Tres Rios

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Saturday March 5th we went to the Tres Rios festival. We saw a lot of reptiles and birds. The boys went in a canoe. The kids made kites and walking sticks. It was a very windy day, but otherwise very beautiful.

Sand Play

Sometimes we are lucky enough to have a play date with the Wrights (and yes, I've seen Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I know it should be called 'hanging out') These boys played and dug and had a fantastic time getting dirty together. I know some moms worry about getting muddy and dirty. Not me. They won't be able to, nor want to dig in the dirt forever. Let them get filthy; they wash.
As a side note of parenting, I went shopping with my 3 children the other day. It was chaos. But I know we brought a few smiles to the other patrons. It seems that a child's true character comes out at the grocery store, so I got to fully enjoy them each at their prime. Oh, well, one day I'll be an empty nester and shopping will be too easy. I'd like to see someone else shopping with a 'Ryan' to bring me a smile.

Alex's 8th bday

Alex had his birthday party last Saturday. It was a basketball theme; he chose the Suns colors for decorating.
Thank you Amie for teaching me the 'star technique'. I think these turned out very nice.

Kids jumping on the tramp'.
Alex won the slam dunk contest and a game of PIG.

Dinner of hot dogs and chips.
'Happy Birthday to you, cha cha cha' The cha cha cha must be at all schools now, seeing as how Trey from Peoria and the kids from Alex's school all knew to do it. Alex was given many great gifts. Thank you friends! However, there was a general shout and cheer for the CHESS set Alex got. No lie, these boys chose to play chess instead of the Wii at the end of the party. Ah, I am so glad that my son is a geek and has geeky friends to be with.

If you are curious, Billy won with a king and queen and Alex having only a king left.

Trudging along

Last week we were one sick household. Alex ended up having Bronchitis which kept him from school 4 days last week. June came down to be with us since I was too sick to take care of the kids and Dan was out of town.
Yesterday we were feeling back to normal so the kids and I went to the East Valley. We went to the Scout Shop and got Alex set up with his cub scout gear. We then went and got Alex's new scriptures and had them engraved for his baptism. We spent some time wandering around the temple grounds, just feeling the love.


My kids are still a bit on edge and moody from last weeks extended 'vacation'. We have had lots of crying, pouting, and even down right stubborness (Alex refused to go to school today, but I dragged him to his classroom: literally! He said, "I do not think I should have to go to school today because you are forcing me.") I'm mean, it is true, but I'm a mom and some times you've got to be tough (even if at heart you are sickened by it!)

Hard Things

I went to a Scout Leader training on Saturday. The guest speaker from LDS-BSA relations gave a lecture on the 'Why' of scouts as the activity arm of the priesthood. He gave the statistic that in 1997 4% of missionaries were sent home early from their missions and in 2007 it went up to 7%. When Elder Perry was asked why this was he said something like, 'It is because we have not trained our boys to do hard things.'
I've been thinking a lot about that. Are we looking for the easy answer, the easy way out of living life? Are our boys being asked to do hard things? Certainly city boys have always had it easier as far as work goes, but now it is even easier to be a city boy. You don't have to walk/ride your bike to school/friends/sports... your mom carpools. You don't have to have a person to person confrontation... you can IM or text. Everything that has to be done has a YouTube video or a starter kit... you don't learn much by trial and error any more. Even reading has become easier. Our boys use the scripture readers from the church, which are great tools, but they aren't learning to read the scriptures and make them come alive from just text. And this is huge at our house, you have easy entertainment right at your fingertips... you don't have to work to 'have a good time.' You can just flip a switch (which, I realize most folks don't flip any switches anymore, but press a button), and voila, you are numbed by flashing lights. In fact yesterday I was assessing what Alex needed to do after dinner, which consisted of chores, homework, reading, and piano practice. Mind you, this was after an entire day, minus church, where he all he did was entertain himself. He said to me, 'I don't want to do any of that. I just want to play and do fun stuff.' I asked Dan, 'Did I miss the manual that said life was supposed to be fun 24/7?' Boy, my young men have a rude awakening coming to them. Ah, if only their mom didn't care so much (and have a Scout calling!) Life is about to flip directions around here. We are going to do hard things together so my boys will be able to build their character in anticipation of whatever the Lord sees fit to ask them to do. And we are going to learn to entertain ourselves. I've said before I want my boys to be bored. That is about to be brought to an all new level. (Out of love, of course :))

On to February

This morning the kids are playing very nicely. I like having 11am church because there is little rush; we've got lots of time. However, once the boys get into play mode they are hard to switch back. I know I should get them up, showered, fed and dressed before they play but it is hard to be so productive with so much free time.
Alex is still playing football. He is taking piano lessons and preparing for his birthday/baptism. We've got some planning to do. Also, he'll be a cub scout and his first event is the pinewood derby! I have already ordered the awards for the event. I am very excited to get this event pulled together.
We also have nursery to look forward to at the end of the month for Macey. I may ask for an early entry date since I'll be teaching the Sunbeams and Dan will be gone again. Speaking of callings... I am now down to two, Scouts and Sunbeams, which is the 3 year old Sunday School class if you don't know.
I don't have much else to report or any pictures to post, but I thought I'd put a little update up nonetheless.