Rebekah's Diorama

Rebekah had to do a book report on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  Here is a little tour of her diorama she made.

Here is the outside of the box, showing the room with the closed wardrobe (and a chair and desk)

Here is a picture with the wardrobe doors open, and a view of the little coats hanging inside.

Once you push the coats aside, you can see Lucy and Mr. Tumnus at the Lamp Post.

At the back of the diorama, the White Witch and Edmund ride on furs in a sled driven by a dwarf  (wearing a hawaiian shirt).

Off to the Races

Last weekend was the Pinewood Derby.  Nate's car is the red and silver one in the photo below.  He worked really hard on it and enjoyed every minute of it.  He didn't win but he felt happy about the experience. 

Truman's is the blue car with the orange wheels.  Why did Truman get to race? Well he was the builder of the "cub car".  His goal was to build a hot looking car that looses.  That way one of the actual contestants get to win at least one race.  Truman was a little disappointed that he won one race (the boy's car didn't even make it down the track.  I guess he painted his car with the wheels on, and they didn't spin.)

This awesome purple car is mine.  There was some open track time when the boys could race their cars against their leaders.  I worked moderately hard on the car.  But My kids had to race it for me because the open track time was the filler event for the person making awards, which was me this time...

Flying Dogs

Abigail's class took a field trip to the Lowell Flight Center, Snug and I got to go too!  The kids had studied and prepared ahead of time.  They learned the basics about planes and flight.  At the flight center they did several stations stations.  The runway station was experiments that had to do with different forces and how they apply to flight.  There was an area where they got to use night vision goggles.  They got to use a computer flight simulator. They also got to operate the airplane simulator and a helicopter simulator.  Snug tried out the airplane.  They also practiced with a partner in the basic simulators on the floor.  It was really fun.

Sisters

It is a fascinating thing, sisters.  I only had brothers and was quite content.  I will admit that there are times that I watch my daughters and feel a tiny spark of envy at the fun they have together.

Hunting High and Low

Truman looking with his studly new shades on!

Christian got distracted from the eggs by the paint on my pinewood derby car.

 Nate's hoard.

 Kenneth found the golden egg.  It was in the pocket of Christian's swim trunks, drying on the clothes line.  He decided to leave it there for one of the kids to find.  Christian ultimately found it and was kind enough to share some of the extra prize with Kenneth. 

 Kenneth got distracted and pulled weeds for a few minutes and then couldn't figure out why Nate had more eggs than Kenneth.

 Snug was really good about not giving away the location of the eggs. 

Easter Saturday 2011

We have over the years shifted our Bunny type activities to Saturday in order to free Sunday from the sugar rush, and to hopefully allow more time for Spiritual thought and renewal.

Here a few of our pictures.

We had cracked wheat cereal to hopefully ingest something with nutritional value before the gluttony began.  Hazel expressed her feelings on the subject with some unmistakable body language.

 Rebekah expressed hers by consuming her cereal microscopically slow.  So slow in fact that we finally let the kids go get their baskets and bring them to the table while Rebekah continued to eat.

 Here are the power poses as the egg hunters enter the arena!

Nate's Baptism

April 9th Nate was baptized.  As with most things in his life, he had some definite opinions about how things should be done.  My first inkling that this would be different was: One Sunday after sacrament meeting Nate went up to talk to the bishop.  He often does this kind of thing (he calls it "doing my rounds"), visiting with people.  He came back after talking for a few minutes and said "So I was talking to the bishop about getting myself interviewed for baptism.  He says he might be available right after church, can you wait for me a few minutes?    As we were planning the program he said "I have pretty much heard all the Grandparent talks at the other kids' baptisms.  Do I have to choose Grandparents?"  I told him that it was his baptism and he could choose anyone he liked.  He chose Natalie (our family is the unofficial Natalie fan club). I can see why,  Natalie is 16, cute, musical, intelligent, laughs easily, and always has kind things to say about everyone she knows.  The most important quality in Nate's opinion is that she has time to talk to an 8 year old boy.  

Nate was also funny about the refreshments.  He was truly hoping for CTR (choose the right) cookies. I could not find a shield shaped cookie cutter anywhere so I finally bent a heart into the right shape.  We made green petit four icing that we poured over them.  Then the girls helped me pipe CTR on them all.  They turned out cute and tasty.  I forgot my camera and so the only pictures we have are the ones Kenneth's parents (thank you!) took.  You can see one corner of the CTR cookie Nate is eating in the picture below.

The other thing that was really Nate style was that the church clothes he brought to change into, were the ones he grew out of 3 months ago, and he forgot his tie.  

He was also hysterical the Sunday that they recognized him in sacrament meeting.  We teased Truman about looking sour the last time the bishop brought him up on the stand to recognize him for something.  So Nate tried not to look sour, and that caused him to grin wickedly and then raise his eyebrows when he made eye contact with someone in the congregation.  They gave him his baptism certificate to hold and let him sit on the stand by the bishop.  Nate got bored and spent the rest of the meeting licking his fingers and "writing" on the back of the baptism certificate with his wet fingers.  Luckily none of the sogginess actually tore the paper, but it is warped.  Ahh well, such is life with Nate!

 Nate with our friends (and next door neighbors) Bill and Adelaide

 Kenneth and Nate after the Baptism

 Nate and Bishop Clement

 Nate, Natalie, and Hazel

A heap of Wellings

Marimba update

The Marimba is still coming along.  Kenneth's new work schedule (He doesn't have every other Friday off.) has really really slowed production. Here are the keys on the finished trapezoid.  Next, the ends of the frame and drilling holes for the key supports.

Dear Children, Please Stop Growing Up.

There are places I remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

~The Beatles

Found these pictures from 3 years ago...

79 servings

Today between sessions of General Conference, we ate waffles with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.  I was trying to decide how many cans of whipped dream we would need and saw that there are 79  two tablespoon servings in a can.  So Kenneth decided to measure his two tablespoons.  after much laughter from the kids,  I left the waffle irons to see the "tablespoons".

The game was to see how much you could stack on a spoon.  When it fell off you knew that was a serving.  Since 1 serving is technically 2 Tablespoons and is worth 20 calories.  1 Tablespoon is only 10 calories.  Who knew whipped cream was a low calorie food!

Puppy Ballet

You just never know,  perhaps there is a blind dancer out there who needs a guide dog.