4th of july 2008

A birthday girl, swimming with cousins @ Grammie's, berry 'n cream cheese frosting cake, and fireworks in our cul-de-sac.

Another great Independence Day with all our favorite family traditions!

the par-tay

Are all these candles really for me?

Why on earth did my silly mother try to fit them

all on this tiny little gluten-free cupcake?

The girls gather around as Libby opens her birthday gifts.

The gang gathered together in the pool.

It was a great day to swim! A special thanks to Grammie for letting us crash her backyard for the birthday party! Libby celebrated entering double digits with a splash. Of course, her real birthday isn't until the 4th of July. So, we'll be celebrating again as a family! And naturally we're making her wait until then to get her presents from us. And naturally she totally can't wait.

miss libby

Libby grinding corn for homemade tortillas during La Purisima Mission Days.

My group at the La Purisima Concepcion Mission in Lompoc, CA.

Libby at the Millionaire's Club party for 4th grade [dinner portion of the evening]

Libby with her flute, also the same flute my sister & I played! We're getting our money's worth out of it.

You may have noticed that recently I had an almost two-month gap between blog entries. This gap was caused by many varied and sundry reasons: school field trips, school papers and projects, boy scout meetings and camp prep, PTA meetings, 7th grade parent meetings, school volunteer work, last week of school festivities, an extremely sick 7th grader who missed the entire last week of school, and, the bane of my summer, the assignment of PTA Fundraising Walkathon Committee Chair. ***Sigh*** It's been busy.


So, I have made it my mission to [slowly] fill in some of the gaps by updating you on some of the highlights. And this entry is devoted to my Libby!


Libby has had an extraordinary 4th grade year at her new school. She earned straight A's again, much to the delight of her family. She has worked so hard and we are all so proud of her efforts!


Libby also received a letter from her music teacher stating that she has been accepted into the school's Advanced Band class next year. This is quite an achievement, since not many 5th graders get into Advanced Band, so we are all very pleased. She will be learning the same music Bailey is playing [only for flute] and will also be marching in all band competitions next fall, including the band review in Pismo Beach. Go Libby! I'm still trying to figure out how those huge band uniforms are going to fit her.


This week she is attending a Summer Music Workshop in the morning for 5th - 8th graders and is enjoying the challenge. She is learning new notes and new music and will get to perform this Friday night in a concert for the families. We are looking forward to it! Meanwhile, she is still keeping up her piano studies and is advancing in this area as well.


Before school let out for the summer, Libby was invited to a very special "Millionaire's Club" activity put on by all of the fourth grade teachers. In order to be invited, you had to have read at least one million words over the course of the school year. Libby read somewhere between four and five million. It started after school with a Wii competition, then they repaired to a special Millionaire Clubhouse. While at the Clubhouse, they swam, played pool [or billiards, for all you other millionaires], and were served a very special dinner complete with Martinelli's sparkling cider. Just perfect for the junior millionaire set! Libby had lots of fun and played so hard that she was very tired when I picked her up that evening! I think all of the other kids were as well.


I should have some fun pictures of Libby after this weekend when we have her swimming birthday party. Her birthday is actually July 4th, so we're doing it a week early. And hopefully we'll have fun 4th of July pictures to share as well!

special topics in calamity genetics [a.k.a. 5 down and 1 to go]

Libby sporting her new spectacles

Libby has made it [nearly] unanimously official: we are indeed a family of myopics. We are just waiting for the day when Collin needs glasses as well.

Thank goodness for vision coverage.

girl's night out

Last night was girl's night out!

Julia, Libby, and I headed over to catch the Hannah Montana concert movie. Here are the girls in their humungous 3D glasses. Yes, I wore them, too. And it was pretty darn cool!

proud mama alert

Here's an update on some of the fun things the kids have been up to lately!

Last week, all of the 4th graders took a huge spelling test to find out who the best spellers are. The top two spellers win a trip to the spelling bee held at the end of this month to prepare them for entering the bee next year [they have to be in 5th grade to enter]. Libby was one of the top two and is going on the trip! They also go out to lunch afterwards, so she is thrilled at missing basically the whole day to have fun outside of school. The other top speller is also in Libby's class and is a friend of hers, as well as being LDS [although we're in different wards]. It will be a fun day for both of them!

In other news, this past Sunday was Bailey's first time playing the piano in Priesthood. He has been working on several hymns during the last few weeks and is really sounding good. He has played for opening exercises in Mutual a few times, but yesterday was his first time in Priesthood. He played [very fittingly, I thought] "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet." We're already putting those piano lessons to work! A special thanks to Grammie, who is Bailey's piano teacher [and the girls' as well]!

And here is an amusing incident from today involving Collin. This morning I was watching BYU-TV to hear the announcement of the new First Presidency. Collin was playing nearby. The name "Thomas" was being mentioned repeatedly as Thomas S. Monson had been called as the new president of the church. Everytime he heard the name, Collin would perk up, because for him the name Thomas is all about Thomas the Tank Engine. He kept asking me if Thomas was on TV. I told him that Thomas S. Monson the prophet was on TV and showed him the picture from our conference Ensign. He looked at it and repeated the name "Thomas S. Monson" with me several times, then seemed content with this particular Thomas. Funny little guy.

Julia has a performance tomorrow night at the school for Founder's Day. This being our first ever Founder's Day, I'm still not sure what it's all about, but as she has been learning a patriotic song, it's sure to be patriotic! Will have to let you know how it goes!

poetry & prose

Libby grinning after the event!

Libby reciting the poem "Was It a Goblin?"

Each year the kids' school hosts a "Poetry and Prose" event for all the students. Students memorize and act out poems or other recitations, either individually or in groups, and perform their chosen work on the stage for the whole school. Libby was excited to participate in her first year at their new school and chose a quirky little poem titled "Was It a Goblin?" to perform.

After choosing and memorizing their selection, they first had to perform their piece in front of a group in the library to make the first cut. Libby [much like her mom] is somewhat anxious being in front of groups of people and was a little nervous about the whole thing at that point! But, she persevered and did just fine, making the cut for today's presentation in front of the school.

And she did a good job! Even though she was a little nervous [and a little too short for the microphone-check her out on her tiptoes in the above video!] she didn't forget anything she had prepared. Today they selected the winners to go on to the county competition, and even though she didn't get chosen for county, we are all so excited that she prepared well and got up there in front of the whole school to recite! That can be scary stuff!

Watching Libby up on stage reminded me of when I memorized and performed a poem I had written [I called it "Smiles"] for the equivalent of Poetry and Prose many years ago. I was probably in the 6th grade. I remember even performing in the county competition, and when I look back now, I don't even know how I did it. I would never do it now! I don't know-are we braver when we're younger?

yummy

Tonight Libby and I made treats for dessert, and they're so yummy and easy that we wanted to share the recipe with you! We made these at Christmastime for our friends and family and they were a big hit. It's a great one to make with kids because it's simple and fast.


Chunky Mallow Candy

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 12 oz pkg chocolate chips [we prefer the milk chocolate but you can use semi-sweet]
4 cups [or more to taste] mini marshmallows

Melt together peanut butter and chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one. Give one final stir when all is melted and combined and allow to cool slightly, so as not to melt marshmallows. Stir in marshmallows until completely coated. Pour into buttered pan and chill. Cut into squares and watch them disappear! [You may want to double the batch!]

american idol revamped

Webkinz American Idol [by Libby and Julia]

A couple of days ago Libby asked to borrow the camera to shoot a movie. I just downloaded them today [there were about fifteen!] and I promised her that I would post one for your viewing pleasure.

Some background: In case you don't have kids that use the internet yet, Webkinz are wildly popular stuffed animals that come with a web account when you buy them. You enter a code online and it brings your Webkin to life in a virtual world, where they eat, play games, buy stuff, etc. Libby decided it would be fun to film a video in which her Webkinz are, in fact, the hosts of American Idol [which, by the way, she has never seen]. She got the idea when she stayed the night at a friend's house and they watched some on YouTube.

Anyway, this is the kind of stuff we're up to on this our final week of Christmas vacation! Although it I must confess that I look forward to resuming a normal schedule, I am savoring our last days of relaxation and sleeping in. Because let me warn you now: when your kids start school, your life is no longer your own!

honor roll

Congratulations to Libby for making the Superintendent's Honor Roll at school for the first trimester! Way to go! By the way, the Superintendent's Honor Roll is a cut above the regular honor roll, so Libby is really putting forth her best efforts in school. We are very proud of her!

thanksgiving video by libby

Since I was limited on picture/video space on the last post, Libby's Thanksgiving post is being presented in two installments!

Ambika in the kitchen, and Andrew kickin' it on the hearth!

A short video Libby took while chasing Barrett downstairs.

Warning: you may want to take Dramamine before viewing.

thanksgiving by libby

After dessert I took a break from the kitchen and took advantage of the opportunity to hold baby Sammy. While he fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair, Libby got a hold of my camera and got some amazingly good candids of the family! I thought they were certainly worthy of a post a la Libby.

Barrett finds a haven on the floor and in between the gamers.

Anthony gives Libby a sweet smile for the camera!

Libby catches Bailey in usual form.

Uncle Jubba[aka Jeff]-like a deer in the headlights! Seriously. The flash was really blinding everyone.

Grammie hams it up for the camera!

punk'd

girls getting their punk on

Every year, the last week of October is Red Ribbon Week, the anti-drug campaign, at all the schools in our area [and it may be in yours as well]. Both the kids and their teachers have dress-up days for fun during this week to help them remember to stay away from drugs. Yesterday was Pajama Day, so the girls wore their matching pink heart pj's to school. Since I worked at the school yesterday, I got to see some of the teachers as well, and some of them really got into it! So much fun for the kids.

Today is Punk Day. At first I had my doubts that we had anything around that would work, but as I began to rummage about I got a few ideas. So, this is what we came up with! It has a kind of 80's vibe, and I think it works for the girls. I had even picked up glow bracelets at Michael's dollar section awhile ago, so we broke those out and added them for more punk effect. I've never seen them more excited about getting dressed on a school morning! And tomorrow is crazy hair day. . .

Did I ever tell you about the time a couple of years ago that I wrote crazy hair day on the wrong Friday on my calendar and sent Libby to school with her crazy hair? She didn't really mind, but I was mortified! I think we'll get it right this year.

blue ribbon

For the last thirteen years, the K-6 teachers at the kids' new school plan art projects and crafts for the students to create and submit for display during the county fair every September. Earlier this month I volunteered to help the teachers for Libby and Julia's classes prepare the class projects for transport to the fair by placing name tags onto each project, placing smaller projects or crafts onto one display, and bundling the whole lot into a butcher paper envelope with teacher/school information on the front so that all the projects could be delivered to the fair in time for them to be placed on display. As a new parent at the school, this was my initiation into the inner workings of "fair project preparation." And I seriously underestimated the magnitude of the venture!

Libby's class made two projects and Julia's class did eight. As the only parent volunteer for both teachers, it took me a good five hours straight [I didn't even stop for lunch] to get everything ready in time for them to be loaded at 3:15 into the SUV that was headed for the fair. I can still remember how exhausted I was when I was done! But I'm so glad the kids had the opportunity to have something entered in the fair, especially since we didn't have any farm animals or such to enter like some other students did. [For some reason I don't think they would have considered our spastic Chinese Shar-Pei, two grubby cats, or four dwarf hamsters fair-worthy!]

And the final results? Libby's class earned blue ribbons for their "Corn Harvest" projects, which were really nicely done by the students! Congratulations all around! Libby said they also earned blue ribbons for their flag projects, although she hasn't brought it home yet. I haven't heard anything yet for Julia's class. Fortunately I have a whole year to recuperate until the next fair...