Blue & Gold Banquet

As the Primary Counselor over Scouting, I have been busy helping the Cub Master and Scout Leaders plan and prepare the Blue & Gold Banquet for our ward.  It has been fun getting the decorations together and then seeing the final product.  The theme for the banquet was "Scouting Around the World."  So we had a bunch on international flags and souvenirs from around the world as decorations.  I put together the centerpieces of international flags and the balloons shaped as worlds.  The primary president put together this cute photo booth for the evening as well:

My favorite part of the Blue & Gold Banquet was the decorated cakes the boys brought.  They were all pretty creative.  I felt like the whole evening was a success and I hope the Scouts and their families thought so too.  The spaghetti dinner was so good too.  

It is kind of sad that this will be the last Blue & Gold Banquet we will do as a church.  This is the last year the Church will be part of the Boy Scouts of America.  In 2020, the Church will start their own church sponsored "scouting" program.  I don't know what it will be called or what it will be like but I am sure it will be good.  Colby starts Scouts in March and is so excited.  He will only have a year in the program but it will be a fun year.

Soccer with RSL

The boys had a lot of fun this Saturday at their soccer clinic.  The clinic was put on by the South Cache soccer league at the Real Salt Lake's indoor soccer field.  Because it was at the RSL field, we got to meet some of the RSL Monarch's players as well as Leo the Lion, their mascot. 

It was cool to meet some professional soccer players and be coached by them a little bit.  The boys had a lot of fun with Leo the Lion though.

And he seemed to have a lot of fun with them.

As part of the clinic the kids went through different stations and practiced different soccer skills at each.  They dribbled the ball in between cones, kicked and blocked balls that were shot at them from the ball machine, and even practiced kicking goals.

The best station was when they got to go against Leo and try and get a goal passed him.  Even Emily tried her soccer skills on this station.  The lion was so good with the kids and tried his best to block their balls.  But due to their great soccer skills, they were able to get a goal.  Leo cheered them on and even gave them high fives after each goal.  He was really fun to watch and the kids loved him.

The kids have been so deprived this winter.  As we were leaving, Colby told me that he hadn't ran that hard and fast in a very long time.  He loved it!  We definitely need to get out and exercise more but it is hard with the snow.  Colby and Logan cannot wait for soccer to start in the Spring so they can finally get out and play.

Science Fairs and Valentine's Day

This week has been a busy week for us.  There were so many things going on at the school as well as it being Valentine's Day.  

This week was Leadership Week at the school and this year they were focusing on Leaders in Science.  Because of this, there were a lot of fun science nights and activities.  Monday was the STEM night put on by USU Science and Engineering Students.  The kids had a blast learning all about science and performing some fun experiments.  

During one activity they built rockets out of paper and then blasted them off using PVC pipe and an empty soda bottle.  I was amazed at how high the rockets flew just by stepping on the soda bottle!  Next we learned how to generate electricity using a windmill.  Each of the kids formed windmill blades out of paper plates and then hooked them up to the windmill to see who could generate the most wind and energy.  I think Colby won in our family by generating over 250 watts!  We also learned about drones, microscopes, and circuits.  The circuit activity was really cool because we got to build different circuits by following a plan.  Each circuit had a different function.  It was pretty fun.  Finally, we had the annual egg drop experiment.  This year we decided to really pack our egg safely by putting it in a loaf of homemade bread.  The egg was so cushioned that it did not even move when it was dropped.  Unfortunately, we did not win because our bread was heavier than some of the things other people used.  Oh well we still had fun.

On Tuesday night we participated in the school Science Fair.  This year all of the kids wanted to do a project so we did three different science fair projects.  Yeah it was a lot of work and we spent quite a lot of time on them but the kids learned a lot so it was worth it.

Emily's project was "How Does a Bruise Form and Heal?"  She decided to do this project because she had gotten a bruise recently and was wondering about it.  Then she noticed that the bruise changed color over time so she was even more curious.  She decided to do this for her Genius Hour project in school and then we converted it into a Science Fair project.  Russell was a big help with this because he knew all about this subject.  Emily did a great job on her PowerPoint presentation in class as well as describing her project to the Science Fair judges.

Colby's project was "How Does A Microscope Work?"  He decided to do this project because he was curious about how the microscope he got for Christmas worked.  He really loves looking at slides and objects under his microscope and wanted to know how this little tool made the objects he was seeing look so big.  He loved learning about this and especially liked looking at all of his different slides.

Finally, Logan's project was all about Dinosaurs.  He loves dinosaurs and learning the different names of all of the dinosaurs.  He had a good time reading books about dinosaurs and looking at the different pictures of dinosaurs.  His favorite dinosaur he said was the Pteranadon.  He was excited to tell the judges all he learned.

Each of the kids received a participation award.  There were a lot of good projects in the Science Fair.  Russell and I had a good time looking at all of them and learning about what the kids learned and did.

On Wednesday, there was a Leadership Assembly at the school.  This assembly was all about the Leader in Me Program.  Emily was part of the assembly as part of the Lighthouse Team.  She was demonstrating what the Service Team does at the school.  Then at the end, the choir and the entire school sang the school song.  It was pretty cool.  The Kindergarten even learned sign language to it and performed that.

During the assembly, the awards were given out to the Science Fair winners.

They didn't have first, second, or third place awards but they had People's Choice awards.  During the Science Fair, everyone there voted for five of their favorite projects.  Emily and Logan were lucky enough to win a People's Choice award!  Colby was kind of bummed for not winning but Emily and Logan happily shared their award with him and he felt better.  They are great brothers and sister.

Thursday was Valentine's Day!  

Russell had to work but he had these beautiful flowers sent to me.  I love them!  

Valentine's Day was a busy day at school too.  First I helped in Colby's class party.  I am sad that I didn't get any pictures but I was in charge of the party so I didn't have a chance to take any.   Thankfully though, one of the other moms did take a few pictures and shared them with me.  Unfortunately, neither Colby or I are in them... Oh well... The party was so fun.  

Instead of the typical party, we did something different.  First we decorated cookies, cut out hearts, and played a candy corn stack game.  Then we took the cookies and hearts and "Heart Attacked" the lunch ladies, the custodian, the office people, and Mrs. Nielsen (their teacher).  The kids had such a great time and they were so excited to surprise these people and tell them thank you for their service to the school.  It was also so fun to see the reactions on the people's faces.  You could tell that they loved it too.  The party was definitely a success.

Then it was time for Logan's class party.  This year they had a Valentine's Tea Party.  They also learned about manners.

Logan was definitely a ladies' man and had two dates to the Tea.  He was with Charlotte and Anna.  These two girls were so cute and so excited to be with Logan.  Our Charlotte also got to be part of the Tea Party but mostly she just wanted to eat the food.  She didn't care about manners...

At home we got to decorate Valentine cookies.  This is one of our favorite traditions.

Each of the kids' cookies turned out great but the best part of decorating cookies is eating them!

Charlotte was so funny.  While she was eating her cookie she noticed that she had a frosting mustache and said, "Mom! My mustache!"  Then she had to show me her muscles as well.  She is so funny.

After decoration the cookies, we took a plate to Russell at the Fire Station.  We spent the rest of the night with him until he got a call and had to leave.  He and his co-workers loved the cookies though.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy 6th Birthday, Logan!

Can you believe this handsome boy if 6 years old!

Logan turned 6 today and he was so excited for his birthday.  He kept telling all of his friends at kindergarten that he was 6 now.  They were all impressed!  While I was taking his 6 year old pictures, Charlotte had to join in and get her picture too.

Logan is such a good brother.  He is always willing to do anything his brother and sisters want to do.  He loves being involved and playing with others.  He is definitely the social one in the family.  He doesn't have one specific friend but he does have a lot of friends he likes to talk about and be with.  In Kindergarten his favorite friend is a girl named Daisy.  We tease him that she is his girlfriend but he says she is NOT!  Right now he loves dinosaurs, reading and playing the piano.  He is becoming quite a good little reader and is doing very well in school.  He is always willing to help his teacher do anything she needs him to do.  He likes to stay after school and help her clean her room.  He likes to do anything Colby does and they are good friends.

This year Logan wanted a Lego birthday.  Here he is with his birthday cake.

He loved the cake and I think it turned out good too.  We also got some yellow balloons and drew Lego men faces on them.

We played a lot of fun games at his birthday party.  All of his friends seemed to have a good time as well.  This year he invited, Lucy and Anna DeMonja, Blake Cox, Raegan Maxfield, Jayden Checketts, Colson Hall, Eliza and Nixon Halligan, and Deacon Christensen.  All of the kids got along pretty well after we told them to stop wrestling.  The first game we played was Lego Twister:

They had fun with this but they said it was really hard and too slippery with socks.  They also don't know lefts and rights so we just said foot and hand and let them choose.  It was pretty funny to watch them stretch and reach the different colored squares.

Another game we played was a Lego spoon race:

For some reason they did not really understand this game because they had a really hard time balancing the Lego's on the spoon as they ran to the other side of the room.  Oh well they still had fun running back and forth.

Next we made our own personalized Lego mini figures.  Each of the kids got a yellow paper mini figure and then decorated it with pants, shirts, dresses, hats, and stickers.

Each of the mini figures turned out really cute and they definitely reflected each of the kids' personalities.

Another game we played was "Pin the Lego Head on the Lego Body."

The kids were excited to play this game.  Right when they came to the party, they started asking when we were going to play that game.  Each of the kids were able to place their head on the poster and got so excited when someone got really close to the right spot.  

Finally it was present time!  This is definitely something all the kids looked forward to.   

Logan got a lot of fun presents from his friends.  Because it was a Lego party, most of the kids gave him some new Lego sets.  He also got a Bogey Board, new shoes and a shirt.   Logan loved everything he received.  Colby was also so happy for Logan to get some new Lego's.  I think he is hoping to "inherit" them after a few days...

Cake Time!!

Everyone crowded around Logan and sang "Happy Birthday" to him while he blew out the candles.  Then they all dug right into their cake and Play Dough ice cream.  It was a really fun party and Logan had a blast with all of his friends.  

Happy Birthday Logan!! We love you and can't believe how fast you are growing up!!