Egg Drop

This past week, we had a pretty busy week. Besides the usual activities, such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, school, work, and who knows what else, we also added field trips, school programs, the Pinewood Derby, and of course, the Kindergarten Egg drop! Oh, and Easter and all of the associated activities! Way too much for one Mom to coordinate. Thankfully the Dad jumped in and helped out.
When Emily brought home her paper about the Egg drop, she decided that since Cole's egg landed safely, she wanted to do the same thing he did. I wasn't entirely sure what we did for Cole, but I knew it somehow involved bubble wrap and a parachute. Since I couldn't find a small enough box, we went with bubble wrap around the egg in a Tupperware container.
Then, Emily decorated the container with markers, stickers, and jewels. It looked very much like an Emily project!
This was our finished masterpiece.
Not wanting it to get smashed or torn in her backpack, Emily carried it to school.
Since I was on a field trip with Cole's class, Chad came home over lunch to watch the big drop. Initially Chad and Emily thought our masterpiece was a failure because there was a loud pop as it landed. (The parachute got caught in tape and failed to deploy!) However, that was apparently just the packing bubbles popping that I had taped to the bottom at the last minute. The egg (and container) were safe.
Success!

Scripture Power

At the end of last year, our Stake Presidency challenged us to read the scriptures every day until our Stake Conference in February. We decided to take them up on this challenge. And at times, it was definitely a challenge!
On more than one occasion, we had a child in tears by the end of our scripture reading. This was usually due to not getting to read first or something major like that!
Tears also occasionally came because they got in trouble for playing with something and not sitting still and listening.
We also had to deal with the Kaitlyn factor, who if she wasn't crying, seemed to be yelling at the top of her lungs. Maybe she wanted a turn to read too!


Despite the tears, baby factor, and wiggly kids, we gave it our best effort and only ended up missing a day or two. (Although there were a few nights that Chad read to the kids while they were asleep because we forgot or we were gone. Hopefully they at least had sweet dreams on those nights!) Along the way we had a few memorable moments, like this one, that continue to keep us laughing! You've never heard the Allegory of the Olive Tree quite like this! Yet another reason why we love Addy!


At the same time, the Stake Presidency also challenged us to memorize a scripture before Stake Conference. The kids helped us pick one that they were at least familiar with and wanted to learn. Overall, I would say we were pretty successful. Addy didn't quite memorize all of it, but for a 3-year-old, I thought she did quite well.









Here's to hoping we can keep it up!

Kaitlyn in Motion

Kaitlyn has been working on crawling for several months now. She began with the Wish and Whine stage. This is where she looked at something that she wanted and wished she could get there. Since she couldn't move, she would lay there and whine until someone rescued her.



Kaitlyn's next stage was the Wiggle and Rest stage. Here she would try wiggling her body in hopes that it would get her somewhere. I guess the wiggling wore her out (or made her dizzy?), so every few seconds she has to rest.



Next Kaitlyn learned what we call the Bum Scoot. As she did this, I began to wonder if she would ever learn to crawl because she became a master at this. She sits and scoots her bum until she gets close to what she wants. Then she would usually lunge for it. If she missed, she would sit up and reangle her body and start scooting again. It was pretty humorous to watch.



Finally, Kaitlyn made it to a one legged crawl. At this stage, she would keep one leg up and crawl on her other leg. I'm not sure if she figured this out one day because she was trying to crawl in a dress, or if it was just something she randomly discovered and kept doing it because it was less work than the previous stage.



Now Kaitlyn is in a full-fledged crawl. Unfortunately, she is getting quicker and quicker, so nothing is safe any more. Eventually we will all remember to keep things picked up so she doesn't ruin anything more than she already has!



Kaitlyn is well on her way to walking. She can pull herself up on most anything and loves to walk while holding your fingers.
She can even balance with only one hand holding on!
Watch out siblings, she's only going to get faster!