Victory Ball

Maddie and Jayd headed off to the "Mormon Prom" last night.  Every year, our region hosts a prom for the LDS youth.  The requirements are a little more stringent than the school prom.  There are modest standards for the girls and boys.  The girls must have their dress checked by their Young Women leader prior to the dance.  Boys are required to wear suits or something appropriate for the dance (for example, this was a WWII theme, a couple of boys wore military uniforms).  They must have a date.  This year was a girls preference.  The girls were encouraged to ask the guys.  The price for the evening is very reasonable, less than $100 for dinner and the dance.  The dance is often at a nice location, this year it was at a WWII museum. 

The kids love it.  They all get together at a park before and take pictures, then go to the dance together.  They all mingle with their friends and have a great time.  The prom is gaining a reputation.  Many of the kids at school know about the Mormon prom.  They ask our kids questions about the prom and are excited for them to go.  This year, I know of two non-member girls that asked Mormon boys to the prom just so that they could go to it.  One of them even has a boyfriend.  I am so impressed with our youth, and grateful for this opportunity.  Not only are they able to have a fun, clean prom experience, it is turning into a great missionary tool for them.

 Maddie went with Ryan Blomquist.  Ryan has been a family friend for many years.  It was fun to see them going together to the prom.  Jayd went with Sarah Ribble.  She is a friend of Maddie's.  They had a nice time.

The Grotto

Easter Weekend we went for a family hike.  We were originally going to hike up to a nice view of the ocean, but the family took a vote and wanted to try going to "The Grotto" in the Santa Monica Mountains.  It was a lovely hike.  It went up and down through groves of trees until we finally arrived at the Grotto.  It was a portion of the creek that was crowded with large boulders.  After scrambling up and over several large boulders, we found a emerald green serene pool with an enormous boulder in the middle.  It was very pretty.  Allie and Gabe enjoyed exploring for a bit and climbing on the rocks before we headed back to the car.  It was a nice family time.

Easter Rises Again

Another year, another Easter.  This one was a little bittersweet, since we know that next year we will only have 3 children at home for the traditional easter egg hunt.  Gabe was enthusiatic to join in the ranks of Easter Bunny Helpers.  He was particularly interested in helping this year, since Maddie and Jayd have been helpers for him for years.  He wanted this last opportunity to assist so that his older siblings could be allowed the pleasure of the true hunt.  Even Toby joined the fun.

Sea World

Allie's Girl Scout troop has been trying to go to Seaworld for years.  This doesn't sound too difficult, but they wanted the girl scout sea world experience.  They wanted to spend the night there.  Sea World has packages for girl scouts where you can spend the night at the park in one of their animal habitats.  Allie's group was able to secure a night with the penguins.  Allie and her troop took the train down to Sea World on Friday morning.  They were admitted to the park and saw a few things, including feeding the manta rays, before settling in for the night.  They slept in the penguin habitat.  Allie said it was a little chilly, but I don't think that she minded.  She loves penguins and wore her penguin pajamas to prove it.  The next day, they had breakfast with Shamu.  Then they spent the day at the park before boarding the train to return home.  It was a wonderful experience, and I am very grateful to her leaders for making all of the arrangements.  It is very difficult to secure a reservation for these experiences, and they had the added difficulty of getting one on a Friday night so that Allie would be able to attend.  I am very grateful for their respectfulness towards our preferences.  Allie really enjoyed going with her troop.

Sweet and Savory Conference

Today is General Conference Sunday.  We love the semi-annual occurrence at our house.  We are able to sit in our home and listen to our prophets and apostles speak to us about the things we need to be doing.  Every year we make a conference pool, we try to guess which apostles will speak during which sessions.  We cheer when we get one right!  We take notes and enjoy being together.  But the very best part is conference cake.  Between the morning and afternoon session, we have a great brunch, filled with foods that we do not normally have in our house.  The star of the show is the conference cake.  It is basically a coffee cake that has been renamed and repurposed.  It is delicious and we love it.  A close runner up is bacon.  Since I do not enjoy really anything about bacon, I do not like to touch it, cook it, or even eat it, it rarely makes an appearance in my house.  So the Conference Sunday bacon is a very anticipated event.  We throw in a great batch of scrambled eggs and some orange juice to make our meal special.  We look forward to this meal every year where we can enjoy good food and talk about what we need to do to stay on the right path back to our Father in Heaven.

Spring Breaks our Backs

Every Spring Break I try to plan a few fun activities for our kids to go and do.  We don't usually travel during this week, but we will go on hikes, visit a museum, or go to the beach, just to get out of the house.  Some of my children have not been appreciative of these outings, claiming that they are not very much fun.  They would prefer to just stay at home.  Well, this week, we did just that.  We stayed at home and worked on a massive home improvement project.  We painted the family room a sage green color and my bedroom a cream color (yeah, the yellow is gone!), and moved all of the furniture out of two bedrooms and the family.  The furniture was moved to prepare for new carpet!  Maddie and Patrick were instrumental in assisting with the painting, and Jayd provided needed muscle for moving around the large furniture.  Until the carpet is completed (it should be done on Monday), we are living a little cramped in the rooms of the house, but we are finding ways to survive.  I asked the kids if they preferred just staying at home for the week.  Their answer,  "It was kind of boring, there wasn't a lot to do."  Jayd finally couldn't stand life without the TV, he brought one back in the house!

Ethan's Blessing

Last weekend, we attended the blessing of my newest nephew, Ethan.  I love Ethan, he cracks me up.  Since was born at nearly 10 lbs, he reminded me (size wise) of my own whopping big babies!  Ethan has not slowed down on his growth since birth at all.  His face looks like a newborn, and his movements and actions betray that he is a newborn, but the size is deceptive.  Every time I hold him or look at him, I am reminded of my Gabe, my really big baby!
We really enjoyed spending the day with my sister's family.  They have now left the state.  They have moved back to Colorado, so our visits with them will be limited from here on.  I have really enjoyed having a sister live close to me.  I will really miss them.