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.

And the Verdict Is......Guilty

She was guilty of participating in the Mock Trial competition.  For the past school year, Maddie's afternoon's have been consumed by Mock Trial.  You may not know what Mock Trial is, I didn't.  Even after she came home late from school for a month, I didn't know what it was.  When she came home excited that she had been upgraded from witness to a prosecutor lawyer, I was excited for her, but I still didn't know what it was.  She was worried about it, she fretted about it, she studied for it, and she worked at it.  I still didn't really know what it was!  Finally it was time for the competition.  As I do with most of my children's activities, I attended the competition, even though I still didn't really know what it was!  After the competition, I finally knew what it was.  I had been cheering Maddie on all along, but after I finally understood what it was, I was very impressed.
For Mock Trial, the team is given a case.  They have a defendant, witnesses, and experts.  Then they present their case, the defense and prosecution to a real judge at the real county courthouse.  Each school has a prosecution and a defense.  One school runs the prosecution and another runs the defense.  They are timed so the trial doesn't go on forever.  They are allowed to object, and must defend their objections.  It was very interesting.  It was much more difficult than I anticipated as the lawyers tried to find different ways to ask the same question in a different manner, or tried to calmly explain or defend their objection.  The witnesses tried to answer the questions that placed their side of the case in a pleasant light.  It was very entertaining.  I had not thought that much about it.  It was much different from the traditional sports competition, but no less entertaining.  I enjoyed seeing the teenagers striving to improve themselves and learn to act in a professional manner.  I am grateful that Maddie was in the Mock Trial competition, and I thought that she did great!!!

A comedy of errors

And one thing just led to another until we arrived at this!

 So last week we ran into a comedy of errors.  On Sunday, I filled up the trunk with my scrapbook stuff to return home from my annual week at the Balboa house.  It was quite tightly packed, but it all fit nicely in the trunk.  On Monday, I did not unload it because I wanted to leave the stuff in the garage for a few days, but wasn't sure where to put it.  Monday afternoon, I put the checkbook for the volleyball boosters in the backseat. About 20 minutes later, I tried to get the checkbook.  It wasn't where I put it, so I started to look around.  There was too much junk in the car, so I grabbed a grocery bag and stuffed it in the trunk.  I searched the car, but could not find the checkbook.  So then I thought there might have been a small possibility that it fell in the bag that I put in the trunk.  But when I tried to open the trunk, it wouldn't open!  It was stuck.  We couldn't get through the pass through from the backseat to open it because it was too full of stuff to move anything.  There wasn't anything else we could do, so we started pulling off bolts and took the entire backseat out of the car.  It worked I was able to remove all of my scrapbook things from the trunk, and found the bag.  I was right, the checkbook had fallen in the bag.  I was greatly relieved to have found it.  But Jeff was unable to fix the trunk for 2 days, so anytime I took the kids somewhere, they had to ride in a modified back seat!  We decided it was legal because there were still seatbelts, although I can't imagine it was comfortable!

Basketball

Gabe played in his last regular season basketball game on Saturday.  He has been playing in a rec center league for the Warriors.  We have enjoyed watching him throughout the season and see him improve. 

February....so far, so good

We have had two weeks of fun around our house.  Here are a few pictures of the highlights:
Mindy played in a volleyball tournament with some friends.  They won a few and lost a few, but had a great time playing all day!  We started around 9:00 and ended around 6:00.

 Maddie went to Winter Formal with a few of her girl friends.  She looked very pretty in her dress, and had a good time.

The entire family went to visit the Eichelbergers so that we could meet the newest member, Ethan.  He is one month old.  He is very cute and very good.  He reminded me a lot of Gabe as a baby.  He looks like a newborn, and acts like a newborn, but at 11 pounds, doesn't feel like a newborn! 

For Valentines Day, we gave the kids huge Hershey Kiss chocolates.  We also wrote about the things that we love on our "moments we love" hearts.  As an added treat, I made heart shaped pizza with cheese in the crust for dinner.  They were delicious.

Philicellphia

Allie loves her science class.  This week she had a science project.  She was required to make a cell city, factory, or basically some kind of metaphor that included all the working parts of a cell.  I thought it was a great idea to cement some of the ideas of cell function for the kids.  Since Gabe was studying the same thing in his science unit, they worked on it together.  The assignment was to make a poster, but Allie wanted to do a 3D model for extra credit.  The three of us had a great time working on the project together.  I do enjoy working with Allie on projects, she is so creative and does things that I wouldn't even think of doing.  She must have a bit of Jeff's engineering mind as well, because not only does she envision something, she also can devise a way to make it just like she wants it (it usually involves tape).  I hope that she does well on her project.