Stake Court of Honor

We had the Stake Court of Honor last week. I hadn't been to one before so it was a new experience for me. Ethan was awarded his computer merit badge and his citizenship in the world merit badge. Then he was awarded his tenderfoot rank. He was the first scout awarded a rank advancement and Bryan told him to give me a kids but Ethan was too embarrassed. He went bright red. It was pretty funny.

Here is the troop:

Our cute scout:

Nimble Fingers

Courtney has played this song before but her piano teacher has been having Courtney go back through old memorized pieces to rework on them.  She wants them to make sure they don't forget pieces they have played in the past.  Courtney wasn't too happy about this at first because she was frustrated at not remembering the songs she knew before.  But she has finally learned to enjoy it.

Courtney wanted me to blog this video of her playing "Nimble Fingers."

Funny Primary Class

Ethan came home from Church on Sunday just disgusted with the girls in his class. It used to be that there were 8 boys in his class and 1 girl. But times have certainly changed! There are now 4 boys and 6 girls. 

Last week they were talking about Abraham and how he had Isaac circumcised when Isaac was 8 days old. The girls asked the teacher (who is male and a grandpa) what circumcision meant. He told them to go home and ask their parents. Ethan told the girls that they didn't want to know and to leave it alone but they were curious. 

One girl had an iPad so she quickly looked it up. Ethan said "I told her not to but she didn't listen!"  Soon she said "I'm scarred for life." And Ethan said "I told you so."

He was so disgusted that the girls wouldn't listen to him. It was pretty funny when he was telling it.

Dance Competition

Courtney had a dance competition on Saturday. It was in the afternoon so it wasn't too bad. She did a great job and had fun!

She was not happy to be staring into the sun.

Science Fair Board

Ethan made his science fair board on Saturday an he did awesome!!

I have a tendency to try and get my kids to do things the way I would do them.  And make them as perfect as they can.  It drives them nuts!  Ethan very quickly set up ground rules with me. I could help but I wasn't allowed to talk. Haha!!

He did awesome!! He sketched out on his board how he wanted things to look, used the computer to type it all out and then he let me help him glue things on (although I really only glued the canisters on with hot glue). And it turned out great!!!

Bryan drove him to shool this morning so he could turn it in. It's actually not due until Wednesday but Ethan was anxious.

Ethan's a shortie

Ethan is at the age where he tried to touch the top of every door e goes through. The archway in our bathroom is one that he hasn't conquered yet. Last week he spent about 15 minutes running and jumping to try and touch the top of the arch. He never made it but he was getting closer.

Piano Lessons

I am done!  Today I taught my last after-school piano lesson.  I still have one student who is an adult and comes during the day, but I don't have any other students.  It feels really nice!

Last month I realized that, although I don't have many piano students anymore, piano lessons were taking too much time away from my kids.  They needed my attention and help after school and I wasn't able to give them that when I was busy with piano students.  Something had to go.  When I looked at the things that were affecting my family the most but not necessary, I realized that teaching piano lessons had to go.  There were other factors but my kids was the most important one.  

I called everyone to let them know that March would be my last month teaching.  Most were very understanding and were actually relieved because their lives had gotten too crazy.  But I had some who weren't very happy.  But that's okay.  I am not making this decision to make other people happy.