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.

 

Giants in the Sky

The boys were in their school play, "Giants in the Sky." They were going to rehearsals starting in October and continuing through February. We were a little disappointed to discover that it was an hour long play and they were only in about the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes of the play. But we enjoyed the parts that we did get to watch them in.

They were quite sad when it was over. I think they enjoyed participating. And it sounds like they are going to do a school play again next year. This year was the first time that their school had done a school play. So hopefully Camden can land a better part next time.