Our Saturdays seem to be crazy in the Spring. It's not that we have a ton to do, it's just that everything seems to hit at the same time.
Courtney had her practice for the Pizazz End of the Year Review from 9 a.m. to noon (so she missed a soccer game), Ethan had his piano recital at 4 p.m. and Courtney had to be at Dixie High School to get ready for her review at 6:15 p.m.
Ethan did a great job at his recital!! He practiced before we left and was having a bit of a rough time. He had 2 songs and he had memorized both of them. I have decided that he does a lot better when I am not involved in his practicing at all. So he usually will practice when I'm off doing carpool. I was really impressed by his songs. Having a softer teacher has been great for him!
Here are his songs:
I asked him afterward if he was nervous and he said, "Mom, I get nervous when other people are playing!" I guess that means "Duh, of course I get nervous." But you would never know because he played really well and seemed very calm!
We have a Veterans Home in Ivins and the Ivins and Santa Clara stakes are asked to do FHE for the vets. But you can't do anything religious so you have to find other things that would be good to entertain them. Courtney's piano teacher was in charge of an FHE for her Ward so she decided to have all the students who were ready early with their duet pieces, perform for an FHE. Courtney really wanted to do it so she worked hard to get her piece ready. I had been playing with her so she could get the timing down. I have played with Ethan and Courtney before at their recitals so her teacher just assumed I would be playing with her. Courtney told me this as we walked in the door of the Veteran's Home. It was a good thing I had been practicing with her, although it's a really easy piece so it wouldn't have been a big deal if I hadn't been practicing.
Her teacher drew names out of a hat and we were first! Yeah!! We could then relax the rest of the time.
Saturday was really crazy because the boys would be coming back from Fathers and Sons amid road closures because of the Iron Man (but they didn't have any problem), Courtney had a soccer game and had spent the night at my parent's house, I had the Relief Society Welcome Breakfast, and I was flying out to Denver for a girl's weekend.
Everyone was home in time to run me to the airport. The St. George Airport isn't huge so there wasn't much to do. Bryan dropped the kids and I off so I could get inside and figure out what I was doing, then he parked the van. I went through security (which was really quick) and then went to my gate assignment. They weren't quite ready to load so I sent Bryan a text telling him that I would be boarding the plane soon.
After about 10 minutes, I was on a really small plane and we were just waiting on 4 people to show up before we could take off. When they showed up we rolled out and got ready to take off. Courtney was having a really hard time with me leaving. Here is what they were doing while my plane was getting ready to take off:
What a good big brother to comfort his little sister while she was so upset.
I made it to Denver in good time and was picked up by Julie and Andrea. We hung out for a little while until it was time to go and get our pedicures. Then all 7 of us girls took off and had some relaxation while someone played with out tootsies. It was so nice!
Lisa brought Tyler and we all had fun holding him. While at the nail salon, one of the women got him giggling and it was so cute! I took a video:
I think they turned out pretty cute! Mine are the yellow ones on top.
After Church, Julie and I realized that our feet were opposites. I had black shoes with yellow toenails and she had yellow shoes with dark blue toenails. I had to take a picture.
When our nails were finished we went back home and then we got Jimmy Johns and sat around talking. I think that's what we did the most of...just talked. It was great!
Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, chatted and then went to Church. We took up an entire row and it was a lot of fun to see everyone's faces when they asked where the guys were and we told them that the boys weren't invited. haha!
Here are the Pack women:
Sunday evening we all pitched in and made dinner for Mom as her early Mother's Day gift. We all brought our favorite recipes and then had a wonderful meal and traded recipes. It was a great meal and turned out really well!
Then we sat around and...you guessed it...talked some more. Jessica and Jenny flew out Sunday night, so we said goodbye to them. It was nice to get to meet Jessica and to get to know more about Jenny.
Monday morning Lisa, Andrea, Julie and I were flying out, all at different times. But the flights were close enough that we all went to the airport at the same time. The lines were SO LONG! And I was really nervous that Lisa was going to miss her flight. We were all there to help her get through with Tyler and all his baby stuff. We said goodbye to Mom and Dad and then went to security. One of the guards pointed us a different way. It turns out that we went a fast way and we didn't have to stand in any lines! It was great! They did seem to think Andrea was a terrorist and had to check her, but the rest of us got through lightening fast. It was such a blessing!
Then we walked Lisa to her gate and gabbed until it was the last possible minute for her to get on the plane. When she had taken off, we walked to my gate because I was the next to go. Andrea's flight was supposed to leave just a few minutes after mine. We sat at my gate and gabbed until it was time for Andrea to get to her gate and then Julie walked with her. But there was something wrong with my plane and I ended up leaving an hour late. But it was okay.
I sent Bryan a text and he ran home in case I didn't get there before Ethan got home from school. My parents came to the airport to pick me up, so we had it all covered. And I was actually home a few minutes before Ethan.
Two weeks ago we had out traditional "Welcome to Relief Society Breakfast" for the graduating laurels in the Ward. There were 5 girls, 3 of whom are active, but only 1 was able to show up for the breakfast. We were disappointed but we had it so late in the school year that I wasn't surprised that everyone was busy. We usually try to have it in March so there are fewer conflicts but it was hard to find a date that would work. Oh well.
Courtney went to my parent's house Friday while the boys went to Fathers and Sons, so I was able to get things cleaned and organized Friday night.
We had french toast, fruit and orange juice. And we had a great chat with the one young woman who showed up.
We delivered baskets to those girls who didn't who up filled with all kinds of Church books and their favorite candy. We also gave them a plant to remind them to continually "grow their testimony."
A couple of weeks ago the boys went up to Pinto to the Fathers and Sons and when they came home on Saturday and I asked them how it went, they said "fine." Slowly over the day more stories and activities came out. Ethan got to drive a 4 wheeler ("It went 20 miles an hour!") and there wasn't enough breakfast food. They played games and Ethan explored with friends.
That's about all they told me. But they certainly had a lot of fun!...or at least they smelled like they did. hahaha!
A few months ago I bought 2 HUGE boxes of microwave popcorn at Costco. I put them in the pantry and it wasn't too long afterward that Courtney found them. She began popping one for her and one for Ethan...every day! Well, the first box of popcorn didn't last very long and she was starting in on the second box when Bryan decided he needed to do something about it.
One night, he took out about 10 packages of the popcorn and hid them in the cupboard above our fridge. When the box ran out we told Courtney that we weren't going to buy any more because it was being eaten way too fast. She was upset but we bought air pop popcorn and she was fine. Until....empty popcorn bags started showing up on the counter in the mornings about once a week.
It drove her nuts because she couldn't figure out where they were coming from. She would climb up on the counters and go through all the cupboards but never could find the bags of popcorn. The other night Bryan wanted popcorn so he got a bag from his hidden stash. When he was finished popping it, I asked him to clean up the bag. He smiled and told me that he leaves it on the counter to torment Courtney. I knew there was going to be trouble in the morning.
The next morning Courtney came out for breakfast and saw the empty popcorn bag. She lost it. She started crying saying that it wasn't fair that she wasn't getting any popcorn and that Dad was leaving the evidence for her to find. She got up on a stool determined to find the hidden stash of popcorn.
When Bryan showed up I told him that she was really upset so, when she wasn't looking, he snuck a bag of popcorn into the pantry. He turned to Courtney and told her to look really well in the pantry. She did and found the bag of popcorn. She turned to Bryan and, in all seriousness, told him that the bag she found was for her and Ethan and that Dad wasn't to eat any of it because it was theirs.
It's still sitting there and I'm not going to touch it.
So that is how to torment an 8 year old, by Bryan Pack.
They have really good PE teachers at Lava Ridge Intermediate and it has been a lot of fun for Ethan. They play all kinds of games are about to do their inline skating section this next month. Yes, they inline skate in the gym for 2 weeks. And they finished a section where they played crab soccer for a couple of weeks. Ethan was very good at that one. That's a rough PE class, isn't it?!
Anyway, they have been learning to play volleyball the last week, along with doing a bunch of exercises and fitness tests. We were watching a BYU men's volleyball game last week and Ethan came in. He told us that they had been learning volleyball in PE. Then he said:
"You know that kid that you look at and think is totally athletic but then when it comes to volleyball he can't play AT ALL?"
I laughed and said, "Yes, is there a kid in your class like that?"
His eyebrows shot up and he said, "No! I'm that kid."
We laughed so hard! The poor guy just can't figure out volleyball. At least he can laugh about it!
