Fun with Grandma and Grandpa #1

Sunday was pretty normal, church and eating - we had chicken on the grill and mashed potatoes.  After dinner we went on a bike ride around our neighborhood.  My dad always likes to explore new areas and enjoyed seeing where we lived.  We went on a pretty big loop and I remembered to turn on  my odometer.  It measured out to be around 3 miles.  Chris is still bit slow, but he did a great job.  We stopped at the park on the way home.  

Monday Doug went to work and I took the boys out of school for the day.  We went downtown to the Children's Museum.  We had gone before on one of their free days, but we didn't get to see much and it was sooooo crowded.  This trip was awesome.  There weren't very many people there and it was great to have the extra help from mom and dad.  The girls aren't good to stay nearby, they just wander wherever they want to go.  There were lots of cool things to see and do.  

 Damon love the Fruit Ninja that you could play with the Xbox 360.  You could just use your hands to slice the fruit.

 The girls liked the climbing maze thing.

 Tyler did well on the climbing wall.

 And Tyler also really liked the Kidtropolis area where you could get an ATM card and do activities to get a pay check, then deposit that into your account.  Then you could spend your money at the grocery store, or take money out of your account to use at other areas.

 Girls stepping on the lights.

 This was a fun game of dodge ball.  You were supposed to dodge the moving light ball.  If you hit it, the light would explode and you were out.  The funny thing was that the girls thought you were supposed to chase the ball and step on it.  They didn't do very well :)  But they were so cute when Jenna hit it, she would say: "I'm the winner!"

 We had a picnic lunch outside.

 We built an arch.

 Downstairs you could create things: parachutes, Lego cars, paper airplanes, and other things.  Tyler really liked making the parachute and trying lots of different materials to find the best combination.

It was a fun day.  The girls of course fell asleep on the way home.  The traffic was pretty bad getting out of downtown, but after that it was okay.  

We had FHE after dinner and got things ready for the next day of fun.  

Tyler's Baptism

After we let Damon open his birthday presents we let Tyler open his baptism presents.  He got a new set of scriptures, new church outfit, and a personalized towel from us.  He also received a scripture case, marker, and bookmark from Grandma and Grandpa Datwyler.  

We had sloppy-joes for lunch then got ready to go.  Tyler's baptism was at 1:30.  This was the announcement I made for him:

We had a nice program with another girl from the ward, Hailey Ashton.  We had some of their friends from their church class come and sing "I Like to Look for Rainbows."  Damon and other siblings sang too.  My mom and I sang a musical number while they were changing.  We didn't have time to practice much and I had practiced singing the harmony part.  But of course I got nervous and couldn't find my note, so I just joined my mom on the melody.  

 We were grateful that Grandma and Grandpa Datwyler could come to support Tyler.  Doug's parents wanted to come, but health reasons kept them away.  My Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Jim also drove from Austin to join us.  That was so nice of them.

 One of things we will always remember about Tyler's baptism will be the font.  We were told to fill the font 90 minutes beforehand.  We just barely got a baptism coordinator in the ward, so she went up around 12:00 and started the water.  Well, we found out later that it takes 4 hours to fill this font.  I guess the water pressure is really low or something.  So when it was time to start the program the water was barely 1 foot deep.  We did all the talks first and had the grandfathers bear their testimonies while we let the water keep going.  When they did go down it was barely up to Doug's knees.  Tyler had to lay all the way down to go under.  He had to try twice to make it.  The first time his forehead didn't even go under.  The second time his suit kind of billowed up, but the witnesses said he was ok.  It was kind of crazy, but the ordinance was the important thing.  Kind of wish we had known that bit of valuable information beforehand, but now we know for the next one.

 We are so proud of Tyler and his decision.  He is a good boy and wants to do what is right.  He can forget that sometimes, but as soon as he remembers he quickly changes his actions.  He is so good to play with his sisters and to help when asked.  Congratulations Tyler, we love you!

Damon's 10th Birthday

It was fun celebrating Damon's birthday in the morning with Grandma and Grandpa Datwyler.  Damon requested crepes, or as we call them...roll-up pancakes.  After breakfast Damon opened his presents. 

 He received some new scouting things for Webelos, Minecraft for the computer, a Spiderman bike toy, a little Minecraft figure, some clothes, and his new bike.  Grandma and Grandpa Datwyler helped with the bike and also gave Damon some Minecraft books.  Grandma and Grandpa Petersen sent a card with money that Damon was very anxious to spend on a new Lego set, Hobbit Wii game, or a Transformer figure.

 We went to Tyler's baptism in the afternoon and then had spaghetti for dinner - Damon's favorite.  The cheesecake was enjoyed by most - the girls decided they didn't like it.  Oh well, more for the rest of us. :)  My aunt Carolyn and uncle Jim came up for the baptism and even spent the night with us.  It was great to see them and visit.  My mom was excited since she doesn't get to see her sister much since she lives in Austin.

 Happy Birthday Damon.  We love you!  You are such a wonderful example to your siblings and are so good to help when I ask.  You are smart and a great leader.  You excel at school and your teachers say you are a joy to have in class.  I love your goofiness and laughter; I love to tickle you to hear it!  I love having an older child to play games with.  Damon enjoys playing Bonanza, Settler's of Catan, Cities and Knights, Chess, Checkers, and asks us to play frequently.  He still loves his Legos and creates something new everyday.  I think this is the first birthday or Christmas that he did not receive a Lego set from us.

 Doug was good to capture some fun faces of the kiddos and me :)

Hall of Fame and Birthday Dinner

At Broadway Elementary the kids earn stars by having good behavior or other reasons.  If you earn 10 stars by the end of the quarter you get to walk in the Hall of Fame.  They get a T-shirt and they walk the halls.  All the kids sit along the sides and give them high-fives.  The parents come and make a pathway through the cafeteria.  Damon walked first and got to hold up the sign.  It was a good thing they walked around twice because I wasn't ready the first time around.  Tyler earned it too.

 Tyler didn't look at me very much, he was having way too much fun slapping hands.

 Jenna sat down to join the high-fiving fun.

Then all the kids went up on the stage to let us all clap for them.  :)

 So this was Friday May 29.  It was a busy day for me getting ready for Damon's birthday and Tyler's baptism and for my parents coming to visit.  I did laundry, cleaned the house, made cookies (which I took to Damon's class during his lunch - that is when moms can bring something in to celebrate their child's birthday) This was also the day that my Zaycon chicken came in.  Not the best timing.  My friend helped me out and watched my kiddos in the late morning so I could cut up all the chicken and get it in the freezer.

We had friends over in the afternoon and as soon as they left we put everything on hold for a minute and took Damon out to dinner.  Damon loves Chinese food so that is what he picked.  We just went to the closest place and it was pretty good.  Damon got some honey chicken, I picked a shrimp walnut dish that was really good, but a little too sweet.  I can't remember what Doug had - something with cashews in it. :)  It was a nice time to spend with Damon.  We didn't stay long so we could get home and get everyone to bed.

I cleaned the floor and got Damon's birthday stuff all ready.  I was glad I had wrapped the presents ahead of time and that Damon was ok with having a cheese cake instead of a decorated one.  It saved me a lot of time and stress.  It was a very long day - I think I went to bed close to midnight, which is just about when Doug left to go pick up my parents from the airport.  That was the only flight they could get that let mom finish school and get here in time for Tyler's baptism.  I woke up to say a quick hi before we all went to bed.

Preschool Graduation

Chris had his preschool graduation on May 28th.  The parents were invited to the school (neighbor's house) and we watched their normal center time.  They did the pledge, the weather, days of the week, calendar, and counted to 100.  Chris did really well in class, I wish he could have been here for the whole year because Miss Haley is such a great teacher.

Then each student was spot-lighted and they received an award and graduation certificate.  This is what was said about Chris:

Chris – Encyclopedia award.  Chris started school during our dinosaur unit and he knew more about dinosaurs than I did! There were times that I was asked questions that I deferred to Chris. Throughout the next few months, I would hear things like, “Do you want me to tell you something really cool about spiders?” He has a lot of information stored in his brain. Because he has so much knowledge, he constantly had facts to share during our theme time each day. He quickly became good at raising his hand, but it was a “you-need-to-call-on-me-now” kind of raised hand. Chris started on book 1 of the red books in March and passed off a reading book every single day perfectly. He’s an excellent reader, has excellent thinking skills in math, and picked up all the other concepts we’ve covered very quickly.  (Miss Haley told me that sometimes it was a chore or boring to read with some of the kids, but she said it was never that way with Chris - I was amazed at how quickly he picked it up.)

 Friend Carter

 Miss Haley Call

Chris still gets upset easily so we will be working on that for getting ready for Kindergarten, but I think he is ready and he is excited to go to school with his brothers.  

Memorial Day and a new Scout

Memorial Day we went swimming as a family in the morning and then we to a park in the evening. It was somewhat windy so we tried flying a kite - not very successful.   We went before dinner which seemed okay at the time, but then you know how everyone gets hungry and gets grumpy - well we didn't last very long.  They were giving out free Frosties at Wendy's for the holiday so we all had our dessert first and enjoyed our ice cream.  When we got home we grilled some hamburgers quickly and added our Wendy's fries to go with them. 

A friend of mine was amazing and picked up Tyler's scout stuff for me.  The office is quite far away and she had to go buy award patches anyway.  So now Tyler is all ready to go with his Wolf Den.  He already loves it.  

 Damon's last pack meeting as a Bear.  Most of their den, including Damon, received their Religious Knot Award.

Damon's Birthday Party

We had Damon's birthday party on May 23, one week before his actual birthday.  We basically did the same thing we did for Tyler.  Damon had three friends over and they had fun with water balloons and squirt guns.  The boys actually tried a bit of water balloon volleyball instead of just smashing all of them.  

 They played a bit of the Wii, TMNT I think before lunch.

 His friends gave him a Bionicle Lego set, a cool airplane flyer thing, and Ninjago Lego set.

 Pizza, cupcakes, and ice cream were enjoyed by all. :)

I'm glad that my boys are so easy going and were happy just doing some fun things at home.  They had a great time at both parties.