Sunday, September 28, 2014

Our Family: Week of 9/22-9/28

We had missed holding our annual Wilkins Family Summer Olympics during the kids' summer off time, but we didn't want to skip it this year.

So Monday during Family Home Evening, we headed to the park, on the very last day of summer, to sneak it in.


Adam held the previous trophy, and Grace surprised us all by winning!

We had a fantastic time, saying good-bye to summer and exercising at the park together.

***

On Tuesday, we switched gears and Toasted to Fall!

Josh and I busied ourselves during the day with decorating and making our traditional dinner: caramel apple pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin bars.










We talked about all the things we LOVE about fall and toasted our favorite season with sparkling cider.


***

On Wednesday we went the library, while we waited for Mike to be done with work.
.

Afterward, we raced home to get ready for Activity Days. We had a manners dinner, where we learned good manners while we ate a spaghetti dinner (and played some fun games).


It was a fun and crazy-busy evening.

***

On Thursday evening, Grace had her very first volleyball game!


She didn't score, but her team won all 3 sets, winning the game.


I LOVED her excitement and enthusiasm during the game, and the joy on her face as she hugged her teammates afterward when they won.


***

On Friday we were heading out to Adam's football practice with the boys I baby-sit, when it started to rain.

Adam still had football, and there was no way I could sit in the rain with all of those kiddos.

So we crashed the nearby McDonald's Playplace instead.


They all had a fun time while staying dry.


And just as practice finished, it started to crazy rain/hail.



It was awesome!

***

On Saturday, Mike had the day off.  He took Adam to his football game (they lost, but he had a fun time), and then came home to work on the yard.

Our bushes had grown to tree level, so he and the boys have been working on cutting them all down.



The bushes look much better.

Now to get them to bundle all of those bushes up for the garbage man...

;)

That evening I had the privilege of going with this sweet lady to the General Women's broadcast.


She did really well for 10 minutes, and then spent the remaining time asking me "How much longer is this?" every 5 minutes for the rest of the time.

Which made the time SUPER enjoyable for me.

;)

Luckily, our stake Relief Society presidency is super-smart.  They bought donuts from Donut Tyme, a nearby, small donut shop that makes insanely good donuts (even if their spelling stinks). When Grace walked in the cultural hall, and saw the table piled with hundreds of beautifully-arranged donuts, along with apple cider, she decided that her time was well spent after all, and can't wait to go again.

***

On Sunday after church, we worked on school projects.

I really want to get to a place where we don't do homework on Sundays.

But we aren't there yet.

Grace had a project due for her social studies class, where they are learning about economics.  She had to design and sell a product to the other students from her own store.

She went with cookies.

We spent the afternoon making cookies, business cards, and signs for her shop.


Adam had a project due on J.K. Rowling for his homeroom class.  He designed a timeline about her life, with a moving picture of her that went under it as he talked about her.  He also had to write a 2-page paper.


Next month we are doing these things earlier than the night before!

(I think).

;)

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Our Family: Week of 9/15-9/21

When Mike lost his second job back in June, any "extra" money went with it.

Which means our Cafe Rio days are long gone.

So, when I saw some free lunch passes being given away on Facebook, I jumped on that.


We had a fantastic lunch there on Monday... poor Adam and Grace missed out, being at school and all, but what they don't know, won't hurt them.

;)



It was insanely good.

And, in other news, Mr. Sam popped in some more teeth:



That evening, Josh was in charge of Family Home Evening, and he chose a short lesson with park play and making Grandma Hansom's popcorn balls as the treat.



They are his favorite...  both for the taste AND the fun-making factor.

***

Last Tuesday, I neglected to mention that Nevada Early Intervention had came and checked out Sam.  I wasn't worried, his doctor wasn't worried, but my good friend who works for them was a little worried.

Which made me worry a little afterall.

So I gave them a call.

Sam has really flexible hips, and goes from laying to sitting via the middle splits.  His hips are so flexible that he can't stay in the crawling position for long.

They came and checked him out, and he didn't qualify for help (yay!), but the physical therapist showed me some exercises to do with him to strengthen his hips.

We worked on them all week... and on Tuesday he crawled for the first time.



That cute thing is pretty proud of himself...

... and, well, we are all pretty proud of the sweet thing, too.

***

Sometimes I get a little sad about the huge age gap between my kiddos.

But, when you have your older ones begging to do things like feeding, rocking, and taking care of the younger ones, it makes up for it.

It warms my heart, I tell ya.



Love this big older brother.

And I think Sam's pretty much in love with him, too.

***

Thursday was filled with to-do lists, piano practices and lessons, little tooth-y smiles, and 11-year-old Scouts. Grace will soon have her volleyball games on Thursday evenings, so that's going to be busy (and fun).




 ***

On Friday we baby-sat in the morning, and then and headed out to football practice.

It's on the other side of town in the Summerlin area, so heading out is a whole ordeal.

Especially when you are bringing another 4-year-old + another baby with ya.





They all had a blast playing together, while Adam had a great time practicing football.






Afterward we were happy that we were on the other side of town so close to a Krispy Kreme (there aren't any on the east side), because it was "Talk Like a Pirate Day".  Some quick makeshift costumes ensued, and each kid claimed a dozen donuts (most of which we brought over to D.I. to spread some happiness among the employees).


***

On Saturday, Adam had his first flag football game.


He did a great job as Center, and they won.

That evening we had a ward party, complete with a kids cookie baking contest.


So we busied ourselves making 3 batches to take.

Grace took lemon sandwich cookies (and won a prize for "Bellybuster Cookies").


Josh made Rocky Road cookies, and won "Best Topped Cookie."


Adam was going to make the Andes mint cookies, but no Andes mints were to be found. So, he topped them with some Symphony bar pieces instead... he won "Most Chocolate-y."


We had a great time making (and sampling) them.

The ward party was a blast.  It was an outdoor picnic-themed party, and they had a lot of games, stilts for the kids, and fun activities.




***

Sunday was spent with meetings (for Mike), lessons taught by both of us, church attended by all, a family dinner, and games.

A nice end to a busy and fun-filled week.