Ashley Went to Prom...Again

You know how people say that their kids are so different. Well, that couldn't be more true for our first 2 kids. Alyssa and Ashley are complete opposites. Alyssa loves being active, going to sporting events, hanging out with friends, going to dances and other social events. Ashley loves being at home, hanging out with her dog, being on stage, and watching musicals. So, when Ashley was invited to join her friend group at the prom for another high school, she was really not looking forward to it. We told her, "Well, at least you don't have to go to your own prom this year." Afterall, prom was a month away and Ashley didn't think any of her close friends were even going this year. She also tries to interact as little as possible with most of the kids at school outside of her friend group, so I didn't think anyone would ask her. Imagine my surprise when Ashley came home a week later after a late Fiddler on the Roof rehearsal and told me "I got asked to Prom today." I didn't even know she was friends with the boy that asked her, but as we talked to her over the next few weeks, I learned that he was also in the play with her and had a number of classes with her this year, too. The poster he made her was so professional looking. He had noticed the army of rubber ducks in the front window of her car.

We told Ashley that she needed to do Prom the way that Alyssa always did Prom. A nice dress, hair done, makeup, jewelry, a boutonniere, and dancing. Ashley was thick in the middle of performance week of the play, so she came up with a history themed idea for the poster and we ordered the supplies off of Amazon so that they would be ready to use for her poster that weekend. And then the stuff didn't come. I had accidentally sent the candy and army men to my dad in Arizona. Oops. We had them return the stuff and we ordered it again. It barely arrived in time. Danny and I were talking to Alyssa while Ashley worked on the poster, so we didn't really see it in progress, just the finished product. It isn't what either of us would have suggested, but it was so her. 

She dropped it off the next day. They did their daytime date at the aquarium. Jason had an ACT prep class that morning, so they were going to skip out on it. And then Jason texted her around 9 that morning and said his class got cancelled and he would be there to get her in 30 minutes. She said they had donuts in the parking lot and then walked around the aquarium and got ice cream afterwards. She got home about 2 hours later than we expected. But they pushed pictures back, so it turned out okay for getting her ready to go. I got Ashley to cooperate with everything except the mascara. I still put it on her and she was not happy. We found the dress on Amazon, and she felt guilty about having to get an expensive dress, but it was so pretty on her. We took some pics before her date showed up.

And one with Jason. He wore the ducky bow tie because Ashley requested that he wear it. LOL. I got Ashley a magnetic boutonniere, so I didn't even have to be awkward with her date and pin it on like I had to do for all of Alyssa's dates in the past.

Ashley got home around 11:30. She said it was the best dance she has ever been to. They took pictures and had dinner at the home of someone else in the group. She said it was really good, and they had some time to hang out a little before the dance there. She danced all the slow dances with Jason, and they danced a lot of the fast ones too. She said they were both tired when the dance was over and they left right away and went straight home. I'm glad that Jason asked her and she got to experience a real date to Prom (last year's date was her best friend and he was a little clueless about what to do).

Easter

Sadly, I did not take any pictures on Easter this year in our nice clothes. We went to an even at our church building that the Stake put on the Friday and Saturday before easter called Holy week or the Holy walk or something like that. It was actually really well done. You started on one side of the building and walked through a pathway lit up with candles into different rooms. Each room was a different event that occurred during the last week of the Saviors life: the cleansing of the temple, the last supper, Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the resurrection/empty tomb. It was special to walk through and help our kids remember the different events as we prepared for Easter Sunday.

We went to Danny's parents house for Easter dinner. We did not have strawberry pie for dessert like I had planned because....

All I did was bake the crust and then set it down on the stove top to cool after baking. I don't know how this happened, but the dish was probably in 100 pieces instantly. I was finding glass in the most random places around our kitchen all week.

I took these pictures of the boys hunting for easter eggs that morning, but I did not get any other pictures of them.

We had a nice Easter and I am so grateful for the atonement of our Savior and the chance we have to remember and celebrate this gift each year.

Fiddler On The Roof

Ashley was in Fiddler on the Roof in April. She played the part of Mirala, one of the mamas featured in the Rumor scene. She wasn't sure if she wanted to try out, but she was glad that she did because she had a lot of fun. She even had a few speaking lines.

Her best friends, Josh and Kaci, were also in the play. And 2 of their other good friends came to see one of the performances.

Ashley's best friend from church (Katie) also came to one of the shows.

She was sad when it was over, as usual, but also loved having free time again after school.

American Ninja Warrior Competition

We signed both of our boys up for another Ninja competition in April. Camden competed in a different age group than Tyler, so we went on Friday night for his competition. He had never even watched Tyler compete, so we were hoping that he would be able to watch a couple of contestants go before he had his run. No such luck. He was the very first to go. He actually did really well. I think he only missed a couple of the harder obstacles.

We went back for Tyler's competition on Saturday morning. We were surprised by how much harder his obstacles were compared to Camden's group. Tyler walked in and saw one that he decided he could not do from the beginning. I think that threw off his whole attitude and he did not do very well. Even some of the obstacles that we knew he could do, he did not complete. He was also first to go, so we did not stick around for very long. But we told him that every competition is an opportunity to learn. We told him that he should request that they work on some of those things in his weekly class. And they have been able to improve on some of those things.

Some Fun with Tyler

I got to attend Tyler's NOVA Graduation. It happened to be in the morning, so I was able to go before I had to go into work. NOVA is a program that an officer from the Lehi Police Department works with the 6th graders to help them make better life decisions to keep them from doing illegal things int he future. It was called DARE in my childhood, but they do more than just teach them not to do drugs. Out of the 3 6th grade classes, Tyler ended up being the very last name called to walk across the stage. I'm glad I didn't have to leave before they called him.

I also got to go on Tyler's field trip to the Aquarium. There were only 2 other boys in our group, but it was hard to keep track of all three boys. Tyler and his really good friend, Landon, were easy, but the 3rd kid, Josh, liked to wander. And he didn't ever want to stay and look at anything for longer than 2 seconds. Then there was Landon who brought a camera and wanted to get pictures and videos of every creature. At lunch time, we completely lost Josh for like 30 minutes. But we were able to find him after we were done eating. It was fun to hang out with Tyler for the day and get to know his friend.

Some Fun With Ashley

I got to go on a field trip with Ashley during her experiential learning week. She did a class on storytelling and the field trip was to this place called Dreamwalk. It reminded us a lot of some of the lines at Disneyland/Disneyworld. I don't know what the teacher taught them about storytelling from the field trip, but it was fun to hang out with Ashley for the day. 

They gave us these yummy suckers at the end of the walk that had pop rocks in them or something. They kind of made our moths tingle after sucking on them for awhile.

At the end of the week, the school had a showcase to show off all of the things the students had been learning all week. Ashley got to tell an original story that she wrote and then we got to walk around and enjoy the other things in the showcase for the rest of the night. One of the classes put on an escape room. The kids went through the escape room and said it was a lot of fun.

Ashley and I went to see "The life of Pi" at the Eccles. We had watched the movie together in early March so went Danny saw that it was at the Eccles, he got us tickets. The play was really good. Now she is working on reading the book.

 

Flufferdoodle

We let Lula's fur get incredibly long over the winter. We were growing out for the middle school play, Annie, at American Heritage. One of the directors had told Ashley that Lula could be Sandy in the play. Ashley was so excited about it. And then when they released the cast list, they had cast a student as Sandy. Ashley was so upset about it. And unfortunately, by the time the cast list was released, it was too cold outside to shave her. So we let it grow really long. The kids nicknamed her flufferdoodle. Here are some before and after pictures.

Ashley had fun with her one night and made little ponytails all over her body.

She hated it, but it was pretty funny. 

And here is the after picture.

I took Lula for a walk a few days later and she encountered a friendly cat. Normally she chases any cat or little furry animal she comes across. She spotted this cat, so I let her approach it and the cat wouldn't move. It even laid down on its back in a vey submissive stance. But I think it just wanted to play with her. 

I don't think Lula knew what to do once she caught the cat.

Some Random things from February and March

I made a strawberry pie for Pi Day and in honor of Mom (she passed away on pi day 3 years ago).

I almost died one day at work when the shelving unit that the physics teacher built and hung himself came crashing down while I was sitting under it grading papers. Fortunately, I was able to move out of the way enough to not get hurt. I just had to dig myself out of there in the 30 minutes I had before needing to leave for the day.

The boys enjoyed having grandpa come to their school for grandparents day. 

Tyler had a young men's activity at the rec center to do the rock climbing wall. He had a lot of fun since I am never willing to pay to let him do it there.

Ashley's friend invited their friend group to go to her high school prom for her birthday party. Ashley was not very excited about the dance and being around her loud friends for like 8 hours straight. She didn't even want me to get her a dress to wear. We ended up just doubling her Easter dress as a prom dress. When I saw the pictures, I felt like we should have getten her a better dress since her friends were a lot dressier than she was.

Camden finished level three for piano and started working on level 4. We are undecided on whether or not he will take lessons next year or just finish the level on our own.

We had a random snowstorm late in the season when it should have been warming up.

They hung Alyssa's plaque on the wall.

It is fun to see how many missionaries there are serving from our ward.

The physics teacher fixed the shelves and hung them up again. I was a little nervous to sit in there after that, but they held up through the end of the school year.

Camden made up his own form of solitaire. It involved like 4 decks of cards and it lasted for a week.

We attempted this solar system puzzle. But this is as far as we got before we declared it too hard and not worth our time. We will be exchanging that one in the next puzzle exchange.

I took the kids to see the dogman movie. They liked it, but I was not a fan.I guess it would have helped if I had read any of the books. The boys love those books.

Tyler told me the morning of Valentine's day that he needed to take a box in. We just recycled his box from the year before, a homemade claw machine with a working claw. He ended up winning first place in his classroom contest for best valentine's box. 

I don't know why this is upside down, but Camden ended up winning a couple of awards for his school reflections competition. His teacher challenged the class to submit as many entries as possible. He worked hard one afternoon making videos, taking pictures, drawing stuff, molding things out of clay, and writing a song. He ended up winning an honorary mention for his song...

and he advanced to the next level for his mini movie. He didn't make it past round 2, but he got this cool trophy.

Tyler buried himself in his stuffed animals one night. It was like "Where's Waldo" trying to find hime in there.