Issue 46

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!

Issue 45

Ice Fishing

If it wasn't midnight I'd have Steve L. tell you about his ice fishing camping trip 2 weeks ago. But it is midnight so I'll just say that fun was had by all, but no fish were to be had.

Janey turns Seven!

Janey's much anticipated 7th birthday was a huge success. Complete with 11 friends and cousins, party games, giant hopscotch and of course the giant pinata. She said her favorite thing about turning seven was she is now only one year away from getting baptised!

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.

Soccer

Daniel and Dad attended the Salt Lake Real Soccer first game of the season. They had some sweet seats given to them by Dad's work. It was a chilly night, but a 4-1 win made for an exciting game.

Issue 44

Xoch by Whitney

(Note by Mom: Whitney has been home from school sick for a full week now. Sore throat, fever, cough - the works. It's the first school she has missed all year, and I can't remember the last time she was really sick. The Dr. ruled out strep and the flu, but whatever it is, it had her flat in bed for days. She reread the entire Fable Haven series and finished the third book again, just as the fourth book that she had pre-ordered arrived on the doorstep. She can't stand being sick, but hopefully she enjoyed a little down time. Today she felt much better and started tackling some school work, including building an impressive looking DNA model.

I have included another short story from her history project from last semester. This one covers the Mayan culture. She struggled for a long while with how to portray a religion that was based on human sacrifice. I think she did it very well.)

Xoch
(Say z-ock, rhymes with “sock”)

Xoch scraped at the ground with her digging stick. She was tending to her family’s garden, and was making the irrigation trenches around the corn deeper. She paused to wipe her forehead and glanced around, breathing in the thin mountain air. She saw her mother weaving on a loom by the side of the house, combining the colorful dyed threads of alpaca fleece together to make a blanket for the baby. She could see her five year-old brother jumping around the rocks by their home. He was trying to catch one of the fattened guinea pigs that wandered in and around their house, so they could have it for dinner.

Suddenly she heard a voice calling,

“Clear the way, for the imperial warriors!”

She turned to see a fore-runner jogging past, his leather sandals flapping against the hard packed dirt of the road. As he passed out of sight among the rest of the houses of the village, she saw an advancing group tramping down the road. As they got closer, Xoch could see, without a doubt, that these where obviously the imperial warriors. They where dressed in fierce costumes of jaguar-skin and feathers with elaborate headdresses. They carried formidable obsidian-edged blades and clubs.

Behind them, roped together, where a group of bedraggled men. They were all slaves. These Xoch observed with interest. From their dress she could see these where prisoners of battle. As Xoch watched them pass she thought about the future they had ahead of them. For a few more days they would travel to the capital where they would be handed over to the priests. They would then be taken up one of the huge stone pyramid-shaped temples. There they would be sacrificed by the priests to the gods. At this time of year it would most likely be to the god of good harvest, so all the farmers would have a plentiful crop this year. There were quite a few slaves. Xoch turned back to her work, more enthusiastically, now that she knew they would have an abundant corn harvest this year.

Issue 43

Cookie Booths

How could you not buy cookies from these adorable faces! I really underestimated the power of the girl scout cookie when I ordered our booth cookies. We signed up for nine booth times outside of Smith's and Wal-mart, hoping that would be enough to unload over 700 boxes of cookies. Turns out we sold out in 2 1/2 booths, much to Janey's disappointment. She sold for 7 hours and was begging for more. She is a natural born sales girl. She was literally doing cheers, using empty cases for pom-poms, to draw in more customers. And she always remembered to say, "Thank you for your order!" Next year I'm going to triple our booth cookies so Janey can sell to her hearts content.

Wear'n 'O the Green

Our monthly family get together on Steve's side fell near St. Patty's day. We celebrated Irish style wearing green and eating potatoes (drown in chili) and Grandma's homemade bread dyed green. The cousins had a treasure hunt for cash and then we flew kites on a wonderfully warm March Saturday. Thanks for hosting Bec and Dave!

Mock Trials

Our Statesman Club participated in the Utah Law Related Education Mock Trials. We competed against other schools in the State, arguing both Prosecution and Defense in different competitions. Steve L. was an attorney and they were coached by yours truly. What an amazing experience! We competed in real courtrooms with real attorneys for our judges. I know I've learned so much about the legal system during this process, and these kids get this experience at age 12 and 13! Our team was mostly sixth graders competing against ninth graders and they really held their own. Very impressive. Steve L. said of the experience, “It’s not easy being an attorney. It was hard, but fun!”

Court of Honor

Steve L. brought in another merit badge haul this court of honor. Were so proud of how hard he worked earning all of these badges and he learned some really cool stuff.

Space Exploration

Public Speaking

Music

First Aid

Finger Printing

Computers

Chemistry

Citizenship in the Nation

and Law!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Steve requested peacan sticky buns for his birthday. I got his grandmother's recipe from my sister-in-law and served them hot out of the oven. So hot, in fact, they melted the candles right down to the wicks. Happy Birthday!