28 October 2012

Sofi is on her school's Academic Challenge team.  Their team had its first competition on Wednesday.  The teams met at a local television station with a very small live audience.  A moderator asked the teams questions on topics such as literature, math, history and geography.  The teams race each other to press their buzzers first and answer the questions.  There are 4 kids on a team and they're not allowed to talk to each other unless they get a bonus question.  Sofi is the only freshman on her team and she won half her team's points.  The competition was taped and will be shown after the 6 o'clock news in the future.  The photo is poor quality, but gives you an idea of the format.  Sofi is 2nd from the right on the bottom row.

Gibson went to a pumpkin patch with his kindergarten class.  He got to go on a hay ride and pick out a pumpkin to take home.

We went to the elementary school Halloween carnival on Friday, then came home for dinner.  Helen emptied a pocketful of candy onto her plate.  Nice dinner.

Brandan and Becky went to a couples Halloween party Saturday night.  This year the theme was "Heroes and Villains."  We went as Aslan and the White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe.  Becky made the costumes.  Sofi did Becky's makeup.  Brandan did his own. 

21 October 2012

Happy Birthday to our favorite teenager!  Sofi turned 15 on Friday.  Sofi is brilliant in all the meanings of the word-- crazy smart, shining personality, pure awesomeness.

Sofi planned her birthday party to coincide with the stake Halloween dance on Saturday.  A couple of friends came over early in the evening to experiment with make up and face paint.  From the left are Amber, Bella, Johanna and Sofi.

Sofi and her friends are planning on filming a zombie movie soon so they practiced making fake wounds.  Here's a particularly gruesome gash.  Don't worry-- it's all wax and paint.  Some of their effects made us queasy to look at.  All the gore came off before the dance.

A few other friends joined the group for dinner before the dance.  Becky suggested ordering pizza, but Sofi had something different in mind-- a four course meal.  Everyone enjoyed the fancy food.  Abe and Helen helped out as waiters.  This blurry photo is the only one from dinner.  

Sofi planned the menu.  She really wanted to start with a cheese tray.  Becky was skeptical that most teenagers would go for a bunch of smelly cheese, but happily she was wrong and Sofi's friends tried everything.  Gib loved the cheese, too.  His favorite was a triple cream Brie-style cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery.  Sofi made her own dessert-- a chocolate soufflé.  The kids managed to eat a few bites of soufflé (it was a BIG dinner) before heading off to the dance.  Brilliant!

We had planned to get Sofi's learner's permit for her driver's license on her birthday so we drove to the DMV right after school.  Unfortunately, the DMV had unexpectedly closed for the day.  Maybe announcing their closure in the newspaper or on their website would have cost too much money?  A big disappointment.

14 October 2012

Helen got to try out rock climbing at a friend's birthday party this week.  She had a great time.  Our climbing wall at home is only 8 feet tall.  Helen made it to the top of the climbing wall at the gym.

After a long break, Brandan and Sofi are back at work building a harp.  Brandan needed a jointer to square up the wood they are going to use, but didn't think the harp justified buying another power tool.  He learned how to use his planer like a jointer, however, so he and Sofi spent some time this week starting to get the wood ready to cut into a harp shape.

What is missing from this photo?

A pager!  Brandan's clinic joined the 21st century this week and decided there is no reason to page doctors when you can text them.  Brandan has worn a pager for nearly 13 years.

Our kids didn't have school this Friday and were invited to a fun Halloween party.  Their costumes aren't finished, but the party was a good excuse to pull out favorite costumes from past Halloweens. Sofi has been practicing zombie makeup, so she was very glad to have a subject to test her abilities on.

7 October 2012

This is a photo of Sofi riding a longboard.  She's ready to spend all her babysitting money to buy one.  We think why buy one when it seems there are plenty of boys in the neighborhood who will let her ride theirs.   ~   We enjoyed the powerful General Conference this weekend.  Brandan's favorite talks were Elder Ballard's talk about honeybees and making a big difference through small acts of service and Elder Bowen's moving story about finding comfort after the death of his baby boy.  Becky liked Elder Cook's talk and found it a personal call to repentance and conversion.  Sofi liked all of President Monson's stories about listening to the spirit and answered prayers.  Abe liked Elder Whiting's talk about how the high standards required in temple construction are a pattern for high standards in individual lives.  Helen's favorite part of conference was the candy.  Her favorite talk was by Elder Bednar because Elder Bednar is her favorite apostle.  Gibson liked playing bingo the best.  Of course, the biggest event of conference was the announcement that boys can serve missions at age 18 and girls at age 19.  Sofi immediately committed to serving a mission.  Because of her fall birthday, she can leave a few months after graduating from high school-- just 4 years away.  The announcement feels like such a game changer.  We've had our laser focus on college, with Sofi taking a demanding course schedule at school and keeping careful track of all her volunteer service, awards and other activities.  We'll still keep those efforts on track, but now we need to step up our game in gospel preparation.  This announcement is a huge opportunity for our family.

We made chin faces for our family night activity this week.  Sofi drew faces on our chins and we lay with our heads upside down and sang silly songs.  This is Helen.

This is Sofi.  The tiny heads with huge mouths made us laugh.

We planted a magnolia tree in a sunny spot of our yard.  The tree we originally planted in this corner died in a cold snap a few winters ago.  It took us awhile to decide what to replace it with.  One research strategy we used to help us decide was to look at neglected yards and see what was thriving in spite of being ignored.

 

We've been fish sitting a betta named Gil for a few days.  Feeding the fish is now a favorite chore. 

This is a photo of Gibson conducting the Tabernacle Choir during General Conference today.  The Choir sounded fantastic, but think how good they could sound if their conductor dressed like a pirate-- "Sustain that note or you'll walk the plank!"

Sofi made another Hunger Games themed shirt while she listened to conference.  This is the 5th she's made for herself plus a few others for friends.  We enjoyed the powerful conference this weekend.  Brandan's favorite talks were Elder Ballard's talk about honeybees and making a big difference through small acts of service and Elder Bowen's moving story about finding comfort after the death of his baby boy.  Becky liked Elder Cook's talk and found it a personal call to repentance and conversion.  Sofi liked all of President Monson's stories about listening to the spirit and answered prayers.  Abe liked Elder Whiting's talk about how the high standards required in temple construction are a pattern for high standards in individual lives.  Helen's favorite part of conference was the candy.  Her favorite talk was by Elder Bednar because Elder Bednar is her favorite apostle.  Gibson liked playing bingo the best.  Of course, the biggest event of conference was the announcement that boys can serve missions at age 18 and girls at age 19.  Sofi immediately committed to serving a mission.  Because of her fall birthday, she can leave a few months after graduating from high school-- just 4 years away.  The announcement feels like such a game changer.  We've had our laser focus on college, with Sofi taking a demanding course schedule at school and keeping careful track of all her volunteer service, awards and other activities.  We'll still keep those efforts on track, but now we need to step up our game in gospel preparation.  This announcement is a huge opportunity for our family.