Surprise!

No, it's not an April Fools joke, but it would have been a good one. We told the kids by sending them on a scavenger hunt to find the letters of the message. Then they had to unscramble the message. When they figured it out, they were surprised....but only one of the 3 seemed excited.

March 2010

Umm....March. We hosted 3 other couples for dinner at our home for a ward activity. I had Parent Teacher Conferences with Samantha’s and Brooklyn’s teachers. They are both doing fine. McKenzie turned 13 and became an official teenager with a bank account, a cell phone, and birthday money to spend.

We spent 3 days in Puerto Rico. It was nice warming up at the pool and the beach. We also hiked in the rainforest and toured Old San Juan (where we had a crazy experience feeding the pigeons). We had a fun time and didn’t get sunburned until the last day.

Yesterday, the interior pane of the large glass window in our family room that overlooks the golf course shattered.....for no apparent reason. It will cost over $1000 to get it replaced. Good grief!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A rainbow with a pot of gold.

As a general rule, I like to stay away from artificial colors.

But for special occasions, such as holidays, I make an exception.

On this particular occasion, one of the girls was in charge of the food coloring....

and dinner (tuna casserole & biscuits) sure was green!

February 2010

Brooklyn turned 5 this month and at her check up she was 3'7" (67th percentile) and 40 lb (53rd percentile). She had to have 3 shots and a finger prick (even though she had several shots last year) to get ready for Kindergarten. Besides screaming during the process, she was limping around all day, asking me to help her get down and up off the floor, and not using her hurt finger. She is quite the drama queen. Brooke finished up her painting class at the park district and because of some conflicts I haven’t gotten her into another class even though she really wants to do something. A few days ago we went to the elementary school for Kindergarten Preview where she got to meet the teachers and spend some time in the classroom.

McKenzie has had a busy month. She has been playing basketball with the Young Women and just finished up their games. Our team is mostly Beehives (and not very many of them), so she got to play quite a bit. The youth went to do baptisms at the temple last week (McKenzie’s second time going). At school, McKenzie tried out for the school play, The Music Man, and was given an ensemble part. She had a combined band and chorus concert and well as performed with five other flutes in the district solo ensemble festival. We also attended her school’s open house. Last week she got impressions done of her teeth to start the braces process.

Kevin turned 40, and I guess has given up on saying that he is 27, or turning 27. I went to a mini-class on Mexican cooking given by a lady in the ward, so I made something new for his birthday dinner.

A couple weeks ago, the Stake President’s wife invited us over for Family Home Evening at their home. (They are in our ward.) We were asked to bring a lesson appropriate for our family and they provided dessert. It was fun and a good experience for the kids; we had each of them take a part in giving the lesson.

We finally ordered some drapes for our family room in January and they were installed yesterday. We are still deciding if we like them. The process was difficult choosing a fabric and even though they do match the rug, it’s hard to tell. The house decorating process sure is a long drawn out process.

A funny story

A couple weeks ago our phone stopped working. (As a side note, in attempting to restore our internet service I had unplugged the phone line and replugged it into the Line 2 spot........) I called our phone provider (on my cell phone) and was attempting to resolve the issue. Periodically I would press “talk” on the phone and listen for a dial tone to see if the phone service had been restored. When M would check the phone, she would dial a phone number, then press “talk.” I couldn’t figure out why she was going through the extra step of dialing a phone number until I talked to her and realized that she (as well as S) didn’t have any idea what a dial tone was. I couldn’t believe they didn’t know. We have gotten so used to cell phones and dialing the number first on our home phone (in case we make a mistake and need to clear part of the number) that she had never heard a dial tone. I made a dramatic presentation and the girls were excited to learn something new. A few days later the girls informed me that they have never used a phone book.......and don't know why they would ever need to.