Spring Has Arrived, both Meteorologically and Astronomically Speaking

There are strong feelings in this household as to when we can officially declare and celebrate spring's arrival.  Actually, only Abe feels very strongly that March 1st signifies the start of spring.  He is a meteorological spring kind of guy.  I don't care much, except to point out that the calendars follow the astronomical start of spring on March 20th.  Normally, spring just means misery to me because of tree pollen allergies.  But, I am not in torment this year!  All Hail Flonase!  I am downright comfortable and throwing my windows open with abandon!

In preparation for Faith's upcoming 11th birthday party, we paid a little visit to the Dollar Store recently.  George came along and discovered his mothership.  In the same way Clark felt at home in the reptile house at the zoo, and Bethany felt at home in Charming Charlie's trinkets and bobbles store.  For George, a collector of all things valuable and not-so-valuable, he could actually afford to buy treasures with his own money!!!!! How glorious!  Can someone get this kid a gift card to the dollar store for his birthday?
His purchases on this day were a bug catching net and a squirt gun.  I couldn't argue with those choices for a six year-old boy.

We have a chicken problem.  Well, actually, Elinor has a chicken problem.  But since the chickens have been escaping their enclosure for quite sometime and making themselves too comfortable with our backyard, it has become all of our problem.  Abe and Elinor built them a taller fence.  We should just clip their wings.  Perhaps we will.  Baby steps.
As for now, we have a taller fence that one of the chickens can still escape from.  The chicken's name is Katniss.  She is a tricky chick.  Clark made threats against said chicken today.  Which led Elinor to make threats against a prized D&D book.  Which led to me yelling at everyone to get back inside the house.
There was a lot of love.

I took the five youngest to the zoo on Saturday and it was a complete zoo!  That's what I get for going to the zoo on a super nice spring day on a Saturday.  I'm a homeschooler-- I should know better.  I do have other options for days I can go to the zoo.  Silly me.
The kids were quite well-behaved and I dare say we are entering a time when we may be able to go out and about a little more often.

The baby carrier proved useful for both Greta and Peter.

When Peter saw this gorilla statue he started laughing and said, "Nakee"-- which is his word for naked.
I can't believe I'd never seen the humor of the naked gorilla statue before.  I'll never be able to look at it the same again.

Faith and her daffodils.  Abe started taking pictures of Faith with these flowers when she was about three years old and every spring he takes another.  And then Abe cries.

I expect this tradition to carry on for several more years.  Abe's kind of big on traditions that way.

In some very good news, Greta is now going to sleep on her own and taking real naps during the day.  It is a beautiful thing.  And now that I have publicly acknowledged it, she will get sick tomorrow and not be able to sleep unless I'm holding her again.  Oh well, it was really nice for the three days it lasted.

Two leading members of the mutual admiration society.  

Elinor is right in the thick of "piano season".  Last Saturday she had her Federation performance where she was given a Superior rating.  Tonight was a studio recital and Saturday is her Achievement in Music (AIM) performance.  A couple weeks back she had her AIM ear training and theory test.  She has a great relationship with her teacher and is very diligent with her practicing.
Here she is with good friends Corrine and Sariah.  I used to teach all three of these cute gals, but now I just teach Sariah.  Els and Corrine have moved on to bigger and better things.

 Here is tonight's performance.

Today Gret was wearing my very favorite baby sandals.  I thought how she has almost outgrown them and how the days of any of my babies wearing these sandals are numbered.  I can't stop time,   but I can take a picture!  I'm pretty sure that someday my heart will ache for the days of adorable, squishy little baby feet.  

St. Patrick's Day 2017

We have the cleverest leprechaun that comes to visit us every year on St. Patty's Day!  He leaves clues to find a stash of gold.

Here's the first clue.
And here is a video of Faith reading clue #1

Running back from the chicken coop with the lucky egg.

Elinor does so love her chickens.

This is by far the most intricate work our leprechaun has ever attempted.

The next clue was inside the eggshell!
Here's the video of Cannon reading the 2nd clue

Clue #3 read by Faith

The mad dash for the treasure under the bunk beds.

GOLD!

Someone is going to be very missed next year.

"You May Need Your Taser"

On the morning of her 16th birthday, Abe took Bethany to get her driver's license.  She isn't terribly anxious to drive-- rather the opposite.  But she did drive herself to play practice a couple of days later.  That's about it for solo driving thus far.

Then, just as her father had threatened, we did a double date for her first date.  Her date was a young man in our neighborhood named Jacob.  They've known each other since she was 6 and he was 7.  Abe was his Primary teacher back then and has worked with him in Scouts and Young Men's since then. Jacob was a part of our kids book club for several years.  As kids they had a love/hate relationship.  But as teenagers they are wonderful friends.

Both Clark and Bethany have been nervous about the first date tradition-- I mean, how awkward to go on a date with your parents!  But in the end, they both said it was fun.  We really did have a fun time with these two because we all knew each other quite well.  There was good conversation and a lot of laughter.

And it was my first date without Greta in tow and I felt quite free!

Later that evening he brought her over a birthday present-- A TASER!  

YES!  I knew I liked that kid!

Elinor has been teasing Bethany saying, "You may need your taser!"  Bethany has been caught somewhat off guard by the... uh...male attention... surrounding her 16th birthday.  

I can't say I'm terribly surprised, but Abe isn't terribly pleased.

I've probably written about this before, but Bethany was born five weeks after my mom passed away.  I was 23 years old.  I believe there is opposition in all things and Heavenly Father is extremely merciful.  During one of the saddest times of my life, we were blessed with a most sweet, thoughtful, obedient, joyful spirit in our home.  She's smart, talented, hardworking, playful, and good.  She isn't anxious to turn 16 and grow up.  Truth be told, I'm none to anxious for her to either.  

Happy birthday to our Bethany!

... you may need your taser!

Utah Regional 2017

Last weekend was the Utah Regional for FIRST Robotics.  Elinor joined Clark as an intern on the team and it was exciting as always.  It's a long explanation, but their team came in roughly 5th place out of about 50 teams.  Not too shabby, but not what they were hoping for either.

Abe was sad to miss most of the competition because of work, but we crossed paths for a few minutes on Friday morning at the Maverick Center.

Clark had a really fun job as the human player up on the "airship".  The game itself is more complicated than I care to explain, but here is a link that shows what the teams were trying to do.
https://youtu.be/EMiNmJW7enI

We enjoyed Aunt Marjorie coming to hang with us for a while.

Grandma and Grandpa came on Saturday as well.  It was a little less crowded in this picture because it was the lunch hour.  We wished the team hadn't gotten knocked out in quarter finals and there was a reason for them to stay longer, but we loved the time we had with them.

We made this red x shirt for Peter our of red duct tape.  We had to take it off Saturday night to wash it and he is still upset about it.  Every day since then he's asked for his X shirt.

We liked Greta's safety glasses.
She did not.

The kids were all pretty good, and Bethany and Faith were very helpful with the youngers, but WOWSERS!  Taking care of Peter and Greta in the stands for two days was exhausting!  We will be heading to Boise for another competition later in the month and I will be so grateful for Abe's help.

Sam, Tanner, and Clark were the "Drive Team".

Cannon and Hayden are robot buddies in the stands.

Elinor has really enjoyed her involvement with the team thus far.  It has been a large time commitment, and I've missed having her around the house.  It's been quite an adjustment for her as well.

So we have a couple weeks to recover and then we'll do it all over again.  And we wouldn't have it any other way!

Image is Everything

Cannon and Abe worked hard on his Pinewood Derby car and it looked really good.
And looking good is about all the "Webslinger" really had going for it.  It was.. shall we say... not very fast.

The family tried to comfort Cannon by saying how cool his car looked.  He said to Abe, "Next year, I don't care how the car looks... I want it to be fast!"

I like the row of younger sisters in the audience.  It was a very fun evening despite the less than stellar performance.

I am a Wolf Den leader and Abe has recently been called as the Cub Master.  He does a great job with the boys and we do have a great group of boys!

And from the impressive cars, I dare say we have a great group of dads as well!

This is Us

Sometimes we invite people over and we clean up our house.
Sometimes I come home and the house looks like this, or worse.
Such is life these days.

This morning Bethany said, "Umm... is that poo on the floor?"
NO, IT IS NOT!
It is a collection of rocks Peter is attached to the last couple of days.

I admit, it looks suspicious.  I can understand her concern.  But we are not quite that far gone.

One of Peter's rocks fell into the trash can (accidentally) and he completely lost it.  The screaming and crying was intense.  Thankfully it was retrieved by some very kind siblings.  Along with his rock collection, he really loves my trombone mouthpiece.
Why?  I have no idea.  I keep putting it away and he keeps getting it out.

Faith's allergy to cold seems to be worsening.  I need to take her into the Dr. because when your lips swell up after eating ice cream, you've got troubles.  It would be bad if her throat swelled up.  On the plus side, what lovely, full lips she has!

This little Greta Bean is now eight months old!  She has been plagued by a lot of sickness the last month and a half, but hopefully she is over it, for a little while at least.  She likes to accompany me on my morning walks.

Clark and Bethany are now both working at Papa Murphy's Pizza.  Now that robotics building season has ended, Clark has returned.  It was somewhat uncomfortable that on his first day back he was sort of Bethany's boss.  Hopefully, they'll work out some sort of professional relationship.  Otherwise, I 'm afraid I might hear about it at home.  I'll tell them "What happens at Papa Murphy's, Stays at Papa Murphy's."

Greta loves her some Clark.  He is the only person, besides me, that she will actually lean towards to be held by.  She really likes the string of his sweatshirt.  It makes my heart very happy to see them love each other.

On Sunday Abe was holding Greta and letting her slime his tie to keep her happy.  He's a good daddy like that.  I quickly grabbed my camera to capture this moment, realizing this was the tie that Abe wore to our wedding luncheon just about 20 years ago.  And here was our last baby playing with it at church.  It was just a lovely moment.