26 September 2010

Our stake organized a service project with the city to paint hundreds of fire hydrants in town. Our family painted 8 of them. It was a great project-- the hydrants instantly looked better with a coat of shiny yellow paint. We got to paint the hydrant across the street from our house so we'll have a fun reminder of our service for a long time to come.

We've been feeding our friends' animals while they're out of town. We think the cows are unfriendly because they know that they're named Sirloin and Tenderloin. 

One of the chickens thinks she's Ginger, the feisty escape artist in the movie Chicken Run. Brandan and Sophie caught her last night and put her back in the coop.

One night Gibson said, "It smells good in here!" In the photo he's shining a flashlight in at the roosting chickens. Another night Abe asked, "Do we have to pay to get to do this?"

19 September 2010

Helen started kindergarten this week. Helen likes riding the bus to school, her very nice teacher and playing on the swings at recess.

After a short summer break, Sophie and Abe are back to work at the piano and the ukelele. Abe's teacher, Steve, is nice enough to come to our house for lessons. 

Abe is playing soccer this fall. He had his second game this week. Abe has great spatial awareness and the ability to anticipate where the ball will be. It's fun to watch him maneuver around the field. Brandan calls him the Playmaker. 

We celebrated a 4-foot party this week for Abe. We had a party when Sophie reached the 4 foot mark and now it's a tradition. At this party we each ate 4 packages of M&Ms while we watched a movie. 

We won't be having Monday School this year. Here's what we're doing instead. Becky made 8 cards representing different genres. Each week when we go to the library, each of our kids will pick 2 of the cards and will have to find books of those genres to check out. They can also pick out 2 fun books. We adapted this idea from Susan Wise Bauer, but she had each of her kids check out 8 library books every week. However, let's face it, we don't want late fees on 32 library books, and despite our good intentions, we often have late fees.

Here are the kids' choices from our first trip. Can you tell who picked which card? The kids had fun looking for books. It definitely made them choose a different kind of book than they usually get and they are enjoying each others books as well as their own.

12 September 2010

Sophie and Abe headed Back to School on Wednesday. No first day jitters here-- as 2nd and 7th graders, they are old pros and happy to be back. Here's a quick school budget update: our school district added back most Mondays so the kids will be getting 5 days of school a week. They get extra long holiday breaks, instead. The district cut elementary school music teachers and salaries for middle school coaches. Sophie is running cross country, thanks to her coach volunteering his time. She's also in choir this year. She's not in band-- she's not in love with the clarinet and with the amount of metal she currently has in her mouth, it's doubtful she could play it. Sophie is taking Mandarin Chinese this year, a small miracle given the current economy. It's her favorite class.

Brandan put the labor into Labor Day by building shelves and hanging extra rods in three bedroom closets this week. The photo shows him assembling a tower of shelves on our bathroom floor before putting them in the closet.

Here's a before photo of the closet in the worst shape. When we installed our fireplace 2 years ago, the workers ran the chimney through Becky's closet. The chimney doesn't heat up and the building codes allow for flammable material within 2 inches of it. However, without any shelves, the closet hasn't been much use.

Here's the after photo. Becky's not much of a clothes horse (is there such a thing as a clothes beetle?) but loves the simplified and organized storage. Brandan built similar shelves in his and the boys' closets, only with a double tower of shelves in the middle and a single rod on one side. 

And here's a photo of some child labor. Brandan, Abe, Helen and Gibson replaced a cracked sprinkler head in our backyard. They called it doing surgery on the sprinkler. 

5 September 2010

Brandan meets with Sophie, Abe and Helen every month to set goals and plan rewards if they complete their goals. Abe's reward for completing his goal for August (reading 1 Nephi) was to buy an inexpensive model airplane kit. The airplane will be made of balsa wood and paper, but it really flies, propelled by a rubber band. The model requires lots of detailed, precise construction, just the way Abe (and Brandan) like it.

Our garden was a mixed bag this year. It usually is. We can claim success with our tomatoes and basil. Our peppers are producing steadily. Our lettuces are all gone and nothing else is worth mentioning. The garden in August was nice to look at, thanks to plenty of flowers. We love the sunflowers-- the variety is called "Skyscraper" and they are living up to their name. 

Becky got a new hairstyle last week. She hasn't had short hair for a very long time and is enjoying it very much. Sophie followed her lead this week with her own short 'do. Sophie has such a pretty face-- nearly everything looks flattering on her.     ~     We could have posted earlier this evening, but we were all engrossed watching the short profiles on mormon.org . We're completely inspired by the diversity represented. Mormons may have unique talents and life experiences from each other, but we share a common faith in Jesus Christ and the same call to follow Him.