Friday, April 24, 2009
Soccer by Daniel
School Service and Carnival by Whitney
Whitney is at a school dance tonight, having ballroom dance instruction in preparation for next month's Feast and Ball at school. On Saturday the high school hosted a fundraiser for the Lilly White Orphanage in Kenya. The student body is raising money to buy solar panels for the orphanage so they can have electricity and tuition to send the older orphans to high school. They started the day doing a service scavenger hunt in the community for donations. Whitney's group did lots of yard work. Then everyone returned to the high school for a fundraising lunch, car wash and carnival. Janey cleaned up at the cake walk and they all enjoyed the games and slides. Whitney ran the Pin-the-tail event and mom sold tickets all afternoon. I loved seeing the money roll-in for the orphanage all afternoon. The student body raised a few thousand dollars to send to Kenya.
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Happiest Place on Earth
It had been almost 6 years since we had gone to Disneyland. Mom decided that it was high time we went back.
But first we went to the beach. Our little beach baby Ellie had been begging for over a year. Unfortunately Daniel came down with the flu and he and mom spent the day in the car. He was very sick for two days, but mercifully, he was fine for our 3 days at Disneyland. Ellie came down with the flu the second half of our last day in the park and slept in the stroller, but didn't miss any rides she hadn't already been on. It was so fun for those first two and a half days to be able to go on most every ride as a whole family. Ellie wanted to do them all!
Coloring Easter Eggs at our camp ground. We camped near Disneyland for about a fourth of the cost of hotel rooms and it was a blast besides. Reminded us of our time spent traveling around New Zealand. We befriended an Italian family and Janey played soccer and baseball for a couple hours with their son and Ellie and their daughter were inseparable, although they couldn't understand a word each other was saying. Holding hands, playing dolls and coloring can be done in any language.
The best part of this Easter morning was that mom and dad got to stay in bed while watching the kids hunt for Easter candy eggs around the tent.
We finally made it to the magic kingdom! We only decided to come three weeks ago, but it seemed to take an eternity to finally get here.

Mom and Janey.
All the kids wanted to ride the rides with Whitney. Ellie lucked out most often.
It truly is a "small world"! We ran into an old misson companion, a girl scout, a former co-worker and the Provo High madrigals. Half of Utah was at Disney land for spring break.


We got to see the fireworks show six nights instead of just three. Our campground was so close we had ash fall on our tent from the show.
Splash Mountain was a favorite ride. The second morning we ran right onto the ride with no line. When we finished the ride attendant asked if we wanted to go again! Whitney was a great sport to go twice in a row as she took the brunt of the splash. Luckily we had a pair of jeans for the cooler nights that she could change into after being drenched twice.

The Jungle Cruise is always a blast. Stephen L. especially enjoyed the guide's bad jokes.
The New Toy Story 3D ride was lots of fun. It was the longest line we waited in (45 minutes), so we only went twice. We ran straight there at the park opening the 3rd day in hopes of a shorter line, but everyone else had the same idea and the line was even longer than the previous day. We decided to move on.
Big Thunder rail road was one of everyone's favorites. We went 4 times!


After 3 days of begging, Janey finally got to buy her bag of cotton candy. Should have just let her buy it the first morning and had it over with!
Nemo's sub-ride was a new ride to us, with a long line, but worth the wait.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
They Might Be Giants

So apparently we have traded last quarter's Mock Trials, cookie sales and chess club for this quarter's swimming lessons, soccer practices and base ball games.
Daniel and Janey have started spring soccer. We looked in vain for a boy's soft ball team for Steve L. to join, he had such a good experience playing soft ball in New Zealand. So he decided to play baseball instead. He is on a great team with an encouraging coach and team mates that cheer you on. They won 5 to 4 their first game and tonight they had a shutout - 17 to 0! Steve L. is the team rookie, but he held his own. He drove in 4 of those runs with his batting and crossed the home plate for another. I love that they are all getting exercise and rosy cheeks after such a long winter. Bring on the sunshine!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Sushi Anyone?
April 1st our family woke to our cereal already laid out for us by Steve L. with a note of appreciation from a loving son. Little did we know that our cereal was going to turn bright pink or green once we added the milk. The kids were also excited to see the addition of a sugar bowl on the table (something that never happens at our house) until they realized Steve had filled it with salt. Other jokes included Whitney’s prank calls and Daniel putting uncooked rice in Steve’s bed.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun I decided to pull a surprise of my own. We are going to be studying Asia for history, so I made a stir-fry dinner and told everyone I had bought some sushi to go along. I was surprised how willing (most of) the kids were to try my sushi rolls. Everyone was fooled until they went to taste my sweet version. (Rice Krispy treats rolled around sliced gummy worms wrapped in fruit-buy-the-foot “seaweed.” A recipe I found at Familyfun.com.) Needless to say my prank was a big hit.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun I decided to pull a surprise of my own. We are going to be studying Asia for history, so I made a stir-fry dinner and told everyone I had bought some sushi to go along. I was surprised how willing (most of) the kids were to try my sushi rolls. Everyone was fooled until they went to taste my sweet version. (Rice Krispy treats rolled around sliced gummy worms wrapped in fruit-buy-the-foot “seaweed.” A recipe I found at Familyfun.com.) Needless to say my prank was a big hit.
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