TWO MINUTES!!

I got to spend a couple of minutes talking to my sister for her Birthday Tonight. It was WAY fun, and of course I went into a room by myself so that I could hear. When I came out of the room, I see Grace cleaning the floor with a wet rag. Not a good sign! So I find Dallin and he looks like this! Just what I wanted to do tonight, clean up a marker mess. So here are the mug shots of our Hulk!





So here we are AFTER the bubble bath! I LOVE CLEAN KIDS!!! (Not a great picture, but I figure I need to be in the pictures once in a while, so someday years from now, the kids will know I lived here too:))

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!

We are so excited about the weather today. From the time that Grace got up at 6:30 all she could talk about was going outside. At the time the temp was 27 degrees... but the sun was shining! We haven't seen that for a while:) By the time I got my lazy behind going, it was about 11:00, much warmer! So we went out and took some pictures, too bad the sun was SOOO bright, there are too many shadows and everything is washed out, but I thought they were cute of the kids, and it's so we can remember, "We had a Great day in April 2008... It wasn't all snow and rain!"













They didn't turn out great.... but we had a lot of fun in the sun!! Hope it sticks around!

REPORT CARD DAY

The kids came home with their report cards the other day. That is always a day that I don't necessarily look forward to. First of all, they have HUGE expectations of themselves and tend to compare themselves to each other, making the day very difficult. But, the kids do well on their school work and are very independant workers and in my eyes do very well. They know what they need to get done at school and get it done. An example of this is a big project the twins had before spring break. They are doing oral biographies in their class and had to make a poster board sized portrait of the person they are going to talk about. (They always turn out so cute!). Spencer had done this 2 years ago and had finished his poster before I got home that day. He did a great job, but when we took it to school, the other posters had obviously had a lot of parent help. So this time I was going to be the good mom and help with the poster, so they looked professional like the rest. The twins wanted nothing to do with it. They had their plan and made the posters very nicely all on their own. I can't complain about the kids' motivation and independence!
So back to the report cards.... They all got EXCELLENT scores. They only get the S, P, NI type marks until 4th grade. The twins got almost 100 percent S's. And had improved their scores from last term! GREAT JOB!
Spencer had been determined all year to accomplish straight A's. The first term he had fallen a little short, so this term he had kept in close contact with the teacher and kept an eye on what he needed to do to up those grades that were B's (still very good marks, huh?). Anyway, he came home beaming!! He got STRAIGHT A'S!!! GREAT JOB YOU GUYS:) Here's to one more term the same way huh;)

Piano Syllabus

Today Spencer, Wyatt, and Kyndall had piano syllabus. They did a great job! For those who have not experienced this fun and stressful event, the kids sit down with a judge, one on one and play 3 peices that are memorized. They do scales and explain to the judge which scales they are playing and the key signature as well as the relative minor scale and play that for her. They have a sight reading section that they do and also get to do some theory with her. For Kyndall this is just fun!!! But for the boys, a little out of their comfort range and a little intimidating. The great part is to see how much they are learning throughout the year. Sometimes I get a little frustrated that the peices they play aren't too difficult, but then I watch them prepare for this and am amazed at the theory and understanding they have of the foundation of playing. We are getting there.... I just have to remember that! Spencer will be needing to play in Priesthood in 6 more months, so he is starting to learn a lot of Hymns. That is fun to see!

Anyway, the kids had a recital last week to prepare for today, so I got pictures of them with their teacher Carla and then pictures of them at home practicing for the recital!