Sunday 31 August 2008
We’ll go youngest to oldest this time.
Zach
Zach enjoyed having Haydn over to play with on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Zach and Haydn enjoyed taking toys out of the toy boxes in his bedroom. Rachel said the toys kept them occupied for quite a long time. She heard toys hitting the walls occasionally, so who knows what they were really doing in there. By the time the weekend arrived, it looked like someone had stirred all of the toys randomly together on the floor. Sorting it all back out into buckets was one of Troy’s projects on Saturday.
Zach caught a cold late in the week, so he stayed home from church today. Rachel stayed with him.
Claire
Claire had Green Eggs and Ham Day at school this week. She said she tried a little bit of the green eggs, and had a big piece of Ham. Claire is generally enjoying school. It is fairly easy to get her up and going in the morning.
Emma
With Emma on the other hand, we still get a whole lot of drama and/or trauma every morning. Here’s the morning ritual: First, Emma comes in to snuggle with her mom in bed for a few minutes. Then, mommy must get her clothes for her. After getting dressed mommy must come downstairs with her and fix her lunch while she gets breakfast. After breakfast mommy must put the princess’ socks and shoes on. Once everyone is ready to go, mommy must walk out to the car with her and kiss her forehead as she gets into the car. As we drive away, mommy needs to blow her kisses for Emma to catch. Emma usually pouts and whines a bit on the 8/10 mile to the school. Sometimes the pouting continues on the walk from the car to the classroom. As school starts and the rest of the kids gather she gradually finds her smile. Wait 24 hours, repeat. (Note from the "mommy:" I don't cater to her like this EVERY morning. I don't always put her socks and shoes on.....)
We predict that Emma will be the one living at home when she’s 32. Our one hope is that Emma finds her prince charming before then. Of course knowing Emma, she’ll talk prince charming into moving into our house with her!
Emma was the “Star of the Week” at school. She made a little descriptive poster about herself, and they did a little spotlight on her on Friday. Also on Friday, she got to attend a special pizza lunch with another 12 or 15 kids. She earned the chance to get her name drawn for the lunch by good deeds at school. She enjoyed the pizza and the extra attention.
Katie
Katie is reveling in her “Tween-ness”. A couple of times this week when asked why she was doing something, she informed her Dad that it is “Because I am a tweener”. Katie talked Rachel into making a trip to the store next week to find a training bra. “Because I am a tweener now, Dad!”.
Katie spent the night at Laura Pang’s house on Friday and reportedly had a good time.
Katie has been taking piano lessons, but with all of the homework this year, plus a couple of after school activities, she hasn’t had much time, or will to practice. She might not last much longer.
Troy
After the ward boundary re-alignment, Troy and the Elder’s quorum presidency have visited most of the new members of the Quorum now. We lost a few, and were especially sad to see our Secretary Jimmy Parent and his wife Tasha go, but we also gained some good Elders. It will probably take a few months and a couple of activities for people to get to know each other.
Troy took the girls over to the Pang’s house to swim on Saturday. Because of the three day weekend, he didn’t have to get all of his usual chores all done on Saturday, therefore he had a little extra time to spend. Part of the point was to wear out the kids so they wouldn’t make more messes and wouldn’t fight as much. Sure enough, they sat and watched a movie for most of the rest of the afternoon.
At work, Troy has been invited to do some training at a conference in Guadalajara Mexico on the 9th of October. One of his co-workers speaks Spanish, but he is fairly new, so he wouldn’t quite be able to do the job – so Troy gets to go. Troy might take an extra ½ day for some sight seeing while there. (Rachel's comment: This is during our Fall Break from school so I'll be getting all the kids all day all by myself. So, if there is anyone who enjoys the laughter of children and long hours of rewarding labor please get in touch with me and I'll fly you to Gilbert!)
Rachel
The usual busy-ness this week. Kid care, Rachel’s day care, Mom's homework and special assignment Service, Udall and Smith billing, Stake Primary coordination, making dinners, doing laundry, cleaning, etc etc… A mom’s work is never done. With kids and messes it’s like the old Doritos commercials with Jay Leno: “Clean all you want! We’ll make more.”
Rachel started a hip-hop dance class. The first week the teacher worked them pretty hard and she ended up with sore muscles. The second week wasn’t quite as strenuous. She comes home and shows the kids some of her new moves and then they have fun practicing them all together.
Rachel stayed home from church with Zach and Claire today. No extended family dinner today either. It was nice to have a day off.
Rachel’s brother Ken and his family are traveling down from Kingman, AZ tomorrow to spend some time with us. We will host cousin play time and spaghetti dinner.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Finally...an update! Week of August 17-24
Sunday 24 Aug
Troy
Wed the 13th was Troy’s birthday. We try to string out birthday celebrations as long as possible around here. On the day of, Rachel and the Girls made some crafts and a cake. They sang Happy Birthday and we had cake and ice cream for dessert. On Friday night Rachel and Troy went up to Mesa. We ate at Mango’s Mexican café and then went over to a new city theater in Mesa for a concert by David Sandborn. He has been around for a long time and has a large repertoire. He probably doesn’t have to play the same songs two nights in a row. It was good music.
Sunday the celebration continued with the Zachresons coming over for dinner and dessert. We also celebrated Ann’s birthday and exchanged gifts and sang Happy Birthday for her too.
Rachel
Rachel caught a cold from the kids and didn’t feel well for a few days. It’s hard to avoid passing colds around – even in the summer time.
Rachel was the guest story teller for Emma’s 2nd grade class this week. Emma’s class is studying the human body, so her teacher requested a story with that theme. Rachel decided to split the groups of students into a couple different groups and give them different super powers. She said the students were very well behaved, and everyone liked the story. They caught the bad guy with their super powers. She also told a story to Claire's Kindergarten class about a hungry dragon. Claire was "Star of the Week" and requested the presentation. The Kinders loved it. Mrs. Tegtmeyer, the Kinder teacher, then requested that Rachel come back and tell another story based on the different themes the kids will be doing. Katie has requested Rachel to come tell a story as well, but Rachel is a bit leary of entertaining 5th graders. She doesn't want to ruin Katie's rep.
For the last two Saturdays Rachel was helping to put on a swimming merit badge day for the 11-year-old scouts that are under her purview in the Primary. The stake rented Chandler High School Pool. The first weekend they helped the boys get the prerequisite swim tests out of the way. The second week they covered most of the requirements for the merit badge. She has a nice tan now, but she is still recovering from the sun and heat today.
The boundaries of the wards in the stake changed, so Rachel had to spend some time training new Ward Primary presidencies. Our ward also lost our Primary president, but we gained 15 new kids – nearly doubling the size of the primary.
Katie
Katie is getting a lot more homework in 5th grade. She has also had to bring some home with her because she didn’t finish during class. She also has a report on Amerigo Vespucci that she is working on. For her report on the explorer she gets to dress up like him, and for extra credit she chose to make up a song about him and sing it for the class. Rachel is excited to make up some silly lyrics to the tune of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America.” ("His name was Amerigo!")
Katie rode her bike to and from school a few days. She rides with a friend and seems to like it even though it is 110 degrees on the way home.
Emma
Emma has a hard time waking up in the morning for school – but eventually she makes it. She’s more of a night owl. Emma and Claire also have a hard time leaving mommy in the morning as the go to school, but they are able to walk to the playground together before school starts and console each other. I guess sisters can be a good thing sometimes.
Emma took a standard 2nd grader reading placement test last week and was able to read just over 200 words per minute. One of our friends from church also works at the school. After seeing Emma’s scores she had to find Rachel to say that she was amazed. Emma escpecially enjoys reading before going to bed. It’s hard to get her to turn off the light most nights (which in turn contributes to the “hard to wake up in the morning” problem mentioned earlier).
Claire
Claire is one of only two in her class that gets out of jail (a.k.a. Kindergarten) at the half-day mark. All of the other 5 yr olds are there for the full day now. Claire also did very well on her reading comprehension test. Much to our amazement she is the 2nd best reader in the class. She has been practicing lately with One Fish, Two Fish and the Bearenstain Bears’ B Book.
Zach
Zach made it by himself through part of nursery today. Troy tried a new technique to get Zach accustomed to being left for a few minutes, and then eventually Troy was able to leave him for the last 45! After church Zach wandered around singing “I Happy and I Know It” – clap, clap. I think they sang that in nursery for a couple weeks in a row.
Zach has a fetish for salt shakers lately. Over the course last few days, he found all of the salt shakers on the tables and counters and had fun emptying them onto said tables and counters. This morning as Rachel was trying to get breakfast ready for everyone, he grabbed the garlic salt that Emma used last night for her garlic toast and emptied it onto the counter. Then he found some water to mix with it. Even after Rachel got it wiped up, none of his sisters would sit by him because it stunk.
Thanks again for tuning in to our crazy life. We sure do enjoy it....most of the time.
Troy
Wed the 13th was Troy’s birthday. We try to string out birthday celebrations as long as possible around here. On the day of, Rachel and the Girls made some crafts and a cake. They sang Happy Birthday and we had cake and ice cream for dessert. On Friday night Rachel and Troy went up to Mesa. We ate at Mango’s Mexican café and then went over to a new city theater in Mesa for a concert by David Sandborn. He has been around for a long time and has a large repertoire. He probably doesn’t have to play the same songs two nights in a row. It was good music.
Sunday the celebration continued with the Zachresons coming over for dinner and dessert. We also celebrated Ann’s birthday and exchanged gifts and sang Happy Birthday for her too.
Rachel
Rachel caught a cold from the kids and didn’t feel well for a few days. It’s hard to avoid passing colds around – even in the summer time.
Rachel was the guest story teller for Emma’s 2nd grade class this week. Emma’s class is studying the human body, so her teacher requested a story with that theme. Rachel decided to split the groups of students into a couple different groups and give them different super powers. She said the students were very well behaved, and everyone liked the story. They caught the bad guy with their super powers. She also told a story to Claire's Kindergarten class about a hungry dragon. Claire was "Star of the Week" and requested the presentation. The Kinders loved it. Mrs. Tegtmeyer, the Kinder teacher, then requested that Rachel come back and tell another story based on the different themes the kids will be doing. Katie has requested Rachel to come tell a story as well, but Rachel is a bit leary of entertaining 5th graders. She doesn't want to ruin Katie's rep.
For the last two Saturdays Rachel was helping to put on a swimming merit badge day for the 11-year-old scouts that are under her purview in the Primary. The stake rented Chandler High School Pool. The first weekend they helped the boys get the prerequisite swim tests out of the way. The second week they covered most of the requirements for the merit badge. She has a nice tan now, but she is still recovering from the sun and heat today.
The boundaries of the wards in the stake changed, so Rachel had to spend some time training new Ward Primary presidencies. Our ward also lost our Primary president, but we gained 15 new kids – nearly doubling the size of the primary.
Katie
Katie is getting a lot more homework in 5th grade. She has also had to bring some home with her because she didn’t finish during class. She also has a report on Amerigo Vespucci that she is working on. For her report on the explorer she gets to dress up like him, and for extra credit she chose to make up a song about him and sing it for the class. Rachel is excited to make up some silly lyrics to the tune of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America.” ("His name was Amerigo!")
Katie rode her bike to and from school a few days. She rides with a friend and seems to like it even though it is 110 degrees on the way home.
Emma
Emma has a hard time waking up in the morning for school – but eventually she makes it. She’s more of a night owl. Emma and Claire also have a hard time leaving mommy in the morning as the go to school, but they are able to walk to the playground together before school starts and console each other. I guess sisters can be a good thing sometimes.
Emma took a standard 2nd grader reading placement test last week and was able to read just over 200 words per minute. One of our friends from church also works at the school. After seeing Emma’s scores she had to find Rachel to say that she was amazed. Emma escpecially enjoys reading before going to bed. It’s hard to get her to turn off the light most nights (which in turn contributes to the “hard to wake up in the morning” problem mentioned earlier).
Claire
Claire is one of only two in her class that gets out of jail (a.k.a. Kindergarten) at the half-day mark. All of the other 5 yr olds are there for the full day now. Claire also did very well on her reading comprehension test. Much to our amazement she is the 2nd best reader in the class. She has been practicing lately with One Fish, Two Fish and the Bearenstain Bears’ B Book.
Zach
Zach made it by himself through part of nursery today. Troy tried a new technique to get Zach accustomed to being left for a few minutes, and then eventually Troy was able to leave him for the last 45! After church Zach wandered around singing “I Happy and I Know It” – clap, clap. I think they sang that in nursery for a couple weeks in a row.
Zach has a fetish for salt shakers lately. Over the course last few days, he found all of the salt shakers on the tables and counters and had fun emptying them onto said tables and counters. This morning as Rachel was trying to get breakfast ready for everyone, he grabbed the garlic salt that Emma used last night for her garlic toast and emptied it onto the counter. Then he found some water to mix with it. Even after Rachel got it wiped up, none of his sisters would sit by him because it stunk.
Thanks again for tuning in to our crazy life. We sure do enjoy it....most of the time.
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