Ethan took 2nd place in School Spelling Bee!

Last week Ethan took second in his school spelling bee. He first won in his 4th grade class last month. Then the school competition combined all 4th and 5th grade class winners. So Ethan actually beat all the other 4th graders and all but the one 5th grader who won.

Sell your car with an online video

I heard about this web site were you can sell your vehicle by posting a video. It lets you create a listing for free, post a video and post pictures. It also has an option to post the ad to Craigslist. Check it out: hotswap.com

Samantha has Guts!

Samantha is not usually the brave one when it comes to theme park rides. But today, she was unstoppable. She was not going to let Ethan show her up...again. Ethan will go on any ride and Sam wasn't afraid to try this one, at least once. She already went on a spinning ride (twice) that she skipped last year...and when I went on it, I almost puked. So we came to the ride that is a four-story straight drop. Without flinching Sam looked up and quickly followed Ethan up the stairs. She buckled in and was showing no fear. The ride slowly ascended and then suddenly it dropped! I wish my camera was faster because her face was priceless. She walked down the stairs and says "that was not what I expected!" All-in-all she only skipped one ride that Ethan went on...and you don't see me on it either.

Samantha's part in 3rd grade play

Sam had a one-liner in her play. I posted the whole scene she was in. Her part starts about 2:40 into the video.

Cub Scout Hike on Hieroglyphic Trail

Yesterday the kids and I went on a great hike with our Cub Scout Pack. Samantha even decided to go and toughed it out the whole way.


The trail was rocky and led up to a small canyon. Once we were in the canyon, there was a big rock wall were a bunch of hieroglyphs.


This shot was on a rock on the near side of the canyon. The kids were freaked out by a large swarm of bees down by a stagnant stream. So we couldn't get too close to the large wall of hieroglyphs. A huge wasp landed on Ethan's sandwich and he jumped while throwing the sandwich off into a bush.

All in all, it was a great hike.

More pictures here: Cub Scout Hike 10-27

Found a New Church

My Mom and ex-mother-in-law were in town this week. We decided to go to church down the street, Church of Celebration. It was another church in a school and I wasn't looking forward to it. But, I was actually surprised. The music was great, the pastor was funny, interesting and he read from the Bible. The kids had fun in C-City (Sunday School), they were even talking about what they learned.

I check out the Statement of Faith and it seems pretty straight forward. From my past experience with hunting for a new church, that is not always the only guide. Hank Hanegraaff's Christian Research Institute has a great article about finding a good church. I will be using prayer and this kind of information before deciding where my kids and I will go to church.

Painted kid's rooms...with stripes!

This "weekend" project turned into three straight days and three evening after work. Ethan's was easier with only three stripes.



Samantha's room was a different story. I spent most of the first day measuring and taping the vertical stripes.


The kid's love their rooms and the time was well worth it.

Heart Warming Research Study

And surprisingly it's by MTV!

A quote from the study:
"Parents are seen as an overwhelmingly positive influence in the lives of most young people. Remarkably, nearly half of respondents mention at least one of their parents as a hero. When asked "What one thing in life makes you most happy?" 46 percent of respondents say spending time with friends, family and loved ones."

Being in my mid-thirty's and having a big family, I would echo this sentiment now. But I think some parents can get discouraged by our kids attitudes and where they choose to spend their time. I know when I was a teen that quote was true for me, but I would have never told anyone. So if you have family time now, keep it up! If not, start scheduling it, and yes your teenagers might complain. But they will appreciate it later in life.

Here is the entire research study: MTV AND THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RELEASE LANDMARK STUDY OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND HAPPINESS

Family Vacation to Lake of the Woods Resort

What a great trip! I am SO glad the kids and I were able to make it to Oregon for the week. Thanks to Sheri for planning the trip far ahead of time so we could all make it. Here's some pics.

Mom really wanted a smores!


We took a drive up to Crater Lake, it was gorgeous!


We rented pontoon boats and drove around the lake a few times. Ethan even got to drive.


We spent a lot of time at a rocky beach on the lake. Samantha is getting some sun.


Andrew being goofy.


Some of the boys hanging out.


Sheri's family


David's kids


Jenny and Andi



And in case anyone wants to visit Lake of the Woods. Just because a cabin can sleep nine people, that doesn't mean they will sleep comfortably.

Sammy finally got her hammy!

Samantha saved up her money and bought the cage and all the supplies around her birthday. Three weeks later, after our trip to Oregon, we went to pick out her new hamster.

Summer Break sleepovers. Boys were mostly calm, girls were not!

Friday night my nine year old son had a friend sleepover. They were a little rambunctious, but overall they were calm. My daughter had her eight year old friend over on Saturday....WOW! That was an experience.

This picture was taken at 9:30PM.














They had just been running around and were still wound up. That was after a long day and 3 1/2 hours at the pool in 105 degree heat. I finally made them lay down to watch a movie. The friend was still awake at 10:30 and wanted another movie.

Overall it was a great summer weekend spent with the kids and their friends.

Summer fun at the pool

Sam is sorting!

My kids can sure save me a lot of time....well, sometimes. I would have spent two hours going through these drawers. Samanth volunteered to sort the stuff. One pile was stuff the kids haven't touched in a long time and the other was stuff she wanted. The stuff she kept filled only half of one drawer.

We did a cool project this weekend

We started with plaster-of-paris and plastic molds. The kids pressed their prints into the plaster. After they dried we painted and sealed them. Then we glued on mosaic tiles around the edges. On Samantha's we used to mosaic tile grout to finalize the hand prints.

No dragonflies!

We took a long drive out in the desert to go to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Who would have thought you could grow a huge garden in the desert. The trip was supposed to be for scouts, but that fell through. We were also there to go on a "Dragonfly walk" but it was windy. Who would have thought dragonflies don't come out in 5-10 mph winds? Huh? Oh well, we ditched the walk and had a nice hike around the Arboretum on our own.

Coloring Easter eggs

Great Spring Break

Well, it wasn't a trip to Oregon, but the kids Spring Break this year was a blast. I was able to get the week off of work so the kids and I could spend some time together. Mostly we took day trips around town to do fun activities. A couple of the days we stayed at home and hung out. I'd tell you all about it, but the kids kept journals, and their words are more interesting. See the previous two posts.

Ethan's Spring Break Journal

We went to encanto Park. It was fun and we went on rides too. Then we went to lunch. Next we went to two libraries. I got seven books from the libraries. I also went to the park and test drove some cars they were really good ones. We also went to honey bears bbq. Then I played with water guns with my friend. then I went in.



yesterday I played with my friends. when I was playing with them we had a water gun fight. then the rest of the day I watched tv and relaxed.

today we went to the water park and michales. after that we went to Petco and looked at some animals. We also ate pizza. after that we went home.

Today we went to Fountain hills and Saguaro lake. Me and My DaD are going back there. We also saw a movie.



My favorite thing this week was was the Zoo. We saw a bunch of animals and we had lunch there. Soon we left. that was my Favorite thing this week.

Samantha Spring Break Journal

(This is in Samantha's own words)

"Spring Brak Journl"

Samantha
3-10-07
On Saturday We Went to test out sum cars. We had so much fun on sunday because we went to enchanted isand. my favorite thing about spring brak is When we went on these Pair a Shots.



3-12-07
On Monday we had a warter gun Fight. the came over to have a warter gun fight but they did not foloe the ruils. they did not stop shooting at my brother. Ethan my brother had an a eye lish in his eye. during the day time we played out side with the .

Tuesday 3-13-07
Today we went to the Zoo. it was so fun we saw a ostrige. and we waw a BoBcat it was hiding from it's predators how funny is that it was so fun and I got sik my stumic was hruting a lot I like the Zoo so much




Friday 3-16-07
on Firday we went to the lake. it was so fun. and we had a pinik at a park. it had a riley big warter founti. We played at two parks and why we were there at the two parks we had a pinik at the tw parks.