Weekly Review May 21 '11

Blogger is acting strange tonight, so I hope I'm able to get this week's post written without too much trouble. We'll see how it goes. For starters, it won't let me type above the photo above, so I couldn't start out by explaining that the first couple of photos are of iris blooming in our front yard. I took them last week, but forgot to include them in last week's post. Most of the iris have died now, but a few of them are still hanging in there. They were really pretty while they lasted!

The weather was funny this week--we had several days that alternated back and forth between sunshine and thunderstorms, all day long. Today is about as good as it gets, though--bright sun, no humidity, and perfect temperature; not too hot or too cold.

We had a very busy week. I was making all the final preparations for Seth's birthday party, for one thing. Besides that, there were just a lot of other things to do, too. I helped with pledge drive accounting on Monday, went to the library and had book club on Tuesday (I made little mini cheesecakes to take to that), had a presidency meeting on Wednesday, had a doctor appointment (just a check up) and took Jared to a city council meeting on Thursday, and went to Seth's "operetta" on Friday. Today was Seth's birthday party; in addition to that, Jared had to be at a Citizenship Merit Badge Day at 7:30 this morning (it lasted until 4:30) and the other two older boys had a service project from 8:15 to about 2:00. So we've just been running all over the place!

A few notes about some of the above activities. I took Jared to the city council meeting to fill a requirement for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge. I expected to be quite bored, but as it turns out I found the whole thing rather fascinating. (And I found out that the Maryland Shakespeare Ensemble wants to start holding a Shakespeare Festival in Frederick every year. I think that would be awesome!) Besides that, when we first got there the mayor came over and shook Jared's hand and asked what his name was and what troop he is in. Then when the meeting started, he formally welcomed him, along with another group of scouts who were visiting from another troop. I thought that was kind of cool.

The operetta that Seth's class did was very cute! Seth did a great job on his part. I videotaped it, but because the acoustics in the room aren't all that great, it's hard to hear him on the tape. So when we got home, I had him say his part again while I taped it. That video clip is at the bottom of the post--for some reason blogger won't let me put it anywhere else. I hope it works! And sorry it is sideways--I don't know how to fix it! Seth was extremely cute when he did his part--he kind of galloped over to the microphone and then galloped back when he was done. The little girl right after him was the one who stole the show, though. She got to the microphone and then said "I'm scared!" Seth's teacher was trying to let her know it was ok and she didn't have to do it, I think, but she kept saying "I'm scared!" into the microphone. Then after a minute or so, she sobbed out "I'm Sally Ride. I was the first woman to go up in space." The whole auditorium erupted into cheers! Softie that I am, I actually got all choked up.

The pictures below are from the play. The stage was decorated with artwork done by the kids. The one here is Seth's, of course!

So today was Seth's birthday party. He chose a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. It was pretty fun to put it together. Here is Seth with his friends, Paul and Henry, showing off their mouse ears. (An idea I found online. Very easy to make, using girls' headbands. The ears for the girls have a red bow on them.)

For each of the games, they needed a "tool". Here's the tool bag:

To get the bag, they'd have to say "O, Toodles!"

One of the games was "pin the ear on Mickey". Frank figured out how to get a large picture of Mickey. We printed one up from the internet on regular size cardstock. Then we cut it out, held it up, and shone a light on it to make a larger shadow on the poster. I traced the outline of the shadow on the poster. Then Frank used a marker to outline the outside and fill in all the details. I think he did a great job! (Hard to tell since most of him is covered up by ears.)

Here's the party table:

Opening presents:

We served lunch--Mickey shaped pizzas and fruit salad:

Henry enjoying his lunch!

Amber and Camilla chatting:

Logan, Tyler, Seth, Henry, Amber, Camilla, Melissa, and Paul--the whole gang:

Then we had cupcakes. I love this fun little cardboard cupcake stand I found at the store!:

Focused on cake!:

All the presents! That's a moonsand playset in front. (I haven't been brave enough to open up the sand part yet, but Seth seems perfectly happy to just play with the truck!) He also got lots of cars, a bubble wand, some action figures, a "grabber", a Zhu-Zu pet, and 3-D sidewalk chalk. It has all kept him pretty occupied for the rest of the day.

The other video clip at the bottom of the page is the kids singing Happy Birthday to Seth. Once again, sorry it is sideways.

Frank was insanely busy with work this week which I am certainly not going to complain about. But he hasn't been getting enough sleep and so he's very tired. He was a great help with the party today and now he is at a dance with the oldest two boys. They needed more people to help drive, so Frank ended up doing that.

We had a rough week with Scott. He got in a disagreement with Frank Sunday night and was so upset about it that on Monday morning he refused to get out of bed and didn't go to Seminary or school. Thankfully, he just needed to regroup for a day and he was ok after that, but it was a stressful day. Today he had another disagreement and he ended up leaving the house for awhile. It ended up with me taking him for a drive and talking with him. I think he feels better now, but it is hard being a teenager. And even harder to be the parent of one!

Tanner met with his guidance counselor about a month ago and this week he found a paper the counselor had given him which tracks his progress (he had forgotten all about it) and decided to give it to me. I was rather surprised to see that on the line for class ranking, it said 1 / 341. He's ranked first in his class? Well, his GPA is 4.0, 4.5 if it's weighted for his honors classes. I'm guessing that he is probably tied for first with at least a few other kids, but still--that's not too shabby.

Jared got a "100% A+ Great Job" on a poetry packet he did recently. He had to pick 4 different kinds of poems and write one for each type. I read them and I thought they were pretty good. He says I can share them with you, so here they are:

This first one is an example of Diamante (it was originally diamond shaped, but I can't reproduce that here.)

My Dog

Snickers

Fast, Barker

Barking, running, slobbering

White, small, black, small

Running, purring, licking

Caring, loving

Cats

The second one is a Haiku:

Storms

The wind comes in strong

The rain is going crazy

But calm in the end

This one is an Etheree:

Dissolve

My body, dissolving into nothing,

The pain of living on is too much.

Around the corner, I see light.

That will lead me to my end.

It is impossible

To turn back and look,

But I still try

to look back,

and see...

Nothing.

(By the way, he wrote this as if he were dying, but he says he doesn't really feel like the "pain of living on is too much". Good to know!)

The last one is an example of Nonet:

The thing that destroys all deathly Things

The thing that shoves out all darkness

The thing that helps all living

Secretly slipping in

and also leaving

without a trace

It destroys

It lives

Light

We only have 3 1/2 weeks left of school. I'm not sure who is happier about that--me or the kids!

Everyone have a great week!