29 May 2016

It's been project week at our house!  Our kitchen and family room have been covered with half finished projects-- a sure sign the end of the school year is near, although the first two projects were for fun, not school.

Helen was inspired by a book she got from the library called Fairy House.  She's been collecting materials from our yard and house to craft into tiny fairy furniture like this fancy chair.

At our annual ward auction to raise money for summer youth camps Becky donated a Halloween costume like she has the past 2 years.  This year the woman who made the winning bid asked if she could have nativity costumes instead of a Halloween costume.  She wanted teenage sized costumes that her kids could grow into.  Becky talked our kids into modeling the finished costumes before giving them away.  She made 4 basic robes, one size fits most.

Becky also made a variety of accessories to mix and match with the robes.  Here are the kids with some of the extra items.

Abe was the first person in our district to earn the robotics merit badge so his scoutmaster asked him to do a presentation about robotics at a court of honor on Wednesday.  Abe used a Lego Mindstorm robot for the project.  For his presentation he showed a video of a robot he made by following   instructions.  He also demonstrated the robot he made for the merit badge which was his own design and which he programmed himself.  His merit badge counselor asked him to design a robot that would follow a black line.  It took lots of trial and error to build a robot that would work correctly.  Abe also received his Life advancement at the court of honor.

 The rest of the projects in this post are for school.  Abe started a science project this week.  He planted watermelon seeds in both pop rock candy and in wet paper towels to see which will grow better.

So far the seeds in paper towels have sprouted and the seeds in the pop rocks have disappeared.  We don't know if the seeds shifted to the inside of the cup or dissolved.

 Sofi painted this Union Jack for a presentation she gave about English gardens.  Unfortunately, she left the flag in her friend's car and couldn't use it in her presentation.  It's a nice flag, anyway.

 Helen and Gibson's class is studying the Pacific coast, from Alaska to Argentina.  Each student in the class was assigned an American state, a Mexican state or a South American country that touches the Pacific Ocean to research.  The class studied Alaska and Canada as a group.  Helen learned about Jalisco, Mexico.  Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta are two well known cities in Jalisco.  She made a 3D map as part of her report.

 Gibson was assigned Baja California.  Despite its name, Baja California is in Mexico, not the US.  California used to be called Alta California when it belonged to Spain.  Gibson built this diorama for his report.  Except for the city of Tijuana, Baja California is a sparsely populated desert.

 Abe's social studies class is studying the middle ages.  Abe rolled out salt clay like gingerbread and baked it to build a castle.  The projects will start leaving home on Tuesday and our home should be back to normal at the end of next week.

22 May 2016

Helen and Gibson's class went on an overnighter this week to the Siskiyou Field Institute.  Their class slept in tents and yurts, went hiking, played in the creek and learned about the local ecology.  Becky went along as a chaperone.

The educational part of the trip focused on birds, including identifying birds and learning different features of different species.  Helen and Lucy are sad that this Anna's Hummingbird is dead and preserved in a plastic tube.

The campus included a ropes course.  The kids took turns trying out the obstacles.  It was fairly easy to climb through this net.

It was much harder to step from swing to swing like Gib is doing in this photo.

Here's a photo of Helen walking along a cable while holding a rope to steady herself.

One of the kids' favorite activities was playing in the creek.  On the first day, they went to the creek with an instructor to look for insects.  A couple of kids fell in and the rest just jumped in.  The second day the kids had free time to swim in the creek.  The kids had a lot of freedom on this trip to explore and do risky things like play in a creek, sharpen a stick or try to start a fire. 

Wednesday we went to Sofi's school Honors Night.  Her school recognizes excellent work and character with "Raise the Bar" awards.  Sofi was honored for "Best Project."  Her teachers gave her this award based on many high quality projects she has completed and they brought two examples to share.  In the photo, Sofi is standing to the left, one teacher is holding up an illustrated poem Sofi did at the beginning of the year and another teacher is talking about Sofi at the podium.

Here are Sofi and Mishawn after the program.  Sofi also received awards for valedictorian, the principal's list and having the highest SAT score in her class.  Sofi is wearing one of Grandma Linda's dresses.

Abe wasn't at the awards night because he was washing cars with the other scouts.  They hold a car wash every year to raise money for scout camp.  In the photo are Malakai, Abe and Tate.

We all went to Abe's school awards night on Thursday.  Abe received awards for math team, academic excellence and the Solid as a Rock award.

Abe has a smart group of friends!  Here are Camden, Abe, Ashton, Malakai, Spencer and Jake.

On Saturday we drove down to Northern California to hike at Castle Crags.  It was a cold, rainy day.  Our trail crossed the Pacific Coast Trail.

The trail started in thick forest and led up to interesting granite formations.  Here are some of the crags the park is named for.

The kids thought this rock looked like a head.  Gibson added some dogwood petals for eyes.

We all enjoyed this beautiful hike, but we'd like to go back when the weather is clear.

Abe spent Friday and Saturday at a scout campout.  The boys' favorite part was catching salamanders and racing them.  In the photo are Abe, Ashton, Malakai, Camden, Ben and Spencer.

Saturday was also Becky's birthday.  Brandan got her an ancestry DNA kit as a gift.  The kit includes a plastic tube to fill with spit and a mailer to return the sample to a lab.  She'll get the results in 6-8 weeks.  She's expecting a northern European mix of ancestors-- stay tuned!

We had birthday cake for lunch on Sunday when everyone was finally home together!  We appreciate these opportunities to celebrate Becky, from Mother's Day to her birthday.

15 May 2016

Brandan helped Gibson turn a cup on the pottery wheel this week.  The cup thinned out too much at the top and crumpled, but the nice thing about clay is you can always start over.

 Sofi filmed herself making bread for a school project.  She had the camera clamped precariously to the counter to get a good shot of the process.

 Spring soccer is halfway over.  We had cooler weather on Saturday-- perfect for soccer games.  Here's a photo of Gib charging up the field.

 Here's Abe with some fancy footwork while playing defense.  Abe scored a goal later in the game!

 Sofi and her friends borrowed costumes from a friend for a fun date night.  They wore their fancy clothes around town before going to Joey's house to make dinner and play games.  Top row are Josh, Carson, Emma (Emma's mom owns the costumes) and Sofi.  Bottom row are Mishawn, Ireland, Harrison and Joey.

8 May 2016

Happy Mother's Day!

We agree with Barack Obama when he said, "Nothing beats watching your kids become smarter and cooler than you are."  Here are four smart, cool kids!

Sofi's school had another dress up week.  Tuesday was Dress to Unimpress Day.  Mission accomplished.

Wednesday was May 4th, also known as Star Wars day (may the 4th be with you).  Sofi got to wear her Halloween costume again, but we didn't take a photo.  Thursday was Twin Day.  Sofi is interning for 2 weeks with the freshman English teacher and chose to dress like him, including his stubbly beard.

Thursday night was the Top 5% Banquet for Sofi's school.  Seniors with grade point averages in the top 5% and their parents are invited to attend.  Our high school is divided into three small schools and each school had 5-6 students in the top 5%.  This is a photo of the graduates from all the schools.

Sofi was honored as the valedictorian of her school and received a blue ribbon and medal.  Her friends, Joey and Bella, attend a different school and also received honors.  Bella is the valedictorian (highest GPA) and Joey is the salutatorian (2nd highest GPA.)  These girls have been friends since middle school and have been a great influence on each other.

Each student invites a teacher to honor at the banquet.  Each student gives a short speech of gratitude explaining why they invited the teacher of their choice.  Sofi invited her Chinese teacher, Zheng Ling.    Sofi has taken Chinese for 6 years and Zheng Ling has been her teacher for 3 of those years.  Last year, Sofi was the only student left in the upper level class after the rest of the students dropped out in the first month of school.  Zheng Ling continued to teach Sofi for the rest of the year.  This year there are 4 students in her upper level class and it's Sofi's favorite class of the day.

Helen and Gib's class finished their last passion projects for the year.  Gib and Caleb made another funny video.  Clara and Helen learned a duet to play together.  They also built a stage to perform on and made T-shirts for their band.  Here is a photo of them stenciling the name of their band on their T-shirts: Cut it Out.

Clara and Helen performed for their class on Friday.  They played the song "Nothing Like You" by Dan and Shay.  Since it's a country song, the girls wore cowboy hats and boots.  Clara played the keyboard and Helen played the violin.  They built their stage by pushing three workbenches together and decorating the benches with a painted backdrop and Christmas lights.

On Friday Gib and Helen's class also took a field trip to Sofi's school.  The high schoolers planned a fun carnival called "Bisapalooza."  It was fun to see Sofi.  She's dressed up for Hawaiian Day.

This is a photo of Sofi in action at her class's booth.  She's telling the elementary students they must free the Vulcans from the evil Romulons.

Helen was brave enough to try the zipline.  It was a popular activity with both high schoolers and elementary students shrieking in delight.  Becky noticed a sign on the door behind the zipline that said "Testing in progress.  Do not disturb."  We're pretty certain the test was disturbed.

Brandan and Helen built supports for our raspberries.  We moved our blueberry bushes and now have more room for raspberry canes.  The new supports are sturdier than our old stakes and support the canes on both sides.  Helen is filling dirt in around one of the supports.  After the supports were in, they strung wires between the crossbars to hold up the raspberry canes.

This is a photo of Brandan and Gibson making breakfast for Mothers' Day.  Our family went to see Twelfth Night Saturday night and didn't get home until 11:30 pm.  We didn't expect to see anyone awake before 9 am.  Everyone was awake before breakfast, though, and everyone helped make delicious breakfast burritos.  Twelfth Night was Abe and Gibson's first Shakespeare play to see.  We all enjoyed the excellent production and the best part was watching our kids' reactions and listening to them laugh.

We are grateful for the opportunity to remember the blessings from mothers in our lives.  Becky is a calming, steadying force in our family who daily provides little acts of love, delightful conversation, tasty food, miles of transportation and winds down each day for the kids with a bedtime story and song.

1 May 2016

Last Sunday was the 100th anniversary of Brandan's Grandpa Norman's birth.  He passed away at the age of 94.  We celebrated his birthday during family night with a birthday quiz.  Becky used Norman's autobiography to make the quiz.  In the photo below, the correct answers are circled.  Abe and Gibson tied with the most correct answers, but Gib won rock, paper, scissors for the grand prize.

It took Abe about a week to put together his latest puzzle-- a panoramic photo of BYU's football stadium.  Other family members put a few pieces in, but Abe did most of the 1000 piece puzzle.

 Sofi was chosen as Rotary Student of the Month for April.  She went to lunch with the Rotary club every Wednesday for the whole month where she met the Rotarians and helped with a few tasks during their meetings.  She gave a speech the last week, describing what she learned during her month of service.  Brandan, Becky and Abe were invited to listen to her speak.

 This is a photo of Sofi with her principal, Mrs. Slaughter, after the meeting.

 The principal took a photo of Brandan and Sofi together.  Becky left early to take Abe back to school.  Sofi is holding an engraved plaque and pen that the Rotary Club gave her.

Helen is big enough to mow the lawn!

 Gibson and Helen's class held a mini science fair this week.  Gibson and Caleb made homemade bouncy balls out of water, borax, cornstarch and food coloring.  How well did they bounce?  Better than water, borax, cornstarch or food coloring would bounce on its own, but not enough to bounce twice in a row.  The experiment might be better labeled "Super Rubbery Substance."

Helen and Clara experimented with sound waves.  They learned that sound can travel through yarn and that the sound is different depending on the thickness of yarn.  They also learned that different sizes of metal cups produce different sounds when they hit them with a spoon.

Their class created a mural for Earth Day.  Each student drew a rough draft of what they wanted the mural to look like.  This is Helen's painting of an owl.

 The class combined their favorite paintings to make one large mural.  They glued lids onto the mural to make the design.

Helen's violin group performed for a women's group on Saturday.  Helen is on the left side of the photo in the front row.