22 February 2015

More drill action this week-- Gibson helped Brandan hang hooks in the mudroom.

Sofi's Chinese teacher assigned her to do a project to share the Chinese New Year with her school.  Chinese New Year started on Thursday.  Sofi decorated this bulletin board with explanations of the holiday.

She used some of her own books and some school library books to make a display in the library.

A tai chi master, Fan Dong Fang, taught Helen's class a tai chi routine with fans.  Her class loved learning tai chi and using the fans.  This photo was taken on the same day as pajama/wacky hair/Valentine party day.

One last Valentine's Day photo-- this one of Sofi at the stake Valentine's dance.  In the photo are Josh, Joey, Sofi, Carson, AJ and Patrick.

15 February 2015

This is a photo of Helen's Battle of the Books team.  Their team is called "The Furious 5" and they made it to the third round before they were eliminated.  Tyrone, Will, Kona and Helen are in the photo.  Their fifth team member is Kellen.

Gibson's 2nd grade class got to come watch their last battle.

 

Brandan gave a presentation on Finland for Sofi's international studies class.  He shared some photos from his mission and some Finnish language and culture.

Later in the week, Sofi's class had a party with Finnish food.  Sofi made 2 pans of a dessert called pannukakku.

Brandan went to Salt Lake for the last half of the week so we sent the kids to bed early on Wednesday and cooked an early Valentine's dinner together.  

The 4th graders learn about Lewis and Clark every year.  Helen made a diorama that showed the Corps of Discovery crossing the Rocky Mountains.  It's on display at the school library. 

If Sofi is rehearsing for a play then Becky is sewing costumes.  "Bye Bye, Birdie" is set in the 1950s so there are lots of circle skirts and sweaters.  This skirt is blog worthy because it's sewn from old curtains from the NICU at the hospital.  We have no idea how the costume designer ended up with the curtains.

Helen made 32 rubber band bracelets for her class valentines.

Class parties were on Friday since Valentine's Day was on Saturday.  It was also pajama day and wacky hair day at school.

We (minus Brandan) had our traditional candlelight breakfast on Valentine's Day.

We had chocolate pancakes with strawberries and chocolate sauce.

Becky gave the kids superhero T-shirts with variations of the message "Have a super Valentine's Day!"

Here's Abe enjoying his breakfast.

Brandan spent several days with his Dad at RootsTech in Salt Lake City.  It has become the largest genealogy conference in the world, and had over 20,000 attendees this year.  Classes ranged from how to use different genealogy software to organizing digital files to recording stories to blogging to Google searching to locality specific research tips and on and on.  Each class time offered 15-20 classes to choose from.  They also enjoyed presentations by Laura Bush, Donny Osmond and Alex Boye.

He also spent time with his Mom, who just started chemotherapy.  Her hair will fall out later, and she is prepared with several wigs.  Right now she is just wiped out.

8 February 2015

Our computer is dying so we are posting using the camera on Brandan's phone this week.  Abe, Helen and Gibson built this castle on Saturday.

 Helen has quite a few pieces of jewelry so Brandan, Becky and Helen worked together to build a jewelry board for her.  On Saturday, Brandan and Helen hung the board in her closet.  Helen liked using the drill.

 In this photo Brandan is holding the board while Helen uses the drill to screw it to the wall.

Here is the finished project.

 Gib wanted to use the drill, too, so Brandan let him practice with some scrap wood.

 Abe got a ladder to get some balls out of the gutter.  If you throw balls up on the roof (like Abe and Gib do), they will end up in the gutter.  Abe thought the ladder was pretty fun so he and Gib tried to get their balls stuck.

 Gib received 2 awards this week: a ribbon for having 100 Accelerated Reader points and a keychain for running 250 laps on the track-- that's 31.25 miles!

1 February 2015

Inspired by an article in the Friend magazine, Gibson made a top ten list for himself.  Here is his list: go to middle and high school, go on a mission to England, go to college, get married to a returned missionary, have 3 kids, have a job, send my kids to school, send my kids on missions, enjoy life, live with Heavenly Father.

Helen also made herself a top 10 list.  Here is her list: go to college, become a spy, go on a mission to Hawaii, get married in the temple, have 3 kids, become a loving grandma, go on a senior mission, move in next to a temple, go to the spirit world, return to HIM.

 We had another "Chopped" competition for our family night activity and treat this week.  Sofi picked strawberries and gluten free oatmeal cookies for the mandatory ingredients.  The boys' team made strawberry bruschetta and the girls' team made strawberry and white chocolate sandwiches.  Both desserts were delicious.

 Sofi taught Helen's class some Chinese calligraphy.  In the photo they are practicing the characters for field and rain.  The class used calligraphy brushes and water on special paper designed for practicing.  When the water dries, the characters disappear and the paper can be used again.

 Sofi has started rehearsing for the play "Bye, Bye, Birdie" last week.  She's in the chorus and doesn't have a specific role assigned yet.  The photo below is from the first read through of the script.  The acting company has a professional photographer who documents the play from start to finish.  Sofi is wearing a tan hat in the bottom right of the photo.