They're off!!

 Bella has now joined the ranks of the straight teeth teenagers.  Her teeth look great and it brings me great joy to know that the large sums of money spent on braces went to a good cause.

March 2024:

Dec 2022:

Spring Break and Easter

 This year we had a difficult time deciding on a location for spring break because Benjamin had already made plans to go to Orlando, FL with friends.  Bella and Christian didn't really want to do any of the same things or do them together, so finding a place for them was tough too.  So we decided to make it a "stay-cation" and do things around here with anyone who wanted to join in.  It went great.  Benjamin had a wonderful trip and we had a lot of fun too.

First day of spring break, it snowed.  First and only sledding day the whole winter.  Even though it started to melt almost immediately, I forced the kids against their will to go sledding.  I couldn't miss the one day all winter!  Everyone went grudgingly but had a super great time, especially Peter who loved sledding in snow that didn't poof up into his face.

He insisted on pretending to be asleep for the photo.  Sadly he just looks dead.  Not terribly picture worthy, but I have to post the pictures I'm in, since there are always so few.

Christian wanted to go to Sky Zone, the trampoline park with friends.  So we got four friends to come along and everyone, including Peter, had a great time.  They were all so sweet with him and he felt like one of the gang.

One day we went to Lego Land and the Aquarium - both in the same building.  Wildly overpriced but it was a fun day of activity with lunch and some shopping together as well. 

Then Kelly and Christian went motorcycling for a few days while I hung out with Bella.  Mostly we ate sushi (so frequently that all the waitstaff now knows us personally) but we also went to the Toledo Zoo. The best pictures at the zoo are always with the fake animals.  The real ones are far too often turned away, behind glass, or sleeping.  This alpaca was our favorite because he reminded us of someone. ;)  Hint: I couldn't get a picture when he was facing us, but his hair is a dead ringer for Christian.  Tell me I'm not right.  J/K, we love you Christian!

Some pictures Benjamin sent me from Orlando.  He had a wonderful time and said that even the crazy long drive both ways was fun because he spent it laughing and hanging out with friends.

One day I took the boys swimming.  Peter is becoming such a great swimmer. It just funny because his arms don't move the same.  His right is strong and perfect and his left is far less.  According to Christian, "Peter's controller has drift."  A perfect description.  His left arm hardly makes it out of the water, causing him to drift left as he goes along until he's completely off course.  It's interesting to watch.

Anytime I leave these two with my phone, selfies always happen.  Here Peter is holding up his latest swimming ribbon for advancing another level in swim class.

The last day of spring break was Easter.  We had been studying about Christ, the atonement, and the resurrection for a couple weeks each night leading up to the Easter and it made the whole month so special.  My favorite thing that I got for Easter this year was a hanging daily devotional calendar.  It had three weeks of daily scriptures and questions regarding Christ.  They prompted so many great conversations and insights.  I loved it and plan to use it every year.  On Easter we invited Thea for dinner along with the missionaries from our ward.  They shared a great lesson and Kelly cooked a great dinner.  We also decorated eggs (no pictures - ugh!) and hunted for eggs.  Bella was the big winner in our money game this year with $26.  Benjamin got $12 and Christian got $6.  He was bit bummed.  Everyone had a lot of fun, though.  Peter got jelly beans and legos in his eggs because his teacher told him about jelly beans and he was so anxious to try them. He laid down on the couch and tried each different flavor.  He loved them all except when he got the spicy cinnamon.  I felt a little bad when I saw his face eating that one!

I'd say our "stay-cation" was a success.  Far less money spent and still had a great time.

Finally Some Free Time Again

 Wow, it's been a long time since I posted anything.  I was assigned to teach a temple preparation class in our ward and not just any class, but a four week class of my own design.  I was tasked with creating the curriculum using any church sources I wanted and design a class for both new members and lifelong members seeking to further their temple experience.  Needless to say, my month was immediately booked.  Every single preschool class time, I went to Kelly's bishop's office, because it's a quarter mile from preschool, and worked on my lesson until it was time to pick him up.  That left the evenings for everything I would normally have done during preschool and it felt quite hectic all month.  I have no regrets, though.  The class went wonderfully and I have never loved and understood the temple, its history, its purpose, and the doctrine taught there as well as I do now.  It really strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ and his all-encompassing love for us.  Plus, now the curriculum is set - all the slide shows, videos, hand outs, and lesson outlines, etc. so I could teach it again and again with minimal additional effort.  All of that to say, sorry for the long hiatus and let's get to the photo dump, shall we?

Lifetouch, the company that does school photos, has been emailing me trying to get me to buy old pictures of my kids.  No, thank you, Lifetouch, there's a reason why I didn't buy those prints in the first place.  However, thank you, Lifetouch, for the adorable collages you've created for each of my kids!  I'll just screenshot those and be done.

Isn't it so amazing to see how much these kids change in so little time??  But you know what doesn't change much - Benjamin's shirts.  I think it's hilarious that he wore white three years in a row and then only barely changed for the next four after that.  The kid really takes after me.

The ridiculous hat picture in the last one of Benjamin's is a senior tradition - wear something ridiculous because it only shows up on your ID card.  They use a different picture for the yearbook.

Benjamin is in the middle of preparing his missionary application.  For that purpose he had to get his hair cut.  Not something he wanted, but missionaries aren't allowed long hair.  It took the barber 70 minutes to cut it, but the result was quite nice. 

Peter loves to play video games with his big brothers.  It's really cute to see them together.

The weather has been so unbelievably mild this winter.  Some days it's been quite hot by our standards.  On one such day the boys asked to have a water balloon fight!  Water balloons in February!  They had a great time and came in completely soaked.

Bella and Christian competed in yet another year of Piano Federation.  Bella felt great about her performance and Christian felt terrible, but in the end, they both got the highest marks a judge can give.  I'm always proud of how much work they put into this competition.  The tradition is that no matter how they did, though, we all go out to eat sushi afterwards.  It makes any bad scores melt away in a sea of soy sauce and miso soup.  No one can stay depressed when you're eating tempura fried banana rolls.

Cutie Peter - he loves to play with the toys at the library.

He has to do chores before screen time.  He regularly vacuums, folds laundry, cleans the bathroom sink and mirror, puts away the groceries, unloads the dishwasher, and puts away his own laundry and toys.  I'm learning from the mistakes I made with the others.  More chores at a younger age would have really benefitted my other kids, I think.  Peter gets a big kick out of getting them done.  He hates doing them but he always feels so good when he's done them, as I often remind him when he's complaining.

Christian had an assignment to go visit the archeology museum at the University of Michigan. Peter wanted to go too and didn't want to take off his iron man costume.  Everywhere we walked people would say, "Oh look, Iron Man is here!"  or "Hey Iron Man, thanks for keeping us safe!"  Peter loved it.  What a great age - go in public dressed as Iron Man and every one just thinks you're adorable, not crazy.  

I was excited to go to the museum, but I couldn't get the parking meters to work for me so I parked without paying and spent the entire time in the museum stressed about it.  We finally left early and I came out to find the parking meter reader writing me a ticket. Luckily he was super nice about it and helped me with the meter and didn't give me a ticket.