In addition to our Spring Break camping trip and Easter celebrating, this stuff happened…
During Rusty’s initial orthodontic check up in February, it was determined that his teeth are too big for his mouth. In order to try to save major orthodontic work later, 4 of his baby teeth were pulled out in April. He may need to have their adult counterparts pulled in a few years, but for now at least there is room for those adult teeth to come in! He handled it just fine and it didn’t seem to bother him at all (well, after I let him take the gauze out of his mouth anyway).
Our neighbors have a momma pig who had a bunch of babies. They invited us over to meet them and they were the cutest little bacon, sausage, and ham ever!
I got to go with Billy on his field trip to Fort Buenaventura. There was a Mountain Man Rendezvous going on and we learned all sorts of things about the mountain men and the early American west. (Billy in red hat with red backpack and red shoes and red plaid shirt … think he likes red?)
Billy had a good group of friends. Here he is with Kyle and Reagan.
It is always fun to spend a little time with this kid!
More track meets for Ricky. One with wind gust up to 40 mph, one so cold that my legs were numb and my toes didn’t get feeling for hours afterwards, and one that was threatening rain, but otherwise not so bad.
Ricky kept running his 800m and improved each time. Even with the wonky weather, it was such a good experience for him and I hope he does it again!
One evening while Kevin was away, the littlest one was outside playing while I worked inside. He came in through the garage kind of whimpering and saying, “No blood, Mom. No blood.” Yeah. There was blood! Everywhere! He tripped or fell or something on our porch and sliced his forehead open.
A very expensive trip to the ER later (happened after the Instacare was closed), his forehead was poorly glued closed. He was a good patient so I don’t know why it wasn’t sealed better. Oh well. Live and learn. This was his owie face.
Billy enjoyed the Mountain Man Rendezvous so much that we had to take brothers there the next day. These two men used to work with Grandmama at the high school and it was fun running into (and being able to recognize) them.
Billy had really wanted to throw the tomahawk on his field trip but wasn’t picked. He made sure we headed that way so he could try…
Bull’s Eye!
The rest of us weren’t quite so talented …
For his Utah Studies class, Ricky was working with a group to make a model pioneer city. His assignment was a “wind mill and a covered wagon” he told me. He had specific size requirements that he had to follow and the guidelines for the windmill was “2 toilet paper rolls.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, but Kevin and I brainstormed with him and helped him create a pretty decent windmill a couple of days before it was due.
The next morning as Ricky was heading to school, I wanted to see his paper to make sure we’d followed all the requirements. I noticed it said “saw mill and covered wagon.” What?! Ricky was just as surprised as me! He’d been picturing a windmill the whole time! While he was at school, I researched pioneer saw mills. I had figured out a fairly simple way to create what seemed like a really hard assignment, but it was doable.
I picked Ricky up from track after school and started in on how I thought it could be done, since this project was due the next day and we had a busy night. He said, “Oh, yeah! I asked about that. It isn’t a windmill or a saw mill. I’m supposed to make a SILO.” (insert eye roll here)
Silo. Two toilet paper rolls. Way easier. Makes way more sense. Done.
We’ve been doing a lot of talking with the boys lately about caring figurative rocks around in figurative backpacks. I noticed a couple of boys were holding onto emotional baggage from kids at school (seeing the other kids feel sad or mad – not emotions my boys themselves were experiencing) and the negative effect it was having. So we talk about how it is okay to pick them up, but at the end of the day, we need to give those feelings/emotions to Jesus. It was a good lesson about how the Atonement wasn’t just for sins, but for hurts and pains and sadness.
Shortly after starting these talks, I noticed Billy’s backpack looked really lumpy. I guess I should have stressed a little more that our goal isn’t to carry real rocks around either! Or sticks.
“Hunter is reading a story,” says Bobby.
I know I won’t get these lap reading sessions forever. I want to remember them! I love them!
Pinewood Derby was the end of April. I helped Rusty and Billy come up with the concepts for their cars but I hoped Kevin would do the dad-work part. He didn’t quite see the vision for Rusty’s car, so it was up to me. I grew up with at dad who’s Pinewood Derby goal was “best in show” so I am all for the unique and don’t really care about speed.
That is spray foam on Rusty’s car. Just waiting for it to solidify so we can get to work!
More of those snuggly lap moments that won’t last forever!
A different kind of lap snuggling …
And the end results!
The classic Swiss Cheese car, complete with mouse, and the lesser common Volcano Car.
The man who ran the Derby did a great job and the boys totally got into it! It had intense moments!
One of the first runs was Billy vs Rusty … (the dude totally remembered their cars each time he called their names)
Billy for the win. Rusty’s car held its own, but we should have taken the smoke puff off earlier. It was so fun to watch it wobbling as it rolled down the track though!
Happy kids!
Billy came in 3rd over all and got the “Trading Paint” award as well as the “Most Cheesiest.” That trophy cup was hand spun/whittled/whatever it is called by our Scoutmaster.
The overall results…
Rusty got the “Best in Show” award (or whatever they called the most original design – it was a couple months ago and I’ve forgotten. Dang, I should blog more regularly.) He also was awarded his belated Bobcat that night.
The last big thing I planned in my 2 years as PTA president was our Art Show the end of April. We had visual arts on display all over the school, hands-on art projects and crafts, a display of art by local artists, food, and, my favorite, performing artists! Our school doesn’t have a stage, so I created one to give our performers a special place to be.
A couple of the classes performed songs which was adorable! This is Tommy’s class. He is second from the left.
We got to go to our next door neighbors’ wedding in April. They’ve been together for 15+ years and finally made it official. Bob and Lisa are great neighbors and it was a lot of fun to be a part of their day!
We squeezed in a few more date nights. One was particularly fun as we went to the local arcade. It has several retro arcade games … I still can’t beat Donkey Kong!
Kevin rocked several of the games. He has hidden ninja arcade talents!
And that was April.