Ethan's Piano Reward

Ethan's piano teacher uses the "Reading Keyboard Music" system to teach notes. This has students learn note positions instead of note names. Ethan has been doing so well with it but it has been hard for him because he has to sit down and say the positions when he practices (bottom line, top line, middle space, etc.) and he feels silly. At the end of the book there is a 1 minute test that kids have to work on and pass. They also have to memorize three songs, be able to do 6 exercises without stopping and take a written test. When they do all this, they earn a candy bar from their teacher. Ethan didn't like the choices of candy bar so he wasn't motivated, but I made a deal with him to switch his earned candy bar in for a King Sized Milky Way bar. It was a deal.

Ethan has been working on it and had passed off everything but the 1 minute test. Last week he tried to pass it off and missed it by about 10 seconds so that was the only thing we practiced this week.

I went with him to his lesson and he was so nervous. He told his teacher that, at home when we practiced, he did it with 20 seconds to spare so he was ready to go. She had him warm up with his scales and chords and then let him do it. He did great!! When he finished she said, "Ethan, you have 15 seconds to spare." He slumped and looked like he was deflated. She said, "Do you realize what that means?" He shook his head. He had misunderstood and thought he had gone OVER by 15 seconds and missed out. He looked pretty upset. Then she said, "Ethan, I need you to stand up, put your arms in the air and do a happy dance because you made it!! You had 15 seconds left on the timer when you finished. Great job!" I still don't think it really set it because he was so calm about it, but when she gave him his candy bar he was smiling from ear to ear! I was so happy for him.

We promptly went to Albertsons and bought a King Sized Milky Way bar for him to trade me and then we dropped the other candy bar by Bryan's office. On the way home Ethan ate his candy bar (King Sized bars now have two little bars in them instead of one huge one). He took out the first bar, ate a few bites and then shoved the rest in his mouth and about choked getting it all down since it was so big in his mouth. But he was loving life.

GREAT JOB ETHAN!!



This was AFTER he had eaten most of the bar he shoved in his mouth!

Courtney's Haircut

About once a year I convince Courtney that she is really shaggy and needs a haircut. I made my own hair appointment and she decided she wanted a cut too. One of her best friends just got her hair cut short and Courtney was shocked that she hadn't turned into a boy. So Courtney decided she wanted to go short too.

My friend did a great job with her. Courtney got a shampoo:


Then she told Lori (my friend who cuts hair) that she wanted it short. So Lori began cutting (check out the difference between the right side that is cut and the left side that is not):


And when she was finished, there was enough hair on the floor to make a wig! But Courtney looks so cute! I love the short hair. She said that she will make this her "summer tradition."

Courtney's Mustache

Courtney had a fingernail scratch under her nose and decided it needed a band-aid.

Roadrunner's Baseball Game

Ethan won 5 free tickets to a St. George Roadrunner's baseball game so we decided to use it when everyone was here. Bryan, Courtney, Ethan, Grandpa Pack, David and I went to the game and it was a lot of fun...even though the team lost! Ethan was kind of bummed because there weren't any fly balls that were hit by us but after the game he waved at a player and the player threw a ball up to him. It made his day!

Ethan's Baptism!

He is baptized! On Saturday morning Ethan was really impatient for 9:15 to come when he and Bryan could go to the Stake Center and get ready for his baptism. When it finally came they took off, got ready and then had to wait until 10 a.m. for the service began. It was a packed Chapel with a lot of people there to support the 7 kids who were baptized. Everything went off without a hitch and Ethan loved it! He was so happy to be baptized.

After it was over we went to our house and had a BBQ. I had made a cake for Ethan and he and Courtney helped me decorate it. It turned out cute and everyone had a fun time eating and visiting.

We are so happy for his decision to be baptized!

Poor Fish

Last Friday Ethan went in to look at his fish and it was laying on the bottom of his fish tank. Poor thing was dead. He was pretty sad about it because we ran out of fish food last December and I just kept forgetting to get some more. Yup...this fish hasn't been fed since before Christmas. We are so awful!

We had a burial for it and put it back where the last fish was buried and then set off for the pet store to get another one. This time we bought 2 containers of fish food!

The sign Ethan put where his fish tank was...

The cleaned out tank

The new beta fish called Big Blue:

First Real Day of Summer

Okay, yesterday didn't count because it was a holiday for everyone. So I am counting today as the first real day of summer. Besides, yesterday didn't really feel like a holiday because Bryan left really early for Youth Conference at Aspen Grove and we went about our day as usual (chores, crying about having to do chores, finishing chores then leaving the house in a huff to play with friends only to return home after an hour because they realize that I am fun to be around...and their friends are leaving to do something "fun" without them!)

Anyway, today Courtney started Safety Town! She was super excited. It's a program that the St. George City Recreation department puts on to teach kids going into Kindergarten about safety. Ethan went through it and loved it. It's kind of hard to get into and was a pain this time around, but it's so worth it. There are 3 sessions and each session lasts 2 weeks and is 1 1/2 hours long each day. They are very safety conscious (as you can imagine) so we have to sign them in and out each day and "helpers" (which are really 12 to 15 year old kids) take them from your car into the school where it is held so no parents are allowed in the building. Police also are on patrol to make sure nothing happens.

Anyway, Courtney and her friend were both signed up and we asked for them to be in the same group (so we could carpool easily). They ended up in the green group and their name is the Green Butterflies, which is really funny because these two girls were on the same soccer team last year and they were called the Green Butterflies! But they both had a great time and Courtney came home so excited to go back tomorrow. I have to admit that I was a bit shocked when she went into the school without a problem, but she was so excited and Ethan had gone before that she didn't have a problem.

After we dropped her off, Ethan and I ran home and finished his chores then we planted our pumpkins for one of Ethan's cub scout requirements. He is going to take care of the plants (make sure they are watered and weeded) and we hope we will have some nice pumpkins in October! Usually we plant the seeds on the 4th of July, but the pumpkins weren't ready the last two years so we pushed it up. Then we played games and hung out. Ethan was super excited for his "mom time."

Courtney got a ride home from Safety Town and was happy to show us what she learned. Then we ate lunch (leftover pizza from yesterday that we bought because we found a coupon Ethan won at school that was expiring and he didn't want to waste it) then hung out until it was time to go to swimming lessons!

This was so exciting because the kids love their swimming lessons. We drive up to Diamond Valley (about 20 minutes away if you cut through Snow Canyon State Park) to a woman who has taught for years and teaches in her backyard pool. The kids learn so much and they love it! We left a little early because our pass to Snow Canyon State Park had expired and I love driving through there to get to swimming, so we had to get a new one. And, on the way through the park after getting the pass, we saw a dead snake on the road that was smushed all the pieces and Ethan made me turn around to he could look at it's "guts" a few more times. Ugh!!

While Courtney was at her 3:00 lesson, Ethan and I went to the Diamond Valley Elementary School and played tennis in the parking lot (it's a small town and they don't have a park) which passes off another cub scout requirement. (Ethan figured out that we can use the time when Courtney is swimming to do outdoor activities that pass off his requirements. He is really into this cub scout thing.) We then picked her up and had an hour until Ethan's lesson began so we went back to the elementary school and the kids played...urgh, fought...on the playground equipment.

Then Ethan went to his 5:00 swimming lesson. He has a swimming buddy that has been in all his swimming lessons for the last 5 summers and they live in Diamond Valley, so Courtney and I went to his house with his mom to chat while the boys swam. Courtney got to gather eggs from their chickens (which she brought home thinking we could keep them warm and have chickens of our own), freak out when their dog tried to say "hello" to her, checked out some 5 day old puppies born to the dog who freaked Courtney out, saw a lamb, and ate a popsicle. It was a full visit. Then we drove back and picked up Ethan and came home.

Both kids had no problem eating dinner and going to bed. I think they were pretty tired!