Delicious Activity Days

Last week for Activity Days, we had a garden-themed activity. We started out planting a couple of seeds in cardboard egg cartons. Then we talked about the benefits of gardening. We rounded out the activity by making Chocolate Fondue and dipping strawberries in it. Even though it would have tasted better if the strawberries were home-grown, it was still delicious!

Guess which part of the night the girls liked the best?

Basketball Champs

Jonathon played basketball on our ward's young men's team this year. The season didn't start out all that great, but by the time the tournament started, they were doing pretty well. In fact, Jonathon's team ended up winning the championship on March 14th. Go YM!!

Here are a few pictures of the game:

Here are some fans:

Nathaniel, Jewel, and Katie

Needless to say, our Saturdays during the months of January, February, and half of March were pretty busy! Jonathon seemed to really enjoy it, though. In fact, right after the season was over, he started asking Michael and me to buy needles so that he could re-inflate Michael's and his basketballs. Once he inflated them, he was outside shooting baskets in our basketball hoop for the first couple of days (not so much since). I'm glad because the hoop has been sorely neglected for the past couple of years! Hopefully, he and Christian will practice since both of them will be playing next year!

Learning Experiences

There are a few things that I have learned from being a mother:

1. Turn off the kitchen tap before doing anything else.

2. When the kitchen sink overflows, you are already halfway to having cleaner counters and floor.

3. Make sure the toilet seat is down and clean and that there is toilet paper before using the bathroom.

4. It takes a long time for kids to find more toilet paper and too much yelling on the parent's part.

5. Put away everything before doing something else because the kids will find it and make a mess.

6. There is usually no time to put away whatever you are doing because someone needs you RIGHT NOW!

7. Don't put drinks on top of your TV or anything else electronic.

8. Hide the cable card or your kids will.

9. Change poopy diapers immediately.

10. If you ask your child if he or she has a poopy diaper and he or she says "no", check anyway.

11. Keep a roll of paper towels in arm's reach from the table.

12. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes make clean-up easy when potty-training a child.

13. Kids are expensive: not only are there the regular expenses, like diapers and college, but also the expense of replacing things that get ruined one way or another.

14. Kids are very forgiving, teachable, and loving. There's a reason that the Lord told us to become like little children.

I've learned these things over and over again...maybe eventually I'll remember them.

Nabbed in Nijmegan

Apparently the police in the Netherlands are very sophisticated. Or at least their radar equipment is. I went in to work yesterday to find that I had not 1, not 2, but 3 speeding tickets from my weekend jaunt with my rental car while I was in Europe. It appears that I got caught in a locally recognized speed trap, all 3 tickets were on the exact same 1 mile stretch of road that leads into and out of the lovely town of Nijmegan (pronounced nye-MAY-GUN). One ticket was going to Church on Sunday morning and the other was coming back from Church that same afternoon.

I didn't know about the tickets because I wasn't pulled over, there are cameras with radar detectors along this road. The equipment found me going too fast, took pictures and tracked my car back to the rental agency and ultimately to me. Scary!

The worst offense was 14 kilometers over the speed limit, which is 8.75 miles too fast. My other offenses were 9 kilometers (5.6 miles)and 4 kilometers (2.75 miles) too fast. Now I find myself about 150 euros (almost $200) poorer as a result. An expensive trip to Church to say the least.

I think I'll be sticking to the train going forward.

Zzzzzzzzz...

On Saturday, Timmy fell asleep on the stage at the church while we were watching Jonathon's basketball game.

Last night, Katie fell asleep in her chair again...

A Clean Bedroom

At the beginning of February, I told the kids that if they kept their bedrooms clean until St. Patrick's Day (roughly six weeks), I would give them each a Webkinz. All of their rooms were clean, so they were starting with a "clean slate".

Over the past six weeks, Jonathon and Christian have, for the most part, kept their room clean. Eliza and Katie's room and Nathaniel and Timmy's room are a different story. They have had a messy room since mid-February. It was mostly clothes and some toys. It's not hard to keep clean if they would just put their clothes in the hamper!

Anyway, last night after family home evening, everyone went to bed. I came down into the family room to play with Katie and have a little "down time". I thought I heard a "mouse" upstairs, but since it wasn't very loud and there was no talking, I didn't worry about it. I found out this morning what it was when I went to wake up Nathaniel. I wished him a "Happy St. Patrick's Day" and he asked me what I thought, gesturing to his room. It was very clean! I guess he had hoped if he cleaned his room at the 11th hour (almost literally), he would still get his Webkinz.

Anyway, his six week effort starts today and hopefully he will keep his room clean the whole time. He never ceases to amaze me. There are times that he is the most helpful and determined child!

Snow Day

I grew up in Arizona where there is no such thing as a snow day. The only time we had an emergency closing was when it rained so hard that the schools were worried about flooding. They had a good reason. On the bus ride home, we went over a bridge that was usually about 20 feet above a small creek only about a foot deep. That day, the river was only about a foot below the bridge! I have seen it when it actually went over the bridge...crazy!

But here in New Jersey, the township builds three extra days in the school year to "plan" for the days that it snows over three inches. That's when they close the school... They've also started a new program that we get an automated phone call for emergency closings. We got a call last night at 11 p.m. They don't seem to mind calling at weird hours since it's automated. But I was grateful that they didn't disturb my sleep at 5 a.m. again and that I knew that I could turn off my alarm BEFORE I went to bed.

Having a snow day is like getting a surprise vacation day. I got to sleep in until 8:15 and made a nice breakfast for the kids. Then they went outside to play in the snow. By the time I was ready to go outside, Christian was already back inside (that was nice, then he could watch Katie for me). I grabbed a shovel and shoveled snow for an hour and a half. I guess that's what happens if you have a wide driveway, you get almost no help ( Jonathon cleaned half of the car before he froze), and there's four inches of snow on the ground...

Michael came home from work at 2:30, dropped Jonathon off at his dentist appointment and took Christian and Eliza to the high school to go sledding. I picked Jonathon up and met him there so that Nathaniel and Jonathon could go too. After about half an hour, we headed to Wawa and grabbed hot chocolate and donuts.

All I can say is, "Hooray for Snow Days!" - especially if Michael is around to enjoy them with us!