Enjoying the sweetness of service

In preparation for taking the young women of our ward on a four-day temple trip this fall we have set year-long goals for all of us which include activities on such things as family history, temple marriage, worthiness, fund raising, and service. On Wednesday we went to an adult day-care facility for developmentally disabled adults to give hand massages and manicures. This first picture was taken before we left the church.

Chase's yoga teacher, Miss Nancy, helped us organize the activity - she is SO wonderful! Upon arriving she showed all of us how to give a hand massage on hands that may be more sensitive than typical.

What we learned? There is nothing like the power of touch. Nancy commented to me that often we bring youth into a facility such as a nursing home and have them read to the residents or sing to them or bring them treats but when you physically touch someone there is a connection of caring and love. Some of our girls walked into this activity feeling a little nervous from not knowing what to expect but all recognized the Spirit that was felt and requested to return again! I think we all made new friends that day.
We sang them an impromptu song before we left:

Thursday I was able to attend a session at the temple. Austin went with me and enjoyed the visitors center while I was inside the temple. It was nice to be able to go. Although temple service benefits others, how amazing it is that it benefits us also!
Friday night the young women got together to paint beads they will exchange with girls they do not know at camp this summer. They are each painting 30 identical beads that represent themselves (molly painted a musical note on hers, mine so far are only base coated green since it is my favorite color. I still need to put on a design that represents me) and they will seek out girls they do not know and can present them with a bead to make a new friend. I am excited about this fun form of service.

swimming pool season

We bought a swimming pool!
Here are some pictures while it is getting filled with water...


The boys were in playing even before it was completely full of water, here are some pictures with just a bit of water...

Now it is completely full and everyone is having a great time cooling off.

Family Fun Day

Every year the community we live in hosts Family Fun Day at the local park. Local businesses, schools, hospitals, churches all come together for a day of fun and everything is free! Free food, drinks, bounce houses and activities = a fun family day!
Reid and Chase both were fitted and given free bicycle helmets.

We stopped and enjoyed free hamburgers, watermelon and snowcones.

Our ward had a booth representing the Church. Here are the missionaries spreading the message of the gospel.

Our ward mission leader was able to borrow this display from the mission office.

I made a simple scrapbook on Family Home Evening. Different families submitted pictures of their activities they do for FHE. Apparently it was a great conversation starter - hurray! The booth seemed to be a success, the missionaries received two firm referrals and handed out about a half dozen Book of Mormons!

Last day of elementary school...

On the last day of the school year Chase and Ryan got the opportunity to meet their teachers for next year. Chase is very excited to have the same teacher Reid had this year, Mrs. S., We love her!

Ryan and I both met his new teacher for first grade for the first time - I do not know her but she comes highly recommended and I'm sure he'll do well. Ryan was very shy while meeting her but really liked her classroom. Actually this following picture is a pretty honest look at Ryan's behavior when he is feeling shy.

The kids had a half day so I took them with a bunch of friends to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch. They had a great time playing with their buddies and earning tickets to earn some priceless plastic toys. :)



Welcome summer!

Ryan's kindergarten graduation!

Ryan had his kindergarten graduation ceremony on Thursday night!
He was very nervous about performing in front of so many people (about 400!) as this was the first year the school combined the ceremony so all kindergarten classes had their ceremony together.
These pictures were taken in the classroom before heading to the multi-purpose room. Hurray, he wore the hat!


This picture is dark but it is the only one we have of the principal handing Ryan his scroll.

During the ceremony the kindergarten students (about 80) performed eight different songs. Ryan did not sing any of them but he stayed up there and stood still during the entire thing so we are very proud of him!
Here he is following the ceremony (love the happy smile!):

And with his friend Phoenix, who was in his same class, and with one of his graduation gifts we gave him, a stuffed puppy:

Congratulations Ryan - we know you will do great in first grade!

Reid's fifth grade promotion, teacher gifts

Reid had his fifth grade promotion ceremony yesterday morning. It was the elementary schools first time to have a actual ceremony for the kids before they go to middle school. It was a nice program and they kept it about an hour which is even more nice. They had each of the teachers say a few words and then had two kids from each class read a short story of their Mesquite memories then they read each child's name by class as they shook the principals hand as she handed them a scroll. Afterwards parents were able to visit in the classrooms.

Hard to believe we moved to Tucson when this guy had six weeks left of kindergarten and now he's moving on to middle school.

I bought Reid this Star Wars, The Clone Wars movie as a "great job with your grades this year-it's almost summer-you can share this with your brothers" gift. He loved it so much he gave me a huge hug all on his own!
Tomorrow is the last day of school for the elementary kids (today is the last day for high school!) so I spent the morning putting the finishing touches on some teacher gifts. We're keeping it simple this year. I went to Target and bought some flowers and candy (very original I know)... I added some tissue paper around the base of the flowers and added a picture, attaching it onto a dowel. I think the most important thing is the handwritten card or note. I so appreciate the teachers my children have and want them to know that and I feel the best way to do that is with the written word. Ryan had four teachers to buy for (one teacher, one speech teacher, two aides), Reid had one teacher, Chase had two (teacher and inclusion specialist), Molly wanted to get a gift for her choir teacher and I gave gifts to the bus driver, the principal and the volunteer coordinator because I like 'em!



Today was planned to be 'beach day' at the elementary school. Normally the fire truck comes and sprays down the kids but it has been raining here all morning so I'm thinking there will not be a water day today. The rain feels wonderful however, I hope it sticks around.

Young Women activities

There were quite a few young women activities this weekend.
On Saturday the young women from our ward held a yard sale/bake sale to benefit their Fall four day temple trip. We had enough donations to have the yard sale at two different locations (homes of sisters on the YW board). We began at 6 a.m. and went until noon (it was SO hot outside!) and ended up almost doubling our goal! We needed to earn $1200 to $1500 and ended up earning $2740! The extra money will really come in handy since we have recently gained an additional four young women. The girls all worked so hard on the yard sale, I am very proud of them for the endless hours they put into collecting things, making signs to advertise the sale, pricing and sorting items, and then selling all the things.
Saturday night I spent writing a sacrament meeting talk for church Sunday. The topic was from the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet out of the sections on family and friends. I felt the talk went o.k. (it was too long though I admit). I spoke mostly to the youth of the ward and I guess I had a lot to say. Saturday I also completed putting the finishing touches on everything for the YCL Devotional meeting that I was in charge of Sunday night. Our camp theme is Bloom Where You're Planted. Here's the four head YCL's with their YCL leaders:

The front of the room:


"Bloom" candies...

I gave out a quote for part of my devotional that talked about butterflies (don't we all want beautiful butterflies in our blooming gardens) and the butterflies potential to become more than most of us dare dream.

I am really getting excited about girls camp! I so love my calling as a YCL leader.
After the devotional James, Austin and I attended seminary graduation. I had never attended one before. It was a nice program and I'm excited that Austin will be a part of it next year!

Fifth grade musical, a box of twinkies

Reid performed in the the fifth grade musical on Thursday at the elementary school. They performed High School Musical 3! He did a great job with all the songs. I think Reid is looking forward to graduating from elementary school and moving on to middle school. We went on Tuesday to the middle school to hear all about the policies and procedures (yes, we've been through it all before but this is the first time for Reid) and to meet the teaching teams (all the sixth grade teachers are new since Molly was there). I am thrilled that there are so many families within our ward with incoming sixth grade students, all blending from local elementary schools into the one middle school.


O.K. so I bought my first box of Twinkies so I just have to blog about it. :)
The young man bagging my groceries commented to me how lucky my kids were that I bought them the Twinkies and how he would eat one every day after football practice in high school. I was telling him and the cashier that our kids actually had never had Twinkies before and I was hoping they liked them. They couldn't believe it, telling me I deserved a great mom award for not buying my kids stuff like that - afterwards of course I told them my kids have been exposed to plenty of snacks just not Twinkies. So how did they like them? Ryan gives Twinkies a thumbs down and Chase gives them a thumbs up (two a day if he can get away with it!) and Reid has yet to even try them...

Mother's Day

We had a nice Mother's day. I mailed these off to my mom and (hurray!) they arrived on time and she liked them! Love you mom!

James gave me a dozen long stemmed roses - I always try to prolong the life of flowers - these are over a week old but I still find beauty in them. James also gave me a gorgeous tall glass vase, an electric blanket (some may say too practical but I say he does love me - I have wanted one for years! I am always so cold when going to bed) and a food slicer (which I must admit scares me - it's a bit intimidating). The best part of the day was he made dinner with all my favorites: salmon, brown rice, squash, corn on the cob and strawberries with angel food cake for dessert!

My favorite thing about Mother's day is the handmade cards and gifts from the kids. I treasure each and every one!
I already posted what Austin and Molly made for me. Reid made me this pop-up card all on his own. I love that he has picked up a little craftiness in his personality! I also love the sentiments he included. What mom doesn't enjoy a compliment from their 11 year old son?

Chase made me these tissue paper flowers and vase. I love them and told him he needs to teach me how to make them! They would be fun to make for girls camp for our "Bloom where you're planted" theme.

Ryan made me this picture holder telling me "It's a butterfly mom!" I've since added a picture of him on it's wings and have it by my laptop.

Ryan also gave me this butterfly card...

and I had to laugh at the sentiments he had his teacher write....Oh yes, I so love to cook and clean! lol...

choir activities, seminary celebrates mother's day

Last Wednesday Molly had her final choir concert for her freshman year. They held it at the new Vail performing arts theater. She is excited that she is signed up to participate in two choirs next year, concert choir and show choir.

Last Friday the seminary classes combined together and hosted a early morning breakfast in honor of all the seminary students moms for mothers day. They really hosted a wonderful event with delicious breakfast and good conversation. They had the mothers share with the teens things like our first car (Toyota Corolla) and the first concert we attended(I'm thinking it was the Scorpions or Ozzy Osbourne but I had to say a disclaimer that in that same year I also saw Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn and Alabama, I have always had a broad range of musical interest!).

Molly gave me this puzzle she made for me in her seminary class - I love it!

Austin gave me this scripture bookmark he made for me. I have ALWAYS wanted one and I came right home and put it inside my scriptures!

On Saturday we went as a family to Molly's choir banquet. It was a potluck at the high school. They recognized all the hard work the students have put into their performances throughout the year. It was a nice event.

Lots of more school activities coming up in the next couple weeks as we wind down the school year...

bowling, orchestra, band banquet, mulan (oh my!)

Last Thursday Reid got to go bowling with his scout group as a reward for passing off so many merit badge requirements. I bowled in a lane next to them and it's a good thing I didn't bowl against them because I stink at bowling! I would have had a bunch of eleven year olds teasing me shamelessly.

Reid with a neighbor, good friend and fellow scouter...

On Friday Reid and Chase went on a field trip for school to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. They got extra credit from their music teacher if they wore collared shirts and ties.

Friday night Molly and I went to the high school with Austin to celebrate another successful year of high school band at the annual band banquet.

Austin received his "C" letter for his participation in band.

It was a fun night. They catered the meal (pasta and salad with desserts), had a program (our table had a little too much fun cheering for people) and slide show.

On Saturday night Molly and I attended the local middle school's musical theater production of Mulan Jr. It was great to see so many of the youth from our ward in the performance and involved backstage.