Turnabout is Fair Play

Daniel did the asking for Prom last month. This month it was ladies’ choice for Sadie Hawkins. It was a sports theme for this event and being the group of kids that they are, their sport was marching band. It was a more casual dance, but Daniel and company still had a great time!

She’s Definitely One of the Techie Generation

I’m currently teaching primary which means Malia and I are in sharing time together. Today one of the primary presidency members asked the kids, “What do you do if you have a question?” Malia raised her hand and answered, “Ask my mom and dad.” Then the presidency member asked, “What if they don’t know?” Malia’s response? “Ask google.” All the adults in the room laughed, me included.

Retail Therapy

Nathan was in a funk today. It happens to everyone from time to time and today was one of this days. The musical opens in a couple of weeks. He’s been spending long hours in rehearsal and working on stage crew tasks and when the other kids dork around and don’t take things seriously, it has a tendency to irritate him. A lack of sleep and stress are never good for him either, hence the funk. He was in need of stage make up, so we headed to the Walmart to get him some foundation and guy liner. I helped him choose the make up he needed and then a cute blouse caught my eye. Nathan didn’t want to hang out in the lingerie section while I tried it on (that’s where the fitting rooms are in this particular Walmart) so he opted to browse the men’s section instead. When I made it back, he had discovered a shirt he really liked and we selected a coordinating t-shirt to go with it to complete the look. He is being raised by an emotional eater which means that I have a tendency to treat my offspring’s funks with food, so I walked him down to frozen foods and had him pick out some ice cream. By the time we got home, his funk had dissipated and his mood was greatly improved.

To sum up our excursion, we bought make up, clothes and ice cream and then he felt better.

Maybe teenage boys aren’t as different from teenage girls as everyone tells me.  😉

Bee Your Best

Today was the state geography bee. Matthew has been studying like mad. He felt prepared but was pretty nervous as well. They broke the kids into smaller groups (five groups of about 20 kids) and all of them got to compete for the first eight rounds. Points were totaled at that point and the top twenty kids went to the finals. Matthew did not move on to the finals, but we felt like he did a great job. He gave some correct answers to some pretty tough questions and kept his cool throughout. He was one of the youngest kids (the bee is grades 4-8 and only about 20 of the kids were grades 4-5) but I really felt like he held his own. A couple more years of school that include a lot of the curriculum that he hasn’t learned yet and he could definitely be a contender.

I’m so proud of how hard he has worked to prepare for this event. He has learned to think through the stress of the spotlight and to apply logic when he doesn’t know the answer. That is really tough to do in the heat of the moment. He has gained some valuable skills and given this opportunity his best effort. I look forward to seeing how he does next year. He’s already thinking about next year as well.

Since this is Matthew’s shining moment, I asked him to give me his two cents on the whole thing:

The National Geography Bee was a big thing for me. In 4th grade I was in it, but I only made it through the second round. I had none right, but that didn’t stop me from trying again. This year I went from nothing to something, I jumped over the fence. In other words, I got 1st place. One of the most amazing questions was a total guess that kept me in the game. It was to the effect of, “blah blah K-pop is popular in Seoul blah blah?” At first, I just said, “Korea.” But they asked me to specify. I guessed again and said, “South Korea.” I thought I would get it wrong, but then I heard,” Correct”, followed by what sounded by an explosion. The whole gym had gone absolutely crazy. I’m so glad everyone supports everyone. It was a good experience. The next day I took the test to see if I would make it to the state level and in about 5 weeks we got the email, I had made to the state level. By now I was freaking out. I made quite a few phone calls. Later in time, it’s the 6th. I’m stressed out of my mind. I get there and miss one of the easiest questions. “Which has more military force? Michigan or Hawaii?” I answered Michigan. That’s the one that kept me from going on to the finals. I had one more amazing save, where I found out something about myself. It was a news round and I news story I hadn’t heard. I found out that I can sometimes realize French when spoken to me. That was very interesting. Although I was very disappointed, I still felt accomplished, and I still had fun.   

Easter Blessings

With the ages of the majority of my children in double digits, the Easter festivities have mellowed considerably. We have been able to focus more on the real meaning of the holiday which has been fantastic. We still color eggs and do the egg hunt for Malia, but now I actually have kids that will eat the deviled eggs and egg salad that come afterward. In past years, Kevin and I ate as many hard-cooked eggs as we could before we tossed the last few just so that the kids could color them.

At eleven, this was Matthew’s last year to hunt eggs. Mentally, I think Matthew is done with the whole Easter egg hunt thing. However, he definitely still likes to have a basketful of sugar, so I suspect he persevered for the sake of the candy. He does still enjoy the fine art of dying eggs so he happily participated in that. Malia was as gung ho as ever about the whole thing and the big boys enjoy the copious amounts of jelly beans.

I always like when General Conference and Easter fall on the same day, so that was great this year. It is uplifting to listen to the words of the prophet and apostles and really ponder on the marvelous blessings we receive as a result of the atonement and resurrection. It makes for a wonderful experience. So it was a good weekend, a great holiday, not much in the ways of news to report, but fabulous just the same.

I Prom-ise It Will Be Fun!

Yesterday was prom at the high school. After being asked to Winter Ball and having a great time, Daniel decided he wanted to go to prom. He asked the same cute girl that took him to Winter Ball (they have been in band together for years so they know each other well and get along well). She made him do some very serious math to decode her response.

Unlike the evening only event that prom was in my day, they had the day date and then the evening date. They started of the day date by having a giant Nerf gun war. How fun is that?

They ate lunch and then shuttled everyone home so they could get pretty for the main event. Once they were all gussied up, they took pictures (in the snow!), ate a fabulous steak dinner at one of the participant’s house, and headed off to the dance. The after-dance activity was watching La La Land and having dessert. The kids was seriously gone all day! But as I’ve said before, these are the memory makers.

My Very Favorite Malia-esque Scripture

“The bourbon of baby lion…” (2 Nephi 23:1 “The burden of Babylon…)

There was laughter, so much laughter. Scripture time is often jovial around here...

Una serata di lacrime e risate

Last night was opera night. We ended up with an extra ticket so both Daniel and Nathan were going to go with me, but unexpectedly, Matthew expressed an interest. Daniel was great and offered to let Matthew go instead. I figured it would be a good first opera because they performed two one act operas (Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi), one a tragedy and one a comedy. It would let him experience a bit of variety and would be shorter than many other operas in case he got bored with the whole thing. Somewhat to my surprise, he really enjoyed it. I guess that means I have one more kid that is ready to be placed in the opera rotation.