Motorcycling Begins

I had an all day Relief Society event last weekend, so Kelly decided to start Peter motorcycling.  Benjamin and Christian went together and tore it up all day long, while Kelly went slower and got Peter started.  He was very excited about it many days ahead of time already.  When the gear arrived, he couldn't wait to try it on and pretend to ride.

He had a wonderful day.  They came back filthy and thrilled.  Definitely a win.  He's excited to do it again. 

I'm happy he had such a great time.  I'm also happy to see that he's finally willing to try working on actually learning to pedal a bike.  He loves his balance bike but this week he's been willing to try riding a regular bike and it's been going ok.  He's a difficult child to teach because he's very quick to rage quit and to blame every set-back on the teacher but slowly, steadily, we're getting there.

In the meantime we're often enjoying the spring weather on his now much-too-small balance bike.  He's so funny because he has his favorite sweatshirt he likes to wear all the time and even now when it's too hot for a sweatshirt, he still insists on wearing it everywhere, sweating all the while.

  

Senior Schenanigans

 As Benjamin finishes out his senior year, I'd love his focus to be on AP tests and finals, but his focus is on much more enjoyable things. :)  

He has signed up to be a part of water wars - a local tradition in which seniors team up and try to squirt each other with water guns; gang war style.  They hide behind trees in front of people's homes and ambush them as they leave for school, they drive by the house trying to catch them outside, they follow them around town as they run errands to squirt them as they enter a store, etc.  It requires constant vigilance and total focus, not leaving much mental space for studies.  Even sleep is sacrificed as early morning stake-outs and late night planning sessions dominate the schedule. And it lasts for weeks through multiple elimination rounds!!  Definitely an intense endeavor.  The prize?  $1200 to the winning team.  Worth it?  Not sure, honestly, but definitely lots of fun memories.

When you get someone, you take a picture with your victim(s) and post it to the instagram page as proof.  So far, Benjamin has carried the team and eliminated every single opponent himself.

His team:

His victims so far:

He also played in the powderpuff volleyball championship last week.  His team was seated first place after the initial rounds but then the server lost his focus and flubbed enough that they got eliminated early in the finals. 

He also has been doing lots of lawn mowing for neighbors and attending the temple with friends. 

Hard to believe these two were once the little ones on the top of the black board in this picture of the most epic chair fort, not long ago:

Henry Ford and Greenfield Village

 Greenfield Village opened up again this week.  Peter could not have been more excited.  It's pretty much his favorite place in the world.

First thing he wanted to do was ride the train.  He's a little excited. :)

Then his favorite buddy, Mr. Frog, on the carousel. 

In addition to riding the Model T's, visting the Wright brothers cycle shop on Wilbur Wright's birthday, and a myriad of other things, we spent about an hour in the glassblower shop watching this master make glass rods for a future project.  She stretched the glass like taffy, all the while talking about what she was doing.  It was amazing to watch.  Peter was riveted.  Each time I asked if he wanted to leave, he insisted he wanted to stay.

Achievement unlocked. :)  He's finally big enough that I can sit on a horse next to him rather than stand and hold him!

We also stopped at the Henry Ford museum next door to check out the Paw Patrol exhibit.  It wasn't all that great, but a fun hour.

Total Eclipse 2024

 What amazing luck that the path of totality this year passed just an hour from our house.  So I took the kids down to Toledo to see it.  Benjamin went separately with friends to another area nearby.  What should have been a 1 hour drive took 3.5 due to all the others trying to do the same thing, but I packed plenty of snacks and we had a lot of fun joking and laughing together and the time passed quickly.  Once we were there and seeing it, it was worth it.  100% totality really is hugely better than 98% as we saw in Salt Lake City in 2017.  When it hit 100%, it was like the middle of the night.  Then you could see the glorious glow all around the outline of the moon.  It was so incredibly beautiful. And the impression of a sunset and sunrise that came before and after was also amazing.

Only downside - the light sensing street lights that turned on at the moment of totality, partially ruining the effect!!!  We did our best to ignore them and enjoy the moment.  However, if I'm ever close again, we are finding a rural place away from an electric light source.

We ate sushi at a new place in Monroe and waited out the traffic on the way home so we drove home in the expected 1 hour.  It all worked out perfectly.

Chicago Girls Weekend

My friend Laura and I decided to get together in Chicago and have a fun girls weekend and then decided it would be even more fun if a bunch of our other friends came too.  Happily, nearly all of them could!  It was so much fun. Sadly, the bean (Cloud Gate at Millenium Park) was fenced off so we didn't get any cool reflective pictures, but we lucked out with great weather and a wonderful AirBnB in a fun, Hispanic part of town called Little Village.  Even though I'd visited Chicago 5 times, I'd never seen this part of town and it was a really fun, cultural experience with street food, loud music, traditional quinceanera dress shops, and delicious churro restaurants.  I love having a few days when I only have to think about what I want to do and not shuttling kids around or running errands.

Had to stop at the Nutella store.

The Chicago institute of Arts had so many paintings I didn't know they had there.  It was so interesting.  Especially the display of miniature rooms.  That part was my favorite.

I never get tired of walking along Lake Michigan and seeing the gorgeous skyline from the steps of the Field Museum.  The weather was a little rainy that day, but not too bad.

It's really so much harder to make friends as an adult, so I'm forever grateful for the friends I made in college and that we can still get together like this.  They are a treasure in my life and I hope we have many more girls weekends like this one.

While I was gone, and the weekend prior to that while I was still there, we'd been dog sitting for a family from church.  Their puppy, Winnie, came to live with us while they were out of town for a funeral.  I am definitely not a dog person.  They are just too much work when I already have so much.  She was a real cutie, though, and a real sweetheart.  I loved seeing how much joy she brought the kids when she would greet them in the morning or when we'd get home from somewhere.  She was also a wonderful addition during general conference weekend because we had an excuse to get out and walk the block between sessions.  She once again confirmed, however, that if we ever got a dog, it would be me and Kelly doing all the work.  Somehow everyone was nearly always too busy to do what needed doing with that dog.  So honestly, I was happy to see her go.  I really love dogs much more when they're in someone else's house.

He Got His Call!

Benjamin has officially been called as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He has been assigned to serve in the Wichita, Kansas mission, speaking Spanish.  

The only picture I have of him reading his call: 

Kind of a different experience when it comes as an email rather than a formal letter in the mail as Kelly and I received ours.

We are all very excited about the call.  Certainly a bit different from what we expected.  Never would have guessed Kansas, of all places.  I really thought it would be farther away.  However, seeing how happy and relieved Benjamin was, helped me to feel happy about it too.  He's not the travel junkie that I am and he didn't really want to leave the country.  However, he was interested in learning Spanish.  So the fact that this call gave him the best of both of those things, even without ever including that information in his paperwork, is another testament to me that God really does know us and really does orchestrate these calls through his prophet.  

Now we spend the next few months preparing and gathering the proper clothing and other essentials before he leaves for the Mexico mission training center on Sept 18th.  What a wonderful new chapter in his life!  And what a wonderful opportunity for Bella to drive his car and Peter to get his room!  Not going to lie, having no children sharing a room will be kind of nice.

I'm so excited for him to spend the next two years coming to know his Savior more intimately.  My mission changed my life forever in countless ways and I still reflect upon it regularly for the things it taught me about the world, myself, God, others, etc. etc.  No matter where you serve, when you turn your life over to God and his service, He can work miracles and you have the glorious privilege of being a part of them.  Go tell the world about Him, Benjamin...or at least the little part of the world known as Kansas. :)

They're off!!

 Bella has now joined the ranks of the straight teeth teenagers.  Her teeth look great and it brings me great joy to know that the large sums of money spent on braces went to a good cause.

March 2024:

Dec 2022:

Spring Break and Easter

 This year we had a difficult time deciding on a location for spring break because Benjamin had already made plans to go to Orlando, FL with friends.  Bella and Christian didn't really want to do any of the same things or do them together, so finding a place for them was tough too.  So we decided to make it a "stay-cation" and do things around here with anyone who wanted to join in.  It went great.  Benjamin had a wonderful trip and we had a lot of fun too.

First day of spring break, it snowed.  First and only sledding day the whole winter.  Even though it started to melt almost immediately, I forced the kids against their will to go sledding.  I couldn't miss the one day all winter!  Everyone went grudgingly but had a super great time, especially Peter who loved sledding in snow that didn't poof up into his face.

He insisted on pretending to be asleep for the photo.  Sadly he just looks dead.  Not terribly picture worthy, but I have to post the pictures I'm in, since there are always so few.

Christian wanted to go to Sky Zone, the trampoline park with friends.  So we got four friends to come along and everyone, including Peter, had a great time.  They were all so sweet with him and he felt like one of the gang.

One day we went to Lego Land and the Aquarium - both in the same building.  Wildly overpriced but it was a fun day of activity with lunch and some shopping together as well. 

Then Kelly and Christian went motorcycling for a few days while I hung out with Bella.  Mostly we ate sushi (so frequently that all the waitstaff now knows us personally) but we also went to the Toledo Zoo. The best pictures at the zoo are always with the fake animals.  The real ones are far too often turned away, behind glass, or sleeping.  This alpaca was our favorite because he reminded us of someone. ;)  Hint: I couldn't get a picture when he was facing us, but his hair is a dead ringer for Christian.  Tell me I'm not right.  J/K, we love you Christian!

Some pictures Benjamin sent me from Orlando.  He had a wonderful time and said that even the crazy long drive both ways was fun because he spent it laughing and hanging out with friends.

One day I took the boys swimming.  Peter is becoming such a great swimmer. It just funny because his arms don't move the same.  His right is strong and perfect and his left is far less.  According to Christian, "Peter's controller has drift."  A perfect description.  His left arm hardly makes it out of the water, causing him to drift left as he goes along until he's completely off course.  It's interesting to watch.

Anytime I leave these two with my phone, selfies always happen.  Here Peter is holding up his latest swimming ribbon for advancing another level in swim class.

The last day of spring break was Easter.  We had been studying about Christ, the atonement, and the resurrection for a couple weeks each night leading up to the Easter and it made the whole month so special.  My favorite thing that I got for Easter this year was a hanging daily devotional calendar.  It had three weeks of daily scriptures and questions regarding Christ.  They prompted so many great conversations and insights.  I loved it and plan to use it every year.  On Easter we invited Thea for dinner along with the missionaries from our ward.  They shared a great lesson and Kelly cooked a great dinner.  We also decorated eggs (no pictures - ugh!) and hunted for eggs.  Bella was the big winner in our money game this year with $26.  Benjamin got $12 and Christian got $6.  He was bit bummed.  Everyone had a lot of fun, though.  Peter got jelly beans and legos in his eggs because his teacher told him about jelly beans and he was so anxious to try them. He laid down on the couch and tried each different flavor.  He loved them all except when he got the spicy cinnamon.  I felt a little bad when I saw his face eating that one!

I'd say our "stay-cation" was a success.  Far less money spent and still had a great time.