Regional Science Fair

I didn't get to see Emma at our local science fair, since the rest of the family and I skipped town to go to my cousin's wedding reception.  A certain girl had a mopey face about the whole situation, so I promised I would go to Tri-Cities when it was time for the regional science fair.  So, today I drove down there to see her in action!

Mutual Night

Last night was the combined Young Men and Young Women activity. It was called the Fiery Darts of the Adversary.  Basically, the leaders all got to shoot nerf darts at all of the youth, yours truly included.  During the first round, the unprotected youth had to run up and touch the target without getting shot.  Then they had a couple of tables to hide behind on their way up.  For the 3rd and final round, they got to put on "The Whole Armor of God" aka cardboard everyone brought from home.

Emma is in the middle in the back, with an Amazon box on her head.

There was something oddly satisfying about shooting them with nerf guns.  (They didn't have weapons to shoot back.)  We, the Young Women leaders, thought this was a good activity and should be repeated at some point.  Most of the leaders belong to some of the youth there, and there was a certain wicked gleam in our eyes when handed the giant nerf guns and were told to not let the youth get across the gym.  Heh heh heh.

Class Picture Day

You know that mom who lets their child go to school on picture day wearing some strange outfits because the child thinks she looks nice?  That would be me.  I don't know what to say about Maddie's outfit this year.  She picked out her whole outfit very carefully and thinks she looks great. 

How can I say otherwise?

Annie is wearing the same jean jacket she wore for individual pictures in the fall.  She loves that thing.  She also loves that shirt, jeans, and pair of boots.  They are on constant replay.  It was supposed to be a matching twin outfit, so she can wear that outfit twice as often.  

The Mobile Orchard

Last spring, when I was at Costco I spied some apricot trees and bought two.  Ryan and I had talked about getting some apricot trees because, I guess, they don't need to be regularly sprayed to have edible, bug-free fruit.  Not knowing much about picking out fruit trees, I bought two different kinds (aren't you supposed to have different kinds for good pollination...?  I think?).  Well, they grew nicely last year, and they are showing signs of flowers already this year.  We have great expectations for fruit this summer.

This has Ryan all excited about fruit trees.  I was told that if I saw more fruit trees at Costco again this year, that I needed to pick up more.  Preferably one more apricot and two pear trees.  Bartlett and Bosch, if possible.

I combed through all of the trees at Costco.  I think I literally picked out the very last Bosch and Bartlett trees from the display.  There were lots of apple, peach, and cherry trees. There were several of the combination trees of the pears, but Ryan isn't a fan of having several varieties on the same tree.  I feel like I don't know much about stuff like that, so I bow to Ryan's superior Ag Teacher knowledge.  Also, those combo trees cost more.  I even found one apricot tree.  Then I wandered around the store doing the rest of my shopping trying not to poke anyone.

 Then I loaded them in my minivan.  The apricot tree was so tall that I had to set the base of it a row in front of the other two, and the top still reached the trunk door.

Saturday

This year my in-laws are making a point to spend one day (probably in the birthday month) with each grandchild alone during the course of the year.  Today was Emma's day, because her birthday comes first in the year.  I'm sure she probably also thinks it is partly because she's the oldest and coolest granddaughter too.  But as parents, we just about had a mutiny on our hands.  I had three children, well two in particular, who considered this a personal affront to them.  Why should Emma get to spend a day by herself with Grandma?  It was just so not fair.  

The sadness started at bedtime Friday night.  It did not get better after Grandma picked up Emma from our house.  

After Ryan puttered outside (and I helped the kids with the indoor Saturday chores, including a deep clean of the bedrooms), we decided to take the kids bowling.

 We played two games.  The kids had the bumpers up, and I wished I had the bumpers up.  I was a little worried that the girls were going to beat me.  Yes, I am occasionally a little competitive, even against my own children.  In the end though, Annie only beat me by two points over all, and I was ahead of the other two kids.  Our two game totals are as follows: Elizabeth- 188, Annie- 201, Maddie- 168, Danae- 199, Ryan- 219.  This was definitely a decent score for my unskilled self.

(Since I am posting this many days later, I can say the following.)

We have been so stressed out about Ryan's job.  We were pleased as punch that Ryan did land his one year position as assistant principal last summer.  Over the moon happy, I would venture to say.  The old principal who took a year's leave of absence this year has now formally retired, and both the principal and assistant principal's positions were reopened.  Ryan re-applied for his job.

The evening the position closed, the principal was interviewed and told she was rehired the next day.  But they were not going to interview for assistant principal for a while yet.

I hate uncertainty.  It burns a hole inside.  I get tight, tense, anxious, and have difficulty sleeping.  Ryan isn't a fan either, but he usually deals with it a little easier than I do.  But this situation has turned him into me, and it's hard when we both are extra tired, stressed, anxious, and tense.  So I have been trying to make a point of letting Ryan get time to garden/build/putter outside when he has the time.

Ryan was finally given a day for his interview, but he doesn't want to tell anyone.  He doesn't want to talk about the interview, and so it isn't going to exist until after the fact.

The anxiousness has also led me to find a quick recipe for caramel pecan sticky buns at Ryan's request online.  I was an awfully nice parent, letting the kids watch me make these, and then putting the kids to bed before they came out of the oven.

Oh deliciousness, how I love thee.

Grandma and Grandpa brought Emma home around 7 pm.  Despite my lecture about not making Emma feel bad about missing bowling, the rest of my little sweet dears rubbed it in rather unmercifully.  Now Emma is upset she missed bowling, and the other three are upset it wasn't their turn to spend a day with Grandma and Grandpa.

I tell you, I can't win at anything.

Except maybe desserts.  Those sticky buns were super good.  (And did you know you can substitute honey for corn syrup?  You couldn't even tell that I had.)

1st Grade Writing

I love looking at writing that the kids have done.  These both have been pieces that have been displayed on the hallway wall at school.  The first one is by Annie in honor of Dr. Seuss week.

"If that Cat in the Hat came to your house, how would you get him to leave?"  Annie's answer: I would put water on him.  Then pack up his stuf.  Then I would kick him out of the door.

Some of the other kids wrote that they would call the police or 911 so the Cat in the Hat could be put in jail.  I guess The Cat in the Hat is really not welcome at anyone's house.

This one was one of the first opinion papers Maddie wrote, this being whether or not the class should have a Valentine's Day party.

"I beileve we shold have a Valentie's Day partty beuase it allows us to Show people we love them and having a Vantines partty wold be good beuase I Love Valentines."

Can you believe one kid didn't think they should have a Valentine's party?  Who raises a kid like that?

Wacky Thursday

Today was Wacky Day.  All I will say is- my kids are amazing.

 Annie wanted to look like Medusa, and has 6 braids.  Maddie has one pig tail and 4 braids.  Elizabeth kept it simple with 6 pig tails.

I got a text from another mom asking if today was, in fact, the wacky dress up day because there weren't any kids wearing crazy outfits when she was dropping off her daughter.  I replied, "Well, I sure hope so.  Elizabeth went to school with her clothes on inside out, with mismatched socks and shoes, and her hair in 6 pig tails."

Wednesday

This year our elementary school decided against the obvious dress up day for Wednesday- "Wacky Wednesday."  Instead we had a day to go to school in our pjs.  I decided to get into the spirit of Dr. Seuss week today, and left the house to volunteer wearing yoga pants, an FFA t-shirt, and a hoodie.  The girls thought it was great.  I did brush my hair before leaving the house.  Looking at some of the kids at school- I'm not sure everyone did.

Elizabeth's outfit is the bomb, with horizontal and vertical stripes.  Who needs matching pajamas?

 Later on in the day I had Emma collect the chicken eggs.  We dubbed the big one a "screamer."  If I had been that bird, I would have demanded an epidural and several days recovery time.  Our egg production has gone up significantly with the weather warming up.  It's nice to feed the chickens and actually get something in return again.

I fixed an early dinner, before running off to drop Elizabeth off at Activity Days.  I meant to run right back home to pick up the rest of the family for the 6 pm Science Fair awards, but I was stuck at the church longer than I intended.  Elizabeth and I pulled into the church parking lot right on time, and I walked her into the church building.  The scouts were there, but no leaders for the girls.  More girls showed up, dropped off at the door by their parents, but I seemed to be the only adult waiting for the Activity Days leader.  Yes, there had been a group text saying we were a "go" for the evening, but still.  I don't think that makes me an over-protective parent just to make sure there's going to be an adult there to supervise my child, does it?  In any case, at 5:40 I told Ryan that he had better just bring the other three kids in his truck and I would meet him at Emma's school.  So, the girls and I talked about school, and dress up days, and a kid who was arrested at the other middle school.  Apparently he tried to run away while wearing handcuffs.  A real bright kid, sounds like.

Eventually I was discharged from my self-imposed babysitting duty, and drove over to Emma's school.  The awards "ceremony" was held in the teacher's classroom.  Here's Emma holding her participation award and giving a short explanation of her experiment.  All the kids did that part.

 And then here are the kids who got awards.  Emma got an honorable mention.  We are pleased for her.  We didn't really help Emma at all with her experiment or presentation board this time around.  We wanted her to take charge of it, and we would help after we were asked.

 The Science Club officers at the high school came, and were in charge of a couple of little science experiments to show off after the awards were given.  Annie and Maddie got to help with the Alka Seltzer explosions.

Then Emma and I ran home for her Personal Progress book (even though SOMEONE had been reminded to bring it before we left home) while Ryan went to the church to check in.  The Beehive presidency is being reorganized and he needed to extend some callings.  Well, the Beehives were actually just now leaving to pick up the newest member of the Beehives, and so he couldn't do his job, but he couldn't just go home because I had Maddie with me because I was supposed to meet Ryan at church...  So instead of driving to the church, I met the rest of the Beehives at the house of the newest Beehive, left Emma with them to drive back to church in Sis. Weaver's giant van (no minivans for them!), took Maddie home, waited for Dad and Annie to show up, and ran back down to the church.  (Is anyone else tired yet?  I am.  And hungry.  That one waffle and one egg I ate for dinner wasn't cutting it anymore.)  Then at about 8 pm, we piled all those 12 and 13 year old girls into our two vans (I had 5 of them) and we drove to McDonald's for ice cream cones.  The girls in my car were the ones who generally go with Ryan for the temple trips, and started requesting songs to sing to while we drove.  We did some great belting out of Adele's "Hello."

After all that, it was the waiting on parents to show up and pick up their progeny that left me feeling grumpy.  I just wanted to go home and eat, and I had an exercise in patience instead.  Not the loving kind, but more like mean diatribes in my head- "If they don't come soon, I'm just taking the girls home with me and the parents can drive all the way out to my house, dang it!  How hard is it to show up on time?!?!"

Deep breaths, Danae.  It's going to be ok.  Breathe.  Be nice.  Aren't you always telling your kids to be nice and kind?

I can't be too nice when I'm hungry, I guess.

Making Dinner

We are still wading through the onions and winter squash we grew last year.  I am not stingy with onions these days- I'll cut up a whole one and throw it in almost any (savory) dish I can think of: pasta, soup, rice dish, eggs, Mexican dishes, Italian dishes, gyros, sandwiches, you name it.  Emma still isn't a fan.  But if the onions are small enough and well disguised, sometimes they pass unnoticed.  

Sometimes I like to joke that I must be really attached to our onions.  I get teary-eyed every time I use them in our food.  Every. Single. Time.  While this isn't usually a problem, it's an issue when we are having company over for dinner.  Between cooking, helping with homework, and making sure the kitchen doesn't explode into a full blown mess (because our table is IN the kitchen and so there is no hiding a mess), I don't always have a moment to find a mirror and adjust mobile eyeliner and mascara before the company arrives.

Darn onion fumes.

Toothless

Annie walked in the front door after school with a wad of bloody tissue sticking out of her mouth, and more wadded up in one hand.  In other words, she looked like a mess.  Did I miss a phone call from the school?  What happened?

With my eyebrows raised, I nonchalantly asked what happened to Annie today?  Speaking around the bloody tissue mess was going to be difficult, so Maddie answered for her twin.  Annie's tooth fell out on the bus.  

Then came the full version:  Well, actually a girl on the bus dared Annie to pull out her own tooth, and Annie happily obliged.  

Annie dropped her handful of kleenex on the kitchen table, and she started uncrumpling all of them trying to find the little bitty baby tooth.  She couldn't find it.  There was a moment of panic.  I calmly stepped in and was able to find her tooth tucked into a scrunched up corner of one of the tissues.

Crisis adverted.  Mom saved the day.

It's Dr. Seuss spirit week at school, and the reason Annie is wearing her soccer jersey in this picture is that it was sports day.  We don't actually own sports gear, exactly.  So the twins wore their own soccer shirts, and Elizabeth wore a BYU hand-me-down t-shirt from someone in the ward (which isn't precisely sports, but BYU does have basketball, football, etc. teams, so we're all good, right?).  When I was in volunteering, I realized the closest thing I have to sport clothes is a Quidditch "World Cup" t-shirt.

I think that means I prefer books to real sports.