Happy Easter

With Easter and General Conference falling on the same weekend this year, we had a pretty low key holiday. We colored eggs on Friday, did a little egg hunt on Saturday and had Kev's parents join us for dinner this evening. Not having to worry about getting everyone to church on time or wondering if enough of my ward choir members would show up to sing was super nice. It was feeling so laid back that it didn't even occur to me to take pictures of most of our stuff so this is all you get:

Although we don't do the whole Easter Bunny thing, we do have fill the kids' baskets with treats and a chocolate bunny. I always make a bunny for Matthew using a chocolate mold a bought a few years back so he gets one as well. However, this year in addition to his chocolate bunny he got a 1 lb. gummy bunny. I kid you not. The thing is huge. And heavy. And it made everyone laugh. Matthew has discovered that it is pretty hard to eat. He'll probably be gnawing at the thing until the 4th of July.

I really enjoyed being able to stay home, listen to conference and spend time with my family. I think part of that is because Sundays definitely don't feel like a day of rest for me right now. So having conference let me actually take a breath and relax. And listening to conference all day was a great way to keep my focus on the Savior. Daniel and Nathan have both learned to love General Conference as well so it was a great day all around.

Everybody's Zooing It

Today was zoo day. Matthew and Nathan are off track and all the other kids are on Spring Break, so we joined Rachael and her kids and Esther at the zoo. Kev even took the day off so he could join us. It was pretty cold which meant that there were not a whole lot of other folks there. It didn’t start to get busy until around 11 a.m. when it started to warm up. We were done and headed out by then so we really didn’t have many crowds to contend with. That is probably a good thing because we had kids running all over the place. None of my boys have been to the zoo since the African savannah portion was completed and the train reopened so they were pretty excited about that. We also got to see the baby orangutan that was born a few weeks ago. Add in a stop for lunch on the way home and it was a great outing! (Just in case any of you are wondering about the peep in all the pictures, Esther assigns her students a project where they take pictures “hanging with their peeps” while they are on spring break. She does the same thing and then takes the pictures to school afterward to use for a writing assignment.)

Cousins:

A couple of monkeys

The big boys and the little girls

Riding the train

Eggs'tra Cute

Because Easter falls on General Conference this year, Malia got to wear her Easter dress today. Yellow is her favorite color so she has been anxious for me to finish this dress. She thinks it is beautiful.

And isn’t Matthew handsome in his dashing new suit? He picked it out as a birthday/baptism present.

Got Milk?

Back in September when Matthew had his annual blood test done I mentioned that he had been okayed to do a food challenge for milk in bread. We try to do those challenges when he is off track so he doesn’t miss school and today was the big day. He was nervous, of course. I was nervous to (his worst reactions as a baby were to milk which means I kind of freak out when I think about him having milk), but I didn’t let him in on that fact. Luckily for all of us, he did great. There were no reactions at all. That doesn’t mean that we can get all crazy with the milk, but it does mean he can eat bread and buns that have milk in them. The criteria are that it has to be baked at a high temperature for a long time so that the particular protein we’re dealing with breaks down. So he needs to eat some kind of bread with milk at least twice a week to keep his body on the right track. This is definitely a step forward for him.

Now we need to schedule a food challenge for coconut.

It's Not Just For Kids

Earlier this month we went to an origami exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. It included a bit of the history of origami but was manly focused on the technological uses of origami. Since that is exactly what Daniel wants to do when he grows up, he was thrilled about the whole thing. Even for those of us who are not obsessed with origami, it was a pretty cool exhibit. While we were there, we overheard a professor tell a class that Robert Lang would be giving a lecture at the museum. For those of you not in the know, Robert Lang is a world renowned origami artist and physicist. That combination may seem strange, but there are actually a lot of mathematicians, engineers, etc. who are into origami. Daniel knows very well who he is so attending a lecture given by Robert Lang was an exciting thought. Kevin took Daniel down to the lecture last night and so Daniel is going to be my guest blogger and tell you all about it.

Last night, dad and I went down to BYU to hear a lecture given by Dr. Robert Lang. For those who don’t know who this is (probably everybody, because he is an origami person, and I’m the only one really in depth into origami in our family), Robert Lang is a mechanical engineer that uses origami to engineer things. He was down at BYU to go along with the origami exhibition down there. He is an amazing artist. To support that claim, here are some things he has folded. He designed each one.
 

Anyway, he lectured at BYU and I went. It was great! He talked about the origins of origami. He talk about how a man named Akira Yoshizowa made and revolutionized origami and made room for more complex models. He then went and talked about the math in origami. He talked about how at any point in the middle of the square, the angles all add up to 360 degrees. The crease pattern also has to have two colorability. This crease pattern is for the two praying mantis model, called Snack Time. 

      

He also talked about the Bug Wars. This was an origami conflict that was all bug one-up-man-ship. An example would be, “My spider has 8 legs.” “Well, my dragonfly has six legs and four wings, and that is 10.” “Well, my beetle has 6 legs and 2 antenna and each leg has 2 claws, which equals 14.” And so on, and so on. It got to the point where it was long, skinny legs. “My praying mantis has longer legs than your stag beetle.” “Well, my model has twice as many long and skinny legs.” It just kept going. Dr. Lang then talked about how to do really complex models in three “easy” phases; 1. Pre crease 2. Collapse 3. Shape. I got a verbal shout out when he talked about phase 1, “And this young man has been doing this since he got here.” I had brought along a crease pattern that I was folding. It was the crease pattern to the Imperial Shuttle from Star Wars. After the lecture, I went up and met him. He talked with me for a minute about my origami skills, and I got a picture with him. I had a great time! With what I learned at the lecture, I have been able to make my folding skills better. I hope to be able to make some of the models shown above in the future. 

Hip Hip Hooray! It’s Baptism Day!

Matthew has been looking forward to his baptism for a long time. I think he was even more excited for this than he was for his birthday party which makes me really proud. He has his priorities straight. Due to the fact that we don’t have a stake center right now and are sharing one with another stake, our ward has baptisms on the third Saturday of the month. That means that Matthew got baptized the same week as his birthday. He didn’t have to wait for next month like all the other kids. He was pretty thrilled about that.

After the baptism our families joined us for a lunch in his honor. As it was Matthew’s special day, we arranged it so all the food was Matthew friendly. (Thank you everyone who contributed to that effort. It means a lot to us.) We had everyone wash their hands right before we ate so it would stay Matthew friendly and for once in his life he was able to eat everything and go back for as many servings as he wanted. Afterward, I asked him how it was. His response: “It wasn’t awesome….I’m just kidding. It was awesome!!!!” It made all the extra effort worth it. And it made my eyes well up a little…darn cry baby gene.

Today was a great day. And I have one happy eight year old. 

(I had hopes of getting a decent family picture, but Malia was being a turkey and it didn’t happen. Ah, life with a three year old.)

Eight is Great!

In case you didn’t know, Matthew is totally into football right now. So deciding on a theme for his birthday party was pretty much a no brainer. And because the Super Bowl just happened, Pinterest was filled with football related party ideas. So Matthew and I went through a bunch and decided on some of our favorites. We had an assortment of party favors as well as some rockin’ football cupcakes and even (dairy free) ice cream sandwiches made to look like footballs. I think all the kids had a great time. 

The down side to the whole even is that fact that we gave the kids whistles as a party favor and gave them one rule, a rule that they all knew without being told: no whistles in the house. Which was all good and fine until one of our neighbors called the cops on us. Really. I might laugh about it someday, but I’m not there yet. I just think it’s ridiculous to call the cops for a bunch of eight year olds blowing whistles outside and 4 0’clock in the afternoon. And couldn’t they just walk across the street and talk to us in person?! Of course not. Better just call the police. But I digress. It was a fun party.

We did the whole birthday thing with my family yesterday and Matthew had another great Pinterest inspired football cake. It was honestly one of the easiest cakes I’ve ever decorated and Matthew loved it. And as per usual, he cheesed it up while we were singing the birthday song to him. (Don’t ask me what Nathan’s doing. I have no idea.)

Today was Matthew’s actual birthday and he got his presents from us. He got some Seattle Seahawks sheets and a kendama. Kev took the kids to the park in the afternoon (no school today) and Matthew chose stove top lasagna, which is his favorite food right now, for dinner. I think one of Matthew's favorite "presents" is that he no longer has to sit in the booster seat in the car. For him, that is a huge deal! So happy birthday kid! We love you!

Slam Dunk!

The very first of the experiences the boys got for Christmas was last night. Kevin took Matthew to a BYU basketball game. with a trip to the bookstore and dinner in the food court at the Wilk to get things started, it was a full evening. Matthew was one happy kid.