Justin's grandpa Kitchen died and his funeral was Monday. He was 96 and living life right up until the end. We will miss him. This is the first person in my kids' lives to pass away and their first funeral.
Justin and most of his cousins. There are 26 grandkids, some of which I haven't seen in more than ten years.
And some of the 57 great-grand-kids. My kids are in the middle front. Most of these kids my kids didn't know but it was so fun to see them play together.
We talked lot about how we're sad for us but happy for him. He outlived all his siblings, his parents, his two wives. What a reunion he must be having!
The sheep are here! They came! I was a little worried they weren't going to come back because I thought they would have been here by now but they did! I am mildly obsessed with the sheep by my house. They were so fun to watch and listen to last summer.
"Hi sheepies!" calls James.
They really are so sweet. This year there's a small brown cow in the pasture too but I couldn't get close for a picture.
Our backyard neighbors had these two huge pine trees but one morning we heard chainsaws and low and behold one tree was mostly gone. I took this picture after the first tree was gone.
And after the second tree was gone.
I'm kind of sad to lose the shade. (We purposely put the swing set in that corner for the shade.) But I can't complain about the view.
On Wednesdays I help in Erica's class during math. Right after we left the whole school went outside for a ping pong ball drop. This was their reward activity for raising money or something. James and I stuck around for a minute so we could watch.
We actually couldn't see the white balls drop with the cloudy background but it was still cool.
On Thursday James had his first t-ball practice and got his hat and shirt. I'm dying at the cuteness! None of my other kids played t-ball so this is all new to us. The hat and shirt alone were worth the money.
I got an early mother's day present. Justin brought home a smokeless firepit that I had my eye on for weeks. Since the weather was nice, we didn't wait to fire it up.
We made smores of course. It's dangerous to know that I am only minutes away from a fire cooked smore at any time.
Saturday morning was James's first game. He was pretty pretty quiet the whole morning which means he was nervous (he only stops talking if he's nervous or really mad).
He did exactly what his coach told him to do--no silliness or goofing off. I think he'll get more goofy as he feels more comfortable out there. He played first base most of the time. He liked that his team always threw the ball to him and then he got to throw it to home. He took it very seriously. He even forced an out!
We, uh, need to work on his hitting before someone gets hurt.
After his game was the opening day parade for all the city's teams. He got to ride a "float" with is team in a forever long line up of tball, baseball, and softball teams. It was a pretty cute parade and James was excited to "be the first of the kids to be in a parade" (not true).
On Mother's day Justin's morning meetings were cancelled so he and the kids made me biscuit cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then each of the kids gave me a treat they thought I'd like from the store. (Sarah-Dove chocolate, Erica- ginger ale, James- specialty guava drink (that I suspect he picked out because he thought it looked good and he ended up drinking most of a it), Henry- Mamba, er, I mean Mamma)
Henry made this with his primary activity leaders. He came home from that activity and lied to me that he planted flowers. He was even covered in dirt so I believed him. "If you didn't plant flowers, then why were you so dirty when you came home." He shrugged.
Erica made me these cards at school and at her primary activity.
Erica also made this necklace I'm wearing.
Their primary teachers spoiled me too! I got treats and cards from there too.
After church we went to a special dinner for Justin's grandpa who passed (more on that later) and then to my mom's for dessert with my family.
Here's a snapshot of a typical week for me because I think it might be interesting to me in a few years.
Mondays and Wednesdays- Take Sarah to school at 7:30 for her honors math class. Get back just in time to get James ready (pray he has a good attitude about it) and take James to preschool at 8am. See the middles off to elementary school sometime between 8:30 and 8:50 (good weather biking, bad weather I drive them.) Exercise/shower/run a few errands while James is in school. Pick James up at 10:30. Finish running errands if James can handle it, go home and clean the house if James just can't. (He hates going anywhere that isn't his grandmothers' houses or home.) Days are quiet, James is bored, house gets cleaned, church calling stuff gets done during this time. Sarah gets home by bus at 3:25, the middles roll up on their bikes at 3:45. Kids eat snacks and do their chores so they can go play with friends or "hang out" as Henry insists it be called now. Some days I'm dropping them all off at friends only to turn around and pick them all up at 5:30. Justin gets home at 6 and we eat dinner. Wednesdays Sarah has YW at 7.
Every other Monday morning I have Relief Society presidency meeting while James is at preschool.
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays Sarah catches the bus at 7:50 instead of needing a ride. I like that better. The girls have piano on Tuesdays so they begin fighting over the piano as soon as they get home so they can appear to have practiced that week more than they actually have before riding their bikes to Sis. Robinson's house.
James's games will be Tuesday evenings for the next 7 weeks. I think we'll eat dinner early as soon as the girls get home from piano, without Justin, go to James's games and then Justin will eat when we get back.
Second and fourth Tuesdays Justin has stake meetings. Sometimes on Thursday evenings as well. I have a relief society activities committee meeting once a month on a Thursday night.
Thursdays Erica and Henry have primary activities but it alternates. 1&3 Thursdays Henry meets at the church at 7 while 2&4 Thursdays at 4pm Erica goes to her leaders' houses.
James has school Friday too and that day is a bit easier to get him ready as I haven't just rushed back from dropping Sarah off.
Second Saturdays Justin has stake baptisms. He goes to the church at like 7 (I don't know exactly, I'm still sleeping) to fill the font and stays through all the baptisms until early afternoon.
Sundays he has meetings from early in the morning then comes home just long enough to eat breakfast, for our Come Follow Me lesson, get us all in the car and goes to sacrament meeting with us but then goes to his assigned ward. He gets home an hour after we do. One of us usually has something after church to do too.
To summarize, the mornings and evenings are busy; the daytimes are almost boring. School gets out in a few weeks so everything will change, piano ends for the summer too. I'm ready for a new schedule as this is how it's been for too long.
This is where James ended up during dinner. If he doesn't like what we're having he invariably becomes AWOL or obnoxious. "You never make anything I like." What do you like? "Chicken, macaroni and cheese and that's all!"
His hot chocolate mug broke last December and we promptly went to the thrift store to replace it but ironically (or maybe not ironically) there were no Christmas mugs at the thrift store in December (he ended up picking out a Halloween one). We walked by last week and there were so many to choose from he had a hard time choosing just one. We got the same questioning look buying a Christmas mug in April than we did buying a Halloween mug in December.
I find the best stuff on my walks around town. What do we have here? Gives me Wizard of Oz vibes.
I think the destruction was caused by the treehouse sliding down the tree and the tree growing bigger and splitting the roof. I hope kids still use it to play Dorothy or earthquake or pirate ship or something.
Sarah ran for student council. She had to fill out an application, get recommendations from teachers, make a poster, make a campaign video, and be interviewed. Here's the poster idea we came up with.
I never ran for student council but I helped my friends win a lot so I knew just what to do.
She found out yesterday that she won! She was one of 10 that made it out of 20. She is definitely looking forward to 8th grade next year at the junior high. We got her flowers while she was at school to either console or congratulate. Happy to report they were to congratulate.
I made this meat pie I got from a recipe from John Kirkwood on youtube. He sounds like Winnie the Pooh and is just the sweetest Englishman I have ever seen. Take a listen. (The pie turned out delicious.)
My girls had their piano recitals last week as well. This was Erica's first recital ever and she was so nervous. She played her piece the best I've ever heard her and she did a cute curtsy at the end. I was proud of her and I think she had fun. She talks about quitting but she has finally gotten to the stage where she's playing fun songs she's heard of. I think she's just a little burned out but we only have 3 more weeks of lessons before summer break.
Sarah did great as well. She wanted to stick with piano even though she started violin at school this year too. It helps that the violin is in the treble clef, I think. I think she'd continue lessons during the summer if they were offered.
This is the scene most Sunday mornings. It was so cold but they don't care. Sarah rarely joins them and that makes me sad because I love seeing them play together. They haul out their favorite stuffies and their pillows and sleeping bags. Sometimes they just burrow under their stuff and get cozy and talk or they make up silly games.
I came upon the polygamist house on my walk last week. This place is legendary among teens. I went inside twice in high school and once during college. From where I took this picture you have to jump a fence and then follow a dirt driveway up to the house.
The last tenants that lived there were a polygamist family that trashed the place before they left. I interviewed a police officer and the landlord for a story I did in college and they confirmed all the rumors I had heard as a teenager.
I saw it again from a different street a couple of days later on a different walk. All the windows are busted out. I rememeber lots of graffitti and beer cans the last time I was up there. The first time I went there were broken toys and junk. The landlord said he has no plans to fix it up or tear it down and that was 16 years ago when I interviewed him.
Well that's pretty.
Some views stop me right in my tracks and I just stand there and stare.
James has been working out of a 1st grade workbook the past several months. (He already blew through a Pre-k and Kindergarten workbook.) We've kind of hit a spot where the reading is a little too challenging but he is loving the math. Here he is adding columns of 3 numbers and he loved it.
He may be a little bored in kindergarten in the fall.
Justin and I helped my mom make some jam. We made like 56 cups or something. I lost count. We made so much my mom thinks this will last her the rest of her life.
She was going through a bag or random kitchen stuff she found in her storage room. I'm posting some gems here for posterity's sake.
These beauties came free with Log Cabin syrup in the late '80s. They are all plastic, super dingy, melted in some spots. Their intended use was to mix pancake batter, I'm assuming, since they came with syrup but we used them to make scrambled eggs. I brought one home to show my kids and they now have it in their toy kitchen. The other one went into the trash or to DI.
This yellow spoon is older than me. This spoon was used to feed all of us kids (I don't know that for a fact but it sounds good.) I used it to eat applesauce, cereal, bottled pears, and ice cream until I was 10 years old--just for fun. I was all about eating with the unusual spoons I found in the silverware drawer. I told my mom she had to keep it.
This is the bottle opener used to open peach and pear jars all growing up. It got donated.
Justin brought home the VR goggles from work they use to show clients their projects during design phase. The kids loved playing games with it. After just one evening it reaffirmed why we don't have video games. "Who's turn is it?" "How long has she been on it?" "I've only had one turn and he's had two turns." "Can I play with the Occulus now?" "I want to play!" "My turn!" "You've had it foreeeever!" "Just one more minute!" "I never get a turn!" It's going back on Monday.
And with that April is over. Usually April flies by and goes so fast but this has been an eventful and full month that seemed to start ages ago. May is always so busy. Mother's Day, Henry's birthday, Anniversary, school projects and programs, last day of school. Throw in several doctor's check-ups and church meetings and obligations and my head is just spinning looking at our calendar. Here we go!
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