Updates for April

04.06.13  Kirsten decided to spend her own money on Rollerblades.  She had saved up her money from her birthday, baptism and Christmas.  She has thought long and hard about how to spend it and today we got them for her.  Mom pitched in and bought her the knee pads, arm pads, etc. so she would be safe.  It didn't take long to her to get a hang of it.

04.07.13  Today is general conference Sunday and Dave has taken a trip to visit his sister in Colorado combined with a work meeting there, and so the kids were getting a little restless.  I decided we needed to go on a nature walk.  We left the house and walked down to the local lakes and explored before the first session started.  It was a beautiful day and the kids and I enjoyed it.
Conference was inspiring and wonderful as usual.

04.08.13  For FHE tonight we decided to plant our seeds.  We are going to try and plant another garden again this year.  We have tomato, cucumber, sunflower, lettuce and carrots in our planter.  The kids loved planting the seeds and also pouring out the dirt.  Esther loved playing in the dog's water dish. 

04.10.13  The first and second grade classes presented their spring concert.  It was a jungle theme.  The songs were all about animals and going on hunts.  The kids had a great time singing.

04.11.13  Esther has begun her journey of learning to draw.  This is her collection of people in her family.  I love that she draws two dots for the eyes and a smile.  So cute.

04.15.13  Kirsten turned in her animal book report.  Each side was part of the report; facts, book she used, where it lived, and the habitat of the animal.  She did almost all of the work herself.  Dave and I just helped with some of the details of how to get the animal to stay together.  It turned out really cute.





04.17.13  Looks like we did okay planting our seeds, most of the plants have come up and we are on our way to a great garden.

 

 

04.23.13  Esther dressed herself today.  Some days it is hard to have an independent two year old.  But she looks cute anyway.  She loves to play with animals.  Sometimes you can hear her talking with the animals or dollies.  She also talks for the animals and loves to sing songs.  Some of her favorite songs come from the TV show Daniel Tiger's neighborhood.  They are all about sharing, taking turns, eating new foods and going places.  Her favorite is "try new food 'cause it might taste good."  She also can sing most of the song, "I am a child of God."

 

 

 

04.25.13  Today was the school open house.  Kirsten and Peter got to show us around their classrooms and also show us their projects they have been working on.  After we got to go and have ice cream in the gym.  The principal Jodi Innes is retiring this year and so they also had a cake to celebrate.

 

 

04.27.13  Chicago is a great place to visit, just ask Paula and her friend Jana.  We had wonderful weather the week they were here.  They stayed in the city and explored downtown with some friends and then came to our house Saturday morning.  We took them on a whirlwind tour of our part of Chicago.  We visited Catigny park and played on the tanks.  We toured the McCormick mansion with the girls.  Then after all our fun in the sun, we went to Lou Malnati's for dinner.  They have a gluten free pizza that has a crust made of sausage that Paula could have.  Yummy!  Deep dish pizza is always a hit with me!  It was a quick visit, but my kids loved both Paula and Jana, or maybe it was their iPads.  Paula introduced us to one of Esther's favorite apps.  "Endless Alphabet." 
Peter asked me on Sunday if they could stay another day, like it was me sending them home.  It was so cute and sweet.  I said I wished I could but they have a plane to catch in the morning.