High Honors & Pirates at Little Flower

In order to have High Honors at Little Flower, a student's grades has to be 95% or above. All three of the kids made it during the 3rd quarter. Graigry only by .14, but he took it.

Little Flower has a Honors Breakfast, which consists of donuts, orange juice, apple juice and milk. I went with the kids this quarter (it's the third quarter they've all had High Honors). Xela and I are participating in Lent by giving up desserts/treats so we did not have a donut; we ate something prior to coming at 7:00am.

Anyway, I'm proud of my smarty pants. While they were reading off the Honor Roll names, I had the kids pose for this picture at the table. 

Why Aurora is sticking out her tongue, I don't know. 

Once all the names were read and everyone was dismissed to finish and go to class, Mr Gawrys, the principal, and Ms Slaten, the 8th grade teacher, came up to me and told me how proud they were of Xela and her Experts project (each student is supposed to become an expert in something and give a 5 minute presentation on that subject). Xela was doing hers on photography. Slaten was impressed at how much time Xela was putting into hers, outside of class. Mr Gawyrs, who also had a sneek peek at Xela's was very impressed with the photos and hard work. Xela was asked to be the very first in the whole school to do hers; to be an example of what a good one should be like. 

It's nice when the principal and the teacher come up and praise the efforts of your daughter. I'll admit that she does have a talent for photography. You need to see some of her pictures.

The last day before Spring Break, the school had a talent show. Each of the kids played the piano and the music teacher encouraged the kids to dress up as part of their performance. Well...

Jedi & Pirate shared piano tunes

Graigry played Cantina Band from Star Wars so he's a Jedi. Aurora played He's a Pirate from Pirates of the Carribean, thus her outfit. Xela played Cruella De Vil, but she didn't really dress up. 

Eric went to the talent show and said they each did quite well. Even Nate and Neta enjoyed the show.

Family Mulch Evening

Typically we have FHE on Tuesdays because I get home early and the timing is less stressful. This particular week, we had two.

On Monday, March 17th, Eric had a meeting or was working at the properties. We've had a pile of wood chips in the backyard, between the two garages for a few weeks and I'd been itching to get it taken care of. I'd asked Eric where he wanted the chips moved: around the pool, the back garden and the back of the garage. Once I hurried kids through dinner, which we were done by six, miraculously enough, I told them to grab 5 gallon buckets and the Tonka truck and to come help move mulch (it's really wood chips, but mulch is faster to say and they know what I'm talking about).

Xela filling Graigry's bucket.
Graigy taking THREE buckets to dump.

Neta dumping the chips along the back fence.
I love the way the sun filters through on these pics.

The kids did a really good job, moving, dumping and scooping for half an hour. It's not the funnest of jobs, but Nate and Neta had fun filling up the Tonka truck and driving it to the dump site. Graigry liked feeling strong by carrying two full 5 gallon buckets. I liked that we got something done. We all liked having some music to listen to while we worked (MJ on the girls' phone).

Their vessels emptied and coming for refills.

Who knew a winter sled
could double as a wood chip mover.

It was a productive evening and I think the kids even got to bed close to on time. Anyway, here are the pictures I took of our Family Mulch Evening that night.

We've got some good kids who can put in a good evenings' work with minimal complaint, when they want too. :)

I Can't Believe that She's 14!!!!!

Yep, my baby is 14 years old. Hard to believe that many years has passed between this one-year-old cutie...

...and this lovely lady.

We opened presents after church. Perfect items from Grandma Hibbert, as usual.

Scripture tote with YW value rings and necklaces.

$50 in a pad of bills.
Not something you see everyday.

Then, I had ordered Lilo & Stitch for her (she's been begging to watch it for weeks, but we couldn't find anyone that had it and we were 7th in the reservation line at the library) from Amazon and flavored reeds (something Aurora has wanted to get for Xela since Christmas) the Monday/Tuesday before her birthday. According to the predicted arrival date, nothing should have come until the Monday after her birthday. Thankfully, everything came by Saturday!! A little birthday miracle.

Strawberry flavored clarinet reeds.
Playing and practicing will be
a sweet experience for tongue and ears.

Yea, can you tell she was happy to have
the opportunity to now FINALLY watch Lilo & Stitch?

Aunt Diane sent her a Hope Chest, which was also perfect (she was able to fit all the stuff she had in paper ream boxes in a more beautiful box that locks!)

"What is this?"

Xela looking over the box and figuring out
what this is.

Xela decided she would grab some assistance
in the form of a knife, and use it carefully
on behalf of the interior of the box & herself.

Calling in reinforcements!
The contents were well protected.

Contents revealed.

Time to assemble.

Xela putting in the rods, one by one.

Putting on the hinges.

Securing the hinges on her chest.

When it was all done, Xela and Eric carried the chest upstairs and she spent a portion of the rest of the day filling it with stuff that was in the paper ream boxes.

When asked what she wanted to do for her cake, she said she wanted Bro Williams chocolate cake recipe. Bro Williams has been at girls camp the last two years and all the Young Women love him. Apparently he also makes delicious chocolate cake.

I told Xela to email him requesting the recipe and we would make it. She did. He replied and then we baked. He even included the frosting recipe. She was grateful that her birthday was on a Sunday this year as we have been participating in Lent by giving up desserts, but we have been told that we can have whatever it is we're sacrificing, on Sundays. Birthday #14 landed on just the right day!

Aurora asked Xela how she wanted to decorate her cake (you've seen past cakes and all the additional candy we put on them) and Xela was perfectly content with the cake and almost fudge-like frosting just as it was.

We invited the Aults for cake, ice cream and "Happy Birthday to You." We didn't have any kind of party, and I hope Xela didn't feel left out or ignored or forgotten in anyway. She seemed okay, but she is usually pretty good to go with the flow of things. I guess I should ask her what her thoughts are on that subject. Maybe we have a summer birthday party and she can invite a few friends. We'll see.

One cool thing about Xela being 14... now she can go to the Stake dances and that means, I have an excuse to go too. The first dance is April 12. I'm not sure who is more excited me or her. :)

Fun in February's Cold

On February 5 the roads were too bad for anything but essential traffic, which, work encouraged us to not take our life in our hands, but to make it in if we could. so we had a day off work and a day off school. I decided to head in as a show of commitment to my work.

Everyone got up early and, because the kids didn't have school, they and Eric started to unbury the neighbors.

Scott snow crew on duty at the missionaries' house.

Neta posing for the picture while other continue
to dig out the stairs for the missionaries.

After I got home from work Nate and Neta were outside and wanted me to build a fort with them. It took a little convincing, but I helped them build a snow fort around the fireplace/firepit, which, with all the snow on the logs, already had a natural barrier.

We created snowball shelves
and a place to rest after the fight.

The tried to use the sled as a door
or a ceiling. Neta was here playing with it.

Nate and Neta also found a spot in the dirty mulch  mound that would work as a little sledding spot and took advantage of it.

"Ready....set...

...GO! And the ride is over.
They made a "train" to go down the hill.

Neta in mid jump showing me
another way to sled down.

Nate's trick didn't end so successfully.

I'm thankful that Nate and Neta are such good friends and can make games out of almost anything anywhere.

The snow and cold has been relentless this year. You look out the window and see the sun and brightness and think it won't be that bad outside, until you step out there and your nose hairs freeze with one inhale. Thankfully the kids have been willing to be helpful in shoveling, we've had a friend who lent us his snow blower, the kids find fun in the snow and we've had lots of hot chocolate. :)
I have faith that one day Spring will come. One day in the not too distant future.