9 April 2017

Abe turned 14 on Monday!  Abe is a rock solid kid.  He does a good job managing himself, does quality work, quickly understands complex material and has wide ranging skills.  He's athletic, excels at school, plays the piano beautifully and teaches Helen and Gibson everything he knows.  We love spending time with him.

Abe picked his favorite dessert, brownies and ice cream, for his birthday.  He faked us out by pretending he was going to blow out his birthday candle and then blowing to the side.

 Our ward had a combined Young Women/ Young Men activity on Wednesday night and had a cooking competition.  Each team had 40 minutes to cook an appetizer, main dish and a dessert.  As an extra challenge, each team had to include ham in every course.  Helen's team made crackers topped with apples, cheese and chunks of ham, scrambled eggs in tortillas, and slices of pound cake with strawberries, melted chocolate chips, gummy fruit, a sea of chocolate chips, fruit cocktail, ice cream and 3 peeps with a cube of ham on top of each.  Helen's team got disqualified from the contest because ice cream was not one of the official ingredients. They just found it in the church freezer.  

 Abe's team made a Caesar salad with ham, french toast with ham and cheese and scrambled eggs, and pound cake with drizzled chocolate, caramelized peeps and chopped ham.  Abe's team won.

 This photo was taken backstage from the Good Samaritan concert held at our church Friday night.  The concert aimed to raise awareness for refugees and immigrants in the United States.  We heard a mix of classical music and folk music from the middle east alternating with stories of immigrants and refugees.  Brandan took the photo while he was waiting backstage for his part of the program.  He told about his positive experiences working with health care providers from around the world.  It was a great evening and well attended by members of our church and community.

Gib's trash robot worked so well he started working on a new robot that can sweep.

 Gibson and Brandan worked together on Saturday to hang up new hooks in our garage.  We didn't get a "before" photo of their job.  Here is a "during" photo.

Here is the "after" photo.  It's very nice to have the tools and toys hanging neatly.

Saturday was also the annual piano syllabus.  Abe, Helen and Gibson all had successful evaluations which means they were tested on lots of music theory, ear training, sight reading and they each played three pieces from memory.  Abe passed level 6, Helen level 5 and Gibson level 2.  Each level gets more complicated.  They prepared for about 6 months for syllabus and the certificates represent a lot of work!