Back to School 2014

Today was the first day back to school.  Kate and Jack were up early ready to go.  Ty took his time waking up.  He likes his sleep.  After some stretching in bed, a warm shower and some breakfast, he was ready for school.

 

Ty's teacher is Mrs. Schembri.  Jack had her for kindergarten and we loved her!  Today was only an orientation.  So Ty got to go out to the playground and learn the rules and play while I listened to Mrs. Schembri talk and then fill out paper work.  We had two more hours to kill when we were done before the kids got out, so Ty said that he wanted to go home and drink a caprisun and then play animal jam on the computer.  (He passed up biking at the skate park and a doughnut!) 

 

Jack is excited about his 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Neil.  There are only 15 kids in his class, which is great!  Jack said that Mr. Neil jumps a lot when he's excited and they're already earning a pizza party. 

 

 

 

Kate loves her 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Hawkins.  She's exciting about switching classes and tomorrow she'll find out who she shares a locker with. 

Los Alamos County Fair

The Los Alamos County Fair has a lego category in its Hobbies and Crafts division.  The kids each worked on a lego creation of some kind and entered it into the fair on Friday.

We dropped their creations off on Friday.  They were judged that evening.  Then Saturday we went to the fair (in the top floor of the library) and checked out the displays.  The kids were thrilled to see that they each won 1st place!  I'm not quite sure how the awards were given, but most entries had a ribbon.

Kate made Mia's Treehouse Bakery

Jack made an army ship

Ty made a robot hideout (with some cute little robots on it)

When we were driving home from picking up their legos, Ty said, "Mom, we rocked!  Those other kids went down!"

Wax museum

Oppenheimer wax museum: http://youtu.be/z-as-aqMP5k

Jack's First Cub Scout Day Camp

Jack got to go to his first Cub Scout day camp on June 4th - 6th.  I got to volunteer on the first day for the morning.  I helped the boys and Sandy Jennings make catapults.  The theme of the day camp was medieval.  

They made signet ring slides for their neckerchiefs.    

 The boys took turns climbing the monkey bridge.

They also made dragon stoves, played badmitton, did archery, shot bb guns, learned how to tell jokes and put on a skit, made armor, and a few other things.  The last day they shot pumpkins and other food across the field with a trebuchet and big catapults.  The firemen came and sprayed the boys with their fire hose.  It was pretty hot and Jack came home very dirty every day.

Walk to the canyon

The other day after the mothers day breakfast at the church ty wanted to go on a walk to the canyon.  

This was Nick's first hike where he got to walk.  He loved stopping to pick up rocks and sticks.

Ty loves throwing rocks off of the edge into the canyon.

Kate's spring orchestra concert

Wax museum

All the 4th graders at Barranca Mesa Elementary work put on a wax muswum.  Kate chose to be Robert J. Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

The kids had to write a research paper,  make a poster, write a poem, make a ticket box, find a costume and write and memorize a 30 second speech.

Then on the day of the wax museum all the kids dressed up as their person and sat under their poster with their research paper and their ticket box at their feet.  All the classes in the school and the public got to see the wax museum for over four hours.  

Grandma and Grandpa Judi were visiting so they came with us to see the wax museum.   We put a ticket in the student's box and they came to life.  They stood up and gave their speech,  then sat back down and held their pose.

Oppenheimer wax museum: http://youtu.be/z-as-aqMP5k

Jack's Baptism

Jack was very excited for his baptism!  We made these invitations that he handed out to his friends at school, his teachers, and neighbors. 

He was pretty worried as he was walking off the soccer field on the way to the hospital when he broke his arm about how would affect his baptism the next day. 

We put his arm in a newspaper bag and made it water-tight with saran wrap and rubber bands, and he was baptized!

Pictures before the baptism service.

Here's the program for his baptism.  The service was held in the chapel.  Jack and I waited by the chapel doors to welcome friends and give them a program.

A lot of Jack's friends came...here are the people that I remember that came:
Jonah, Lily and Scot Johnson
Lyas Eidenbenz and his mom, Seraina
Anna Schmitz and her family
Emma Frost and her dad
our neighbor, Brooke Davis,
Sister Mason (our favorite grandma)
the Miller family
the Vest family
the Nye family
Lucas Anderson and his dad
Sister Olsen (the primary president)
Brother Johns
Brother Gibbons (Jack's primary teacher)
the Harris family
Ty, Josh and Emily Gartz
Grandma and Grandpa Judi
Roy & Nina Epperson
Newman family
McDonald family
the Sister missionaries (Sister Jay and Sister Van Wagoner)

Jack wanted Sister Epperson to say the opening prayer.  She was his primary teacher last year.  He asked Kate to give the baptism talk.

After Kate's talk everyone went downstairs to the primary room for the baptism ordinance.  Dave and I quickly wrapped up Jack's arm to make it waterproof, then he was baptized.  He did it the first time!  Grandpa Judi and Brother Epperson were the witnesses.  While I was helping Jack change he told me how good he felt and how he felt like he was a good example for his friends. 

He asked Grandpa Judi to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Before the meeting, he told Grandpa to do a good job, so he wouldn't be embarrassed. 

Brother Epperson, Bishop Miller, Grandpa Judi and Dave stood in the circle to give Jack the Holy Ghost and confirm him a member of the church.

Bishop Miller welcomed him to the ward and gave him a journal.  Brother Epperson was conducting and added how impressed he was with Jack.  He told the story about how Jack was playing football with his family last Thanksgiving and one of the teenagers threw a really hard pass at Jack and it hit him really hard in the gut.  Jack didn't let it bother him and toughed it out so he could keep playing and not let his team down.

After the prayer we went in the gym and had refreshments.  I made cheesecake, little fruit pizzas, brownies, lemon bars, and rolo cookies.  Sister Olsen brought some of her fabulous fudge and Sister Nye brought some cookies too.  By the time everyone left all the dessert was gone.  Jack had fun running around and hanging out with his friends, especially his school friends that came, Lyas, Emma and Anna S.

Jack's Last Soccer Game of the Season and a Broken Arm

Jack's last soccer game of the season ended in unexpected way.

 

At halftime I snapped this picture of their team. 

top:  Reese, David, Nikolai, Owen, Gavin, Sarah
bottom:  Molly, Amelia, kid from a WR team, Lyas and Jack

I took this picture of Jack's knees at halftime too because he was playing so hard...they were really dirty!  He was doing lots of slide kicks. 

At the first part of the fourth quarter, Jack slid to kick the ball and landed on his arm.  From the way he was holding his arm (like it was flopping) and the way he was crying, I knew it was broken.  Dave had to keep coaching the game, so I took him to get it checked out.

Grandpa Judi came with us.  He climbed in the backseat and gave Jack a blessing while I was driving.

We went to Urgent Care first, but their x-ray tech wasn't in, so we had to go to the emergency room at the hospital. 

 

After the game was over, Dave switched places with me.  He stayed at the ER while I went with Marianne and the other kids to clean the church. 

 

After x-rays they found that he broke his right arm.  They put it in a splint that went above his elbow and gave him a sling.  He seemed like he was in a lot of pain until they splinted it and then the pain was minimal. 

 

Jack's cleats and socks were so dirty that the hospital bed was covered in dirt by the time he left.  They had to wipe dirt off of his arm too. 

 

Right away Jack started trying to do things with his left arm, even playing basketball. 



Kate's Art Show

Kate's dragon that she made in art class got to be on display at Fuller Lodge during the May Day Celebration with other art from the school district.