This is an old picture from this summer. But I love it and wanted to make sure it was on the blog. I love them.
Family over for Conference Sunday Lunch … taco bar!
Some days you just need to capture the love. He is so much fun!
This group of boys, one 9, one 8, one 7, and two 6 … they are good little friends and bus buddies! That said, Billy has become the King of the bus stop. He is older by nearly a year and a half and still carries himself like a little old man. My boys understand Billy and his ways, but I was surprised to see their friends also, um, respect Billy’s authority. On this particular morning, I was dropping Rusty and Tommy off at the bus stop after getting them from their 7 am piano lessons (so, so early!). I had dropped Billy off at the stop on my way to pick up the other two and their friends were already at the stop. This has traditionally meant the friends should have been first in line – they have always lined up in order of arriving at the stop. Sometimes, Rusty and Tommy get out of their lesson too late and I have to take them to school, but this day the bus hadn’t come yet, so I stopped again at the bus stop to let them ride the bus to school. I was surprised to see that Billy was at the head of the line. I was informed, “That’s just Billy’s place.”
Ah, my little Mob Boss!
This is an assignment of Rusty’s. It says, “If I were a teacher … I would do magic and potion.” Perhaps we do too much Harry Potter at our house?!
Ricky’s junior high sponsored a community meeting about “Rachel’s Challenge.” It is a kindness campaign organized by the family of the first victim of the Columbine shooting in 1998. It was emotional for both boys as they told Rachel’s story and about several other victims of the shooting. What was most emotional for me was when we first walked into the school. Ricky put his arm around Billy and just started showing him around and telling him all about junior high. It melted me!
It was good to attend with my boys. (and for the record, the junior high’s community meeting wasn’t any better attended than the one at I did at the elementary school – people are missing out on great opportunities!). Rachel wrote a paper a couple of weeks before the shooting where she challenged the world to be a chain reaction of kindness. To do this she gave 5 steps: eliminate prejudice, dream big and write down goals, choose positive influences, speak with kindness, and share with loved ones that you love them. All good stuff!
Kevin and I went to see “Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Unusual Children.” Ricky didn’t care so much that we went to the movie without him, he was more annoyed that I loaned out my copy of the book before he could read it!
One of our Sunday activities is to watch a talk from General Conference. The boys sketch the speaker and write down what they hear in the talk. So far, it has been an awesome experience. Made even more awesome by their sketches! Here is President Uchtdorf, or Gomez Addams, you pick. This was Billy’s work.
The sand in the shoes was Rusty. But it could have been Tommy. I don’t know how they can even walk with that much sand in there!
The boys made these shirts last spring. Tommy has now hot dogged two of them – one was so mustardy that it was never going to recover. This was ketchup. Either that or he was splatter painted.
Another fun PTA things that I get to do is the Grandparents’ Lunch. I’m glad that my mom is able and willing to come and eat with my boys. I know they love having her there! The principal and I figure we had 275 to 300 grandparents/loved ones come this time. That is such a good thing – connection to the community! Plus, the grandparents spent more money in our book fair those 2 hours it was open than we made in 7 hours the next day! Win-win for everyone, right?!
