For The Love

So fun to have an excuse to have friends and family come visit with us. 

So much love showered on Miriam.  We love our people.

Advanced Musical Theatre put on such a great show, we are thrilled with how this whole production turned out.  It turned out to be such a positive experience for Miriam.

Generosity...seriously so nice!

4th Grade Utah Program + Cubs + Hiking in February?!

With the new Cub age change Soren became a Wolf....well he hasn't yet received his Bobcat award but he did finish it. At the Blue and Gold Banquet he won the "on-time award" in the drawing. Lucky! Byron is a Webelo...still enjoys it.

4th grade is awesome in Utah! 4th graders and their families get free National Parks passes for the year and the 4th grade program is always all about how Utah was settled.  

I was so impressed with J.P. Stewarts program because all the groups that settled Utah got equal song time: Native American Tribes, trappers, Spanish explorers, Mormon Pioneers and all the immigrants who worked on the railroad and coal mines. Sometimes we only hear 1 story about the state when it really is a a whole conglomerate of cool stories. This Carbon County girl gets a bit sensitive about that.

Byron's favorite part was the military medley but I loved the Chinese song and "America's Greatest Hero"....when Byron came home sining that last month I got so excited!!!

We've been singing "Believe it or not I'm walking on air....I never thought I could feel so Free-ee-ee" ever since. OH THE MEMORIES! 

Since Miriam's school was out early all week, the whole family got to watch the show! 

This weather...it's crazy, my shoes don't even get muddy hiking in the hills. 

I love it up there.

Photos from the Director

So glad someone else snapped these.  So glad the director sent them to me!

14

2/2/2018 - Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and Miriam turned 14.

She woke up to nutella waffles and balloons. I had her friends decorate her locker during intermission the night before, and someone announced her birthday over the intercom. Other than that it was a regular Friday.... school and then the dress rehearsal for cast B where Miriam plays an ensemble crab.

She and I hurried home that evening to have tuxedo cake with our boys + her friend Viv. 

She loved all her gifts and cards but she was so delighted to get this lego set from her friend Ivy.

The only thing the set was missing was a crab.  The boys solved that problem by gifting her a crab that came with a Ninjago figure the next day. This was a very heartfelt gift because it came from a limited edition mini fig.

Saturday we took the morning easy and hit Gourmandise for brunch. Everything was so good, and everything everyone else had at the bakery looked good so we will need to go back soon. Try the scones...and the almond horns oh my...

That afternoon some of Miriam's new Legacy friends threw her a surprise party.

These girls have been friends since elementary school, they have been so kind to invite the "new girl".

I am truly bummed about not getting photos of this last part of her birthday. 

Her 2 best friends from elementary school came over that evening to watch a movie. One of them has moved to Arizona and just happened to be in town this week. I am so sad I didn't think to snap a photo.  Miriam has never had friends she feels more comfortable with than Clara and Hailey.  Miriam misses them to her core, and as her mom I miss the confidence and security they brought to Miriam. 

Boom...she's 14. 

Odds and Ends

Miriam had her first Ballroom team competition.  

No photos...boo, but Miriam makes it really hard to take photos because she is so embarrassed by my taking them, so there will be no photo documentation until she gets over that. 

They took a few first places and a few 6th places...so enough recognition to feel proud but not enough to be prideful.

At my funeral, my kids better mention how hard I tried to get everyone to eat vegetables. Because I do try so hard...against all the yucks, and protests I never give up. I am like the Joan of Arc of vegetables. These Nourish Bowls got mixed reviews but I liked them so they will be served again.

We have had very few snow fun days! That makes me sad, but we have adapted our activities.

I only get a pedicure about once a year.  I love them, but feel like it's a splurge I don't need too often. Also the polish stays on my toes a freakishly long time.  So, I love to do this science experiment with the polish.  I like to see how long it takes for my toe nails to grow based on the polish line.  This pink polish was from August so there you go. about 1/2 an inch in 6 months. 

Student Educator Parent meetings for the boys this week.  It's SO thrilling for me to hear them speaking Chinese with their teacher.  I am proud of them for not giving up on that hard experience I signed them up for.  Both boys are doing well, but Soren had a HUGE triumph this semester.  He was in the "red" zone for his reading at the beginning of the year, that means "massive support needed to get this kid reading better".  I can't say that massive support was put in, but his teacher has worked hard with him, we have tried to be very consistent with his reading at home, and I implemented some word decoding techniques I learned from the RISE institute. 

At last testing Soren was in the blue!!! That means "above what we expect for this age".
Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!
I will say though...that I suspect some anxiety coming into play into his initial scores, and the fact that he is now comfortable with his class/teacher/testing could be part of it. 

See what I mean about unique artwork Soren creates...it's so fun.

We are headed into 3 busy weeks of Miriam's school play.  It really is fun to be apart of the make-up team, and she doesn't seem to mind my being there tooooo much. So far we've made it through one dress rehearsal, one more and then the show is on!

Some of Miriam's cute friends came to her dress rehearsal.

We celebrated with Baskin Robbins afterwards.  A "birthday eve" party, since she will be at the second dress rehearsal again tonight on her birthday, but will be in her roll as a crab rather than Ariel.