The Last Week of School!

Carol had her performance for her drama class. She was a dog food commercial and her friend was deodorant. Carol did a great job! She loves to be on stage! Major won the music award for his grade at school.Then at Pack Meeting he won the gathering game, the on-time prize and received this Bear award. He has red dots on his face for "fighting the mosquitos" to earn his award. Juliette graduated from preschool and received the award for the biggest imagination for all the stories she told her teacher. She loves to hear and tell stories. Juliette and Major have big imaginations. They came up with this airplane. He pushes her around and they laugh and laugh. He made her a hat out of underwear and some swimming goggles. They are always doing things like this. This is not unusual. Lucy had her dance recital. She loved her costume and loved that she got to wear makeup!

    

    

    

    

Palm Beach

This week Clint and I took a quick trip to Florida. We had known for awhile that we were going to go somewhere, but we couldn’t decide where. A few days before, we finally settled on Florida. We left Monday morning and flew to Tampa. We visited with my friend Nancy D. and stayed with her one night. She drove us around in her cute red convertible, took us to dinner for barbecue, introduced us to friends who made a fabulous lemon cake and showed us the school where she is principal. Her home was beautiful and we really enjoyed our stay.

The next day we flew to Palm Beach and stayed at the Ritz Carlton for two nights. It was pouring when we arrived and rained the rest of the day. The next day was clear and windy so we walked around. We found some Cuban food and really enjoyed that. We walked on the beach but never even put on our swim suits which was weird. It was windy enough that swimming sounded kind of chilly even though the pool was heated and the ocean was warm. We watched lots of movies that we brought, Clint watched the Suns games, I read and we just relaxed. It was great!

The Creature

Juliette is so hilarious. I was working in the yard and she calmly comes up to me and says, “I see a creature breathing.” I figure it’s a dog on the other side of the fence and don’t think anything of it. I kept working and when I was finished she says, “Do you want to see the creature?” Then I thought maybe it was a bug or something. She takes me over to the bench and there is a baby bird barely alive. It did look like a “creature”. She had never seen a baby bird and didn’t know what it was. After watching it struggle to breathe, I decided I better be like mom and help it survive. We put it in a box and have been feeding it bread soaked in water. It’s only been a few hours, but it’s doing better already. The kids are so excited to have a pet, even if it is really ugly. It’s so big, I think it might be a crow.

Juliette's 5th Birthday Party

Juliette had her first birthday party. She was so excited! She was very polite and all the children were very well behaved. We had a great time!

Talent Show

Friday night the kids performed in the ward talent show. (Sorry the pictures are so bad.) Carol played the cello and did a great job!




















Major danced with the cub scouts in a dance we organized and a girl in our ward choreographed. It was "Sieze the Day" from Newsies. It was so cute!
Lucy sang "Castle on a Cloud" and was so cute!
Major also played a piano solo and did awesome!



Even Juliette got to tell a joke (very badly) so she was excited to participate! Next year we'll have to figure out a talent for her.

Austin, Texas

Today we let the kids play hooky from school and we went to Austin, Texas for the day. (Love those flights benefits!) Carol is doing a state report on Texas for school. All the kids in her class wrote letters to their states asking for information and she didn’t get anything. We felt sorry for her and decided to just get it ourselves. We have wanted to go to Austin anyway.
We had a great time even though it rained all day. We all got very wet, but I did have the presence of mind to have everyone wear a hooded jacket so it wasn’t too bad. We forget that everyone else doesn’t have sunny days!
We took a taxi to the state capital. That is an impressive and huge building. It was very interesting. Then we walked a long way to a barbeque place that someone recommended. It was okay. Then we walked to the Children’s Museum. That was a big hit with the kids. They loved it! Then we flew home. We were all very tired, but had a great time.

Juliette making food at the "restaurant" at the Children's Museum.

Lucy playing "store" at the Children's Museusm.
Carol as a cowgirl at the capital.
Major and Juliette.

Easter 2007

Thursday night we had Dr. John Gray (author of “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”) come and speak at our house. About 100 people came. He is so interesting and entertaining! I could have listened all night. He talked about wellness and it was so inspiring. I don’t want to eat sugar again!



Saturday we junked out on Easter candy and I felt so bad about poisoning my children! Carol gave a talk in primary and did a great job. She decided to sing “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” as her testimony. She did great and is such a sweet girl.

Monday I took Lucy to a new ear specialist. She has almost total hearing loss in her left ear because it has a hole in it. The doctor says it is completely reversible if the hole closes or it can be repaired with surgery. He thinks the hole might have been there for a long time and may not close up, but we are going to wait until next spring to give it a chance before surgery.

Last week I read an inspiring article about eating organic. I found a little farm right by the kid’s school that sells organic vegetables. It’s a tiny plot. They harvest once a week and it’s on the honor system. You just take what you want out of the refrigerator in a little shed and leave your money. The kids think it is the funniest store. We have gone twice now and have gotten beets with tops, turnips, braising greens, spinach, delicious carrots, green garlic (so delicious), and asparagus. We are looking forward to their apricots and grapes this summer. It’s also inspiring me to work harder at my own garden.