It's Official!!!

Helaman is a reader!!! YAY HELAMAN!! He is so excited! He carried around his book today and spent the drive to and from AR to drop off David reading. It was fantastic! Congratulations Helaman!

Did they come to your house?

Well, those tricky leprechauns came again! Laurence and Larisa, the leprechauns that visit us every year, visited us yesterday. The kids had prepared on Monday night for their potential arrival by making this leprechaun trap.

The top has a hole cut out and then covered up to act as a trap door. There are gold beads scattered on top of the covering and a sign that says: "Don't touch Gold Clusters" that the kids put on. The boxes and books are the stairs so that the short leprechauns can climb up on to the big box. This is what we spent our Family Home Evening doing.

The next morning the kids woke up to this on the kitchen table. They were so excited... according to the note the leprechaun's left, the kids almost caught them! Darn it!!! They get away every year!!! The good news? We got green snickerdoodles again! The kids love snickerdoodles and rarely get them...my favorite are chocolate chip cookies and David says snickerdoodles aren't the best dippers so they just don't get made often.

Then the kids noticed eachother's faces and all had to go into the bathroom to see! Those blasted leprechaun's stamped the kids' faces with a shamrock stamp! Can you believe it?

Vilate made a trap as well. Her's was for Winky at school. The first graders have a leprechaun that comes and visits and the kids have to make a trap for homework the week before St. Patrick's Day to bring in and try to catch Winky. We found the idea online and made it. The top on this "hat" is just a paper cover that has little bits of gold ribbon made to look like gold clusters. The idea is that Winky would climb the ladder, because there is a sign prohibiting it and we all know that leprechauns love to break rules. Once at the top of the ladder, Winky would climb on the top of the "hat" and fall into the oatmeal container. Yesterday morning when Vilate and all the other 1st graders in her class got to school they saw the mess that Winky made. He set off everyone's trap, left glitter all over the room, colored on the whiteboard, left footprints everywhere and who knows what else! Winky also left the kids some, as Vilate called it: "Leprechaun pasta with green cheese sauce that was so gross. Well, other kids liked it, but I didn't!" Winky also left some candy for the kids, a green jumprope, a black and green football and I don't know whatelse.

Overall it was a successful St. Patrick's day! Was it ever this exciting when you were a kid? When I was a kid it was all about pinching!

The fun never ends!!

As if this week wasn't busy enough Helaman decided to jump off his bed and landed on the floor on his arm on Monday evening. Tuesday I went to my speech class and then took my biology test and left early so that I could take him to the doctor. The verdict: it's not broken , just sprained. He has to wear a splint for 3 days and then just use it cautiously. Good times! The doc said that it will take up to 2 weeks to fully heal.

I did take my biology test and I think that I did okay on it. The grades aren't posted yet, but I felt like I knew most of the answers. There were 3 fill in ones that I just left blank, so the best I could get would be a 94/100. We shall see.

My speech is written for class tomorrow and tonight I practiced with Faith and Hyrum. Faith thought it was hilarious to pretend that my speech was putting her to sleep. Hyrum was a great kid and totally stuck up for my by saying, "Faith, that is really mean to tell Mom that it is the most boring thing you have ever heard." What a good boy! I'm sure it was reallying boring, especially to them!

That has been our latest adventure. Now let's see what happens tomorrow....

Busy

Today is the beginning of a very busy week. I swap babysitting with a friend so that I can go to school and she can work as a substitute for the school district. Today I am watching 2 of her kids and I am also watching another friends 2 kids. So right now I have 7 kids here under 5 years old. It is crazy and chaos. The girls are sooo dramatic and are all about, "you're not my friend now." Oh my goodness...this is ridiculous. Good thing they are all so cute!!

Tomorrow I have a biology test that I need to study for sometime today! Then on Thursday I have to give a speech which I still have to write and practice. We have baseball practice 4 days this week: Mon, Tues, Wed and Sat. I have a baby shower to go to on Saturday for my sister Traci. We have scouts on Wednesday. Then we have all the normal things that go along with running a household. I am so not complaining....just reporting on all the things going on this week. I am determined to not just get everything done, but do it all to the best of my ability.

I am also going to try to blog at least everyother day. I hope you all enjoy this week!!!

Play Ball

This week was the beginning of baseball season. This year we have 2 teams. Faith and Hyrum are on the Diamondbacks and Vilate and Helaman are on the Cubs. I am a little nervous as we have practice 4 days a week. Last season I was totally spoiled and the practices of those 2 teams overlapped and so did many of their games. Oh well! The kids absolutely love it and it is really fun!! I can't wait for the kids to get their uniforms and start playing the games. I love cheering them on and taking pictures. We have the season opener the last Saturday in March. Apparently our T-Ball team is going to have 14 games and I am assuming that the other team will have that many as well. Looks like we are gearing up for a busy season...but I am soooo glad!!!