Activities This Week

This last week the girls' school had a spirit week to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday and Read Across America. On Monday it was hat day. I got my cowgirl hat out and offered that Charlotte could wear it if she wanted to. She said she would if she couldn't find one from her room. Charlotte and Alice both wore their old t-ball/softball hats from when they played in Nampa. They were both on teams with the same name, so their hats were the same. They even wore their hats to activity days that day because I picked them up from school and drove straight over to the church. The main activity we did was making slip knot bracelets. I had taught my girls how to do them on Sunday so that they could get practice and help other girls, but they still got to make another one on Monday also. Afterwards we played "Do You Love Your Neighbor?". I was surprised that no one had ever played this game before, and they had such a good time. Unfortunately, they didn't get to play it very long. That one hour goes by quickly!

Showing off their bracelets.

Neither of the girls wore my hat to school but Alice put it on that evening, and she looked like the cutest little cowgirl with her skirt and black boots.

Thursday night was the big Read Across America Night and they had some activities going on at the school, so I took the girls over there. They each got a Cat in the Hat hat to wear and a "passport" that had check boxes for each of the activities you could do. We were able to do most of them. Alice did a little scavenger hunt first that was for first graders only and she got a little prize for doing it. There were things like listening to a story read by a police officer, face painting, writing an appreciation note to a staff member at the school, guessing how many words are in a book, and voting on the best decorated doors done by the teachers. The doors were decorated to relate to books. There was also a free cookie in the cafeteria along with some pizza and pop for sale by the PTO and there were bookmarks to color and a washable tattoo. The girls had a great time.

Alice got her face painted but Charlotte chose not to.

Jack's band teacher sent out an email asking for 2 chaperones for the wind ensemble group for the competition they were having at the college in Ellensburg on Saturday. Normally Jack is not in the wind ensemble, but he and a couple other younger kids were invited to join them for this competition, including his friend Eli. They needed two chaperones to ride the bus and it was an all day event. We didn't really have any plans other than me wanting to do some yard work, but I was willing to be a chaperone. I waited to see if anyone else would sign up first but when no one had, I talked to Curtis about it. He said he was willing to go too, even though he wasn't excited about riding the bus. I wasn't either to tell the truth. If they hadn't got the chaperones they needed, then they would have had to cancel their trip. So, Curtis and I signed up to be the chaperones. I was glad to be doing it together. He said he hasn't ridden on a bus since he was a kid. I've had a lot more practice than him since I've been chaperone for kids' events over the years. 

Since I knew we were going to be gone most of the day Saturday, I decided I wanted to get some yard work done on Friday during the day. I tackled the big bush in the back yard again. Even after trimming it last Summer/Fall I knew it was still too tall. I trimmed it way down because I know it will have all Spring and Summer to grow.

I had already started trimming it when I thought to get a picture, but this is basically the before picture.

And here's the after.

Milo had lots of outside time with me on Friday. Occasionally I would throw a toy for him to get or a big branch that I cut from the bush for him to chew on.

There's a lot more yard work I wanted to do but this bush took up all of my time. We had plans that evening to go hang out with friends from the ward. It started with Jack getting invited by Cam and Cole Wingert to go rock wall climbing. Then we decided to get together with their parents to play games. We went to their house because they were hosting a teenage girl get together for their daughters. Charlotte is friends with their youngest son, Connor, so we brought the girls along as well. While the men were gone to take the boys over to Richland for the rock wall climbing, Tiffani and I got to visit for awhile. The men ended up staying the whole time with the boys because Jack didn't want to stay long. I think Jack was tired from being up since 5 am and playing tennis after school for the tennis team. We snacked on some pizza and popcorn when they came back and then the adults played a couple of rounds of Uno Flip. I had never played this variation of Uno before. It was kind of fun but it can get confusing. We had fun but we were tired and didn't stay too long since we had to get to the school early the next morning.

We woke up around 5:20am to be able to shower and eat before getting to the school by 7:15am. The bus was loaded at 7:30am and we hit the road shortly after. It's about a 2 hour drive except we did take one rest stop break, so it was probably closer to 2 1/2 hours. There were supposed to be 23 students but only 20 showed up. We got there and watched a couple of other bands perform before going to get ready for their performance. We were told that we could stay in the auditorium while they did that and during the performance. After they were finished, we forgot that they were going to get some instruction in a separate room. We waited outside of the auditorium for awhile before deciding to check to see if they went to the instrument storage area. They were not there and then we thought they went to lunch already at the cafeteria, but they were not there when we got over there. We just decided to ahead and get ourselves some food. Finally, Jack contacted us, and they were heading our way, so we waited. After lunch we had a couple of hours to hang out until we had to go back and watch some more performances. Then we hit the road and got home around 6:15pm. The ride home felt more uncomfortable than the ride there. They just need more leg space and softer seats on those buses. It was a long day but I'm happy we were able to help.

Riding on the bus.

Watching their performance. Jack played the French horn.

The picture Curtis sent Jack when he said we were lost. This is how worried we were, ha ha.

The bus ride home. Jack and Eli.

Charlotte's dress came in the mail early! It was supposed to come on Monday, but it came on Friday. Charlotte wore it to church this morning and I think she's really happy with it. It is a little long, but it still works. Unfortunately, she didn't get to wear it to class because she started coughing a lot during Sacrament meeting and Curtis ended up taking her home right after the Sacrament was passed. He gave her some cough medicine and she did a breathing treatment. It's getting a bit frustrating with her cough getting better and then acting up again over and over. Fortunately, the meds worked and helped settle her cough down. She's feeling much better now.

She wanted to wear it with her white vest.

But it looks cute either way.