Our Week

Monday night was the end of year celebration for Classical Conversations. Each of the classes did a little demonstration or snippet of some of the things they've been learning this year. It was fun to be there and reflect on what a great year it's been. We are so grateful to be a part of this program and have just met the most wonderful families! Being the awesome, organized mom that I am, I totally forgot to get class pictures. But Kenny got a few shots during their actual presentations so I'll just count that.

 L to R: Anna, Brynlee, Ari, Madison, Riley

L to R: Tyler, Josie, Micah, Zoe, Isabelle

It snowed several times. But the weekend warmed up beautifully and melted it all away. I think it's safe to say we're done with snow for the year now. *Fingers crossed*

These are to try and represent how hilarious Briggs is. He gets excited and flips his arms out and does this Superman thing.

Who dresses this girl anyway? ;) She got a new pair of "running shorts" and wanted to wear them every single day. Most days it wasn't warm enough so she put on her pink thermals underneath. It worked great, don't ya think?

 I have so many pictures of Briggs just like this, all bundled up in his little outfit and sitting in the stroller as his siblings play/climb/etc. He's such a good, patient little buddy.

For several days this week Tyler and Brynlee spent time collecting rocks. There's a huge mound of dirt and rocks that we go to on our walks and we love to play there. They sorted through lots of rocks looking for the very best, shiniest, coolest ones. Of course it's hard not to collect rocks when you're a kid, and I always go home with the little bucket on the back of our stroller full of "the best rocks". Ty got it into his head that if he likes them so much, other kids will too, and therefore they would sell them. :) I certainly don't want to discourage his entrepreneurial spirit. He and Bryn spent time drawing up designs for a selling stand that they wanted to build to sell their rocks. I did draw the line there and told him the card table in the garage would work just fine. Then they took a long time deliberating together on how much each rock was worth. They made teeny tiny little price tags from paper and taped them to the rocks. It was adorable. I told them that maybe we should offer people a free cookie if they bought a rock. Only problem was they couldn't wait for cookies, and I was short on time. Andy and Shalee left for Hawaii this week, so we had their kids come over on Friday morning, and stay the night, and so they were here on Saturday for their big "selling day". They set up the table and organized all the rocks and made a sign. It was adorable. Unfortunately, it was poorly advertised so their only customers were Kenny and I. But they were sure happy and proud of their "rock business".

 The sign says "Rocks for sale. Ther shiny in the sunshine and white in the dark. Plus a free treat." (false advertising lol) That's cousin Skyler in the middle of Ty and Bryn.

We sure had fun with cousins over the weekend. Thankfully the weather was just gorgeous and so the kids were outside a good part of the day on both days. There was all manner of bike and scooter and ball, etc. going on. 

They also collected a lot of bugs for observation. Tyler got some money from his Grandma Weston for his birthday, that he could spend at will. Of course, he chose a cool habitat builder kit thing (from barnes and noble) with different compartments to put bugs, etc. It came with a little bug sucker tool that made it easy to catch them and put them in there. It was a hit!

 And it's fun to let the chickens run around on the grass every now and again. Kelsey crawls after them on her hands and knees, chasing them around the yard.

 Saturday night we got a babysitter for our kids (minus Briggs--he came with us) and drove our nephews and niece to another of their relative's house in Eagle River. We continued on down to Anchorage where we met up with some friends at Ling and Louie's for a "surprise" birthday party for Carmin. It's always so good to spend time with and catch up with our anchorage friends whom we miss so much.
Today, Sunday, has been gorgeous. I taught the lesson in Relief Society. After church we had the Contreras' over for dinner. They're a fun couple. Afterwards Kenny left to go do visits for the rest of the night and I had an almost 2 hour google hangout with my family. It was the last one before Kim moves to Cambodia. Holy cow!