Give Me Liberty!

Every year the St. George Rotary Club gives money to Santa Clara Elementary for their "Give Me Liberty" program.  For the 5th grade history/social studies curriculum, the students have to focus on American History and the symbols of our country.  The money from the Rotary Club is used to print up booklets with 13 things for the students to memorize about our country.  To pass, they have to do 4 of the things.  If they do all 13, they are given a shirt and a trophy.  To give you an idea of what the things entail, they had to memorize the entire Gettysburg Address, the symbols of the United States, the preamble of the Declaration of Independence and a lot more things.  It was amazing.  Ethan did his 4 and then was finished.  He worked on getting others memorized but didn't quite get them passed off.

Last week they had a program so the kids could show off what they had learned.  They sang a bunch of songs and they recited everything that had been learned.  It was a great night!

Here are a couple of their songs:

Here are Ethan's friends from the neighborhood: Kyli, Brayden, Ethan and Brennon.

Camping at Quail Creek

Last weekend was supposed to be our first family campout of the season but...my cousin, Connie, was going to be in Provo from Virginia for BYU graduation and I wanted to see her.  So we planned for Bryan to take the kids while I went to Provo.

We were nervous about them finding a camping spot on a Friday afternoon, so I called Zion to see if there were any spots.  It was free entry week so the park was full because you didn't have to pay to get in.  So I drove out to Red Cliffs to see if there was a spot there.  But it was full.  So I called Sand Hollow Reservoir...full also.  It was probably full of Ironman competitors getting acclimated.  So Bryan and I talked and decided that I should check out Quail Creek Reservoir, since I was already close by it.  They had camping spots.

I don't really like Quail Creek because there aren't shade trees, but the kids wanted to camp and we decided to try it out.  I reserved a spot, put our tent on the table to show we were there and then went back home.  Bryan had loaded the truck with camping things that morning so I dropped the kids off at his office then took off for Provo.

The kids had a lot of fun!!  Courtney helped Bryan set up the tent and Ethan made the fire.  They went camping, exploring and saw a snake in the camp site.  I was glad I wasn't there for that.

The camp site

The snake!

Happy kids in the morning

Cute Ethan and his Finger

I just had to put a cute picture of Ethan on the blog and show you his splinted finger.  He has another month!!  We have another doctor's appointment after school lets out and we'll see then if the splint has helped or not.

There's a NEST!!

Last week Bryan and Courtney were in the backyard playing and noticed this on the ground:

They started looking around the bench where it was found and noticed that at the top of the arbor where the Banks Rose covers the lattice, there was a nest.  If you look really closely, you can see it in the pictures:

Bryan called Ethan and me out to see the nest.  We were careful not to get too close to it so we wouldn't hurt whatever was inside.  We looked around and saw a daddy and a mommy bird that were sitting on the fence watching us very carefully.

Yesterday morning Bryan went outside to pull weeds and saw 2 baby birds learning how to fly.  One had figured it out and was pretty strong.  He was on top of our neighbor's house.  The other bird wasn't so strong and so he was on the ground by our house.  He would fly a foot and then have to rest.  We watched for a while and Ethan took A TON of photos.  We left them alone and hope they didn't get eaten by a hawk.  Eek!

The nest is still in the arbor and the mom and dad were flying all over yesterday morning.  We are going to keep watching to see if they come back to the nest or abandon it.  We are pretty amazed that the nest stayed in the arbor because we have had some really strong winds lately and you would think the nest would have been knocked out.  Those are some tough birds!!

Pizza Party!

Courtney's class earned a pizza party so I was asked to go and pick it up for them.  Her teacher had me buy 5 pizzas for 25 kids with the pizza "double cut" so the slices were smaller.  I had a cake order for the weekend that was going to be a small cake so I used the left over batter to make cupcakes for the class also.

They had a great time eating pizza and cupcakes and sipping juice boxes.  There was an entire pizza left over so Mrs. Thomas sent that home with us.  Score!!  I didn't have to make dinner!

They are trying to earn another party but I can't remember if it is an ice cream party or popcorn party.  Fun!!

Softball

Courtney decided she wanted to try playing softball this year.  I called and was told that softball was going to be played on Thursday evenings.  That was perfect because she has dance and soccer on Tuesday, piano on Wednesday but nothing on Thursday!

I was a bit nervous because a month after I registered her I still hadn't heard from her coach.  Then one day I got a phone call telling me that their games would be played mainly on Tuesdays with only a few games on Thursdays.  I was so upset!  I wouldn't have spent the money if I knew she wasn't going to be playing much.  But she wanted to try it out.

So we have been going to her Thursday games.  She is having fun but doesn't love it.  She told me that it's been fun but she is a "soccer girl."  So I think we won't have to try this again.

Here is one of her at-bats.  She is number 2 so she is either second in the batting order or second from last.  They only play 3 innings, I think, and everyone bats.  There are rarely strike outs because the coach pitches until a ball is hit.

Ivins City Soccer

Courtney has been playing soccer with Ivins City this season and has enjoyed it.  They have games on Tuesday this year which conflicts with dance, but we make it work the best we can.

She hasn't been as fast as she has been in other years but she is still enjoying it and loves to play. 

Science Fair

Santa Clara Elementary is a STEM school which means they focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  So they participated in the science fair this year.  Courtney wanted to see if candles stored in the freezer would burn more slowly than candles kept out at room temperature (they actually burn faster).  Ethan wanted to see which would rust a nail faster, Coke or Pepsi (I personally wouldn't drink either after seeing the results but Ethan said that Pepsi rusted the nail faster).

Getting the experiments done was the easy park.  Making the posters and getting everything ready was the hard part.  The kids procrastinated and we were really busy the weeks leading up to the fair, so they ended up doing them the night before.  But Bryan and I did the least amount we could to help them.  I hate it when I go to a Science or History fair and you can tell the mom has done all of the work.  So I drew lines on Courtney's board and she hand wrote everything.  Ethan and Bryan used the computer and typed his all out and then Ethan cut and pasted it.  They had photos to put on too.  It all turned out great and, although they hated the process the night before, they both loved being in the Science Fair!

Evening of the Arts

Usually, at the Santa Clara Elementary Evening of the Arts, we are there to watch the kids play the piano.  But this year Ethan opted out of participating and Courtney wanted to do a dance.  So we asked a teenaged girl in our ward, who is also in Pizazz, to choreograph a dance for Courtney.  When she had it choreographed, we went to her house and she taught the dance to Courtney and she also let me video tape the dance so we could practice at home.  Courtney worked really hard and was ready!!

The week before the Evening, we realized that she didn't have an outfit to wear so I went to DI and found a cute dress for $2.00 that would work.  Courtney loved it!

That evening, we did her hair all fancy, put a flower in it, got her in the nice dress with some dance shorts under it and we went to the school.  She was supposed to be 4th on the program, but another student wasn't ready to she went earlier.

Here is her dance:

When everyone in her group was finished, the woman in charge realized that Courtney's teacher had missed watching her dance.  So they asked Courtney to perform one more time so her teacher could see it.  She was a bit reluctant but then she warmed up and danced again.  It went really well and she had a great time.

Her dance review is coming up in May and Courtney asked if I would see if she could perform the dance at the review.  I thought there was no way her coach would let her but I sent her a quick email asking.  The coach was thrilled to put her on the program.  So now Courtney is doing a solo at the end of the year review for Pizazz in May.  I am pretty nervous but I'm sure she will do great!

Dressed up and ready to go...except for the slippers. ;)

Pinewood Derby

Ethan participated in his last pinewood derby.  It's kind of a sad day.  But he did a great job!

Ethan built his car by himself, with help from Bryan.  Ethan used the saw to cut out the shape, sanded it, painted it and we cut vinyl to decorate it up.

Cutting out the shape of his car.

I think it turned out pretty well.

The Pack-mobile

The day of the race was also the day of the elementary school's Evening of the Arts, so we had to split kid duty.  Bryan took Ethan to the Pinewood Derby and I took Courtney to the Evening of the Arts.  But a woman in our ward took photos and video for me. 

Waiting to see who wins

The streak of green!

This is the video of Ethan's win!

Little Eshelles

Courtney was able to participate in a Little Eshelle's camp that the high school dance team put on.  She loved it and we were so excited to go and see her dance in their end of the year review.  She dance with her Pizazz team and then also with the Little Eschelle's.   Cute!

Ethan was taking the video and accidentally pushed off before the dance was finished.  So it's a 2 part video!

Easter!

Easter morning came bright and early at our house.  The kids were up to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.  Ethan got a swimming suit, tie and shoes, and a water balloon launcher.  Courtney got a swimming suit, dress, and a water balloon launcher.  They were pretty excited.

 Bryan and I hid eggs in the backyard for them to find.  They had a blast looking all over until things got hard.  They could each find 12 eggs.  Eventually they found them but it took a while.

 I made an Easter dress for Courtney. She liked it but the top was a big baggy so she wore a shirt under it.  But I think the dress turned out really well!

Ivins City Easter Egg Hunt

Our neighborhood always does it's own Easter egg hunt but this year it was at the same time as the Stake baptisms.  Courtney had a friend in our ward who was being baptized and she didn't want to miss it.  So I took her up to the Ivins City Easter Egg Hunt because it was held an hour before the baptism began.  They had the Park split into age groups.  We got there with only 2 minutes before the hunt would begin, great timing!  Courtney got to her field and was ready to go.

When they said "GO" it was chaos.  Kids were running everywhere and there wasn't a limit on how many eggs you could grab so they all went nuts.  It lasted about a minute before all the eggs were picked up.  Courtney was happy with her haul!

Ethan's Finger

Ethan was playing dodge ball during school right before Spring Recess and he hurt his finger.  He thought it was just jammed so he didn't say anything about it, but after a few hours it was really hurting him.  He showed me his finger right before dinner and the tip of it was just hanging there.  It hurt when it moved but he could move it a little bit.

After dinner, Bryan and Ethan went to get the mail and saw our neighbor, who is a physical therapist.  They asked him about it and he said that Ethan had probably hurt his tendon on the back of his finger.  He said to just put a splint on it and it would be fine.  But when I looked it up online, it said that a doctor needed to be consulted immediately or the finger would be permanently deformed.  So I ran Ethan to Urgent Care.

Once there, they took an x-ray which made Ethan's day because he had to flip the bird because it is his middle finger that is hurt.  The doctor said it didn't look like the bone was broken and the tendon hadn't taken a bit of bone with it when it snapped so he put Ethan in a little finger splint and told us to take him to our regular doctor on Monday.

On a side note, Ethan is left handed and the hurt finger is on his left hand.  He had a lot of trouble writing.

On Monday, I took him to the pediatrician who looked at the x-ray and said that Ethan didn't need the splint on because it would heal itself.  Ethan was pretty excited until a few days later when the finger began to ache and the knuckle was all swollen and painful.

I made an appointment with a hand specialist in town.  He took another x-ray and said that, not only is the tendon really damaged but the damage is also to the growth plate in Ethan's finger.  So he had some special splints made for Ethan to wear on that one finger and told us that he can't take the splint off, except to change it so it doesn't smell, for 6 WEEKS!  Ethan was not happy at all but he has been really good to keep the splint on.

We are about 2 weeks into it and Ethan said it already feels better.  I hope this takes care of it! 

Ethan's x-ray