Fathers and Sons outing

Phil finally e-mailed me the pictures from their campout last weekend. They had an amazing time fishing, playing laser-tag, riding in a boat on the small lake/large pond, making s'mores, and just being boys. They came back dirty and tired--which proves just how great of a time they had!

Build-a-Bear

On Friday night, Suzanna, Tylyer and I went to the Build-a-Bear store so that Anna could build her dream bear. Phil and the older boys were away at the father and sons outing (which I will hopefully have pictures for soon--whenever Phil has a moment to spare at work and can e-mail me them from his camera phone).

Both Anna and Tyler had a blast at the store, and I was impressed that Suzanna made her decisions so easily considering all of the options. It's a good thing she's impulsive or we'd have been in there for HOURS. I could not believe the millions of fun outfits they had.

We also had fun going out to eat at Panda Express, playing at the mall, and staying up late watching High School Musical 2 and eating ice cream. I think this was our best "girls night" yet while the boys were away!

Spirit Week

Last week at school the kids had spirit week. They dressed up in crazy hats, had crazy hair, went to school in their pajamas, and dressed up for their future careers as a teacher and a race car driver. I only have pictures of the crazy hair day, though, because we always ran out of time before they had to catch their ride to school. They wish every week was spirit week (especially because they didn't have to wear their uniforms most days), but I'm glad the stress of dressing them up every day is over!

You know your dad's a civil engineer when...

...you do your science project about roads.

We found this yummy project online and decided to try it out for Brendon's science project last week. Phil was our resident expert about asphalt, and Brendon and I made some fabulous no-bake cookies in the shape of roads. We discovered that no-bake cookies are even better when you add coconut and walnuts instead of just oats. No surprise there! And hopefully Brendon learned a lot about asphalt and roads along the way, too.

Mother's Day

I woke up this morning to my awesome family fixing me breakfast. Suzanna made the orange juice,

Brendon and Phil took care of the strawberries and waffles,

Tyler was more of an observer, but helped by "watching" over the waffle batter,

and Jonathan picked out the plates and cups--notice my "kid" plate since he isn't tall enough to reach the "adult" plates. But he did find me a glass cup in the dishwasher for my OJ =)

All of the kids made cards for me at school. Jonathan's card used to have flowers made from suckers in the pot, but he gave it to me on Thursday right after preschool so that we could "share" the suckers right away.

It was so fun to wake up to them all working happily together! What a great Mother's Day!

sad news

On Tuesday night, my dear friend Bethany called to tell me that her husband had been killed in a car accident. I have been so incredibly sad for her this week, and her tradgedy hasn't left my mind over the last few days. It feels a little weird sharing this on my blog, but I know that Bethany wants us all to remember what an amazing man he was, and how happy he made her. I can't believe that this has happened my friend. I can't even begin to put into words who he was--there are some news stories on azcentral.com that do better justice to that. All I know is that he made her so happy because he was an amazing person, husband and father, and that I hope I will know how to help her in the hard times that are ahead.
Here's a link to the news story about it all:


http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2008/05/06/20080506cr-fatal0507.html

Band Concert

Brendon had his Spring band concert last Tuesday. He had a solo and did an AWESOME job! Of course, I couldn't get any good pictures during the concert because of lighting issues, and he'd already put his instrument away before I could catch him afterwords. But this way you all can see the case he has to lug to school a couple times a week =) We're so proud of Brendon and all the hard work he's put into learning to play the trumpet this year. And yes, that's Suzanna posing in the background. It's a hard thing around here to get just ONE kid in the picture. My kids certainly aren't camera shy!

Brendon wants to see the stars

Its too bad his telescope is only made of tinker toys!

He's recently been wishing for a REAL telescope, but in the meantime he designed and built a few for himself. I love his creativity!

Finished

Ever since the movie for Bridge to Terabithia came out (forever ago!), I've been wanting to read the book to my kids. I remember reading it as a kid--I think it was the first novel we were assigned to read on our own in elementary school, and I remember really loving it. Anyway, I've been waiting until Suzanna was a little older, but I finally decided it was time to get it at the Library. School nights have been busy with little time to read at bedtime--especially when Phil doesn't get home until late since he's commuting to Mesa now, so the kids have even been asking me to get up early so they could read before school. Then last night we had a little time to read. We came to the chapter when Leslie dies, and Brendon and Suzanna begged me to keep reading until the end. They got to bed a little late, and thought their mom was a little crazy when she cried at the end, but we finished! Now they can finally watch the movie (I've been making them wait until we read it). Jonathan has even been listening and tolerating all the time spent on the book--but always asking if we're almost done so we can go get the movie =)