Graduation

My beautiful, amazing, talented, (not so) little girl graduated from high school. I'm so proud of her and for all she accomplished. She worked really hard and did amazing things her high school career. She kept her grades up including with advanced classes. I already mentioned that she composed two pieces of music that the orchestras played and she conducted. She and Jr. both played in the orchestra at graduation.

When we got home that night, she got to open up presents. Art stuff, of course, and gummi bears. Then she went off like such a big kid to her senior grad night with all the other big kids.*Sniff.*

 

She has also kept up with her scripture study and gospel learning. She is such a good example to us. This is basically what I shared with her Young Women class about Nichole:

We've always said she is the best oldest child for our family. From the time she was little, when she helped, she would tell us, "I'm a heper."

She continues to help (with four younger brothers including one rambunctious three year old, we definitely need the help) and has always been a good example to her brothers and us.

One time when she was little, I was frustrated with her and didn't know what to do and told her so. "I just don't know what to do." She told me, "Then pray, Mom." You can imagine she got a big hug for that.

She continues to be a good example to us with her daily scripture study, has a strong testimony, and really is an asset in our gospel discussions at home.

I will miss her when she does off to college but am grateful she will always be a part of our family.

She graduated from seminary as well as high school and I'm happy to see her testimony grow.

Bunting Hunting

And then there are those days where you have so much going on in just one day.  Yesterday was one of those days.
Yesterday morning we took the kids to the Orem Library's Teddy Bear Picnic which kicks off the Summer Reading Program.  It was fun... as usual.  Again the kids LOVED the puppet show portion.  They enjoyed the rest of the show as well.

This year's theme for the reading program is "Make it Work," and the Teddy Bear Picnic had a S.T.E.A.M. Punk theme.  S.T.E.A.M.= Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.

Of course I got pictures of the kids in front of the balloon robot Jeremy built.  It took a while to get the kids to all smile and look at the camera.  I'd think I'd get a good picture then look at it to realize that one child was looking in a different direction or one was making a goofy face or I was concentrating so much on the kids I cut off part of the robot's head.  Sigh.  But I finally got one.

After the Teddy Bear Picnic, we headed up to a park in Murray where we were told there was an indigo bunting hanging out.  Several people saw it the day before and were able to tell us where to find it.  Good thing because that park is huge.  The boys were more excited to get wet by the sprinklers but Nichole helped us finally spot the bird.  We kept hearing it and would get glimpses of it and finally we were able to get some pictures.  Hey, two life birds which are blue in two days?  Not bad.

Lucky: How dare you, sprinklers.  How dare you.

We had snacks at the Teddy Bear Picnic and ate lunch on the way home from "bunting hunting" so we didn't hear a lot of complaining about being hungry.  That's good.
When we got home, I couldn't help it, I fell asleep for a while before taking Nichole to activity days... sort of.  One of the leaders just got released so the other one forgot to give a reminder to the girls.  Oh well.  So the leader was sweet and gave Nichole and I each a popsicle when no other girls showed up and we went back home.
Then we had dinner and it was time for Mommy-Daughter Date.  The boys watched a movie in their room while Nichole and I watched a movie in the living room and ate snacks.  Good time together.  We had ice cream and popcorn and Nichole had gummy bears.

So it was a busy busy day, very full. 

Make Up Your Own Holiday Day

March 26 is Make Up Your Own Holiday Day.  Most of the kids' ideas for holidays revolved around video games but we said no video games today so they didn't get to celebrate.
Nichole's holiday had to do with gummi bears.  I got her gummi bears instead of flowers for her wonderful dancing performance Saturday but forgot to give them to her until today.  She was very happy that she got them today (she even shared some with her brothers).
I don't remember specific names of holidays people came up with today.  Oh well.
Jeremy and I were tempted at one point to celebrate Send Your Kids to Bed with No Supper Day.

And... here's a picture of a Western Screech Owl. 

Girls' Night

While Jeremy took Jr. and Jr. Jr. to a Father's-Son's camp-out, Nichole, Lucky, and I had a girls' plus adorable two-year old boy night.

We ate pizza, gummi bears, and brownies while watching a movie.
Good times.

Planning Ahead

Sometimes it is very helpful to plan ahead for those celebrations that you might not make a big deal of.  When Jr. heard that National American Teddy Bear Day was coming up on November 14, he suggested that for dinner we have pasta and gummi bears (they're like teddy bears, right?).  So guess what.  We got some gummi bears earlier this week for tonight's dinner.  Simple celebrating we were prepared for.  It's a good thing we were prepared otherwise we might not have celebrated at all. 
Lucky came down with something and was throwing up in the middle of the night and this morning.  Poor baby.  Thankfully, the throwing up and loss of appetite only lasted so long.  By the afternoon, he was somewhat more chipper and wanted to eat more and could actually keep it down.  He got some well needed sleep and was happy to snack on crackers while the rest of us ate dinner, including gummi bears for the three oldest kids.  I was even able to get some pictures for this blog.

I'm so grateful that it looks like whatever Lucky is going through is not long lasting.  I'm also grateful that Jr. looked ahead and figured out a way we could celebrate National American Teddy Bear Day.

Gummi Worm Day 2011

Today is Gummi Worm Day. So pull out your favorite Dirt recipe, throw in some gummi worms and enjoy your gummi... bears?

We didn't plan ahead and get gummi worms or make Dirt this year (we've had visitors), but our visitors brought us Gummi Bears

and Pop Rocks.

Jr. wasn't so sure what he thought about that first mouthful.
By the way, it's been a while since I've made Dirt. Does anyone have a recipe they like that I can put on this blog?
I should clarify since my husband suggested I go outside with a spoon and attack the ground. I mean chocolate dirt, Jeremy. With gummi worms.