Miss Suarez is getting married this summer. I thought it would be fun to throw a bridal shower for her with all of the kindergarden kids that she works with.
I divided the kids into 4 groups and then we played games in the courtyard. I thought it went perfect. The kids had so much fun.
After the games, we came in and had cake and punch.
Miss Suarez was so surprised. It was great!
Rule #1: No aiming for the face. Notice I didn't say you couldn't hit anyone in the face?
Rule #2: No hitting Mom. EVER!
Rule #3: If you get hit by a regular dart then you "die" for 5 seconds. If you get hit by a suction cup dart then you "die" for 10 seconds. Hence, the boys are laying down because they "died".
That pretty much sums it up.
The boys were playing in the game room. They were pretending to cut down imaginary trees with pretend axes made out of PVC pipe.
Richard took a swing and the end of his "ax" came off and hit the TV.
This was an especially sad day for Mark. This is his TV. He did a lot of research before he bought it. As he started to do research to buy another, he found out that they don't make this TV anymore and they don't make a TV that compares. This is the TV that all the others are ranked against. If I understand it right, Panasonic sold the technology and the new guy has not incorporated it into their TV's yet.
Mark and Matthew flew to Provo, Utah to visit the Brigham Young University campus. Matthew was able to meet with the Electrical Engineering department, the Computer Engineering department, and the Computer Science department. (they also visited with several professors from the Chemical Engineering dept so that Mark could say "hi")
After their visit with the campus, the boys headed to Idaho to visit with Grandma Swensen. Mark's brother's, James and Scott, came to visit also.
They flew home on Sunday. When they got back to the San Antonio airport, they discovered that Matthew's car had a flat tire. It was now repairable so we are not in the process of getting new tires on the car.
I love flowers. I wish I could have flowers blooming in my yard year round. I almost can but not quite.
All of the physics classes at both high schools were assigned to make a boat out of cardboard, duct tape, and plastic bags. It could not be a raft. It had to had sides. Ores were provided. They had to paddle it across the Boerne City Pool. If they made it both ways then they got 100. One way they got a 95 and if it just sunk then they got a 90.
I thought it was cool that Matthew did some math and came out with the above diagram. This made the boat. They just had to fold it up.
They also did the math to figure out how far the boat would sink with their combined weight. I didn't even know you could do that. Once I thought about it, it made sense but I had never thought about it before.
We decided to test it out in our pool.
Michaela could not ride in the boat for the actual project because of her back surgery. Matthew had the task of finding someone to take her place. I can just imagine him standing up in his physics class and saying "I need someone that weighs this much to ride in my boat with me". That didn't really happen. Michaela found someone for him.
Well, Matthew and Michaela got a 90 on their boat. The boat flipped and then sunk. Matthew thinks the base was not wide enough.
I am against school projects done at home in general. They are a lot of work and most of the time I don't see the benefit. This project was great. I actually saw the point and they had fun at the same time.
This what the kids did on the side lines. There was a beetle in the dirt and they played with it.
I am so glad the season is over. The boys were getting tired of it also.
The little boys and Rebecca got me flowers for Mother's Day.
Matthew went to the store and picked out a card all by himself. I loved it.
Mark grilled steaks and I made the rest of dinner. We had angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. Yum!
I am so blessed to have 4 wonderful children.
Rock candy to remind us of the rock that was moved in front of the tomb
Flash light to remind us that the Savior is our guiding light
Silver chocolate coins to remind us of the 30 pieces of silver
Band aides to remind us that the atonement heals
Chocolate egg to remind us of the empty tomb and of new birth
Crayons to remind us that God takes our life and creates something beautiful if we let Him.
New Sunday clothes.
I let the boys dress themselves as twins. I was looking through the pictures and thought "oh, no! I didn't get any pictures of Richard". I then looked closer and realized they were dressed the same and I did get pictures of both of them. Can you tell who is who in these pictures?
The kindergarten Easter egg hunt was kinda fun. We each had to send in 10 eggs. Each egg was labeled with a number from 1-10. The kids had to find the eggs in order. So they had to find egg number 1 first and then egg number 2 and so on. Then when they found all their eggs, they could help their friends find eggs. The kids had fun.
I helped hide all the eggs. (200 eggs per class). I was the only one who got into fire ants. I was thankful that none of the kids got into them.
I did a lot of research about the Savior's life during His last week. I had really been pondering how to make this work for my little family. I could easily make the lessons fit my teenagers but how do I make it fun for my little ones? Then, I got an email from my best friend from high school and she had come up with some ideas. I had not talked to her about this. She just sent me an email out of the blue. Well, that started the ball rolling. I was able to really get things ready for our family's week before Easter. (I will change several things for next year, but I had to have a practice year)
Our first day was Palm Sunday. I focused on why the Palm leaves were of importance. I am planning on picking a different focal point each year for this day. His triumphant entry is so full of symbolizm.
On Monday, we focused on the cleansing of the temple. That the temple is a house of prayer.
We are making soft pretzels. The pretzels remind us to fold our arms when we pray.
Richard
I boiled the dough and then sprinkled salt on it. Then we baked them.
Tuesday, we talked about the betrayal by Judus Escariot. Matthew figured out that in today's dollars, 30 pieces of silver is equal to 1300 dollars.
Wednesday there is nothing written about the Savior. I decided we would focus on some of his parables.
Thursday was the passover dinner. It didn't work this year. Next year, I will have had practice and hopefully be able to make it work.
Friday was the Crucifixion. I am amazed at how much my children know. My little ones could not wrap their minds around someone killing Jesus when He did nothing wrong. We talked a little about the trials. I didn't want to go into all of it because I didn't feel the boys were quite old enough.
Saturday the missionaries came over for dinner. They joined in our little FHE. We talked about what Jesus was doing after He died and before He resurrected. We talked about the Resurrection also. After the missionaries left, we were supposed to make Resurrection Buns. We ran out of time so we made them Sunday morning for breakfast.
I am so glad that I did this. It will now be a new family tradition for Easter. I learned so much and I want my children to learn what I found. I want my children to know that Jesus died for our sins and resurrected so that we can live again. What a blessing we have to know our Savior and to have this gift.
Bonnie waving her light on her iPhone during the concert.
Dorias, Rebecca, Bonnie
