Favorite Book Character Day

It was Spirit Week at White Pine last week. It was actually a good week to do it, when the kids are worthless because it's almost spring break. Well my kids have always complained about how the Spirit Week at White Pine was pretty boring, but I thought this one was a good one.

Anna is a spy from Gilda Joyce. Kyle is the cyclops from the Percy Jackson series.

Natalie was a ballerina and called me at about 10:00am to beg for normal clothes. I think she was embarrassed to be in such a frilly outfit. She is all about being cute and not pretty.

Kristen's teacher asked the whole class to dress up like Vikings because they are reading a book about it. I didn't help the kids with choosing their costumes. I was actually gone the night before, and when I did get home I saw some paper horns in the garbage. I felt bad thinking Kristen tried to make a costume by herself and failed. I was pleasantly surprised to find her in this cute costume. The last person on the earth that I would have expected to help her did. Her biggest teaser, Kyle. Sometimes big brothers do come through.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

This Spring we/I decided that instead of feeling frustrated about the long Winter and lack of Spring, I was going to count every good weather day as Spring and see how many we actually get. I am expecting snow in between, but I just gotta. I guess Spring officially started on the 20th, but I'd already started counting. I don't expect summer weather, just springlike weather. Saturday was number 10. Can you believe that we have already had 10 good days?

Now as you know Olivia is potty trained. Lately, she's has had a few setbacks and I don't want to go back, so we started counting rocks again. Natalie wanted to work on a few things also, so they both started getting rocks. When their jars were full, we went back the dollar store/Walmart and bought them each a $1.00 kite. They actually worked great and we got a day worth of activities.
  

 Lazy man's kite flying

 

 

Fasting

I remember as a child how hard it was when Fast Sunday came around. Even though I always fasted, I don't think I really understood the importance until my mission. We wanted to be like Alma in Alma 17:3 and fasted with purpose to find people to teach. It was an amazing day. The Spirit really helped us teach with power. Ever since then I have felt differently about it. Fasting will always be hard, but I never fast without a purpose. The hardness is the sacrifice.

I have tried to teach our children to always fast with purpose, not just starving. They have impressed me with their desire to try to fast 24 hours. The other day, Katelyn said that she was fasting for Dad and that his burdens would be lightened as a Bishop. Then she wrote him a letter on Monday with 3 encouraging quotes. It was such a heartfelt fast. Her plan was to write him more letters this week. It always makes me happy when I know my children have the Spirit guiding them.

The Joy of Giving!

Today is St. Patty's Day and Kristen decided to surprise every sister with a homemade fabric bag with a green pop in it. She gave Jeff and I a rainbow of candy with mint coins at the bottom of the rainbow. Kyle got two pops. Now she has been working on these since she got the idea at the Mother/Daughter Activity. I have always admired the gift of Generosity. I am so happy that Kristen is realizing the joy of giving. It has been so fun for her to get ready for today. She is discovering this little secret of happiness. It really made our day special.

Being Olivia

The average day for Olivia starts with this orange shirt. It is one of my few surviving clothes from my childhood,I think I wore it at about age 8. It is pretty old and raggedy, but if it is clean .  If she can find it, she will wear it and tell anyone that she meets that "This was my mom's shirt."

Another favorite activity is taking pictures with my camera or phone. She's getting pretty good as you can see.

 Tea parties are a must thanks to Grandma Miller's
gift for Christmas.

 Dancing to the Little Women soundtrack. I would highly recommend it for high stepping ballet.

The most unique activity lately was bringing lipstick to me and having me kiss their faces. It happens on accident occasionally. Why not do it on purpose.

The Cutest You'll Ever Be!

Natalie has been claiming to have a loose tooth for a long time. You know they say, "Feel my tooth, it's loose." Then you feel it and it is solid as a rock. They know that it's coming and eventually you can even feel it. Her tooth has been loose so long that I forgot about it. Then today she came home with a new look. These are her words. "Today I was at school and I went to Spanish and I wanted to get my tooth out so bad and I pulled as hard as I can and my tooth popped out. It's really clean, but on the top it's really bloody, Do you wanna see?"

When I first saw her coming in the house, I remembered how cute kids are when they loose their top front teeth. I have always said that you'll never be as cute as you are when you loose those teeth. She even sounds a little different. She is 6 years old.