Our good friends adopted a baby! They have had him since he was a born but with all of the legal blah blah blahs it isn’t final until 6 months or so. So here is 6 1/2 month old Griffin and his parents!
My kids were a little disappointed that the judge didn’t use her “order in the court thing.”
Yay!
Isabel and Sylvia got all of their baby dolls set up in the corner of the room. Isabel put Hazel in the baby doll cradle and said that she was at the baby party.
I told Luke that I wanted to buy his frog picture to put up in our kitchen (sorry Natalie and Carol.) I told him I’d give him the money as soon as I found my wallet. I guess he really wanted his money. He asked me a million questions and wrote everything down and questioned everyone in the house. As you can see, he didn’t quite get to questioning Hazel or Billy (our cat) before Joey found my wallet in a very obscure random place (in my bag that it is supposed to be in that I looked through ten times.)
Last night we went to the art show for all of Andrea’s art students. They each got to have two of their works of art framed and displayed. Andrea has them do amazing things! Here is Luke with his frog.
Luke and his praying mantis.
Here is one of his that I scanned.
A friend of mine, Christa, had Andrea’s students draw a picture on a quilt square. Christa then put them all together to make this beautiful quilt for Andrea. I have so many talented friends!
Our talented boy!
Today we visited the Nature Exchange at the Springs Preserve.
Isabel pressed a hollyhock and wrote this report on it.
At the Nature Exchange, kids can bring in something from nature, a rock, shell, leaf, et cetera, they get extra points if they have researched and written about it. They then can use those points to “buy” something in the store that another child has brought in. I didn’t get a picture of Luke with his, but he caught two wasps and wrote a report on them. The volunteers there were wonderful. One of them is a retired gate teacher. I was a little worried that Luke and Isabel might not have done it “right” or might have been discouraged in some way but these wonderful women know how to fuel the natural curiosity and excitment in children about nature. Luke asked so many questions and they got out scorpions, tarantulas and anything he wanted to see and talk about. Here Luke is telling her the story about how one of the wasps he caught because it landed in Sylvia’s bowl of oatmeal.
Their reports get put up on a bulletin board and later into a binder. Isabel picked out a branch with two pinecones attached and Luke got the exoskeleton of some scorpion or spider thingy and a huge wasp. The woman there encouraged Luke to buy an insect box to pin and store his bugs. Anyone know where I can pick up one of those?
Here is Isabel learning that there are male and female pinecones…who knew? not me.
A fun magnifier thingy (that’s the scientific word I made up for it.)
Sylvia has been planting vegetables in the yard with Joey. Last night she was able to pick a couple for dinner. Here are a few things that Sylvia has learned today (or at least that I’ve tried to explain to her.)
– You can NOT cut things longer.
– becoming a Cheerios box when you grow up is not a good career option.
-You can’t marry your baby sister.
-No matter how much you want to wear Pull Ups again, because they have cute cartoon characters on them, you can’t “grow down.”
I took the kids up for a day to Saint George, Utah to see grandma and grandpa Vincent and to go the musical Annie at Tuacahn. When Sylvia found out that Joey couldn’t come because he had to work, she thought it was fun to point at his face and say, “you can’t come, HA HA.”
We spent a couple hours at town square.
There are bronze statues up around the city. After a year they take them down, sell them and put up new statues.
Going to Tuacahn.
It is a beautiful outdoor theater. It was so much fun being under the stars a little later when in got dark. My favorite thing about the desert is being outside at night and sweating…(that was serious. No sarcasm there.)
Uncle Stephen wins the title as best uncle. And that is saying a lot because their other uncles are pretty wonderful.
Does Sylvia have normal facial expressions. Answer: No, no she doesn’t.
Grandpa Vincent.
Sunday, Father’s Day, Joey and I both decided that we had a perfect day. Here is a picture (actually the night before our perfect day) of the kids eating blueberry muffins in the backyard (maybe it was really a perfect 36 hours.) Yes, that bear is enjoying a blueberry muffin as well.
One of the party favors from one of the birthday parties Luke went to on Saturday had a fossil digging kit. Luke really enjoyed it.
Here is Sylvia coloring Joey’s Father’s Day card.
Isabel cried when Joey had to be at church early for some meetings because she wanted to make breakfast in bed for him. He had to stay a while afterward as well, so Isabel made him a nice lunch with flowers in a vase and a menu.
Hazel oinking on some watermelon.
Today was truly a perfect day. Church was great, Joey and I got to spend some fun time with the kids, some fun time with out the kids (wink wink) the weather was perfect, we ate good food, Joey got to go help out a neighbor, we talked to our parents on the phone, all of this plus a nap! I feel so bad that I took these pictures of the kids on Father’s Day yet none of the father. So here is my all time favorite picture of Joey (in case you are confused, he’s the one on the left.) If you want to see more pictures of Joey in the movie, Gran Torino (on his mission Hmong speaking in Minnesota) here is his photo album. More of my favorite pics from his mission are, the roasted squirrel, drunk/dead guy, and God Saves Beer Cans.
Yesterday while Luke and Isabel were playing at a friends house, Sylvia got out paper lunch bags and made “trick or treat” bags for everyone in the family. Here is mine. It is a picture of “Sabrina as a little girl.” No, it doesn’t say, “AHOOiL” (according to Sylvia) it says, “Dear Isabel, Are you sorry to me? Yes, I’m sorry to you little Sabrina!”
Lately Sylvia has enjoyed “dance class” with me. I just put on some music and she dances and calls me Miss Sabrina.
This morning I reviewed the Articles of Faith with Luke and Isabel, then Math. I then sent Luke off to a movie with some friends and took the girls with me on an errand. While in the car Isabel announced to me, “I woke up at 3:29!” Joey and I had no idea. I guess she had a bad dream, woke up Luke, had some Apple Dapples (Apple Dapples = poor man’s Apple Jacks) and then played for a few hours. Needless to say, after her Ukulele lesson and when Luke got back from the movie, all four kids had a nap.
Tonight after Luke’s art class, he took apart (after getting permission) his broken video game controller. I love it how Safety Nerd had to have Safety glasses on to unscrew a few screws. He sure likes to find out what’s inside of everything. He has had fun dissecting bugs as well. I prefer to not know and assume everything works by magic.
Sabrina School 