Monday, May 26, 2008

Memorial Day

It is Memorial Day. We had a busy week and weekend. So here are the highlights since the last post!

Halee had her final day of school party on Thursday. I didn't stay the whole time, but when I got there all the kids were just running around having fun. One of the kids asked Ms. Sandie to read them a book. Pretty soon all of them were crowded around!


And here is Halee and her teachers - Ms. Sandie and Ms. Katie. Ms. Sandie will be her teacher next year and Ms. Katie isn't sure yet.


Friday was Hannah's last day of school. It was field day, but had been raining since Wednesday, so they just played games indoors. I got there at 11:00 and it was time for hot dogs. We ate lunch in the classroom one last time and then the kids played and the mom's chatted. We left at noon for the summer!

That evening we headed up to Bible Camp for work camp. This camp is for anybody to come to who is willing to work hard to get the camp ready for the season. Mostly the women clean all the cabins floor to ceiling, hang curtains, etc and the men do the other projects around to keep things in working order. One big project was rewiring a cabin to have light switches instead of pull chains, etc. The other big project was cleaning out the "burn fuel." Last year there was a big fire that came within 1/4 mile of the camp. So, that has prompted the clean out. Ed was the hauler of the limbs. He would drive around to where they were cut, then drive to the field to dump them. Eventually they will all be burned (controlled) and make our camp safer and cleaner. I wasn't exactly sure what I would be doing. Since I am to be the Head Cook for Early Family Camp, I knew that I would be hangning out in the kitchen a lot, learning anything that I could to be ready in about a month. I had offered earlier to be her assistant, but never heard that I was until I showed up! So that is what I did. It was good to actually be involved in the meal prep once again and really think and see how it is done. I do feel pretty good about it, but I'm sure the first few days will have a high learning curve! After talking to Vonnie, I'm again looking at the menu and wanting to move a few things around. I had lots of questions and got lots of answers and copied some of the "cheater" things she had - like how many dozen eggs fit into a pan and how long to cook them or how many cans of green beans will feed how many people, etc. It was a good weekend, but always come home exhausted!!!

Also, on Sunday was Ed's "Graduation" for his work he did in his classes for Bear Valley School of Biblical Studies. He has a Bible degree now and plans on attending the Masters program soon. There were 5 people in his class and they are all planning on going to Denver for the "real" graduation. However that is our week to be at camp. So they were going to do a little thing at church Sunday morning, but we were already planning to go to camp. So they decided to just come to camp and do it. It wasn't a big thing. Ken, his teacher, told us about each student and their plans to use this degree. It was nice of them to come up to camp and do that! YEAH, ED!

This is the class of 2008! Ed, Liz, Joe, Tammy and Michael. Ken is the teacher.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Hannah

Hannah's week started off with a pet parade at school. Every one in Kindergarten thru 2nd grade was to bring their favorite pet. Being we have no "live" pets, Hannah took a stuffed pet. She was very concerned to dress it up so that it would look funny. Well, she did! And then she won the "favorite stuffed animal" award.

Wednesday was graduation day. Her class sang 2 songs . . .





Then they got their diploma.

After all that was over, we went back to the classroom and they put on a little puppet show for us. My camera batteries died, so I didn't get all of it. However, they had a little poem they said about praying.




They each had a puppet or two that had a letter on it and told how they could pray at a play that started with that letter. Hannah had the "F" puppet and said she could pray at the farm.

Here is Hannah and Mrs. King on the last day of school! (Actually the last day is Friday, but it is field day - even though it has been raining here for 2 days and is supposed to rain all weekend.)

Wednesday evening, at church, was the pioneer club closing program. One of the subjects we studied this year was the Fruit of the Spirit. We did sing that song and I do have it recorded, but it seems that it is too big to blog! Each of the children had a memory verse about each fruit. Hannah's was on joy - Come and sing with joy to the Lord and shout. Psalm 95:1.

Another thing we worked on this year was the books of the New Testament.




That concludes 2 of Hannah's programs for the year. Friday is field day as mentioned before and she has a ballet show on June 4th. Stay tuned . . .

Monday, May 19, 2008

Halee

Today was a busy day at our house. Halee had to "shows" to perfom in. First it was her last gymnastics. They always put on a show of the things they have been working on this year. They also receive a metal. She was quite silly for all the pictures! So, here you see the "real Halee."

The following movies are of her doing her gymanstics.

This evening was her spring program at school. The first movie is 5 little ducks. The second movie (and be prepared to laugh!) is the ABC's and the 3rd movie is B-I-B-L-E.

Now we are all tired and heading to bed!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Friends Visiting

This past week our friends from Utah came for a visit. It was very good to be able to hang out with them. It had been at least 18 months since we had last seen them. They are "homeschoolers" and everyday had to do some school work. Here they are pow wowing in the living room.
Halee and Holly got along real well. They would just go upstairs and play all by themselves and be very content.

As you can see, she has 2 boys. They are quite different from girls and NEED to go outside and play every day. They were quite excited to drive the car. Ed finally found the battery charger and they were able to drive, even in the rain.

We went on a little hike by the fish hatchery. There are a couple of short little trails out there.

Boys will be boys! This is Cameron.


We went inside to see what we could do at the fish hatchery. They gave us some fish food to feed the fish in this pond. That was fun!

They left on Friday. Hannah had a field trip to the fire station that I drove the bus for. The kids were quite excited to ride the bus! Here is Halee on the rocks outside of the fire station.


This is Hannah's class. When we got there, the firemen were out on a call - a 96 year old lady was having trouble breathing. They got back about 5 minutes later. . .

and told us about the fire truck. This truck is an engine truck. They have a ladder truck also.

Then one of the men put on all his gear for the children to see. They talked about how if they were in a fire and a fire man came to rescue them, they would want to give the fireman a big hug. So they did!


After a tour of the fire house, we got back on the bus and headed back to school.


When we got home, Ed was working on the fence again. Oh, how nice!


The weather was real nice yesterday - in the 80's. The girls spent a lot of time outside. Here is the "new" way to ride on the car! But be careful because Halee is a crazy driver!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

The Good and the Bad

We had an interesting week. Lots of excitement!

This is Halee with her pencils and paper in her pockets. It has been a while since she has worn overalls. Last Sunday I pulled these out for her to wear. She wanted to know what went in those pockets. I told her pencils and paper. As soon as she got up from her nap, she went and found 3 pencils and a piece of paper to put in her pockets. She kept them there for the rest of the day.
Hannah has been learning how to play frisbee in school PE class. On Sunday she wanted to play frisbee. We have had frisbees laying around here and never played until now. Then the ones we had weren't the right ones, so Ed and Hannah went to Walmart to buy a new one. They can back with this gigantic one. We had fun playing frisbee this week when the wind was not blowing.


Here is the bad news! Earlier in the week Ed decided that he would get his truck an alignment. While that was getting done the tire people found out that the ball joints were bad. That led to a new hub because of something to do with the old ball joints were cross threaded into the hub. We didn't expect that bill! Then somehow I squished my wedding ring. It actually cracked this time. So, I have to get that repaired. Then on Friday I was vacuuming and I smelt a burning smell and then the vacuum went dead. So, I had to purchase a new vacuum. They say things always come in threes! It's a good thing we got our "economic stimulus check" this week to pay for all of this! Here is Halee trying out the new vacuum.

On Friday, Ed's parents came for the weekend. Poppa gave the girls each $5. They had to go and spend it. So off to the mall we went. Halee found this princess camera she had to have. Then the lady at the checkout said that she had this deal that she couldn't refuse - a Dora purse for $1. Halee had to have it. She has carried it around since. We even left it at the shoe store, but met some friend while we were there. They brought it back to us. Oh, how nice! Hannah decided to spend her money on a Littlest Pet Shop painting craft. I forgot to take a picture.



They had fun playing with Gramma. They set up the chairs in a bus. Gramma was the driver.


Ed has been working on building a fence. Yesterday he and his dad got the posts in and the cross bars in. Yeah! It will be nice to have it done.



Saturday, May 3, 2008

Fun week

We had an exciting week. Monday was our Bible study night with the college kids. That is always an uplifting time.


Tuesday Ed fixed our CD player in our car, which has been broken for at least a year! When we were building our house last year and the weather was yucky and cold outside, we would have the girls play in the car. At some point in time, Halee decided that you put money in the CD player. It would work periodically after that for some time, then all together quit working (I'm assuming that the money would wiggle around in there until it finally got lodged over the thing that reads the CDs). So we have been without CD music for quite some time. I really didn't want to take it in to get it fixed because I knew it would cost a ton for such a minor fix. Ed decided to take it apart and find out what the problem was - a quarter! Now we have CD music again and it has played continually since then. Then after dinner that day, we went to Cold Stone for ice cream. YYYYyyyymmmmmmmm!

Thursday Hannah made some brownies. She did everything (including cracking the eggs), I just told her what to do. That evening we went to a game night with the college kids.


Friday evening we went for a bike ride - everyone! We rode about 1 1/2 miles to a park, played for a bit and rode home. This is the farthest Hannah has every ridden on her own. This summer I plan to have her learn how to ride without training wheels, so I want her to feel comfortable with them on. So every warm day, we've been out riding. She's doing really well and that time is going to come soon! Right now Halee does better just riding in the trailer. She has a hard enough time walking and watching where she is going. Bike riding is hopeless at this time!






Then the girls wanted to sleep on the floor.





Halee just came down stairs looking like this!