Pita Bread

My kids are great sports about packing their lunches.  I am not a believer in chips and juice boxes, so everyday they eat:
1. a sandwich
2. a piece of fruit
3. a vegetable
4. cookies

I try to have several options for sandwiches.  One thing they really like is pita bread with tuna.  Pita bread is a bit pricy and to make 8 sandwiches I have to buy a couple packages.  So I decided to try to make it this week.  It was so successful, and fairly easy.

Nate ate one fresh and said "Well, mom.  I think the second most addicting thing after drugs is pita bread."  I think I must have looked surprised, because he added in his most casual voice as he walked away "Well, for Mormons, anyway..."

Nate learns Plumbing

Nate was looking for something to do this week.  His first choice would be to play Lego Star Wars, but in the event that his mom says no, his second choice is manual labor.  Christian and Truman removed the eucalyptus tree stump and that left the sprinkler just sticking out of the ground with nowhere to go.   Nate and I talked about where we wanted the sprinkler to be moved to and I left him out there.  I figured he could do very little harm in the yard with a shovel.  I was not ready for what I saw when I went out to look an hour later.  He had dug a perfect trench for the pipe.  The walls were straight and the botom was level and the whole thing was the right depth!  So Kenneth helped him glue the pipe together.  This morning we flushed the line and he put on the sprinkler head himself.  After school he came home and filled in the trench and we tested it out.  He did a better job than I could have!

Here is the picture of this slice of lawn without the sandbox or the Eucalyptus tree, and with the sprinkler in place!  I am so happy with all the work the boys have done for me lately.

Flower Power

This week is "Spirit Week" at Dobson, because Homecoming is this weekend.  Monday was Mustache Monday, Christian wore a paper mustache that a girl in his class made for him.  Tuesday was sports day so my 3 kids wore their band shirts.  Wednesday was Pajama day, Christian wore the running shorts he sometimes sleeps in and Sydney went to school in mismatched pjs with tall socks.  Today is "Throwback Thursday".  Christian's plan was to wear the same clothes he wore yesterday, Truman is throwing all the way back to an outfit he wore last week.  Sydney (who sometimes is too unique to participate) is throwing back to the 70's.  Peace Bro!

Do you Pogo?

Nate took Ladson outside to teach him how to pogo stick!  Ladson is a good photographer, he took the picture of Nate in midair!  Nate did a pretty good job taking pictures of Ladson.

 I often wonder at the dynamics of having a big family.  It has been interesting having Ladson here.  He seems happy and says he is happy.  I would bet that it is at least a little overwhelming.  He does spend a  lot of time in his room, I haven't figured out if it is just his nature or if we are indeed a bit too much sometimes.

Question of the Day

"Mom if you had six tally marks and you could only buy one thing.  How would you keep the chickens warm?" - Nate

I tried answering "Umm, buy an electric blanket?"

"Zap, wrong answer"

I'm still guessing...

Opening Day of Soccer

I am getting much smarter in my old age.  I gave the big girls the camera and then sat back to enjoy to games.

Here are the best pictures from yesterday.

 Rebekah tried some Ninja moves to keep the ball from hitting her.

 Abby took this cute B&W of Hazel and some of her teammates.

 I love little girl soccer, they play so hard and then get distracted by each others hair things, or dance moves...

 Kenneth is coaching Hazel's team this year.  They chose the name skyraiders for their team.

 Here is Nate, playing for the "Wolves".

Yes!

The boys receive their answer! 

Will you?

Christian and Ladson made fortune cookies to ask Cecy and Natalie to the Homecoming Dance.

Cecy took this great photo of the cookie with the question.  The caption said "Hello Homecoming!!!"

This morning the boys got their answer.  Well, Chrisitan got an answer, Ladson is still sleeping...

Not the Mom Today...

Well, I called my mom this morning to tell her that it was only 7am and already I am done being the mom.  I will admait that I think it is a carry over from last night when I went to bed also not wanting to be the mom.

Parenting is a lot of work.  Kenneth and I have a plan and we know what we want for our kids.  Some days the kids just don't go along with the plan and then I have to be the disciplinarian.  So, I find myself  on a Thursday morning with all of Hazel's shirts hanging in my closet (because she refused to hang them up), and she is waiting for me to take her to school (because she wouldn't get dressed or pack up her lunch or eat her breakfast).  Now she is bored (because you don't get to get our toys or watch a show when you dig yourself a hole), she is so bored that she did her piano practicing.

Kenneth made two interesting observations.  This morning he reassured me that being a good parent now will make it easier to be a good parent later.  True, but not a lot of relief when the crying girl is following me from room to room to be sure I know how miserable I am making her.  The other was last night I was expressing my concerns about my ability to parent a child who is not mine.  I am not sure what my role is sometimes.  Kenneth pointed out that the difficulty is that we don't have the same kind of plan and goals that we have for our own kids. I am feeling grateful for the husband and the plan.

So I am writing this post today because my mom's advice was to call my sister-in-law and commiserate.  Maybe you all want to know that I am now off duty as the mom today (as soon as I get Hazel to school). And when I get back from my oboe lesson, I'm going to commiserate!

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

We went to the City of Mesa "block party" The theme was Pirates.  There were lots of Corsets and Ugly Beards.  There was lots of fire.  Fire is fun.  

Here is Nate (in green plaid) watching these fire dancers.  My favorite part was that the girl was dressed swanky and her partner was wearing yellow running pants with black stripes down the leg.  I'm not sure if they had discussed what they might wear for the performance.  Or maybe the guy was hoping it would be darker, or that I would take pictures on the firework setting so his pants wouldn't show...

I took this picture on my fireworks setting, it looks much cooler in the photo than it did in real life!

Hula Hooping, abby can make it go around her arm.   She did this and then went to claim her "prize", a purple plastic 6 legged porcupine.

Hazel is pretty good.  I love the smile in the background of this picture.

 Nate and the Awesome Neck-Hooping.

 The men win the prize.  Kenneth and Ladson are the winners of the Welling hula-hoop contest.

We also saw a juggler.  He did tricks with black light,  I tried taking a couple of pictures and they were worthless.  I remembered the firework mode. Once again, I think the photos are pretty cool.  I might even start taking all pictures in this mode! (just kidding).  First he juggled LED light up balls.

 Then he juggled fire.  Here is when I caught the high toss of the flaming baton in the picture.

 Hazel and Ladson talked to the beautiful stilt walker.

Artists and groups had tables along Main street.  This table was about the Society for Creative Anachronism.  They dress up in medieval armor and battle other clubs.  I was told that this is good because it promotes chivalry.  The armor was pretty cool.  Abby said that anyone who does this is weird.  I asked her if she would ever go on a pioneer reenactment trek.  She looked sheepish and said yes.  I think weird is good.

The American Experience

Today we bottled peaches.  Ladson and Paulo were hard workers.  I really like canning with my kids, it is such a nice time to just talk and laugh together.  It was interesting, while we were working Paulo told me that it seemed so calm.  I agree, I think the focus on working together did have a calmness to it.

I am often aware when we are doing things with Ladson that he isn't really having the "American Experience".  To do that we would need to play video games and watch tv, not bottle peaches and play board games...

Dobson Variety Show

We went all different directions on Wednesday night.  I has a Relief Society Presidency Meeting. Christian was performing in the Variety show, playing Timpani.  Truman and Syd went to mutual. Abby stayed home and pouted. Nate and Hazel watched a show during my meeting and went to bed a bit late.  Kenneth and Ladson went to watch Christian.  Ladson was even kind enough to film Christian's group for me!

Happy Birthday Christian!

For Christian's birthday dinner, he ordered Chinese food.  Specifically, he requested steamed buns.  Here is Kenneth and the kids assembling the buns.  They turned out great.  We also had Crispy Orange Beef.  Ladson did well with chopsticks, too.  

Hazel made up this idea of having Christian choose a slip of paper mandating how to open his presents.  

 This slip said that he had to open the present without bending his arms.

 Here he had to use only his toes.

 Behind the back.

 Only using scissors.

 What's this? Tickets to see Les Miserables. (I'm probably more excited than he is...)

Dia da Independencia

Today was Brazillian Independence Day, to celebrate we cooked

Coxinha it translates to "little drumstick".  It was really interesting to cook something without any idea what it was supposed to turn out like.  Ladson ate several and told me they were good.  He is very kind and tells me all my food is good, so I am not sure still if the coxinha were actually good.  We did talk about it later and he gave me som ideas about how to make them better.  I think I might stick to perfecting brigadeiro.

I am good at sugar cookies.  So we made sugar cookies and decorated them like Brazilian flags.  I had some good helpers.

After eating the treats (and dinner).  We went to the Tempe Historic Museum.  There was a Brazilian concert.  It was fun, many of the Win the World Exchange students came.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  I  wished for some marimba music too, I am biased. 

The lead guy of the group played the berimbau.  It was very cool to watch.

Nate, true to form, accepted the invitation to dance in front of everyone.  I love that boy.  He is so full of joy and lacking inhibitions!

Hazel was restless and so she went to find Ladson and take his picture.  She did a good job centering the picture.

The last 2 songs they played, almost all the exchange students joined in the dancing.

It was fun to celebrate with Ladson!