Otis and the Tornado

Cole's class has the activity called "Royal "Reader" where a parent gets to come in on Friday and read a story to the class.  The kids always want you to bring treats and ask about a million times if you brought a treat.  We didn't bring treats.  I think the kids hate us.

A few weeks ago, I read a story and did an airplane craft.

This week, Rick read the story...

He said that he wasn't going to wear the cape, but somehow we managed to sneak it around his neck.

Do you see the tornado in this picture?  These books have great illustrations.

Cole loves them because they are about a tractor.

After Rick read the story, we talked about tornados.  

The kindergarteners always have great stories to tell.

Then Rick pulled this gallon jar out of his bag.

It was about 2/3's full of water with a drop of dish soap and 2 kinds of glitter (very fine and very heavy).

If you shake the jar hard enough and get the water moving fast enough it makes a tornado in the water.  Because of the little bit of soap bubbles and glitter you can easily see where the water makes a funnel inside the jar.  The kids all gathered in a circle and took turns "making a tornado".

It was fun, but some of the girls were afraid to make a tornado.

Cole watched as his friend, Brady, made a tornado.

Rick practices making a volcano at home...

shake really hard

Can you see the little funnel in the water?

The bubbles and the glitter help to see where the water is spinning.

We left the tornado jar sitting on the counter for a week.

Every time someone walked past, they gave it a little shake and watched for a tornado.

thanks Pinterest

Jazz Recital at BYU

Summer has been taking voice lessons from the most fantastic instructor at BYU.

You can check out Tara's blog here.  She is a talented photographer as well as being musically talented.

This is Summer and Megan from last semester.  

I thought the recital from last semester was great, but the recital this semester was even better.

Summer and Megan performed a song from Toy Story last semester

 This semester the theme was Jazz and Tara told the performers to "think 1940's".

Tara Butler gives the audience instructions for appropriate crowd behavior before the performance

Summer sang "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and played her ukelele with it.

There was a band that accompanied the singers.

Summer played alone for the first verse and then the band joined in for the rest of the song.

I thought it was super!

Dream a Little Dream of Me

We experimented with a few hairstyles, but I couldn't quite recreate the look I was going for and the look that Summer was satisfied with...So this is what we came up with:

Tara performed at the end of the show.  She was awesome.

Summer just loves Tara.  In fact, she wants to be "Tara" when she grows up.

To see more pictures from the Jazz recital check this out

(There are some great shots of the band, performers, Tara, and the type of hairstyle I was trying to recreate.)

I was so impressed with the whole show, but I am a little partial to this performance...

Conference Weekend

 We went to St. George for Conference Weekend. 

The weather wasn't fantastic but we did get out to the pool for a few minutes on Saturday.

Kristine planned an egg hunt for the kids.

 We wanted to make it fun for the older kids, so we did it in the dark and I brought flashlights for everyone.  

 It was really fun, but by the time I figured out how to use my camera in the dark, the eggs had all been found.

 Checking out the loot.

Cole is funny, he'll share his candy with everyone.  

Even his sisters who both ended up with more candy than he did.  

Lillie had her first taste of sour patch bunnies, or something like that.

"Give me more! that tastes good!"

Lillie is a good baby, as long as she is being held, which is 

ALL THE TIME!

Hooee was really concerned about this little person that everyone seemed to be making a fuss over.

Every time Lillie let out a sound, Hooee's ears would perk up and he'd jump up to see what was happening.

We had some good food, did a little shoe shopping, got a little bit of Vitamin D, enjoyed the conference messages, ate some Easter candy, and made everyone a survival bracelet.

(Good news everyone...we have more colors of paracord and new designs)

oh, and we watched about 6 episodes of Preppers.

We are way behind on our "prepping" and need to get serious again about stockpiling, and getting some skills.  Fun times.

Happy Birthday

My Dad's Birthday was March 25.

And it was a Sunday.

So, we threw a party.

Lanny hosted the shin-dig because he lives closest to the cemetery.

And in my family, we are kinda cemetery nuts.

So, we had a little BBQ...

 Looks like Jason found the best seat in the house yard.

He had good company.  Not sure how much he enjoyed his meal like that...

love the socks, Lanny.  socks with crocs.  black socks with crocs.

black socks with crocs with camo.

Gage enjoyed the cupcake top.  

Oreo mint.  Brandi found the recipe on Pinterest.  score.

 Lanny, Brody, and Grandma Nan

Brandi

Things were a little too quiet, so Lanny broke out the BB gun.

These are cards that Lanny's kids made for my dad.

The favorite one of mine is the green one, "His favorite color is green"

After the party, we all drove up to the cemetery to clean of the headstone and put some flowers at my dad's grave.  Miss ya dad.

Kindy 500

This was an event at Cole's school for the Kindergarteners.

They got to design a cardboard box into a car (at home) to drive around the school and visit Historical places of interest.

This is the car that Cole & Rick designed.

Had I been in charge it would have not been so fancy.

The actual title of this car is:  "police TRUCK".

There were other police cars there, but Cole's was the only truck, just so we're all clear on that.

The view from the back with his name and Mississippi license plate.

I thought we Rick went a little over board with the details but there were kids that had headlights that turned on, horns that worked, even some airplanes.  What a bunch of overachievers with way too much time on their hands!!

Notice Cole sitting on the back row.  They are watching a demonstration about Eagles/Birds of Prey.

As I went around with Cole's group for the day, I noticed that he ALWAYS sits in the back.  ALWAYS on his knees.  No wonder the knees on every single pair of pants has a big whole!!

Mt. Rushmore.  They each got to draw their faces on the mountain.  

Cole drew his name and a little stick man that looks like he's lifting weights or something.

When they learned about Abe Lincoln, they got to do a little experiment with pennies.

I love it watch his quiet, determined look his face like this.

It doesn't happen very often.  But he was really digging this penny activity.