April

Here are some highlights in April

Jensen

My sister Bridgette and baby Jensen crossed the Pacific to come visit.
Although we love Bridgette,  Jensen was the star.

When you ask him where he lives, he says "Hawaii" in thee cutest way.
Little humans are the best.

We have been watching videos of him talking and dancing over and over,  but it

is so much better to love on him in person.

 Prom

Thanks to my friend Amy Kroff 
for letting us come over to her garage and use her background and lights.
 It made it so easy.

After photos we headed down the street for a private dinner at our neighbor's

Sassy's Cafe and Bakery

Melody printed up the menu for each of them and had a long stem rose at each girl's seat.

I have some pretty great friends.

With the money they saved on photos and dinner,
the boys had bracelets made with their date's initials stamped in silver.
Thanks to Angela Henri Designs

Isaac was the 
maitr d 
and I am told that a few of the girls had their 
hands kissed and were told how lovely they looked.
He is such a flirt and loved every single minute of this.

 Meg and her friend Victoria were busy behind the

scenes helping with drinks, plating the dinner, and dessert.
  

 This was an "all hands on deck" event for our family.

Thank you to Kroffs and Larsens!

YW Medallion

My goal setter, earned her Young Women medallion.
Summer did eight 10-hour projects and over 20 "experiences"

in the categories of Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Choice and Accountability, Knowledge, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue.
We are going to take some real pictures ...
this one turned out a bit dramatic. 

Pinewood Derby
Last time, Isaac and Tom studied up on the fastest design and it paid off.
Isaac's car was smoking fast and set a record for the track it raced on.
This year, the pressure to win was off and Ike wanted to focus on style over substance.
This poor kid does not have very artistic parents to help,
so Tom found a kit a Hobby Lobby that helped Ike create his own car.
Tom warned Ike that this car would not be very fast.

He named it "Duck Dynast"
and his cub master made them all a derby stand to place them on.

At the start of the derby, they played pump up music
and announced each boy with their car.
It was loud, dramatic and perfect!
 They each had their own entrance.
Some were not so comfortable with the spotlight ...
some were happy to bask in it and throw down some hip hop moves.

An attempt to show that losing was no big deal...
and nobody bought it.

Duck Dynasty came in dead last...every time.
Ike realized that it may be a little more fun to win.

Sports

Tennis

Summer finished up her JV tennis season in April.

We were proud of how hard she worked to make the team 

and how well the season went for her.

This is such a nice group of girls that she quickly made friends with.

Now she is going to take a 6 week break to heal her shoulder 

and get some physical therapy done 

by dad.  

Volleyball

This year has been extra fun because Cole starts

 with his two cousins Rock and Luke

    I doesn't get any better than that.

 "Mama"(grandma) is one of their biggest fans and supporters.
She makes it to almost every home game.

 Cole sets sometimes, but mostly plays libero.

  I didn't know what the heck a libero was when he began playing volleyball.

When I played volleyball (circa 1987) we didn't have a libero or all these rotations they do now.   Volleyball has changed for the better.  

The libero is a defensive specialist.  He/she remains in the game at all times and is the only player not limited by rules of rotation.  He usually replaces the middle blocker position when they rotate to the back row and he never rotates to the front.

Meg just finished her club volleyball season too.

She also played the position of libero and had a great season. 

She is fun to watch.

Tom and I won't miss the long drive to practices and the tournaments in Buckeye.

Basketball

Ike is playing on another basketball team.  This time with his two cousins.

He is always easy to identify

with his choice of socks and his face...

both brightly colored.

 Arts and Letters

Ike received first place in a creative writing contest at school.
He also was recognized for this "London Bridge" drawing.

He is still drawing and writing all the time.

Some days, I have to tell him to take a break.

 He is almost finished writing his first book
"The Journey of Larry Garry."

He is also teaching himself morse code
and has almost memorized the alphabet.
His skill set is growing.
I don't know how useful this particular one
will be.

He keeps things interesting around here and I am really amazed at how curious he is about
so many things.   I need a little of that to rub off on me.

And one more thing,
he puts a lot of thought into a thank you note...

  Ward Party

Tom and I were in charge of throwing our adult ward party.
We have a large ward of 500+ members and the Bishop wanted
people to get to know one another better.

We decided on a Bonko tournament and
I thought it would also be fun to have a slideshow with trivia facts
about members of the ward playing throughout the night.
Here is a little idea of what was included in the slideshow.
 The Bishop-- back in the day.

This little idea turned into a project that required both hounding and begging.

 I dislike doing both, so there will not be anymore trivia slideshows in my future.





 Bridget
Our niece Molly had a little girl in March and she was blessed last week in their home.
We love this family to pieces.
  Technology sure is amazing, making it possible for Janet and Terry to join in from Peru.
We can't wait for them to get home July 1.

Dear Meg, sorry I trimmed your eyebrows and left a bald spot.  
Thank you for just laughing it off.

 When Molly was their age, she was holding, playing, and babysitting my kids.
I love watching my girls now do the same with her kiddos.


Sport Rubs

This month Ike launched a new company called Sports Rubs.
"Providing relief for sore feet, shoulders and back"
He has his eye on a kindle fire and needs to earn it.
Actually,  he has been wanting to get a job but
we keep reminding him that there are child labor laws
and transportation issues.
So, he came up with this idea and is all about making it work.
 He asks new clients to fill out a survey of what they liked and disliked,
 has a candy dish for those awaiting their appointment, and
keeps asking us to take him candle shopping-- to improve the "atmosphere."
Serious business.
Thank you to cousins, neighbors, and siblings for supporting his latest venture.