Games and Music

It's great having Ethan home. He and and the kids in my bedroom adoring Katharine - 

It's nice having another adult to watch her protect her from the younger kids. They do pretty good holding her, but there's a lot of them and they're all so eager... it's just a bit much to keep track of, so I appreciate having another set of adult eyes.

I didn't have Mel around today to help, but she's put in her time this week, as will be shows by pics in this post. Today she was gone at a Dirty Dash race -

 

Sorry, "Muddy Dash" She was invited by a friend from Brazil named David (said in Portuguese it is spelled Davi and sounds like Dah-VI).

He is very nice, they've gone on a few dates together. After she got home she went to work at Aubergine (David gave her a ride) - she got a job at the Aubergine in Sugarhouse after she heard that lots of the workers there were from Brazil. She's keeping up with her Portuguese.

An update on Wes - he's still been in school this summer, because he is online and still has a lot of work to do to graduate. BUT, it's taking him longer than we think it should... He started 4 classes in January, and it took him 5 months to do just his Math class. Granted, he learned a lot and more importantly he understands it and likes it, and he even received an A grade, BUT he might be working a little too carefully and too neat-ly on his notes (see pics 2 and 3). Corey said "I hate to tell you to lower your standards, but..." BYU says each class should take "no less than 60 hours" which means they could, hypothetically, be completed in 60. So, on Thus I told Wes to start texting me his start and pause times each day and we're going to keep track of this boy's hours, and hope that if he puts in a few 40 hours weeks, he should be able to get these classes done. Cause he can't spend 5 months on one class, or if he does, he won't graduate high school until he's 22. So Thursday we started keeping track of his time and I said I wanted him to get atleast 5 hours, and he got 4, but he said he'd do an extra hour Friday, which he did - he got 7 hours on Friday. Today I wanted him to do 7 hours again, and next week, I want him to do 40 hours, which if he doesn't want to work on Saturday, will mean he has to put in 8 hour days. So he was on the clock today doing a good job, but Corey wanted W to go on a ride with him and Ethan, so Corey said if he did it could count towards his school hours. It can be his PE time. So Wes took an evening break and went on a ride down Little Cottonwood Canyon with Corey and Eth. 

Peter went too. I told them I wanted a picture, and Peter knows the drill -

 Cute little face - head tilted back, he's a charmer. Eth and Corey smiling for me -

So yeah, it's been a good Saturday and kind of a busy day. The kids are getting back into a routine after our break with Park City and Bear Lake last week, and all the excitement of Ethan coming back. Usually after a trip or when we spend time away from home, it takes a few days to get back in the groove. They got a little bit back on target yesterday doing their workbooks again and practicing, but not doing chores much yet. Here's Daniel doing his preschool book yesterday, making sure he's all ready for Kindergarten!

Owen doing his work, and sharing his chair with Peter and his coloring book. 

The little boys are doing good at completing their summer checklists cause they want to play with friends. The girls don't care as much. They have also been effected by another common thing that happens after time away. They get back home and rediscover their toys and games. It's like the time away awakens their mental creativity and they go deep with their imagination. So ALSN have all been down in the basement being creative with legos. LSN are also playing with their superhero dolls. 

They've been making costumes for them with paints, paper, and string, so S&N's room is a wreck, and they also made a mess of my scrapbook papers in the basement. Natalie and Peter were playing Pirates and searching for treasure yesterday. 

Sophi make the map and the treasure hunt for them. Natalie deciphering the map...

It's fun to see them be creative, but I've had to threaten them with the consequence of not being allowed to hold Katharine in order to motivate them to practice. They don't want to pause their game to go work or practice, but holding Katharine is enough of an incentive that most of them have reluctantly obeyed. (She's so pretty!!)

Mel and Abi didn't need any incentive to practice. They have been working on a "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing" duet that they are going to play at church on the 10th when Ethan speaks in sacrament meeting. 

Here's one of the times they practiced this week - 

Mel gets to add ability to rock an infant and play the flute to her list of skills (like practicing while hula hooping). She's very talented!

Here she is practicing Thurs night - while holding Katharine in a more practical way.

Katharine seemed to be very much at peace. 

Here are two other videos I took that evening - Mel playing a very fast song, Jazzy by Claude Bolling, and this one where we had two instruments being played in the same room at the same time, which is often the case around here! The kids are liking the ukulele that Ethan brought home, especially Wes has become a serious student.

Time to go gather kids for scriptures and bed. Here's a pic from family scriptures on Wednesday. 

That's what it looks like when we do it upstairs. Usually we have it downstairs in the side room with the big screen tv. It's nice having Ethan in the mix for scriptures now, and to have his comments and insights as a freshly returned missionary. It's been a good, busy, and memorable week.