20 March 2016

Becky made the neighbors pie for pi day on Monday (3.14).  She also made little pies for the kids for an after school snack.

 On Tuesday, Helen and Gibson's class held a showcase for their passion projects.  Every Friday the class has time set aside to learn about anything they choose.  The kids can work independently or with a partner.  They create a project to present what they learn.  Helen and Clara created two magazines.  They dressed like magazine editors from New York for the showcase.

 They called their magazines "imperfect" and while the articles are witty (peanut butter breaks up with jelly!), you wouldn't want to follow their advice (broccoli tastes bad so it must be bad for you).

 Caleb and Gibson are working on a comedy sketch series called "Crazy Kids."  They've finished two films so far.  Caleb and Gibson think up the sketches.  Becky films them.  Then Sofi works some iMovie magic to edit the sketches, boost sound quality, add sound effects, music and titles.  This is a photo of Caleb and Gibson introducing their movie "Crazy Kids 2: Even Crazier" to a first grade class that visited the showcase.  The first graders thought the movie was hilarious!

 Tuesday was the last day of school before Spring Break.  Sofi's school had a "dress like a tourist" day to celebrate.

 We found two half eaten cakes and this note on our porch Tuesday night.  The cakes looked less than tasty, but if we had thought about eating them, the note would have discouraged us.  We threw the cakes away.  We found out later the cakes were left by Sofi's friends.

Although the school district's Spring Break started on Wednesday, Sofi still had her all day college physics class on Friday.  Becky, Helen and Gibson met her for lunch.  The downtown area around the college has a fun food truck culture and we enjoyed gourmet lunches from 4 different trucks.

With Sofi and Abe's help, Becky and Brandan celebrated their 21st anniversary with a night away at a mountain lodge.  While we don't take our marriage for granted at any time, it was wonderful to reflect  and give thanks for our blessed life together.

 Saturday was the Spring music recital for the piano teachers association.  Gibson went first.  He never seems nervous.

 Here's a photo of all the kids after the recital.  It was a small group, possibly because of Spring Break.  Gib played "Old German Dance" by Michael Praetorius, Helen played "Short Story" by Dmitry Kabalevsky and Abe played the first movement from "Sonatina in C" by Muzio Clementi. 

 We're studying President Monson's talk "Ponder the Path of Thy Feet" for our Easter countdown this year.  Each egg contains a path Jesus walked, a few scriptures to read and some Easter candy (of course!)  We recommend the talk, especially for its reminder that Jesus walks with us through sorrow and happiness.