Memorable moments this week



We made a cake this week and Claire really wanted to help decorate it, but the icing proved to be a bit too challenging, so she settled for the sprinkles.  

 

 

Danny played golf on President's Day, so the rest of us went out for donuts.

 

 

 The weather was so nice last weekend that all of my daffodils have come up.

 

 

Then, boom it got cold again...

 

 

...it started raining and then it hailed.  Andrew and Claire thought this was wonderful.  They ran outside and played in it.  At least Claire was dressed appropriately!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrestle time with daddy.

 

 

In this picture Claire has on one of those backpacks that you put on toddlers to keep them from running away.  We refer to it as the "monkey backpack".  Grant was holding the tail and trying to pull Claire, but he ended up just getting whipped around because Claire is stronger than he is.

 

For some reason Claire and Andrew decided that they wanted to earn money, so they did a bunch of chores.  They made their beds, organized their rooms and then cleaned the bathrooms.  It was funny because they kept looking for more things that they could do to earn money.  Any time!

 

Random pictures of the week

I usually group the pictures in my blog posts together under one topic.  I have found recently that I miss posting some really cute pictures that aren't from some type of event.  My friend Britney is really good at posting pictures that she takes from her iphone each week.  It is like a little slice of their lives for that week.  I'm not sure that I can be as diligent as doing it once a week, but I will try.  Here are some cute pictures from this past week.

 

Claire loves to go to the library and check out books.  We typically go every three weeks since that is how long you can check them out, but recently she has been going through the books faster.  She likes to actually check out the books herself. 

 

 

Grant LOVES this hand me down ride on car from Claire.  He rides it up and down the hall at top speeds.  He has to be reminded not to run into the kitchen cabinets quite a lot.  One night, he wanted it up on the couch so that he could still sit on it while watching Chuggington.

 

 

Baseball season has officially started.  As with every year, Andrew likes to go through the coaches bag and try on all of the gear the league provides.

 

I went to check on Claire one night and she was snuggled up with her McKenna doll.  This is probably why the doll's hair is a mess, but oh well.

 

It hit 72 degrees this week!  I may have sent this picture to my sister who is freezing in Idaho.  In my defense it was because she was saying mean things about my precious cat.

 

For some reason, Hannah felt the need to help Andrew with his math homework.  Hopefully she can be a better tutor than I am.  He is already working on long division - yikes!

 

Because the weather has been so nice, Danny gave the kids some ice cream.  This is what Grant looks like every single time he eats ice cream.  And yes, it is also all over his hands.

 

We took the van in to be serviced last week, so we had to ride back to pick it up in Danny's car.  Here they are all jammed in the back seat.  We really need to get Danny a bigger car! 

End of basketball season

Last Saturday night was the end of basketball season.  Andrew ended up having a great team.  Although they don't keep score, it seemed like they scored quite a few points in each game.  Here is a picture of Andrew and his team mates after the game.  Their coach told them what a great season they had and gave them all a medal. 

 

I only had my phone, so the picture quality isn't great, but Claire really wanted to pose with Andrew after the game.  I am not sure why she has her jacket on backwards.

To celebrate, we went across the street to Pizza My Heart for dinner.  They were really hungry!  We finished an entire large pizza.  Andrew really enjoyed the season and wants to play next year between baseball seasons.

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day, Claire's teacher asked that all of the kids write their own names along with the names of the kids in her class by themselves.  Claire thought that this was a great idea and sat down and did it all at once.  Andrew wasn't so sure about taking valentines, but luckily I was able to find some Fun Dip valentines that he thought were really cool, so he didn't mind.  I picked up Andrew and Claire from school and they were so excited to look through their bags.  They both had class parties where they decorated and handed out their valentines.

 

 

Looking through their bags was just as exciting as it was on Halloween.  It was interesting that they didn't get any duplicates and to see how creative some people were.  Claire, of course, loved anything Hello Kitty.

 

 

Claire's friend Ava, who I teach at church, gave me this lovely plate of sugar cookies.  Frosted sugar cookies are one of my favorite things!  Maybe, just maybe, I didn't share any

 

Grant's daycare also had a valentine's party.  He, however, was not interested in "writing" his name or anything like it on the cards.  He spend a lot of time trying to get one of Andrew's Fun Dips.  He brought home a valentine that he had made for us, but trying to get him to pose with it was challenging. He was more interested in eating candy.

 

 

Here is what he made - a heart that the teacher wrote Grant's random thoughts down on: "Daddy, Claire, Mommy, Andrew, I love Mommy", "I love Daddy", and "I want to play with my soccer ball:.

 

Here is the loot that Grant came home with.  He made the other heart and the pink drawing.  Take a look at the valentine on the bottom.  It is a butterfly made out of fruit!  It has a clothes pin in the center for the body.  So cute!

 

Danny brought home a lovely bouquet of red roses and we got Japanese take out.  The kids actually really liked it - finally!  They loved the tempura and hardly saved any for Danny and I.

 

 

Last, but not least, Claire and Elaina exchanged valentines.  Claire was so excited to get this valentine in the mail this week!

 

 

Claire also made one for Elaina!

 



Claire's field trip

 

Early last week they wrote generic letters to a friend wishing them a Happy Valentines today.  Then their teacher put them in envelopes and randomly chose someone in the class to mail it to. Then last Friday I helped in her class and they made letter carriers and hats.  Claire's class had planned a field trip to the mailbox on Tuesday to mail the letters.  Luckily it was a beautiful morning.  They were going to walk from the school to a mail box at the shopping center not too far away.  I was assigned these four cute girls to watch. 

 

 

Claire with her hat and letter carrier.

 

When we got to the mailbox, they each got a turn to open the slot and put in their letter.

 

Heading back to the school.  By this time it was about 10:30 am and the kids decided they were hot, so I carried all of their jackets back to the school.

 

On the way back we got asked the classic question, "how much farther" many times!  They would need more practice if they were going to be pioneers.

 

Then the next day the letter arrived!  Claire was so excited to actually get mail.

 

 

It was fun spending time with Claire and some of her friends as well as some of the other parents.

The Pinewood Derby



The much anticipated Pinewood Derby was held last Friday night.  In preparation, Andrew's den made these really cute neckerchief slides.  It is a piece of molding that was cut and then a piece of pipe added to the bottom.

 

Danny and Andrew spent a lot of time looking at pictures on the internet for car ideas for the derby.  He finally settled on a convertible Lamborghini.  My dad helped us add some fenders and cut in the seats to our block of pine that we received.  He also helped us with the wheel alignment.  He might be a master at this after many races with my brothers.

 

 

Andrew wanted to paint the car orange, so we got some orange spray paint.  I bought glossy because I thought that would be faster than having to spray it with gloss at the end.  After we sprayed it orange we taped off the areas for the windows, but when we went to remove the blue tape, part of the window paint also came off because the orange paint was so slick.  Lesson learned.

 

Andrew still enjoyed painting the seats, the lights and the windows.  It didn't turn out exactly like the inspiration piece, but Andrew didn't mind.

 

The race was on Friday night, but they wanted the scouts to come Thursday night to get checked in and "checked out".  The cars have to be inspected to make sure that all of the rules are being followed.  Unfortunately Andrew's car had an issue with the wheels.  All four wheels have to be touching the ground at the same time.  His was off by the thickness of a sheet of paper. We put several heavy books on top of the car overnight hoping that the problem would resolve itself, but it did not.  Finally we bent the offending axle down so that it made the wheel touch the table.  So it was off to the church to get checked in again. 

 

 

Inspection of the tires.

 

Weight check.

 

 

 

A view of the track.

 

 

There were a lot of cars competing.  There were over 50 numbers on the cars, but there may have only been 40 or so cars there.  I am not sure why the counts were off.

 

The races were broken up into heats where the cars each raced 4-5 times. That is Andrew's car in the second from the right hand lane.

 

 

Ahead from the start!

 

 

Andrew ended up winning all of the races in his heat which qualified  him for the finals.  They had a cool electronic finish line.

Here is his car winning again.  Sorry for the blurry pictures. 

 

 

After the all of the semi final races it was down to Andrew and one other car.  They raced them both in the center of the track switching tracks and then on the outside, switching tracks.  Andrew's car won 3 of the 4 races.

 

 

Here is the finish line for the final race.  He won the whole derby!  It was very exciting to watch, especially the last few races.

All of the cars get awards and Andrew's got Classiest Convertible. 

 

 

Here they are announcing his first place win.

 

Andrew with his car.

 

He was so excited to win and it was even better because we went to my parents house afterwards and were able to share the victory with cousins!  Ryan and his family had just come in from Visalia so Andrew was able to tell the story of the win.  A big thanks to Grandpa for his derby car expertise!