March beginnings

 Rachel is working on finishing Personal Progress and earning her medallion before the program changes at the end of the year. For one of her value projects she is helping with the garden. We were picking weeds and cutting back plants and she was so excited to find this little guy amongst the plants.

 The kids all love earthworms, but don't see many inch worms, so they thought this was pretty cool.

Rachel found a 4-leaf clover that was partially eaten by a caterpillar or leaf cutter ant. But it was still a 4 leaf clover, so she feels lucky.

 Megan's artistic skills are really taking off. She drew this self portrait and asked me to take a picture. She's got 5 fingers, dots on her shirt, and lots of great detail.

 Then she added braces and asked me to take a picture again. :)

Rachel had a math competition in January where she got 3rd place which qualified her to move on to the regional competition. The regional competition was March 4th (which just happened to be the day Jacob had to fly out to Omaha for a work trip).

 Since the competition was after school and near where Peyton and McKenzie live, we decided to meet up for dinner and to play at the park.

 I left the kids with Justin while I went over to the school to be there for the awards ceremony, only to find they were running way behind. So I went back to get the kids since they wouldn't last at the park until the awards ceremony was done, and took them back with me to watch the awards ceremony. Rachel got 5th place which qualifies her to go on to the state competition. Yay! She was the highest finisher from her school. We're so proud of our mathlete/math nerd.

The next night at mutual we had a fun priest/laurel activity. We split into groups and tried to replicate a piece of art using food. Our leader one was awful, but some were very impressive:

 Then Thursday of that same week (while Jacob was still gone), Megan had Kindergarten round up.

 She is so excited to be going to kindergarten in July. Next year they will be starting full day kinder, which I'm not sure Megan will really like all that much, since she complains about going to preschool on the third day in a row almost every week (the first two days she's usually fine). But she claims she wants to be at school for as long as the other kids will be, so we'll try it and see how it goes. We can always opt out of full day and just do half day if it's too much for her.

 The next day I got to go with Annie on a field trip to see a play at a nearby high school.

 She loves plays so much, so she was super excited about it. This one was called The Princess Without a Name. It was very funny and one of my laurels was in it, so that was a bonus. It was fun to get to go along.

 That afternoon was field day at the school so Megan and I headed out there to help with that. Though I had just found out that morning that one of my former mission companions, Sharon Kneib Wagoner was passing through Tucson on her way to her sister's wedding in Gilbert. She happened to be passing through right when I was at the school so I called my mom to come cover my shift and ran home to see her and meet her husband and kids.

It was great to see her and I'm glad we could make that happen even if it was only for a half hour.

Afterwards I ran back to the school to share some otter pops with Ryan's class since his birthday would be happening over Spring Break. Then that afternoon as I was making dinner, Jacob walked in about 8 hours earlier than we were expecting him to return from Omaha. It was nice to have him back home. It was a super busy week, but we managed it, and I thought it was funny that on a normal week we only have evening activities on Tuesdays, but that week we had Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday that we had to juggle things around without the option of Jacob pitching in. Thankfully my mom pitched in and watched the kids when I needed to be gone, and we survived. And Jacob got home, only to find a week later that the lab where he had been working was under 7 feet of water with the flooding in Nebraska. Craziness.

Snowy Rodeo Break

Rodeo Break is usually when I start getting the garden ready to plant, and sometimes even start planting. Not this year. We got our 3rd snow storm of the year. And the first time ever that I remember it snowing all day long. Or even for more than 15 minutes during the day. The kids watched the snow fall for a while before they ventured out.

 Then they played in our backyard and built snow men and snow balls and such. It was really great packing snow and the kids stayed out in it until they were too cold and wet. Rachel just stayed out in it for a long, long time.

 Rachel even made a snow llama (originally a snow dog, but we rebranded it as a llama).

 Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house to play with their snow and with McKenzie and Peyton. Where they live hasn't gotten snow that has stuck this year, and even while we had several inches of snow out here, they barely had snow flurries, and it wasn't sticking. I made the kids stay inside G&G's house until the girls arrived. It would have been silly to have them go play outside in the snow, then get cold and wet and come inside right when McKenzie and Peyton arrived. When they did get there, the fun began.

 Annie told me, "I'm making a snow fort and snowballs. I learned it from Calvin and Hobbes. I'm doing everything I learned from Calvin and Hobbes." Apparently that's a good source for snow fun ideas.

 The snowmen even had a little baby!

 We headed over to our house for part of the day, too. I caught a snapshot of Ryan teaching Peyton and Megan some karate moves.

It is sure fun having cousins that live close by.

Vail Pride Day

Every year the Vail School District has one Saturday dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of the kids. This year we had to be there for the whole, LONG day. The kids loved it. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Rachel had to be there first thing in the morning for a band performance.

 They combined with several other area schools, which is helpful when there is only 10 kids or so in the band from her school.

 After the band performance was over, Ryan and Megan participated in the fun run.

 They started at the end of the pack, but ran hard and ran pretty much the whole way, only walking for a short time, and they both passed lots of kids.

 Ryan managed to come in 2nd place for the boys K-2.

 Annie didn't realize there was the possibility of winning a medal, so she was a little jealous and plans to run the race next year.

One of the most exciting things they love is the fun bus. I didn't get a good picture of the whole bus, but there they are on top of the bus getting ready to go down the slide. We returned to the fun bus several times that day.

 Megan saw some kids riding on a train and begged and begged to go on it. We just couldn't figure out where the train loaded and unloaded. We finally found the train and followed it back to the starting line so Megan could get her wish. They got a good long ride all around the fair grounds.

 Inside the main hall they had displays from each elementary class in the district. Right next to the displays was the chance to join in the old time picture.

 We went and watched Rachel compete in Academic Jeopardy. Their team did well and they ended up placing 2nd place.

With some time to kill before Rachel had to report for the math bowl, we went out the the inflatables for a while. The kids ran through some obstacle courses and jumping castles before we had to go back in.

 Rachel got to compete in the Math Bowl, too, and they did a great job.

 We spent some time in the science room where the kids made foam, played with robots, shot straw rockets, and packaged eggs for an egg drop competition.

 When the time for the egg drop came we went outside to watch them drop.

 All the kids' eggs cracked, but they all still got a ribbon which was the best part of the day for everyone. Ribbons and medals are just so exciting.

Then we just had time to kill until the end parade that Annie was going to be a part of. We paid for Megan and Ryan to ride some ponies, but both of them got on the ponies, then changed their minds almost immediately, so we got our money refunded.

 The petting zoo was much more to their liking. Bunnies were the biggest hit of the day.

 Rachel and Annie were in there holding various bunnies for literally an hour.

 Ryan spent some time in the petting zoo, too, but then wanted to try climbing the rock wall.

 Finally the time came for the parade. Jacob and the kids wanted gelato, so they got some to eat during the parade, then proceeded to freeze as the wind blew and they ate their frozen treats. As a Diamondback Leader, Annie got to join in the parade to wrap up the day.

As soon as it was over, we ran out to the car to head out. It was a LONG day for sure. But the kids had fun.

February miscellaneous

February had a lot of fun for the kids at school. Megan's preschool had a day before Rodeo Break that was a rodeo day. They had horse riding races.

 They roped the bulls, and did other exciting activities. And Megan was super cute in their cowgirl get up.

 Megan was super excited to get to start Karate with Ryan. She doesn't like to wear the gi or belt to class, but was happy to put it on for a picture.

 She is loving karate (as is Ryan).

Megan continues to be a super biker. She loves bike riding and we are trying to get in as much bike riding as we can before the weather gets too hot.

 The older kids had spirit week at school. On crazy hair day we managed to do a pretty good job. The girls wanted braids that stick out, so we added wire to the braids and had a Pippi Longstocking kind of look going on, kind of.

 For Valentine's Day one of the kids favorite treats were their lip lollipops.

 That night we pulled out the fancy goblets for Martinelli's for a fancy "romantic" dinner.

My friend, Jill, had a baby, so we went and got her other kids to give her a chance to nap one day when the kids had a half day. After a little while at our house we decided to walk over Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house to jump on the trampoline.

 We spent a good hour there playing in the back yard and jumping on the tramp and getting all their energy out (and with all those boys together, there was a lot of energy).

Afterwards we walked back to our house, then let the kids watch a show before I took them back home. I used to be so much better at having the kids' friends over for them to play with, but we hardly do it these days because at least one of the kids has something after school every day except for Friday. It was good to have a playdate for once.