The weekly update

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that: This is the most willy-nilly, disorganized, random post ever made to a blog! I need blogging lessons I think...but there are some cute pictures of the kids :-)

Here are our first week of school pics (kind of late, sorry)!

This was the first day of school for Maddy, Ben and Sam...

This is Sam's desk. He sits next to the cutest little girl named Paisley. His teachers are Mrs. Huber, Mrs. Hogan, and Mrs. Bellah, and they are all awesome !

Sam, Andy and I headed to Sunshine Cafe for some buckwheat granola pancakes while Maddy and Ben slaved away on their first day! Andy started a week later than Maddy and Ben, and Sam just had a little testing the first day...

Here are some random (remember, willy-nilly!) pictures we feel are important in understanding our everyday life.

Sam and Annalisa...

A better picture of Andy and the medal he won at the last debate tournament... before it heads to the awards cabinet at school :-)


All of the kids wish we could have a dog like this one...Henry! This picture is from a few weeks ago, but it is so cute I had to toss it in. And yes, that is Uncle J underneath Ben, Sam and Henry.

Stay tuned for Andy's senior pictures (hint, hint Andy!)

Doh! I thought I had figured out how to get pictures in the order I wanted them in...oh, well! Maybe next time...

So, here, in random order, are our offerings for the week!

Ben joined the Lego Master Master Builders Association. Very fun! The starter kit comes with a bunch of Legos and designs for three different things you can build with them. Then, you can create your own design and post it on the website. If I could figure out how to find Ben's on there, I'd post the link. Instead, here is a picture of one of the designs from the book. This kind of thing is right up his alley!


Ben and Sam had a Free Dress Day to celebrate the end of term. I LOVE Ben's outfit! Comfy pants and a Hawaii'an shirt! This is a kid who knows how to "chillax"!

Meet Sam, aka Flying Bat! He got off the bus with this great hat on Tuesday. He loves it - especially the blue feather, which we have reattached about twenty times since Tuesday. One of his teachers, Mrs. Bellah, told me that he really wanted his Native American name to be Garth instead of Flying Bat. Of course? Garth?! I actually like that name...but we're okay with Flying Bat too :-)

Sam's favorite things to do, when he's not in school, are stacking cups and doing puzzles. We splurged and bought him some blue cups to go with these great red cups (go Cougars!)

OK, this was going to be a cute sequence of how we got launched into school this year. So, the next three pictures are in reverse order and are supposed to be at the very beginning of this entry. Whatever...

Big events of the week:

Sam had fun with his cups, his kindergarten carpool friends, and his neighbor friend, Annalisa.

Ben turned in his great book project...(if I can figure out how to do it, I will attach a video)...he also learned how to carve with a pocket knife and soap. He made a great Christmas tree and also a sculpture of the Great State of Utah!

Maddy performed in both a choir concert and a band concert at her school. She stole the show with her rendition of Edelweiss. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2459494216090. This is a link to the video posted on facebook, but I am not 100% sure it'll worked...So, if it IS there, just know that the video doesn't do it justice because it is really echo-y, but it gives a nice idea. Maddy has an awesome set of pipes! (Skip the first 45 seconds or so of the video...I couldn't figure out how to edit it out).

Andy is learning how to host a debate tournament, writing his extended essay on Chinese economic policy, and reading Frankenstein.

OK - this has been frustrating today! Jo - I need a tutorial on the finer points of blogging next time I see you!

TTFN, T