It's who you are

Henry has been saving up his points from doing jobs and chose to spend them on a date with Mom (The most expensive thing there is on the list of possible rewards). We went to Chuck E. Cheese and played several games using leftover tokens that Miriam got almost a year ago at a bday party. We ended the date with a milkshake from Baskin Robbins. It's always fun to have one-on-one time with the kids.



While we were driving in the car I asked him if he would like to sing songs, tell stories, or do math problems. He chose math! He has started having an interest in adding numbers less than 5, so he can put each number on a hand. For example, he can add 5+5, but hasn't figured out how to do 7+3.

Go West!

Warning: This video does not feature any Van Ordens. Alvin took this video of his beloved seminary kids.

The stake seminary coordinator put together a fabulous seminary activity this Saturday. It was a mini-trek west across the plains. They had to hunt for food, ford a river, barter with indians, saw logs, break out of jail (a common pioneer activity), get medicine away from rattlesnakes, and compete with another class in a stick pull. They dragged more than a wheelbarrow full of water jugs to each station, and at each stop they found out how the imaginary supplies they had bought before the trek (with imaginary money) dwindled. Classes that wisely spent their money had more imaginary success than others. After my camera battery died, there was a big bonfire, dinner, and words from the stake president. It was all very well done.



This was my favorite church dance song when I was in seminary.

Maple Music

Yesterday we went to a state park where they were giving demonstrations on making maple syrup. After eating pancakes and syrup, we enjoyed making crafts and music, followed by a short hike to a nice waterfall. It was a fun family day.




It was an interesting demonstration, but in our opinion, 100% natural maple syrup is not superior in taste to our standard cheap version.

Idioms: Keeping Up With the Joneses

If you're like we were a mere month ago, perhaps you can give a vague definition of the word idiom, but it's not a word that's part of your every day vocabulary.

That was before our friends, the Joneses, reported teaching their kids a lesson on idioms for FHE and they made a video. (Note: Jones really is their last name, and thus, keeping up with them is not, in our case, an idiom.)

On Monday, we paid homage to our genius friends by making our own video about idioms because 1. We needed to make sure our kids don't fall behind academically and 2. It's a fun FHE idea. (Learning + family time = killing two birds with one stone).

For the record, dictionary.com defines an idiom as:
id·i·om   /ˈɪdiəm/ [id-ee-uhm]
–noun
1. an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements

...but we'll let the kids give you a clearer explanation.

Disco Birthday and a Big First Step

After the votes were tallied, we ignored them (we expect there to be more opportunities in the future for cakes about books). Instead, we went with a disco ball cake, in honor of Eliza's dancing prowess.



The video below is a bit long with clips of presents and dancing before her birthday and clips of various activities on the day of her celebration in NC. If you make it to the end, there's a fun bonus clip for those of you that know Tammy's parents.




About a week after her birthday, Eliza navigated her first stair. While we should be worried that the stairs are no longer safe, we're just excited that she's finally developing some gross motor skills.



And yes, given the music from these videos, Eliza may someday think she turned 1 in the 1970's.

Vote on Eliza's Birthday Cake

We were trying to decide what is most representative of Eliza as she hits her one year mark this next week. Miriam liked to play on the phone, and Henry loved to climb the stairs. Eliza is amazingly content to sit and watch life around her and hardly ever talks and does very little moving. Her siblings started walking on or before their birthdays, but she is no where close. Anyway, we've had a hard time deciding on how to decorate her first cake. Here are our ideas:

1. An eyeball cake, as most people will comment to us on her big, beautiful blue eyes and how she'll stare at them without cracking a smile or blinking.



2. A music note cake, as she likes to dance as evidenced in the video below [At the end of the dancing bit, there is a segment of her 'talking'. Can we say that her first word is Bye, Bye, even if she has no idea what it means?]





3. A book cake because she enjoys pulling every board book we have off of the little shelf.



Let us know what you think or if you have any other ideas.

Daddy-Daughter Ice Skating Date

Miriam earned a date and chose to go ice skating for the first time in her life. I was impressed with the progress she made in such a short period of time (approx. 45 min.). The key to success is being able to get up after you fall and fall hard.



The video is a bit choppy because I'm no skating-pro either, and this catchy but repetitive song was playing while we were at the rink.