NOAH Bowling

My adorable nephew Dallin has Albinism. Every year the Seattle chapter of NOAH (the National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation) hosts a bowling fundraiser. Katie is pretty involved in this event (she puts her balloon decorating expertise to good use!). We love the excuse to support Dallin, and it's just a bonus that the bowling is fun as well. 

This year I took Aubree, Thane, and Graham. Bryce had a soccer game and was sad to miss out, but, fortuitously, was invited to go bowling with friends the day before the NOAH event. Mark kept Nellie home with him for reasons I'm sure you can intuit.

Aubree divided her time between playing with her cousins, bowling, and doing what Aubree does best.

 

What? You don't read at bowling alleys?

This was Thane's first time bowling (apparently he was the one with soccer game conflicts the past 2 years). Thane loved it!

He spun in a quick circle almost every single time after he chucked the ball. He asked a million questions about the scoring. At one point, he realized that he and Piper often had their turns at the same time, so they decided they would synchronize their bowls.

This was Graham's first time bowling without the assistance of the ramp. Unfortunately, this was not due to a major progression in skill, but instead due to a shortage of ramps. I tried to help him as best I could, but that wasn't saying much. Thank goodness for bumpers! Graham, however, regularly commented, "I'm really good at this!" Hurrah for the confidence and optimism of five-year-olds!

I don't foresee our family becoming regular bowlers, but we sure look forward to our once-a-year excursion.

More Scrub Scrouts

When we were switched into the new ward and Mark was called to be in the Bishopric and tasked with filling almost every calling from scratch, I told him, "Feel free to call me to be Cubmaster. I was only in the calling a year, and since it's takes about a year to figure it out, I finally feel like I know what I'm doing! Plus, I already have the whole year planned out. Plus, we have one, almost two, boys in the program, and I want to make sure it's excellent. I doubt there's anyone else asking for this calling, but if there is, they're welcome to it!"

I know it's not typical to ask or volunteer for callings, but Cub Scouts seems to be an exception. And if you're wondering, no one else was vying for the position. 

It's been a bumpy road getting Cubs up and going while the ward is simultaneously trying to get every other Church program and auxiliary up and running, but we are finally hitting our stride. In the meantime, we've had some pretty great Pack Meetings and activities. 

In January we teamed up with our old ward and had a professional magician come do a performance! He said he doesn't usually do pro-bono events, but he was a cub scout when he was a kid, so he has a soft spot for the program.

It was a fun and funny night. The highlight of the evening was when he invited a scout up who had a birthday that night, and did a magic trick where he made a birthday cake appear!

February was our Blue and Gold Banquet. We decided to do a Lego themed night.

 

For our main activity we played Lego Minute-to-Win-It games, which were highly entertaining. I don't have any pictures of the games because I was too busy mc-ing, but this is a good time to point out that Aubree has continued her role as (unofficial) Assistant Cubmaster. She's a huge help at pack meetings!

In March we had our cake decorating contest. The theme was "Cubs in the Future." This activity is always a big hit because they get to eat the cakes at the end of the night!

Bryce decided to make a space portal cake.

He discovered that frosting a cake is a lot harder than it looks! Aubree watched over his shoulder wishing that she could decorate a cake as well.

While we were still trying to wrangle ourselves some den leaders, I had the chance to help out in a few den meetings. One night some ambassadors from the Guide Dogs for the Blind came to give a presentation to the boys. It was great to learn more about their program and of course the boys loved getting to pet the puppies afterwards.

Last night we had our Pinewood Derby. We teamed up again with 3 other wards to do the track set up and decorating (though each ward runs their own races staggered over the weekend). Our ward was in charge of helping with the decorating. Reluctantly, I offered to use the skills I learned helping my mom with her balloon decorating business (I really hate the smell and feel of balloons).

 

Happily, the balloon columns did turn out pretty well.

 

Since we spent the day preparing and decorating, we ended up with McDonalds for dinner before Thane's pre-race soccer game (interesting side note: though Bryce and Thane are only 2 years apart in age, they will never race together because of when their birthdays fall).

 

We invited the Activity Day girls in our ward to join us, so we had a big turnout (well over 20 racing cars). With the exception of a near disaster when the track wouldn't work (that was a looooonnnngggg and stressful twenty minutes), it was a fun night of racing. Afterwards, a someone pointed out, "Nobody cried! That makes it a successful event!"

The girls came to compete! Bryce got 3rd place in the 10/11 year old category. He was disappointed he didn't do better in his final Pinewood Derby, but he enjoyed the process and was happy with his arrow car.

 

Maybe by the time Graham is on his final Pinewood Derby Mark and I will have figured out what we need to know and do to help make a successful race car (but... don't hold your breath).

Thane turns eight and starts scouts next month!

Cuteness

Sometimes pictures fit within the context of a story or an event, but sometimes I'm left with a random assortment of snapshots begging to be shared. Thus today's post...

**Graham got this panda costume for Christmas and loved to wear it so much that one day he asked to wear it out to the store. My initial reaction was to say, "No way!" but then I thought, "Why not?" After all, it's not every day you get to go shopping with a panda.

**Aubree has a standing babysitting job every Tuesday afternoon. She watches Ben (5) and Rosie (1). Ben and Graham love their weekly playdates. Nellie also looks forward to having Rosie come to play. One week Ben and Rosie stayed later than usual and Aubree put Rosie in her pajamas. Nellie saw Rosie's penguins and rushed upstairs to put on her own penguin jammies.

**At piano practice a few months ago, Nellie was drawing and she drew her first person. I was so excited that I took a picture and sent it to Mark and Aubree. Aubree texted back, "Uh, Mom. She does that all the time. They're all over her papers. You hadn't noticed?!" Mom of the year over here.

**Thane, who loves to climb and hang on people, is extra patient when Nellie does the same to him. They came up with a game where Nellie pretends to give him haircuts with colored pencils. Silly kiddos.

**Heading into church one morning, I stopped Graham and Nellie to take a quick picture (the older kids had rushed ahead into the chapel). Graham could not manage a regular smile.

**For Valentine's Day, Aubree asked me to try making a heart hairdo. If you look carefully you can see that we nearly succeeded.

**Nellie wanted to watch Bryce get his haircut, but didn't want to get hair on herself, so she climbed in a big bag. Clever solution!

**Nellie wore this purple frog dress that my mom made for Aubree ten years ago.

Aubree had much longer hair and a hat.

**One morning I did Aubree's hair and Nellie begged, "I want hair like Aubree's!" It took a lot to get her to sit still long enough to do the braid, and the braid didn't last long, but it sure looked good for a few minutes!

Aubree still totally adores and spoils Nellie.

**Not long after she potty trained, we switched Nellie to a toddler bed. That worked pretty well because she didn't know how to open doors (I'd forbidden her siblings from teaching her). Unfortunately, she's a quick learner. One night I put her to bed, then went to help another sibling. I heard her fussing, but when I came back to check on her, all was quiet. I waited outside her door for a while to help if needed, but then Aubree yelled, "If anyone's looking for Nellie, she's downstairs!"

The sneaky girl had opened her door, then closed it again before running down to the playroom.

**One afternoon Graham was watching Mark on the computer and Mark turned around to catch Graham scowling at the screen. Mark busted up laughing, and for the rest of the day Graham alternated between scowling and laughing. Of course I wasn't able to get a picture of the scowl, but believe me when I say he had the best, most extreme facial expressions.

**There's not really a story behind this picture, she just looked so grown-up and sassy with her high ponytail and Super-girl outfit that I had to capture the moment.

**Thane went to a Primary Great-to-be-Eight meeting in February. His primary year is the biggest in the ward (the only one to be split into two classes). It's crazy to think that he will be turning eight in just a few weeks!

**On Monday mornings when I teach Aubree's co-op Graham and Nellie spend a few hours with our friends/neighbors.

They have so much fun playing, and I get to teach without interruption.

**The other night Thane came downstairs to show me that he had his pajamas on inside-out and backwards. According to Spiderwick Chronicles, having your clothes like that wards off evil creatures. Thane thought he was pretty funny, but couldn't stand to leave his clothes the wrong way and switched back pretty quickly.

**When Nellie's not "cutting" Thane's hair, she's trying to put hair ties in it.

Eggstra Busy Easter

Easter weekend was so busy! On Saturday we had our regular soccer games, plus Bryce's birthday party, plus General Conference, plus a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Sunday was Easter, General Conference, April Fool's Day (thankfully we don't celebrate that one too much), and our annual Easter get together with the Bonus Family. So much packed into such a short time!

Artwork by Graham

Since Easter was during General Conference weekend, the kids wore their Easter best on Palm Sunday. Bryce and Graham would love to be able to wear suits and ties every single week. Thane thinks suits and ties are elements of torture, and wrangling him into one twice a year is the best we can manage.

I took a bunch of pictures and one turned out well. The rest looked more like this.

On a side note, have I mentioned recently how much Nellie loves nursery?

Our neighborhood egg hunt was blessed again with lovely weather. 

 

We left the house in sweatshirts, and by the time we made it to the cul-de-sac, the sun had come out and we peeled off our extra layers. 

 

The 2 and under crowd were the first to hunt. As one of the oldest in her group, Nellie filled her basket in no time. Her brothers were jealous that she got applesauce squeezies and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to trade their candy for her applesauce.

Once she had her candy, Nellie found Mark who she knew would let her get right down to sampling. As they opened her eggs, they discovered she'd found the prize egg and won a small cash prize.

Graham's group came next. His brothers were a bit over excited and kept yelling and pulling him over to unhunted areas.  Graham also found the prize egg for his age group and got his own cash.

Finally it was time for the big kids to hunt. On the "Go" mark, Aubree took off running to the far end of the designated area where she'd have less competition for egg gathering.

Bryce had a similar strategy but grabbed eggs all along his way to the end. Thane had a less defined game-plan, but from watching him you might think his strategy was to try to find eggs in the most difficult to reach places like high up on the rock wall or buried deep in a prickly bush. The big kids were disappointed they didn't find the prize egg, but they loved the hunt.

That night I caught the Easter Bunny's helpers in my yard. Unfortunately, instead of leaving treats they ate my tulips.

We don't really have a tradition of Easter baskets. Instead, we get a big bin of Jelly Bellies to share.

Sunday morning we had our traditional breakfast of waffles with berries and whipped cream, then settled in to watch General Conference. Bryce got a half-tent at his birthday party and was uber excited to set it up in the living room. He kept himself occupied inside doing Conference Bingo and putting together his new Lego sets.

Thane was very intent on his Conference Bingo and managed to get himself a blackout.

Graham and Nellie both insisted on sitting on Mark. Cue the arguing, jostling, and fighting!

In the afternoon we went to my cousin Amy's home to get together with my Bonus Family for Easter dinner. Before dinner, the kids had a true Washington Easter egg hunt... in the woods and in the rain. Graham wants me to acknowledge that he got a lot of eggs.

With the previous day's experience, Nellie knew just what to do.

Again, Thane found the eggs hidden in the obscure places, like the back of an abandoned truck.

Bryce checked and double checked to make sure he didn't miss any eggs.

Aubree didn't want to slow down for a picture.

After the hunt we had a huge dinner and enjoyed our time with family.

Next year I hope our Easter weekend isn't quite so packed, but we are so grateful for the blessings of friends and family in our lives. Our hearts are full as we reflect on the greatest gift and blessing of all - the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. What joy it brings to know the He is Risen!