March 2012: the rest of the month

After our weekend trip to Southern California, our kids still had a whole week off for Spring Break but J-rod had to be back at work early Tuesday morning as it was time for the start-up of the outage.  As is customary during outage season, we didn't see much of J-rod once it began.  The kids and I slowed down the pace a little bit during Spring Break by sleeping-in most mornings.  Other than that we filled the week up by watching favorite movies at home, working on school projects due when M and Li'l J returned to school, going to an allergist and hygienist appointment, and the obligatory practicing of the piano and trombone.

Li'l J's 3D model of the Earth. We traced and cut a circle of cardboard and silhouettes of the continents out of fine grit sandpaper. Li'l J painted the cardboard and sandpaper and then glued them together. He stuck toothpicks around the edge of the cardboard and then strung cotton through the toothpicks for the clouds. Li'l J had fun with this project!

For a joint project for his Language Arts and Social Studies classes, M created a giant "bookmark" for a book he read about Abraham Lincoln.  It turned out well and his teachers were impressed with his work.

Happy Spring!

St. Patrick's Day M got to march with the 5th grade band in our town parade.  He was so excited as we've been out of town for the last two parades he was eligible to march in.
  

The school Principal Mr. O,  and the band teacher Mrs. R, both stepped in to play the drums and march with the kids--SO cool!

The younger two kids and I sat with four other families to watch and cheer on our kiddos that participated in the parade.

Top picture: K, C-sta, D

Bottom picture: C behind Li'l J 

& Li'l J sitting with his 1st grade teacher 

Mrs. E and her darling boys!

The parade was a lot of fun, but you know you are a city girl living in a small town when what you notice that the parade features mostly tractors, HUGE combines, and horses. 

The kids enjoyed catching all the candy thrown to the crowd by various floats passing by.  Too bad J-rod had to work and missed all the fun!

Waiting for...CANDY!

We ended the month by attending a Boy Scout Order of the Arrow, Arrow of Light ceremony to honor the Webelo Cub Scouts from our Stake that were crossing over into Boy Scouts.  We attended a similar ceremony a couple years ago, but this time it was extra special because M was one of the award recipients (and fortunately, J-rod did get to be there with us).

*****And now for some "just because" pictures of the kiddos*****

The kids absolutely love it when J-rod plays Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown theme song, "Linus and Lucy". Whenever J-rod sits down to play that song, the kids stop whatever they are doing and run to the front room to have a little dance party that always includes a lot of joyous laughter!

C-sta enjoys watching the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies. She does a pretty good impression of when Theodore says, "And go pyu pyu pyu with your thumbs all day?" from "The Squeakquel".

A swim day early in the season = COLD water, but lots of fun!

A typical day after school and track practice for M and Li'l J looks like this:

Somewhere in the course of driving to pick up the boys and then coming home again, C-sta has fallen asleep and is out like a light!  I take her inside and carefully lay her down on the couch so as not to wake her. I go back outside and find Li'l J like this:

Li'l J gets out of the car feeling a little carsick (mind you the distance between school and home is a mere 3 miles!). He has a headache and is nauseous, so he lays himself on the "cool" driveway and ponders the mysteries of the world while staring at the sky. Oh my dear sweet little guy!

Meanwhile, M has gone inside and gotten ready to take Copper on his daily walk. While Copper is excited about his walk, he's not quite sure what to make of Li'l J on the driveway:

Eventually, something in the grass catches Copper's attention and he takes off with M:

After a good sniff, Copper is coaxed down the sidewalk by M:

The end of March 2012 marked one year since Copper joined our family. I'm so grateful these two have each other!