Jacob's Eagle Project

We have been working on this for awhile, but the project is finally done! Now just a few odds and ends and Jake will be an Eagle scout!  It is a lot of work! Phew!

Paperwork.

Jacob gathered items and funding for hygiene kits to send to the humanitarian center.

The people who helped.  130 kits were assembled.

Each kit has 2 hand towels, 4 toothbrushes, 1 tube of toothpaste, 2 combs, and 2 bars of soap.

This is delivering the kits to the humanitarian center.  The kits are sent all over the world to help those in disaster situations.  We were truly humbled to see all the donations from our community to help those in need.  This has been a great experience for our whole family.

Leslie's 15th Birthday

Wow! It is here! Leslie is 15.  She has been anticipating this birthday for awhile, sending out lists of her wishes to friends and family, lest they forget the big day.  The list I received looked something like this:
1. Tangled

2. Fashion bug cat eye sunglasses
3. Big sandwich
4. Bracelets
5. Rings
6. Heart locket (long chain)
7. Fresh flowers
8. Head bands- the cute kind with big flowers or bows
9. Boxes- any kind
10. T-shirts
11. Hats
12. Pink pens
13. Lip gloss- peachy colored
14. Pretty hair pins
15. Eiffel tower model
16. Chandelier earrings
17. Magazines
18. Lamp
19. Makeup
20. Nail polish
21. Books
22. CDs
23. Sharpies
24. Milkshake
25. School bag
26. Socks
27. Anything for my room- my colors are hot pink, blue (and grey, silver, white, and black)- Paris theme
28. Any suprises

Big Sandwiches were granted.

Anticipation.

Watch out for that guy!

Unwelcome help. Ppplllbbb.

Gorgeous bracelet (I picked it out, so I think so!)

Check out Ethan's face...he knows what is in there! (Tangled is one of those new absolute favorite movies!)

Happy Birthday, Leslie! (Note: Leslie says she is still accepting gifts. :)

Caleb's Band Concert

Caleb has been playing the trombone this year in band and I was able to attend his spring concert this week.  The band sounded great and I was impressed at how many kids have joined the band this year.  It was a fun concert.

Looking good, Son!

Hansel and Gretel

I mean, Hazel and Greta.  This was a fun play put on by the little girl cousins at a family get-together.  It is called Hazel and Greta, because these are two cousin names. Clever Hazel is usually the master-mind.

 Here are the children, approaching the witch's door.  Miriam is the witch.

My favorite part of this play is when the witch takes the children shopping for ovens.  How delightfully morbid!

Finally the police haul off the wicked witch and all ends well. Sigh of relief!  I'm so glad for fun cousins nearby!



Seth is a Preschool Graduate!

Seth attended the preschool at Taylorsville High this year.  This is him "walking".

Diploma in hand. Phew! He made it. I tried three times to get a photo of him with his diploma, but my camera has a delay of about 1 1/2 seconds, and Seth has an attention span of slightly less than that, so here are the attempts.  I thought they were cute just the same.

Not quite.

Almost.

Done, Mom! Congratulations, Buddy! You always make me smile! (Just this morning, Seth snuggled next to me on the couch and said, "Guess what? I can pop my eyeball out!")

Spring Update

This is what spring has been looking like around here!  Photo taken at the very end of April.

This is the sad demise of our one and only tree.  When we moved into this house, I was somewhat dismayed that a home 30 years old only had one tree on the property.  The last few years the tree has lost more and more limbs to a bug, and finally, this spring, it never awoke.

So, with two manly men and one suburban, the tree is out.  Sad.  We will be looking for a new one to plant, but I am afraid the yard may have some sort of curse.  We have planted probably 8 trees since moving here and none of them have lasted.  This year the dog ate the branches off my baby cherry tree. Ugh!!!

Caleb's Arrow of Light

Caleb earned this a while ago, but due to some circumstances, it was awarded at the end of April.  Our cubmaster had a real Indian arrow to award to him and a wonderful ceremony.  Here are the highlights.

The arrow, Cubmaster Snelgrove and Caleb (in his new scout shirt, about 4 sizes too big because I've had one of these fast-growing scouts before!  "Trust me," I tell him.)

His new scoutmaster inviting him to cross the bridge to Scouting.

Receiving his new neckerchief for Scouts.  We are excited for you, Caleb!  You're going to love scouts even more than cubs!

Miriam is Nine!

Time flys!  Jake still thinks she is four, but my littlest girl is growing up quick!  Here are some highlights:

 This is Miriam's cake, which she wanted to look like a watermelon.  And it did, until, while writing on it we had a frosting explosion and now it just looks like a watermelon with a flower garden in it.  Life.

There was much screaming opening the gifts.  So fun to have her excited.  This is a Barbie.  I knew it was the right one when it was holding two of the things Miriam asked for this birthday: a cell phone and a laptop. (Please!  The other thing was a water bed....).  Happy Birthday, sis!