Some of the Happenings of April and May

 Ashley took a 3D Art class this semester. She wasn't really a fan of it. She prefers drawing more than anything else. One of their assignments was to create a boat out of wood. it had to have a cross section where you could see into the boat. This is what hers looked like in the end. It was huge and now we don't know what to do with it.

She also had to make something to represent the Armor of God out of cardboard. This is what hers turned out like.

And if I thought the boat was big, this one was even bigger. Both creations are sitting in our office now.

Danny was at Bishop appointments and Ashley was at her friends graduation. A full night with just me and the boys, so I decided to get them out of the house. We tried out this new place that opened up close to our house called Sky Zone. I thought it was a trampoline park. It only had a small section of trampolines. They boys spent 90 minutes sliding, swinging, jumping, doing an obstacle course, and using a screen game that does stuff based on your body motion. They had a lot of fun.

Tyler finished this puzzle one Sunday afternoon on his own. It was 1000 pieces. I helped a lot with the beginning and middle of it. But then it got to the point of having just a lot of red and green pieces. He was able to finish it up. He has really started liking putting puzzles together.

Tyler and Camden ask us to do mohawks on them sometimes. We have only left it once and just for a few days, but we like to joke around with Ashley sometimes that we are giving the boys a mohawk because she really hates how they look.

I bought some California strawberries from a fruit stand on a street corner. They were pretty pricey, but they tasted just like the strawberries I remember from my parents house. I made 2 pies out of them and enjoyed the rest with cereal and on their own for the next few days. They were soooooo good.

They even came in the same little baskets that I remembered from my childhood.

We met up with some of the Wheeler cousins at the new and improved Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. It is now called Curiosity Farms and it has a lot of cool, new features. The boys mostly just enjoyed being with their cousins.

Tyler got to do a report on a country of his choice. He chose the Philippines, for obvious reasons. He researched and made a poster board and then spent a day at school telling people about his country. He also made some little country flags to hand out to people.

Lula got a sore on her back, right in the spot she always wants us to rub her. We don't know what caused it, but she was biting at it and making it worse, so we googled how to help her. It said neosporin and putting a bandage on it. That doesn't work well with a dog, so we used gauze and then wrapped her with this ace bandage. She hated it at first, but then she got used to it and it was fine. We changed the bandage a couple of times over the next few days and it was all better within a week. Tyler called it a "bootie brace" one night and we thought that was so funny.

Ashley and I went to the Scera Theater one night to see the "Wizard of Oz." We had complimentary tickets from something Danny went to and this is the seat it ended up being in. We were fine sharing the little love seat, except for the fact that it didn't have cup holders. So when it got to intermission and the 2 seats in front of us were still empty, we moved up.

The birds have been annoying since we built our patio cover. They were especially annoying this spring. We had cleaned all of our patio furniture and washed all of the pillows and got it back out there again. Within 24 hours, there was already bird poop on the pillows. The problem is that the birds were nesting in the tops of our pillars. They were pecking out the styrofoam and leaving the little bits all over the patio, too. Danny decided it was time to do something about it. This is the solution he came up with (that is wood)

It did the job. The birds spent about 2 days trying to get into the pillars and chirping very angrily but finally gave up and found new places to build their homes. And our furniture stopped getting pooped on so we were happy. Danny painted the wood to match the patio after that and you can't even tell anymore that we did something to change it.

I tried making sushi at home but didn't have the rice vinegar so it wasn't exactly right. But everyone still enjoyed it.

Danny and I did a pickleball tournament together. Danny signed up to support his Utah County Commissioners. We played horribly in the tournament (like we lost every single game) so we will not be signing up for any more any time soon.

We celebrated Lula's birthday in April. Ashley made her some homemade dog bones and then we piled them up for her cake. She loved the homemade treats, but didn't get the candle.

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.