Sweet Little Helper

Our little Tess is a sweetheart.  First I wanted to mention how proud we are of her for winning an "Award of Merit" medal at the school Reflections contest.  She wrote a song on the piano for this year's contest.  It was a really great little song!  That girl has some serious piano talent.  I can play the piano while looking at sheet music but I've always been very afraid to memorize pieces and even more afraid of composing anything.  But not Tess--she sits down and just makes up songs all the time!  And they're GOOD!  I need to work with her to write some of the down more often.

Here she is showing off her award.  (check out the outfit...she put on Bree's little vest just to see if it would fit, and it did!)

But I mainly wanted to post about something that happened just last night.  Every parent knows that dinnertime can be stressful, what with hungry, tired kids, and the busyness of getting the food on the table, etc.  And it's just compounded when Bryan is out of town (which he was.)  We were having Hamburger Helper because it's quick and easy.  It's not the best food in the world by any means, but I do think that it's edible at least, and we only have it about once every few years, so it's not like I'm giving my kids this disgusting thing night after night...  Well, Bree and especially Miles were having none of it, and complaining loudly about how gross it was.  (Although neither of them had actually taken a bite yet.)  I had had enough of the whiny whiny voices and told Miles (loudly) that he better at least try one bite before he said another word.  He barely put one noodle in his mouth and then the dramatic gagging began (how do kids all know how to be SOOO dramatic!?).  At this point Bree knocked her sippy of red punch on the floor (luckily the lid didn't come off, but it did manage to spray red punch out of the sipper spot).

I just said "I'm done.  I'm going in my room for a while.  Goodbye."  and I left.  To my room, with the door shut and locked.  I was in there for about 15-20 minutes (although now that I think about it, I should have stayed for 36 minutes, right?  They say one minute of time-out for every year of your age, right?)  When I came out I noticed that Tess had cleaned everything up for me!  She put all the dishes in the sink, all the food in the fridge, wiped off the table, and even washed Bree's hands and face for me!  What a sweetheart!  She told me to go back and read the note.  I hadn't even noticed this note she taped on the wall by my door.  It says:  "I love all the things you give me so there's a surprise at the table!  from Tess.  I love you Mom.  I hope you like it!"  Then the cutest part is her little p.s. at the bottom:  "I hope you like this present because it was a lot of work for just one person!  I know how you feel!  from Tess"

I'm pretty lucky to have her as our first-born.  She's a great little helper and she's capable of so much.  I love her independence (she even makes her own lunch most days, which is so helpful on crazy mornings.)  She's my life-saver when Bryan is gone and I'm very grateful for her!

Ogden Nature Center

I really like going to the Ogden Nature Center.  I've been there on 3 different field trips now--one with Tess in the Winter where they learned about how animals adapt for the winter and they all got to have a mug of hot chocolate; one with Miles in the Spring where they learned about seeds and baby animals; and now today I went with Miles to learn about Native American tribes who first lived in Utah.  It was super fun!

First, of course, was the bus ride there.  I think that is the best part for some kids--especially Kindergartners who've never ridden on a bus before.  Here I am with my little buddy:

We first learned about the different types of homes the native tribes lived in.  There were "wikiups" which only were meant to last for 3 months because the tribe would move to a new place every season.  Of course they had teepees which were more sturdy but still transportable, and also adobe brick houses which have stood for a thousand years.  We went outside for 4 rotations: first to a teepee where we learned about some customs within the tribe.  The maternal grandmother was the leader and sat in the place of most importance in the teepee.  She would tell stories and teach the children about the world.  I was interested to learn that the Indians could not shoot buffalo with bows & arrows because their hides were so thick and tough that the arrows couldn't penetrate.  Instead they would lead some buffalo near a cliff and then scare them into stampeding off the edge!  When they fell and died, that's when the Indians would collect the bodies for meat, fur, hides, etc.

We then went to a fire pit to learn about how they would grind the corn for flour.  All the kids got to flick off some corn kernels into a bowl (made out of a hollow gourd), and then mash them with a rock.  She told how they would make corn cakes on a stone over the fire (although she cheated a little and used a cast iron frying pan), and they would use the shoulder blade of a deer as a spatula to flip their food.  Interesting!  All the kids got to have a piece of corn bread too.

Miles is holding a gourd that they might've used as a drinking vessel.

 We also saw the birds that are always at the nature center--owls, pelicans, eagles, ravens, and a funny wild turkey that follows the kids all around.  Here is Miles's whole class standing in an eagle's nest (replica) to show how BIG the nests are.

Another interesting thing was Indian "fruit roll-ups"...an Indian woman would take berries and put some in her mouth, and chew them up to separate the fruit from the seeds.  She would collect the seeds in one cheek and the fruit in the other cheek and then when they were full, she would spit out the seeds, and spit out the chewed-up fruit on a rock and smooth it out, let it dry, and have a fruit roll-up to send out with the men to eat while they were hunting.  Wow.

For diapers, they would use the bark of the juniper tree (I think it was juniper, but definitely tree bark of some sort) because it was absorbent.  They would put strips of it into a little "buffalo fur diaper" and off the baby would go in the papoose!

It was a really fun field trip and I loved going with the kids.  There was this darling little redheaded boy in Miles's class that for some reason took a real liking to me.  He was my buddy and held my hand the whole time and asked to sit with us on the bus and told Miles over and over that he had a cool mom.  It made me feel good!  Kindergartners are pretty cool.

My new friend!

Girls' Weekend

I went to Park City on Friday & Saturday for a fun "girls' weekend" with some friends from my old ward in Riverdale.  They go twice a year, but I've never been available to join them until this time.  It was so much fun!  We went up to the outlet stores first and shopped for a few hours before lunch.  Then we all headed to lunch and pigged out on good food (I did get my finger smashed in the car door on the way in to lunch, which hurt really bad, but thankfully it's OK.)

Then we went back to shop, shop, shop some more!  I am usually not really interested in shopping, and only do it occasionally when I have a gift card to spend.  Bryan doesn't ever enjoy going (what husband does?) and it's definitely not fun to bring the kids, so I just don't really ever do it.  But, being there with a bunch of friends, who actually give their opinions about outfits--instead of the usual husband "I don't care...whatever you think" response--was a lot of fun!  I probably bought more than I should have, but I'm really happy. :)

We shopped 'til we dropped and then we went back to the condo and ate junk food and scrapbooked until late into the night.  I was all jazzed to get a whole bunch of scrapbooking done, but we shopped way longer than I thought we would and I really got very little done.  Oh well, it was worth it.  Saturday morning we did a little bit more shopping, then stopped for lunch and headed home.  It was such a nice little getaway with friends!

On Saturday, I got a picture text from Bryan and the kids...he took them all up to Trappers' Loop to hike to Green Pond.  It was a beautiful day and they had a great time--even when Tess was out walking on the part of the pond that was ice-covered and her foot fell through the ice and down into about a foot of freezing cold mud!

(This is one of my favorite pictures ever.  Oh, how I love these four!)

What a great Daddy!