Things to Remember

1/5/2011

Yesterday Sam asked if he needed to be 8 (years old) to use scripture markers like Isaac (who got them, along with a nice quad for his birthday). Of course I told him no, and suggested he use the colored pencils Grandpa Dame brought back for him from Northern Europe somewhere. He set to it immediately - reading his Book of Mormon for 20 minutes straight right then, and another 40 this morning! Isaac's example *IS* having effect.

The other day we had an introductory lesson to our bodies/anatomy that concluded with the boys drawing a self-portrait with the heading "God made me Special." I drew Charlie's, under his direction, complete with very detailed Milkman pajamas. He has carried it around for large portions of each day since, even sleeping with it, and periodically saying "Charlie is Special!"

Blockus (board game) and Wii Dance 2 are my favortie new games to play - especially with the kids. Playing Blockus with Mark was less fun because he crushed me, though he tried to soften the blow by reminding me that shapes and figuring out spacial issues is kinda "his thing" and that we should play Scrabble again soon :)

1/15/11

Attended the Boise Philharmonic Family Concert today with Mark, Isaac, and Sam. It was a performance of Peter & the Wolf and music from The Lion King. The conductor, Robert Franz, was charismatic to say the least. He dressed in a wolf costume! He even rapped a ditty about Red Riding Hood. He took questions from children in the audience during an intermission while we were waiting for the 250 (high school) choir members to get on stage. The music was beautiful and fun. Mark & I both enjoyed it thoroughly but what made it even more special for me was how delighted both the boys were. They were completely engaged in the performance and often made excited eye contact with me when they recognized something or found it particularly good. I felt more than rewarded for the weeks of covering "Classical" Music with them during school. They were even tickled that the brief opening piece was by Mozart!

Val & Jonny had our two younger boys during the concert. For Charlie, playing sword fights and firetrucks with Luke was much more fun than an orchestral performance would have been - though he would have liked this one, I'm sure. We saw our friends the Rodriguez at the auditorium with their Sunbeam, Cole. He slept through 2/3rds of the show! I know that Charlie would not have fallen asleep but it did reinforce my decision to only bring the oldest boys. We visited with Val & Jonny for a while - watched the end of a Premiere League soccer game too - after the concert. Then we went to Shari's for dinner. We hardly ever take the boys out to eat, it's always a noisy disaster, it seems. But this time was great!! The boys even got compliments from other customers and our waitress for the good behavior (and good menu reading). David ate soup crackers and French fries and hash browns (not his most healthy meal ever), and Charlie only had fries and chocolate milk (sadly, not his most un-healthy meal ever) but the rest of us had plenty of good food to eat.

It was a great day!