Neighborhood Kickball

Last Spring we started an unofficial softball league with several other families in our neighborhood. This year we've switched to kickball, which is easier for the kids. We feel lucky blessed to have such great friends.

12 photos on the 12th—April

The 12th of April was busy, productive and fun. I went to my last kindergarten program as a parent! Hopefully I'll have many more as a grandma and great-grandma someday. :) Rob was working from home, so we went out to lunch (Zupas, Ainsley's choice). It snowed, and I finally got our taxes filed. Book group was great—we did something different, and picked a theme, rather than a specific book. The theme was whole food, plant-based nutrition, and we had a potluck in addition to our discussion. It was a record turnout and a fabulous evening.

Spring Break

It's a good thing Rob is mostly eating a no-sugar, whole foods, plant-based diet now, because if his arteries were the least bit clogged, I'm pretty sure the shock of seeing a post here would induce a heart-attack. Remember this one?

I've been kind of busy. The upside to catching up on events that happened months ago is that out of the 730 photos I took in one week (plus 4 videos, but who's counting?) I've narrowed it down to a few favorites. You're welcome. Or, for you Grandma, since you may be the only one still checking this blog, I'm sorry, you can come and see the other 725 anytime. :)

We spent spring break (March 30th - April 7th) in St. George, which was beautiful, although still not as warm as I like it. We arranged for the Easter Bunny to deliver baskets and eggs there, and a whole week early! The kids were able to play with some new toys and finish up all their sugar over the break. 

Speaking of bunnies, we met up with some friends while we were there and the kids begged for a bunny just like theirs:

The kids were able to swim a couple of times, once indoors and once outside, with friends.

There are a few photos that I wish I had, including some with one of my favorite mission companions who was also visiting St. George from Colorado. We were able to meet up for ice cream, and took our kids to a movie and dinner another day. It was so great to see her, but my phone pictures are terrible. On the other hand, she told me about the Red Cliffs Recreation Area, and we went "hiking" (more like walking, with lots of photo stops) there. This photo, taken there, is now my desktop photo:

Last but not least, Ellie finally learned how to ride a bike while we were there. She just went and did it on her own! Unfortunately it was the day we were leaving, so she didn't get to enjoy her new skill for long. Although apparently we didn't pack her helmet, so maybe that's okay.

It was great to get away, and we loved spending some time with Ralph, Judy and Jake, in addition to our friends. 

And she picked...

The purple frames:




Cute, huh?

This Week's "Field Trip"

How many kids get excited to visit the dentist? Mine do. Eye exam? Yep. Well, except maybe Joey, because he hates getting drops put in his eyes (gets that from Rob).

But they love trying on glasses...

Joey's vision is 20/15, but he can't resist a prop. I love the Napolean Dynamite specs. If he grows his hair out again, it'll be the perfect Halloween costume.

The big news is that Ellie needs glasses, just a little long-distance correction. She liked these three pair:

So, what's your vote? I'll post her choice when we pick them up next week...

Finally, the kids with those awesome disposable sunglasses:

Lucky...No, Blessed

Ever since the boys quit soccer, our Saturdays have been blissfully open. This week was an exception. The boys left at 7:45 a.m. for a merit badge day. I joined them for a couple of leader classes from 10:00-12:00. Robbie had most of the merit badges they offered, so he came home with me after lunch, and Joey stayed until 4:00 and worked on rank advancement. Here they are in the fingerprinting class, which they both enjoyed. Their other favorite was the electronics badge.

Robbie and I hurried home, changed and cut brownies to take to Grandpa Backman's 90th birthday open house. We feel so lucky to have him in our lives.

I wish I'd thought to get a photo with all three Robert Backmans...

It was great to see Rob's brother Rich, from Atlanta. We missed Matt & his family, and of course Joe wasn't there.

Judy is the oldest of seven daughters. We love all of Rob's aunts.

Here's a shot of all the family there—two of the Champneys came from California and Texas, and the Prices came from California, Texas and Germany! It was so fun to see everyone.

These are the grandkids who made it:

And the great-grandkids—this should have been a video, not a picture. It was pretty comical.

We picked Joey up just in time for a photo before everyone went home.

We had dinner at El Farol's with the Marshes, and I didn't even have my phone camera with me for a photo. When we finally got home I collapsed finished my gospel doctrine lesson. It was a productive, fun, exhausting day. Not much time for St. Patrick's Day traditions, but the leprechauns did make an appearance the night before, leaving gold Rolos inside the kids' lockers. And as Ainsley pointed out, we didn't want to wear green anyway...that's Slytherin's color. :)

Lucky Charms Graph

In case anyone else is doing a kindergarten learning center on St. Patrick's Day. :) I couldn't find a graph that was free and high resolution with all eight charms, so I made one. Feel free to use it. Just give each kid a baggy with Lucky Charms in it, have them sort their charms into piles, then color in the graph with a matching crayon. When they're done, they can eat the cereal.

Twelve Photos on 3.12.12

My "theme" this month is color.

• I love the way the girl's rooms turned out—that's another post to come, but here's a sneak peek.
• I'm also so excited to see a few flowers and green leaves sprouting up and can't wait for Spring!
• I stocked up on lots of colorful fruits and veggies at Target, and will be making yummy Spring Rolls this week.
• Ainsley spent most of the morning coloring—right now she's into Bratz Girls' coloring pages (I can't stand them, but I guess it's better than watching TV all morning).
• I painted the girls' fingernails green for St. Patrick's Day.
• Rob very grudgingly agreed to let me take a photo of him wearing the new shirt I picked up at Costco—I love the color!
• Robbie had a water polo game tonight. Water polo is seriously fun to watch, even though it makes me tired just watching. :) They won.
• Finally, I found Joey reading in his room, instead of putting on his pj's. No collage of photos representing this day would be complete without piles of dirty clothes. Just keeping it real.

Mr. Dramatic

It seems like every haircut Joey gets takes an inordinate amount of coaxing and/or bribery, and is usually a picture taking event, because it happens so rarely. I guess if long hair is the worst form of rebellion we get, we'll count ourselves lucky.

School happenings

Joey's class is studying debate, and he did a good job arguing against vending machines in elementary schools.

The kindergarten classes had a "Kindy 500" road trip. They were each assigned a state and made a cardboard car—Ainsley got Arkansas, which was a bit of a challenge. We used the state seal for headlights, the state flag for tail lights, and although ASU is represented on the license plates, the Razorbacks have decals on both side doors. There's a bumper sticker for Bill Clinton's hometown too. We probably should have added a Walmart sticker on there somewhere...

The Kindy 500 happened to fall on the same day as Dr. Seuss day, thus the crazy hair and socks.

The Next Flying Tomato

Joey is snowboarding each Friday after school for six weeks, and has loved it so far, in spite of the lousy snow conditions. When we bought his snowboard, the salesman commented that he could be the next Flying Tomato. Yep. Wish I'd been able to take a few action shots, but obviously not enough to drive up to Brighton.

V Day

This year I helped with the Valentine's party in Joey's class—I made scones, which were a big hit.

Here are the kids with their Valentine boxes. Poor Robbie, no parties, notes or candy in Junior High.

Luckily he loves our family tradition of books for Valentine's Day.

And crepes for dinner. New this year is a low carb recipe that I found on Pinterest—they're surprisingly good!

A Happy Birthday

Sadly, I am now at the age when I have to do the math to remember how old I am. Fortunately, I was born on a decade year, so this isn't too difficult.

My 42nd birthday was a good one. Rob took the day off and took me to breakfast and lunch at Hagermann's, with a trip to Ikea in between. Huge sacrifice for him, I wish I'd taken a photo of his virgin trip there. We picked up a cute sewing table/desk and chair for Ellie, and Rob finished painting her room so we could get her moved in before she came home from school. I love finishing a project. Also, I got a Kindle, and I'm loving it! I thought I'd hold out for an iPad, but I think this is actually a better sized tablet for me, since it fits in my purse.

I am also now old enough to be amazed by the progression in technology during my lifetime. Wonder what they'll invent in the next 42 years? I hope to find out. :)

Twelve Photos on 2.12.12

This month I decided to go with the obvious theme for my twelve photos on the 12th. I tortured my family for individual shots, and even let Ellie take one of me.

The photo of Joey practicing was in a teasing attempt to make him smile, even though he was, as usual, not happy to be playing the piano. I ended up generalizing what I love as "music" but I also love the fact that Rob is willing to enforce practicing most days, and that my kids are developing a useful talent. Also, I listened to a fabulous talk this week that uses piano lessons as an analogy for grace. It's a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox, and if you haven't already, you should really listen to it or read it right now.

I had a friend take a photo of our gospel doctrine class. This probably belongs in the love-hate category. I love the gospel, and am learning so much as I prepare to teach from the Book of Mormon. What I HATE is being in the spotlight for even one minute.

Our dinners are pretty simple on the Sundays I teach. This week we had bagels with cream cheese and sauteed onions and peppers. Easy, but seriously delicious.

I've found a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that I love. (Thank you Pinterest). One of the secrets is that the dough is prepared in advance and frozen, so the bottoms gets nice and crispy, but the inside is moist and chewy. The bonus is that you can make one pan at a time and have fresh-baked cookies more than once. Here's the link.

I love our Valentine tradition of giving books. And I love that I had everything purchased and wrapped in advance this year!

Finally, I love Downton Abbey. It's become a total soap opera in season two, but one with great cinematography, acting and costumes. :) We got rid of our DVR a while ago, so I've been watching religiously on Sunday evenings. It's been about 15 years since I last cared about a TV show enough to watch it when it aired (back then it was Seinfeld on Thursday nights). Fun.

Inspiration for the layout here. No, I'm not that creative.