Pictures

After picking 70 pounds of tomatoes at a local farm, as a family, it was time to get to work.


Tim had the job of rinsing them.


David removed the stems, cut an X in the bottom, boiled them a minute, then dropped them in an ice water bucket.


Maggie took them out of the ice water, peeled them, and set them in a pot for Melissa to cut, de-seed, drain excess water, and get to the pot to boil.

Amirrah's job was to watch it all and throw the jar lids on the floor. Wait. That wasn't her assigned job. That's just how she volunteered to help!

As the process moved along, we were pleasantly surprised at the children's enjoyment of the process and cheerful attitudes.

The next day, Magdalyn was pushed off the big slide, fell about 15 feet and landed on her head. We were blessed that she only suffered a mild concussion. We "relaxed" after visiting the doctor by playing at the Children's garden and the Mind, Motion, Magnetism exhibit at the museum. Some new areas have been set up since we were last there. We all enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the new areas.



Here Amirrah dances on the stage while Tim and Maggie played a wooden xylophone.


As you see, the playground accident didn't affect her too much.

Simple Pleasures

Today, Maggie has her first true loose tooth. David told her to keep wiggling it with her tongue and it will fall out. Her response was:

Yes! That is what I've been doing!

Are you smarter than a first grader?

Keeping Maggie and David mentally entertained is a task in an of itself. So... David started writing logic puzzles for Maggie. We call them "Mysteries". Here's an example. Can you solve the puzzle in less than 18 minutes with evidence? Good luck!

The Mystery of the Princess Prom
Five Princesses - Belle, Jane, Ariel, Maggie, and Ami - each went to the princess ball with a date - David, Beast, Tim, Doug, and Lancelot. They all wore different colored dresses - Gold, Aqua, White, Black, and Pink. Each one also wore a different accessory - a tiara, pearl necklace, gold bracelet, diamond earrings, or an emerald ring. Can you figure out who wore what when they went with someone to the ball?

-Tim’s date wore a black dress.
-All the ladies matched their accessory to the color of their dress.
-The princess who wore the pink and gold dresses names both start with the letter “A”.
-The Tiara did not match the black dress.
-Ami went with her Grandpa.
-The princess who wore the pearl necklace went to the ball with her boyfriend the Beast.
-David bought his date the Tiara.
-Ariel’s ring did not match the gold dress.
-Maggie does not have pierced ears.
-Doug went with the girl in the gold bracelet.

Things Maggie knows that others seem to be uninformed on...
(Ami's Grandpa is Doug)
(Ever heard of Beauty and the Beast?)
(Pearls are white)

Mom gone?

Last night, Melissa went to the General Relief Society meeting.

Our youngest asked David:
"Mom gone?"
"Yes"
"BYU football?"
"No, she went to conference"
"Oh.... watch football?"
"Yes"

and so she and David went and watched football. He wanted a son that would watch football and got a daughter that will join him.

Greatest. Sports. Day. Ever.

Grandpa and Uncle Richard came into town for the world cup qualifier of USA vs. El Salvador. The US national team beat both teams, (the refs and El Salvador) and won. Great weather. Great game.

Got home, flipped on the tivo, and watched the BYU game.

Prayer works!

Holy Prophecy Batman

Every once in a while comes an audio clip that can not be described, it must be heard. This from news radio, please take a listen:

Benson

Or put this in your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKlqNUGpun0

Calculator and Keyboard

Tim needs kinesthetic work to keep his attention and learn his best. Today, our project was to create this Calculator and Keyboard on an old shower curtain. I know curtain liners are about $3 so next time I might just buy a blank. This one works great in person but the camera just can't leave the leaves out.

The Calculator keys are about the size of his feet so he can step on the "keys" to learn math.

The Keyboard keys are closer to hand size so he'll be on hands and knees to "type" spelling words. For capital letters, I put the Shift keys and caps in red so he remembers those go together. It was somewhat an afterthought so the top row is only 1/2 color coded.

I'm pretty excited to start putting it to use. He seems excited, too.

Happy Haircut

Ami finally agreed to the haircut.

This is before.


This is in the process.


And the end.


Post exercise, bike ride and play time.


And the side view.


The curls appear to be gone. That happened with Maggie, too. We'll see how it is after a wash or two.