Our Next Activity

I'm so glad I got pictures of all of the flowers and blossoms when I did, because only a couple of days later we had a warm weekend, and our tulips did not look good after that. Our trees have pretty much dropped all of the pink petals also. 

Speaking of flowers, I did some looking online for ideas for our next activity days and I found several flowers made from pipe cleaners. I tested out a couple and decided it was simple enough and fun to do and it would make a great Mother's Day gift since our next activity won't be until after Mother's Day. Sister Gale liked the idea also, even though she's out of town again and won't be here for it.

These were the first two I made, a tulip and daffodil.

While shopping for the flower materials I decided that maybe we better just do one type of flower because the cost was adding up quickly with all the different colors. Charlotte said she likes daisies and so I found a YouTube video for how to make a daisy. It was still simple enough and so I bought the materials I needed. I had gone to Walmart, the Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby looking for things but found most of the items I needed at Hobby Lobby.  As an added bonus, the clay pots I bought were 50% off at Hobby Lobby and I didn't realize it until checking out. I love those kinds of surprises! A week before the activity I had Sister Diaz and Sister McShane come over to practice making a daisy so that we would be ready to help the girls. Sister McShane said she could help while Sister Gale is out of town.

We each made one and put it in the pot for display for the girls. We used black beans for the "dirt". They were still a little flimsy so I later bought foam and cut it to fit inside the pot and stick the stems in. That helped.

We bagged the beans for each girl so they could take it with them and fill their pot at home if they wanted. It was a lot less messy at the church also. We also cut out tags that I had printed from online and cut the yellow pipe cleaners in half and cut string for the tags.

Here's the foam I had to cut up.

Our activity was this last Monday (the 22nd) and I went in early to set it all up. I was excited that Brother Brown taught me how to cast my phone screen to the TV in the Relief Society room so that I could show the video to the girls on how to make the daisies. The TV is a permanent one they have attached to the wall so we don't have to get one from the library. It's so nice!

All set up and ready for the girls.

Each girl had enough materials to make 3 flowers if they wanted. Some chose to make only 1 or 2. And we always start out with a snack at the beginning since the girls come straight from school to the activity.

Having fun outside afterwards.

Last week I finally was able to watch Jack play in a tennis match. He and his teammate (and friend), Luke, are doing well considering they're both beginners on the JV team. Jack has a little experience from playing in 6th grade but hasn't played much since then. They didn't win but that's okay. They both said they thought they played well and improved. It didn't help that it was windy that day.

Going for the serve.

One day Alice spotted our cat, Coco, making himself cozy in the bathroom. She asked if she could use my phone to take a picture. Our cats crack me up sometimes! I saw him do this multiple times in our old house but this is the first time I've seen him do it here. It's not really a habit I want him to get into though!

Last Friday our girls school had their annual Jog-A-Thon and I was able to help this year. They had us use an app on our phones to scan the tag that each child was given with their name on it. Sometimes the scanner had a hard time scanning but I later learned that I was probably holding it too close to my phone. The older kids went first and so I helped Charlotte's class in the morning and then in the afternoon I came back to help Alice's class. The morning was freezing and I had to wear two jackets on top of a long sleeve and short sleeved shirt, plus gloves! By the afternoon, I didn't need any jackets or gloves. Charlotte ran 16 laps, which is 2 miles and Alice did 17 laps. I was so proud of my girls. I kept worrying about Charlotte though because she has mild asthma and has had to use her breathing treatment a lot the past few months, but she did just fine. I think it helped that I had started giving her an allergy pill every day for over a week. She hasn't had to use the machine since. 

Alice with her friend.

I forgot to get a picture when doing the race but got one after school. Every student got a t-shirt.