The Rest of Last Week . . .

Just had to post a few more things. Remember how busy I said last week was, here are a few more that I had to post especially for the grandparents.

Braden's Kindergarten Opera "WHO HAS THE LOUDEST ROAR" (We haven't gotten the video clip transferred yet for this but just have a picture - more later . . maybe . . .)

The Cache Valley Youth Symphony (Kaylee) had their final concert for the season last week as well. I'm including a brief clip of that as well. I'm a bit sad to say that I wasn't able to attend as I had to coach Braden's soccer game then head to a mandatory parent's meeting for Kendall's Marching Band. Whitney taped much of it for me and I heard from several other people that it was fantastic.

Make a Smilebox greeting

The Junior Prom

This is it! The day most teenage girls dream of - The Junior Prom! We were lucky that Kaylee was asked so early by a nice young man named "Kevin". He left a basket of Easter Eggs on the doorstep with words she had to assemble asking her to go with him to Prom (of course there was chocolate involved as well - a true sign of a good young man!). Since we had 5 weeks to prepare, Kaylee wanted to make a dress. She found some material and a pattern then graciously called her Grandma Hart! (I volunteered but Kaylee knows my sewing skills have room for improvement). Grandma generously agreed so we mailed her all of the materials. (We know it was a painful endeavor and time consuming so we are eternally GRATEFUL!!). Grandma got the dress done and came down a week before Prom to fit it and make adjustments (She even brought her sewing machine and surger with her!). We all went out to lunch and enjoyed her visit.


Saturday was Prom - These days Prom is an "All Day Affair" . . . so Kaylee was picked up by her date at 8:30 AM to decorate matching shirts and play games. She got home at 1 PM then proceeded to shower and get ready to leave again at 6 PM. Her date was very nice. She and her date were accompanied by 4 other couples and they had an absolute blast! We found out that Kevin moved here from Evanston, WYOMING a short time after we moved here. They have a lot in common - both LOVE math and want to attend BYU in Provo after they graduate. Kaylee said that she thinks Kevin is awesome but she is not into having a serious boyfriend (I had to include that for those of you who are wondering - Smart gal!) I don't have pictures of their entire group yet but here are the few pictures I did get.

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The Curious Savage!

Kendall, whom we all love, is more of a quiet person. He is very creative however. We were surprised that he had taken the initiative to try-out for the school play and made it! Of course, we supported him whole-heartedly (practices every morning at 6 AM for weeks!). He performed in that play this last week. There were three different "3 Act" plays. He was on the stage crew for one of them, a character in another, and a villager for the third. "The Curious Savage" is the play Kendall acted in. He played the character of Jeffrey. The play is about a very rich woman whose three greedy daughters put into a mental facility in hopes of gaining control of her entire estate. She fools them and captures the hearts of the patients in the mental facility. Kendall's character Jeffrey is in the institution because he was the only survivor in a plane crash. He has been left with a scar on his face (which is why he holds his hand to his face the entire play) and has a big scar in his heart. It was a wonderful play!! Here is a little bit of it (forgive the bad photography as this is a play that does not allow photography). The drama teacher allowed us to get an amateur clip to share with family via our blog (THANKS Mrs. Wharton!!).

Make a Smilebox slideshow

No TV/Monitor Week!

We made it! A whole week without the TV or anything with a monitor. Weslie creatively hid Kaylee's ipod since it had a screen on it. What a week! We have done this for the past 5 years however, this year seemed to be particularly challenging for the older kids. They were allowed to access the computer only if it was homework related. Kaylee, Kendall and Shannon were all invited to friends' houses to play Wii or to watch a video on Friday and Saturday. We allowed them the choice but the rest of us remained strong. Two years ago Shannon won a turkey in a drawing from no TV week. Since our teenagers caved on Friday at their friends' houses, we are out of the drawing this year but we enjoyed the time. It wasn't much of a challenge as this was a busy (Really BUSY!) week. I have two more posts to add to the blog to show you some of the fun but this post is dedicated to Weslie who whole-heartedly stuck to her commitment and made it an awesome week for her mother! Here are some of the activities she engaged in to make it fun for the boys:

*Made movies with the video camera
*Made cupcakes and decorated them
*Made clay figures
*Put on puppet shows
*Wrote Mamaw and mailed the letters
*Practiced the fiddle for Greenville Idol (She's in the finals this week!!)
*Made and illustrated her own book
*Played out-door games with 13 other neighborhood kids
*Played many board games
*Reader's Theater for Braden & Landon
*Tent city
*Character city - all over the basement!

THANK HEAVEN FOR GOOD WEATHER MOST OF THE WEEK (We did get snow on Sat. but it was at the tail end - Hooray!)

I had to enclose a picture of Kendall's idea of no TV week as morbid as it seems. He made a noose (Nice use of his scouting skills) and hung a puppet from my ceiling fan! We had a nice chat about that!


We challenge you all to take a week and see how you can survive without the computer, TV, video games, etc... It's an eye-opener!!

Timber! Baaa! Try This On!

Howdy! It's time to give an accounting of our Spring Break Activities. We tried to mix work with fun. You be the judge of how that went:

THURSDAY: Play Practice, Soccer Practice, Trip to the Park, Read-A-Thon!

FRIDAY: Baby Animal Days at American West Heritage Park, Cut down a 60 foot tree in the back yard, BBQ

SATURDAY: Easter Egg Hunt, Cut down the tree, haul branches, Tennis! Dye Eggs & Games

SUNDAY: Easter!! Church, Ham Dinner, Cream Puffs, Games, 10 Commandment Movie, Walk
MONDAY: Spring Cleaning!! Rotate Kids' Clothes (Ughh!!), Find trimmings for a Prom Dress

It went quicker than we wanted (the break that is, not the tree removal!) but we enjoyed our time together. Now we are getting a bit too anxious for SUMMER!!!

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Where Have You Been?

Where have I been??? . . . Touring the vast regions of my brain, this takes some time. Actually, some weeks are just plain busy.

Today is the first day of our Spring Break (we only get a Thurs., Fri., and Mon. BUT that's better than nothing and we will be so grateful when we finish school the first week of June, instead of the second).

I "subbed" for a teacher at Weslie's school this week. It was nice to be back in the classroom but my favorite place will always be home where my children & hubby are.

Kendall had septoplasty surgery last week. All went well. They were able to clear up some infection, change the course of his sinuses, and remove a bone spur that had completely blocked the sinuses on the other side. His recovery took about a week but he's finally back into school and play practice. We had to refrain from all nose jokes for a while.

We are now on the count-down to EASTER! Happy Easter everyone - may all your eggs be colorful and all your chocolate be consumed. We have decided this Easter to do something special each day of the week leading up to Easter to symbolize the last week of the Savior's life (trying to remember what Easter is really all about). To start this out, I set an extra plate on Sunday for dinner and told the kids we were having a special guest. They didn't think twice about it as we often have extras for dinner. When no one showed up, I explained that a week before the Savior died, he entered Jeruselem and was hailed by palm leaves (Triumphal Entry). We had a plate to symbolize welcoming him into our hearts. What was funny was that Braden told me that Jesus couldn't come to dinner as he had already had His "Last Supper". Hope that made you all smile as we did. Have a great holiday!