Bouncing off the Walls

So, only 4 more days and they're free. Why do we even have school on the last week. The poor teachers are dying with our sweet little rambunctious children. If there was a way to say that they were getting out one day and then surprise them a week early the poor teachers could maybe survive the last week, especially with a day like today. It was so nice that we had to show our pasty white bodies,Olivia and Nat in swimsuits and mine from the knee down. Trust me that's even too much. So what do you do in the summertime? I want to know. Sleeping in is the top of my list.

Our first campfire in the back yard. We are so ready.

Small Pleasures

A couple of weeks ago I took Natalie and Livvy to feed the ducks. It was freezing and we only had 1/2 a muffin and a peanut butter sandwich to feed them with. We went to the west side of the river by the hotels. Our feet were covered with Duck and Geese poop in 15 minutes.
Our next visit we came prepared and chose the east side of the river where less geese and ducks were, but enough for two little girls to feed. It is so fun to see watch Olivia be so thrilled as each peice of bread was devoured by the ducks/geese. She was amazed that they would eat her bread, which she calls "sammich." Natalie felt special too as the ducks really wanted her bread. It is a strange phenomenon, feeding the ducks, how such a simple thing could bring such pleasure. You know how aggressive the geese are, Olivia said as one goose took the bread right out of her hand, " he eat my hand." When a kid does something for the first time, it's also a pleasure for the Mom to have them be sooo excited. It brings back the magic. A squirrel also almost ate out of Livvy's hand. The river animals are almost domesticated. I'm not sure if they'd make it on their own.

Windy Whats

What do you do on a windy day when your kite gets blown away or broken because the wind is too strong. Well this is it, a dream come true. All you need is a pair of Croc type shoes and a sheet, and a tramp is nice. You pull the sheet corner through the middle hole of the Croc by your toes and tie a knot. Then you stick your foot in. Do the same on the other shoe and start jumping in the wind while holding onto the other two corners of the sheet. If you don't have a tramp just walk or run around. It provides hours of entertainment.

The Play

For the past few weeks I have been a little preocupied because of the school play. How did I get involved with this? Well, it's a long story, that I'll try to keep short. About 3 years ago, the school was interested in having some of the parents volunteer their time doing clubs after school. Well Drama was an option that Katelyn really wanted. Me having minimal experience in that area didn't even consider it and waited for someone else to do it. After a year and no one volunteering, Kate, begged, "Mom will you please start a Drama club? You could bring the kids and I'll watch them." Well I usually volunteer at the school anyway and it's only 1 hour a week. Also,compared to no one, I guess I could give it a try. I felt good about it and started researching. I picked every brain that I knew who had Drama experience. I taught elementary school before I had children, so I wasn't nervous about teaching, just needed some infromation and some help. We started out with the 5th and 6th graders and got about 20 kids including Katelyn and Annalisa. I got an idea from the GATE teacher to perform a book, " Stephanie's Ponytail". Taneil Serr without even having a child in there helped me. It would have been impossible to do without her. She does have some drama/singing and performing experience. We adapted 3 books into plays for the first semester just meeting 1 hour a week after school. Then the second semster we did a play written by my sister kind of roadshow style, you know with familiar songs that you change the words on. It was so fun and the kids had a blast.
The next year our numbers went up and this year we started out with 48 kids for the first semester and 32 for the second. The musical usually deters a few because it takes a bigger committment, dancing and singing.
Well, last year Heather Rhinehart joined the Drama Mama group. As you know she is a brilliant writer. We branched out and she wrote our play with the kids in Drama club in mind. It's very hard to find a play with so many parts and with no budget. Then Nancy Jenkins and I decided to try to write the music for the play. It actually worked and we had an original play and music.
This year we did it again and I feel like we're learning and improving every time we do it. So, the play is called Beverly Hills 9OZ10. It is about a girl named Zoe, Dorothy Rockafeller. The original Dorothy's grand daughter, who is a spoiled brat that only cares about what is fashionalble. She learns her lesson along the way and with a tin man, scarecrow and lion, she's off to see the wizard. It was a lot of hard work with such a huge cast of kids. It's also really hard to keep the momentum with only practicing once a week. We had to get a few extra's in. So you can see why I was a little on the stressed side. I had a lot of help with other parents, like my neigbor Tara, Suzanne, Dan and Tish, but still It's been an adventure. Kyle was one of the Jboyz. they passed there wigs around, whoever felt like wearing it. It was double cast, but the munchkins were in every performance. I had to put the picture of me smiling during the performance because I don't look stressed at all. Kiera Marrott for those in our ward played Zoe and Dillan Krupp the lion in one of the casts, but not in this picture. The wizard was an Elvis character, so I had to get a picture of him.

Kyle is the rapper in green with the yellow wig.

The wizard has entered the building

 The end.

whew!

Was Cleaning ever fun?

"Mom watch, I'm the dishwasher", as she tries to wash a steak knife. "Mom watch I clean the floors." as she pours a cup of water on the carpet." Mom I want to push" as she pushes the push vacume on the gym floor at volleyball. Look the table has been cleared off. It's all on the floor or other counters, but she appreciates a clean surface. Is this the voice of an angel or a 3 year old who doesn't know that work isn't really that fun, or is it? I know this will only last for a few more months, but when was cleaning fun. Did I ever feel that way. I have a hard time believing it.

 

Here Comes the Sun

Well, as you can imagine Jeff came home and brought the sun with him. Yesterday we were shoveling snow and today the sun came out. Conference was great as usual. So, now I am going to be a more provident provider, more reverent, more faithful, serve through my trials, and not let anything interfere with my plans to attend the temple. After the second session, we got a little vitamin D and pretended that it was kind of warm. It's been a while since we got some good tramp shots so here we go.

So, what do you think of my new hair style? I did end up just trimming it after all your advice.

 

Aint No Sunshine When He's Gone.

"Aint no sunshine when he's gone." is the lyrics to a song, but it's kind of true and in Idaho it can be literal. Jeff is on a business trip in a sunny place. Now there are always pros and cons to business trips, and I do try to make the best of it, but I pretty much can't wait until tomorrow.

When we were first married I'd always go visit a sister or family member, so I could make it fun for me when Jeff had to go on a business trip. Then as the kids got bigger, I'd plan a girl's night. Once I even stayed with Jeff's parents and they live on the west side of town. Now that I have big kids, I just get my jobs done, and treat myself to a movie, popcorn and Ben and Jerry's. It has been nice to have spring break, because I can sleep in and no homework.

The good things about a business trip is that Jeff makes sure I do something fun for myself, and he gives me a surprise before he leaves. We also go easy for dinner, corn dogs, Mac and cheese, etc.

Another line of the song is, " He's always gone too long, anytime he goes away. " So as you can imagine, I'll be counting the minutes tomorrow.