Week #21: A Ransom For The Porch Plant

This Week...

...Emma had her orchestra/band concerts at school. I'm so glad she is musically talented. I love to hear her play both the violin and the piano. It's been so fun to have her accompany the Jazz band - something we never would have considered if they hadn't found out she played the piano. 

...we took a walk around the neighborhood. Grandma Zirker came with us. It was a slow stroll to be sure.

...Ben received an award at Pack Meeting tonight. The Greenhalgh's were kind enough to host the event. 

...Emma had a random acts of kindness assignment for leadership. She decided to put bottles of bubbles around the park with a tag saying free. We had a fun time placing them and wondered what people would think when they found them. 

...my Relief Society Presidency hosted an Italian Soda social. We invited the other Women's Auxiliary Presidencies - Young Womens, Primary, and 5th Ward Relief Society Presidency. Our goal was to enjoy a treat together and spend some time discussing how the RS can better inform and include all the sisters in the ward, regardless of where they serve. It was a great gathering and we laughed and learned a lot. Nicole King was my model of how good the drinks were. :)

...we went on a bike ride with Marty. I sure don't appreciate how he cuts right in front of me when I'm on my bike. Sheesh! I have to brake really hard and that causes me to almost fall over. Silly Marty!

...someone stole our flower pot off the front porch. They're holding it for ransom. They made some demands that we have to meet in order to know what to do next. That's ok, we met their challenge. Ain't nobody gon' take advantage of us. We'll get that plant back. Boom!

...Paul worked on an explorer project at school with Bradley Lemmon. They chose James Cook. Paul had the best time researching about this explorer. He and Bradley divided up the different requirements for the poster. His favorite part was making the Help Wanted Poster. Way to go Paul!

Week #20: Shenanigans at the BOGO Book Fair

This Week...

...we celebrated Lainey's birthday with Minion Madness. Aunt Cherice and Aunt Shelly were in town and took a Minion picture with us! Lainey loved decorating her cupcakes and eating them afterwards. ;) 

We celebrated Lainey's birthday with Jason's family. She had a good time getting a double dose of partying. 

...we went to Brannan's graduation celebration. Can't believe these nephews of mine keep growing up. They are great examples for my kids. I'm so excited to see where Brennan goes and what he accomplishes after high School. 

...Naya and I had a blast at the Book Fair. They had more copies of my favorite book - My InstaAwesome Life. I took to trying to sell it. I called out to all the kids mingling among the books that it was a hot item and was going fast. Before the shift was done, we sold two! This was also the year of story time. To bring a little fun, and keep us from going crazy with all the volunteer hours, I started reading the books out loud. Ok, it started with reading the backs of the books with lots of feeling to see if they were worthy of Naya's mountainous purchase stack and it grew into actually reading some of the shorter children's books. I acquired quite the gathering of little kids. We quickly learned witch ones kept their attention and witch ones didn't.

...I went to Silverwood with Emma and the other 4.0 GPA students. It was a lot of fun! Emma had a good group of girls to hang out with -Emma Pitzer, Alex, and Alicia.

The girls went on a lot of rides. I did not.

They ate a lot of lunch together from the BBQ Pavilion. I did not. (Just the normal portion)

They got really wet. I did not. (I was left watching all of their bags)

They ate a lot of ice cream. I did not. (I had a small one.)

Good bye Silverwood! Until next time!

...we had our first additional Relief Society Activity as a presidency. It was a missionary themed activity. We had so much fun! We made a Smile box for our 2nd Ward missionaries, made a body scrub to give away as a neighbor/friend gift, and wrote letters to the missionaries serving from our ward. We also played a super fun missionary relay.

Lainey and Maddox helping with set up!

...I went with Claire and Benjamin on their class trip to the Hanford Reach Museum. It's so fun to hang out with these two. Ms. Flannery was kind enough to let me tag along as a chaperone. :) These two twinners are sure good, respectful kids.

Native plant identification

At the Playground of Dreams...

...we helped out with the McGee Read and Run Fiesta. It was a lot of fun! I helped at the 1 mile turn around. Our neighbors were nice enough to let Lainey tag along with them so she could run the route.

...I took the kids to the Law Enforcement Memorial and luncheon in Columbia Park. It was free lunch for police officers and their families. They had some military/police vehicles on display and we did a little bit of exploring.

...we stopped at the bird feeding pond on the way out of Columbia Park. We didn't have any bread, but stopped to see the birds anyway. Some nice people shared their bread with us. We used a little and then shared some with other visitors that didn't have any. It was crazy to have the birds so close and a little unnerving when they moved suddenly.