Spring break and etc

 Spring Break  

It was low key this year, but still the kids had some fun. We didn't go on any vacations, in fact Jared and I worked a full work load all week, but we still managed to fit in some activities. Tuesday evening Jared took Weston and Savanna up to a hotel where Uncle Chad was staying and they ate burgers and swam in the hotel pool, Fiora had activity days that evening and stayed home with me, we had a fun time watching a movie until Fiora decided to ditch me and go play at her friends house. :) Wednesday evening my mom picked up the kids and took them to her house for a sleep over, and on Thursday I had no clients so I went to Eagle Mountain and we had a nice lunch and went on a hike up the Eagle Mountains. Jared came too, and brought his wheeler, which was great because he was able to take my mom down so she wouldn't hurt her back hiking down. Weston loves hanging at Grandma's because he gets to play with their video games and Uncle Joseph's toys. Savanna was awesome and babysat Holly's baby Penelope for 3 hours so we could hike and play games. That night we went to Jesse and Kelsy's and had some yummy gormet sandwiches, and watched some Rifftrax.  Friday we had a bbq with the Schauers family to celebrate some bdays.  Saturday Jared took the kids to Gunnison to spend time with their Grandpa Neil and Bonnie. I stayed home to watch conference and had a pretty nice quiet day, and went to see a movie with my sisters. It was F.U.N! 

Over the course of the week the kids had lots of time to decide they wanted to earn money by doing chores, the house never looked so great! Savanna set the table so beautifully and we never even had a family dinner together until Sunday, but it was a job she got 25 cents a day for if she maintained it, so the table looked beautiful all week. (I included a picture of her beautiful table in her segment.) Weston earned all the money for his Ninja Turtle Lego set that goes with the little figures I put in his Easter eggs, he helped me clean the pantry, mopped all the floors, dusted, straightened the shoe rack, did his laundry and his kitchen chores all week. He was golden!  (BTW I finally did find the little missing Ninja Turtle Lego egg, I was cleaning the kitchen during conference, and right in the middle of the song "Did you think to pray?" I knocked over the Scentsy plug in behind the paper towel rack, and a little egg fell off!  So funny!) The girls were golden too, Sav earned all her potential earnings and then did 2 extra chores to get a couple more dollars. Fiora peetered out at the end of the week but at least did all her regular chores. This week now that school is back in there is much less housework going on, but at least they have caught the idea of how to earn a commission should they choose. 1st five pictures are of my hike with Barretts in EM, next four are of the kids with Grandpa Neil in Gunnison.

Missionary Month Dinner

Tuesday evening we are hosted a unique event.  Round these parts, our Stake hosts a “missionary month” and the youth of every ward are all called on pseudo missions and do activities that missionaries would do throughout the month. One of the last activities is that every companionship is invited to a members house for dinner and a discussion, and the hosting members have to pretend like they are really from the country those missionaries are called to.  So we had two “Elders” (Calvin Passmore and Issac Patch) who had been called to serve in Brazil over for dinner, because that’s where Jared served his mission. So Jared knows a guy from Brazil and he hired his wife to make homemade Brazilian food for us, and I made a Brazilian flag to hang on the wall, and I decorated the dining area with the Brazilian colors.  I even learned how to say Ben Vindo (Welcome) in Portugese. It was a lot of fun! We asked the Heim's (a family we are good friends with in the ward who had us come over to their place last year for a German missionary dinner) to join us, Chris Heim also served a mission in Brazil and said the food was very authentic, and the Elders taught us a lesson on obedience after the dinner, it was a good food, good company experience.

 

Sunshine Savanna
Sometimes Savanna is a real ray of sunshine. She left this note on the white board on my bed for me one evening, sorry it isn't rotated correctly, it says Mom: I love you! I love you when you comfort me at bad times, I love you when you cook with me, I love you when you run with me, I love you when you are supportive of me, I love you when you are cranky and happy, I love you when your sad and mad, but most of all, I love you!!! --Savanna.  That was surprising and amazing, of course it made my day.  Our tenants are moving out, and Jared posted our apartment Monday afternoon and had 3 calls within the first hour and 7 more that evening, and we found great tenants the very first day, Jared liked them so much that he asked them to come back that evening and meet me because I wasn't home when they previewed the apartment.  While we were visiting with them, Savanna interrupted us and asked for my phone. I was all irritated with her for interrupting, and then I saw what she was doing.  She was not messing around, or calling friends, was taking a picture of herself reading a book so she could send it to her teacher as part of a reading requirement. It was so cute, I just love her initiative to go the extra mile when it comes to doing assignments. Savanna is currently at Clear Creek with the 6th grade for 3 days, and she was so excited she packed 3 days early.  Its pretty crummy weather here, I hope they have some fun activities despite snow and rain!

Fun and Flowery Fiora
Fiora was accepted into the ALL (Advanced Learning Lab) program for 5th and 6th grade, she had to test in the 90th percentile on a state exam in order to be offered a placement, and she barely tested in at exactly 90%.  I think it will be good, although she has mixed feelings. She worries that it will be super hard, and the teachers will be super strict. I see it as an opportunity for her to finally be stretched, Fiora has been my child that is always ahead in class and has to bring books to school because she gets done before other kids on assignments and needs to read while she waits. She never seems stretched on homework assignments, gets them done on her own in record time, and reads and writes at Jr High grade levels.  Sometimes the fact that she finds school too easy backfires on her, she doesn't think she needs to study for tests and then gets B's because she just didn't bother to review the study guide. But when she does study she gets 102%.  I'm sure ALL will stretch her, and probably me and Jared as well, but I'm grateful. Fiora has been practicing her typing ever since we got back from the ALL orientation meeting, because they told us most of what they do is on computers and most of their students test out of typing class in 7th grade. She is up to 15 words per minute! :) See what stretching is already happening, love it.

Music Man Weston
Weston is my little piano player. Fiora still gets on the piano once in a while, and I convinced her to learn a easy song for our piano recital coming up, and there is a duet part I play with it. Weston came up to me while we were playing and said "I could learn that duet part." I said, "OK then, if you learn it then you and Fiora can play this together for the recital." So he had me teach him the chords , fingering, and rhythm and then buckled down and learned it. Its intermediate stuff, he is really moving forward in piano. I'm so glad because I really wondered if teaching him myself would work out. If he continues at his current pace he will be in level three by the time he is 9, and ready to play for the elementary orchestra by next school year. He is a cute little scout too. I'll add some pictures Jared took of his last activity as a Wolf Den leader. (Last two pictures were supposed to be on the last post, when we had a farewell dinner with Sandra Snow who left on her mission to BRAZIL before spring break.)