrop.  We rehearsed for a couple of hours and then it was SHOWTIME!

The birthday girl!  I found a one hour script online and I printed them and spiral bound them.  

Years ago we were Greek Gods for Halloween.  The costumes have come in handy a few times over the years-- namely for a choir of angels at Christmas-- but now this!

This is Brutus (Cannon) falling on his sword held by his servant Lucius (Landen).  So much death.

These two truly understood the assignment.  Bethany was Cassius and she and Brutus were hilarious together.

Click here to see the bloody battle scene

Ben was such a noble Marc Antony-- Click here to see him in action

Addressing the citizens of Rome...

Portia (Faith) trying to reasoning with her husband 

The conspirators-- Nathan, London, Marsden, Abby, and Peter

It's not a great picture, but Greta was simply marvelous as the Soothsayer

Et Tu, Brute?  See the action here

Click here for words between generals

Are you kidding me?

Ben's family-- the Matz clan

My dad and my sister's family

The whole thing was just so much fun!  I think this will not be the last Spontaneous Shakespeare Production.

You Are Called to Labor in the....

Cannon received his mission call on March 17, 2026-- St. Patty's Day.  Spoiler alert:  He is not going to Ireland.

He planned to open the email that evening at 9:30.  Why so late?  He had dance class and an upcoming performance, so no missing rehearsal:)

We had gotten this big white tent to use with Faith and Landen's wedding and  set it up in the backyard as a trial run to make sure we knew how to set it up and take in down.  We decided to leave it up for a few days so we could use it for Cannon's mission call opening.  It worked out great!

Of course I want him to serve a mission.  And at the same time, it kind of rips my heart out to have them leave for 2 years.  I really, really enjoy Cannon and will miss him tremendously So, from the moment he said he had gotten the email (around 1:00 pm), my nerves were on edge.  Where would he be spending the next two years?  By the time of the opening, I had worked myself into quite a frenzy.  

Fortunately Abe remained much calmer and was able to enjoy the anticipation of the evening.  Also, Cannon had asked him to look at the email so he knew where Cannon was going, so that he could get a hold of a flag of the state or country to have right after he opened it.  Abe did a great job of not giving away any information.  Cannon said I couldn't be the one to know ahead of time because I was too emotional.  He was not wrong.

It was fun for him to have so much support.  It is definitely mission call season and tons of seniors-- girls and boys-- are getting their call each day.  There are groups making the rounds each evening to be there when friends open calls.  It's really quite inspiring.

Everyone made their guess-- one stateside guess and one foreign guess.  It's hard to see in this picture, but a lot of the family went with Texas guesses.  Spoiler alert:  He's not going to Texas

A picture of the reaction...

Another one...

You can watch the moment here

The FRANCE PARIS MISSION beginning September 17th and going to the MTC in England.

Central Utah Ballet friends

Cousins Takara and Brigham

Answers to possible questions:

1.  Does he know any French?  Not unless you count ballet words

2.  Is he happy about where he is going?  Absolutely thrilled!  He wanted to go to Europe and as a younger kid he had said he wanted to go to France

3.  Will BYU defer his ballet scholarship?  Yes-- it is BYU, after all.

4.  What will he do for the next 6 months?  Finish the school year and then work during the summer.

5. How do you feel about him going to France?  Fantastic!  It's exactly what I hoped for.

6.  Will you go to Paris to pick him up from his mission?  Ooh, I hope so!

March 29, 2026

I snapped this picture on the Sunday in January when Peter and Eric were ordained Deacons.  I thought it was so cute to get all six of these kiddos together.   Each Fox and Chase pairing has been a friendship match made in heaven.  So imagine my distress about a month ago, when Annie (their mom) told me they were moving.  NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! The only thing that makes it bearable is at least they are still in Riverton.  Even still, it won't be the same as being able to just run a few doors down to play.

Last week we had our 2nd Kids' Book Club -- we read The Wild Robot.  The kids built Lego robots and then (by their choice), they wanted it to be a competition.

George was our esteemed judge and everyone had a turn to tell him about their Robot.

Not only was a he a fair judge, but he was so cute with the kids and was impressed with their creations.  I realize that when Bethany was about his age, she helped out with the kids book club for George's age group.  Pass it on!

Duck Duck Goose because one of the characters is a goose.  We also played animal charades.

Greta has taken possession of Faith's leopard gecko.  She's been so busy with nursing school and being engaged and working, that this little guy has been neglected.  Greta has re-christened him "Arthur" and thus he begins his new life under new ownership.  

Look!  He's a real boy! Peter took a nasty fall from an e-scooter recently.  He's okay.

I LOVE this picture of Clark, Brianna, and Greta.  They took her to the Festival of Colors on Saturday and had a marvelous and colorful time!

Clark said he was amazed at the amount of chalk Greta could retain on her body.  Side note:  being in a chalk fight sounds like a TOTAL NIGHTMARE to me.  I hate, hate, hate, abhor, loathe chalk dust.

I got a cavity filled.  Sorry, it's just funny.

St. Patty's Day treasure hunt was... less than inspirational, but it's hard for the leprechaun to be magnificent every year:)  Truth be told, I think our leprechaun is getting old and tired.  Not sure how many more he has in him.

Festively attired

We saw Hallmarked at the Hale Center Theater and it was really quite good.  I would totally enjoy seeing it again sometime.

George got another fun toy-- we got a laser engraver-- and it's pretty awesome.  Come to him with your engraving needs:)

He engraved this and then cut it into a puzzle for me.  Ooh la la-- I have a personal puzzle maker!