Why I don't buy juice boxes...

I don't normally buy juice boxes, but we ended up with a couple left over boxes after donating to all of the end of the year parties. Here's why I don't buy juice boxes...
...I have 5 kids, this is 14 juice boxes found just in the very top of our kitchen trash on one recent afternoon. Apparently they think they've been deprived!

Yahoo...Emma won too!

Emma has won the same Citizenship award that Cami received. There is only one chosen from each class yearly and it is quite an honor. Emma is SO excited and has worn this medal everywhere she's gone for the last few days!
So each of our school kids have won this award multiple times (except Emma since she's in kindergarten).

Cami's award!

For the third year, Cami received her class citizenship award. It's an award given to the student in each class that displays upstanding, exemplary citizenship. It's a wonderful honor and she is literally glowing with excitement about it (and she gets a medal to wear).

Athlete of the year and more

So we got a phone call from Spencer's gym teacher the other day, which definitely was a first for me. I immediately thought that he must've been injured during class or something. Fortunately my first instinct was not correct and the phone call was to invite us to the PE awards assembly at their school (also a first for us).

Cami & Spencer both received National Fitness awards
(one step below Presidential, but still pretty cool)

And the coolest of all...Spencer was chosen by his PE teachers as the male athlete of the year for his school. It is awarded to the student who best exemplifies being a good athlete, a good student, and exhibiting good sportsmanship. His teachers summed it up by explaining that the award was given to the person they'd most want to be on their team playing sports.

He got the cool trophy and his name on a plaque that will memorialize his accomplishment for many years to come in the hallways of his school! He proclaims that he's really excited about it, but you couldn't tell by the reaction he gave when they called his name. He HATES attention being drawn to him and this was a whole lot of attention and loud cheers all directed at him, and now I'm blogging all about it...he'll be so excited!

How Ellie made friends with a goat...

Hi Mom!

Oh, look there's a goat behind me!

Ellie with her new friends,
Sylvie and Billy (isn't that what all goats are named?).

Karey's cake...

So I really like to make pies and I usually can make them so they look and taste pretty good. But I have this huge block with cakes. I just really don't know how to make a really tasty cake, and it's completely elusive to me how to make them look pretty. So I usually avoid making them except for birthdays when I feel compelled to produce a cake. Lately, I have ended up delegating the task to Cami who is quite adept at making cute "people" cakes.
My sister-in-law Karey just had a birthday and I decided I was going to try my best on her cake, since she is new in the family and all. I labored over it, and tried some things I thought would be cool...so it tasted pretty good and looked a lot like a 10 year old had created it...but that's about as good as it gets for me! °Ü°

What do you think of Spence's new "do"?

Spence is trying out a new do. What do you think?

Jokes only a mother could love...

Ellie: Knock Knock.
Me: Who's there?
Ellie: Knock who.
Me: Knock who who?
Ellie: (silence, awaiting me to finish joke)
Me: Owls say, "Who who"
(Yeah I know I'm hilarious.)
Adam: Knock Knock
Me: Who's there?
Adam: Car
Me: Car who?
Adam: Banana, I named the car, Banana
Emma: Knock Knock
Me: Who's there?
Emma: Radio
Me: Radio who?
Emma: Radio not! Here I come!

The books I'm hooked on...

I've read a lot of classic books over the last year (Bleak House, Count of Monte Cristo, Sense and Sensibility, etc.)
So when Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" showed up on our book club's reading list I was more than a little skeptical when I went to Amazon to read the reviews. I got a little scared off by the words, "vampire" and "erotic" in the same sentence. After three friends raved about it and informed me that the author was a BYU graduate and that it was actually a "chaste" love story about vampires...I decided I could try it....Well, several hours later after a long night of not being able to put it down I was officially hooked! Who needs sleep anyway?

Now AnnaLisa and Glen are caught in their snare and we are all anxiously awaiting for "Eclipse", the third in the series to be released this summer.

It's actually listed as a teen novel and frankly the quality of writing is not super great. But the story is completely compelling and you'll want to make sure that you have "New Moon" waiting for when you finish "Twilight".

So here's an excerpt from the Amazon review:
"Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward's sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer's writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up)" --Patty Campbell

Fashion Statement

Adam and Emma pick out their own clothes and get dressed themselves each day. We’ve gotten used to the long sleeves Adam continues to wear and it isn’t unusual for one of them (usually Adam) to completely mismatch.

In case it's hard to tell: Adam is wearing his blue BYU shirt with black and red sweats
Emma is wearing a light pastel calico shirt with very bright large print capris

So it was on Friday we had to suppress giggles when they each walked out of their rooms wearing these respective outfits.

...Yes we let them wear them all day.

Letterboxing: Good family fun!

What is letterboxing? In case you haven’t noticed the link we have listed under our hobbies, letterboxing is one of our family’s favorite pastimes.

Basically letterboxing combines a hike with a treasure hunt. An actual letterbox is a waterproof container that contains a hand carved rubber stamp and a logbook.

We pick somewhere we’d like to visit (usually parks with hiking trails) and we find the nearby letterboxes listed on www.letterboxing.org website and print off the clues on how to find them. They are hidden in and around trees and rocks near walking/hiking trails in many parks. We’ve been to many amazing and beautiful places in hunt of a letterbox.

Can you see the letterbox hidden right at Emma's feet in this picture?

Once you find a letterbox you stamp their stamp into your own logbook and stamp your own family stamp into the box’s logbook. You sign your trail name, where you’re from, and the date. It’s a wonderful way to get outside with the family, and you can’t beat the price…FREE!

If you are inspired to try it yourself then buy a small notebook (for the logbook), a stamp (store bought or hand carved), and an ink pad (your only expenses) and then print off some clues…and happy letterboxing trails to you!

Make sure you let us know how your adventure goes.

No joy in Mudville...

To quote from the classic tale, Casey at the Bat "there is no joy in Mudville." Cami did awesome on her speech today, but unfortunately did not win the elections. Her and her two best friends all picked different offices to run for so they would not have to run against each other. Her two friends each won their elections, so her disappointment is compounded.
However true to Cami form she is already starting to perk up and show us her smile again.
Thursday update: Cami is already doing so much better and eagerly enthusiastic about her next pursuits (field day and pizza party today)! She is even setting an excellent example for all of us as she is including her friends and running mates in her prayers. I love children's prayers.

Cami's campaign for student council elections!!

Cami's campaign sign, using the same slogan Glen used to win
President of DECA elections in HS and VP of accounting honor
society, Beta Alpha Psi at BYU

Here is Cami's speech:

Good morning! My name is Cami Goold and I am running for the SCA position of Vice President. I think I would be a good Vice President because I have two years of SCA experience, I am not scared to talk in front of people, and I am creative. What I want to do in the SCA next year is have more spirit days, more after school activity nights. More language, club, and spirit day choices for the whole school. I want to have more language choices because many of us wanted to have an option on the language we get to learn. The world is a big place and it would be nice to be able to learn a variety of languages. I think there should be more clubs because we all have different interests and a lot of them can be easily put into clubs that we don’t have. Like cooking and many other things that people might have interests in. I want more spirit days because we have such a great school like Fairhill and we need to show our spirit more often. That’s why I think I should be Vice President. VOTE FOR ME!

Preschool soapbox...

This is my eighth year in a row participating in a home preschool group with my kids. Somehow I’ve ended up the unofficial coordinator of all the groups in our ward and adjoining ward. Each year it has become more and more rewarding for me and I have never once regretted the time or effort that it takes to be an integral part of teaching my preschool aged children.

Adam at the end of another year (2 down 1 more to go)

That time kids have at home with their mom is way too short to send them off to be taught by others who are probably much less qualified anyway, not to mention that they don’t know your child’s interests and learning style, nor do they have the same values I’m trying to instill in my children.

A shot of this year's preschool group (minus one).

AnnaLisa finally talked Adam into wearing shorts and a tshirt, but it was a one time occasion. He went home and
immediately changed and hasn't worn short sleeves since. But could this be a crack in the armor?

Our home preschool groups consist of 5-7 students and each mom takes a week teaching preschool at their home that week. This year we had mother “experts”—for instance I always taught about heroes at our house, like George Washington, Helen Keller, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus, etc. Another mother focused her teachings on music—teaching them to play the recorder, to recognize the different instrumental sounds in Peter and the Wolf, the musical alphabet, etc. The other focuses were science and nature, character development, geography, art, and seasons/holidays. Of course still learning all the other preschool skills of numbers, letter sounds, singing songs, taking turns, and much more.

Summary: I love our home preschool and I think it’s been a very good thing for my children (and myself).

…now off my soapbox…