Finally!

After two rounds of braces, starting in fourth grade, and with a continuous 7 1/2 years with some sort of metal in her mouth, Sarah FINALLY has her braces off!  Yipee! 

After months of rain and gray, we are FINALLY having some sunshine!  It is wonderful!  The elementary kids had a couple of half days this week, so we took a trip to the park and played some tennis.  Love this nice weather! 

William wears his shades everywhere.

Even though it has been a few weeks since his birthday, we FINALLY had a free weekend to have Ben's birthday party.  His party was just the way he wanted--very simple.  Four friends over for pizza, swimming at the high school pool, flashlight tag, movies, and a sleepover--without much sleep.  All the boys were up playing outside at first light, even though it was only 36 degrees outside!

An update

Here's a bit of an update about what we have been up to lately:

We attended Ben's last Blue and Gold Banquet for cub scouts.  It was the day before his birthday.  He was awarded his Arrow of Light and had the cross-over ceremony to boy scouts. 

For dessert at the Blue and Gold Banquet, the boys each make and decorate a cake.  This year's theme was Resourcefulness.  Ben chose a garden-themed cake.  I think it turned out pretty cute.   He was up against some pretty stiff competition this year since two of the boys have moms that are professional cake decorators.  And yes, their cakes were AWESOME.  One was a cub scout shirt complete with badges and ribbons and the other was a camp fire with melted red lifesavers flattened out and then broken to look like flames. 

Spring is coming!  Yay!  My crocuses bloomed beautifully, but were all eaten by some critter within a couple of days. 

Kate got a hair cut.  She loves her knew 'do and it makes our morning routine a breeze! 

Just couldn't resist sharing a picture of this sweet happy boy!  We had some sunshine for a few days and he was loving it!

Science fair:  Science fair projects dominated our lives for a week or so.  So glad they are finally done and the kids had success.  Ben's project was on which color of goldfish our pet turtles preferred.  The answer:  orange.  Ben put in 10 goldfish--five or each color--in the tank and then watched to see what happened.  Within 20 minutes, four out of five of the orange fish were eaten, while the turtles ignored all the brown fish.  After several days, one of the brown fish was still in the tank, while all of the orange ones were gone.

Kate's project was on play-doh, and what happens if you leave it out.  She took two containers of play-doh and weighed them both.  She left one out and put the other away in its container, and then weighed them periodically.  After a couple of weeks, the play-doh left out was significantly lighter, not to mention cracked and dry.  It was a good project and I think she learned some things about evaporation and why it is I always tell her to put the play-doh away! 

Here are the kids with their projects on display at the Science Fair.

For the past several weeks, we haven't seen much of Sarah.  She has been crazy busy playing in the pit orchestra for the school musical, Annie Get Your Gun.

She was the only flutist.  Her rehearsal often went until 10:00 at night.  Then once the show started, she was gone until usually 10:30 or 11:00.  Then up again for seminary at 5:00 a.m.  The schedule was brutal--especially for David and I who usually took turns doing the "late shift" picking her up.  Then she would come home and start on homework.  I'm sure she is sad the show is over, but we are all hoping to get more sleep around here.

The show really was fabulous.  We went on Thursday night and I was so impressed with the acting and all the special effects.  Congrats to the whole cast on a job well done.

In the midst of all of this, Sarah had a flute solo & ensemble competition.  She played an extremely hard piece and I accompanied her.  It was such a challenging piece for me to play also, made more difficult by the lack of time for us to practice together.  When she is gone from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., it is hard to fit in any practice time.  Thankfully--and with lots of prayers and blessings from above--we made it through and played it our very best for the competition. 

Sarah and her flute teacher

 I must say--I am very glad it is over. 

This was my receipt from a quick trip to the grocery store the other day.  I only spent $37.47, and while I thought I got some good deals, I didn't expect this:

Too bad I didn't actually get $1200 worth of groceries!

And last of all...

after a lifetime of looking (I'm not exaggerating!), David finally did it.  Here's a picture of our new boat! 

 We are hoping for lots of fun times with it in the years ahead!

Number one twice

Right after we came home from our Disneyland trip, Ben had a birthday and turned 11.  My sister-in-law told me that my brother's favorite number is 11, because not only do you get to be number one, but you get to be number one TWICE!  I thought that was a pretty good way to describe Ben right now, because he is pretty awesome (not to mention my most loyal blog reader!)  So here is a shout out to Ben for his birthday--even if it is a bit late.  (I just can't stand to do things out of order on this blog, and since the trip was before his birthday, I had to post trip pictures first.)

Happy Birthday Ben!  We love you and are so glad you are in our family!

It was finally Ben's turn to get his fleece blanket.  So far, I have made fleece blankets for Sarah, Rachel, and Kate, so when Ben's birthday was approaching, I knew just what he needed.  Blankets from mom are filled with love.

It was a birthday full of blankets, because he was also lucky enough to get a quilt from Grandma Hales.  She is making queen-size quilts for each of her grandchildren, and this year Ben got one.  It is beautiful.  He loves it, and realizes the tender love and kindness which went into it.  Here he is reading the letter that came with it. 

 Ben also got a baseball bat and baseball bag, a new watch, and a game. 

 Ben picked his favorite dessert, chocolate cheesecake pie. 

We had his birthday dinner a few days later on Sunday, since we just couldn't quite pull of the elaborate menu on a busy weekday.  He chose steak, homemade rolls, green beans, and cream cheese mashed potatoes.

Here are eleven things about Ben right now:

1.  Ben is a hard worker.  He takes on jobs that may seem too hard for him, and does them well.

2.  Ben loves math.  He is in 5th grade, but working on 7th grade math.  Math concepts come easy to him and he thinks in a very analytical way.

3.  Ben is mischievous.  He likes to play tricks on people.

4.  Ben is a good big brother.  He plays with William and teaches him all sorts of things.

5.  Ben likes sports.  Most sports come pretty easy to him, and he enjoys playing and watching sports, especially playing on a team.  He just started baseball again, and is really enjoying it.

6.  Ben is a realist.  He doesn't really like to pretend.  Okay, not at all. 

7.  Ben loves to read fantasy novels.  His favorite series are Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and he has read each book in those series multiple times.  He is currently reading the Mysterious Benedict Society, and loving it.

8.  Ben practices the piano every day without being asked.

9.  As long as he is in a familiar place, Ben likes to talk.  He keeps getting in trouble at school for talking out of turn and "shouting across the classroom."  (That is what his last parent communication said.)

10.  Ben's favorite foods are chocolate cheesecake pie, pasta, pizza, crepes, and anything with parmesan cheese, but he doesn't like lemon bars, any kind of jam, and strawberry pie. 

11.  Ben is awesome!  I'm so glad I get to be his mom!

Lake Elsinore & Disneyland Wrap Up

After our day at Sea World, we stayed the night with our friends, the Jones's in a town only about 10 miles away from where my dad grew up in Lake Elsinore.  So on our way back to Disneyland, we made a quick stop in Lake Elsinore.  We tried to find the house my dad grew up in on Kellogg Street, but I couldn't exactly remember the correct house number.  I remember going to the house as a child, but so much has changed, and it has been so long--and so many of the houses look the same.  Later I was able to talk to my mom who told me the address, and we had driven on the right block after all. 

It was fun driving through town and remembering my dad.  We found the garage where my Grandpa worked as a mechanic and the theater where he took an extra job on the weekends to pay for my dad to go on a mission. 

We stopped at the cemetery and found my grandparent's headstone.

Nearby is the small infant grave of my uncle. 

It was special to spend some time thinking about my dad and my grandparents, and telling stories to my kids. 

 We drove from Lake Elsinore and made it back to Disneyland. 

Our last day at Disneyland was beautiful and sunny, and I made the kids pose for pictures all over the place....because if I don't have pictures to document a trip, then I may forget it happened. 

We were lucky enough to have Sarah's friend, Ally, spend the day with us.  She is such a super sweet girl--I wish she didn't live so far away from us!

 We rode as many rides as we could and soaked in the magic that was everywhere. 

 Wow, talk about a photogenic pair of girls! 

 That night we watched the parade. 

 Catching glimpses of the glow in William's eyes was the best part!

We also watched the most incredible firework show I've ever seen, completely chorographed to music and dialog and even including a live Tinkerbell and Star Wars lasers coming from the castle, and then Fantasmic.  We stayed until nearly midnight, eating ice cream and not wanting our day--and our vacation--to end.