Bus Suspension Lesson

This week Griffin is suspended from the bus. He has problems staying in his seat, hitting other kids with his backpack as he gets in and out and listening to what the bus driver tells him to do. His latest offense was the last straw and we are without bus service for a week. So, time to pull out the stops and make him realize it's a privilege to ride the bus and he needs to shape up.

How do we teach him this lesson?

We walk home from school in 97 degree heat for 2.3 miles. That's 36.1 degrees Celsius and 3.7 km for you metric folks!

It's teach Griffin a lesson/torture mommy time. (Why didn't he get suspended last week when it was in the 80's?!?) It took us about an hour with lots of crying and moaning and complaining, some threatening to never go to school again and finally repeating the mantra, "I will sit in my seat on the bus and I will listen to the bus driver." We were hot and sweaty and took cold showers to cool off and drank a bottle of Gatorade each after our walk.

Today when I drove him to school he begged me to bring the car to pick him up. I have to go get the girls after school so I have to drive today but we might be walking again on Wed, Th and Fri. (We will just have to see if I can survive the torture!)

Griffin after walking home.

I really hope it's worth it. Sometimes kids don't realize the punishment is worse for the parents than it is for the kids! Really, who wants to have a grounded kid around the house whining and complaining, or have them miss out on something fun when you were going to have some free time to do something fun yourself?! Oh, the joys of parenting.

Easter Chicks

We have a friend who got herself 6 colorful chicks for Easter (see here.) Apparently they insert different color dye's at a certain stage of development so they turn out these awesome bright colors! She was kind enough to let us chick-sit one day and we kept them overnight. My kids were beyond thrilled! They couldn't get enough of the chicks. We had so much fun. All the neighbor kids came over to torture/play with the chicks. It was hard to get them in the grass because they had to be held at all times!!! Sadly there are no pictures of Helen because she took half of these pictures. She is getting really good with her camera!

Mary with Sunshine and Jellybean

Lewy and Sunshine (pic by Helen)

Lew and Blastoid

Grif and Jello

Daisy was a dog obsessed. She didn't move from this spot all night. I had to force her into my room to sleep and she was up at the crack of dawn whimpering to go downstairs to see if they were still there.

Even Crush got in on the action. He was a nice place of refuge from the kids holding the chicks. I was surprised at how long they would stay on him. The green one, Lucky, cruised the yard with him for a good 5 minutes before getting off!

Leaving Spring for Summer

Here in the valley of the sun we have 5 seasons. We have Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer and HELL. Sadly, our lovely Spring season is over and we are heading into Summer. In 2 months HELL will arrive and we will once again wonder why on earth anyone would choose to live on the surface of the sun. But our temps for next week will be nice and warm for those lucky children in swim lessons getting ready for swim team! And Heavenly Father knows our ward Daddy Daughter Campout is Friday and Saturday so he sent two cooler days for their benifit, Thank You Very Much, so the daddys won't have too many melting, complaining princesses to deal with.What a difference a day makes!

I spoke too soon! Updated forecast now in 90's for the Daddy Daughter Party! Bummer!

Easter

We had a fun Easter with friends. We were invited to our friends Kristin & Shelby's house for dinner and an egg hunt. It was delish dinner with ham, prime rib, chicken and lots of side dishes. I can't even describe how great the prime rib was cooked, it just melted in your mouth, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Dessert was a bunny cake, apple pie and lemon cheese cake...yummy!!! The Easter egg hunt was a big score since some of the eggs had cold hard cash in them! Mary scored 18 bucks, Griffin got 8, Helen got 2 and Lewy was only interested in CANDY. We had a great time and it was fun to spend the day with friends.

The girls got new Easter dresses (thank you Grammy) and the boys got to wear their regular old church clothes and all of them looked lovely. The sun was a little bright for the pictures, hence the scrunched up faces so please just imagine their eyes open and no shadows on their faces OK?

This chicky sings and dances. Lewis was in heaven he kept dancing with it all day long. Somehow it now resides at our house, that Shelby is sneaky!

Cold Hard Cash!!

Shelby's cousin was trying to play with his daughter (in the flower pink dress) and all 4 of my children descended upon him! What a great sport he was to have them all attacking him.

Umbrella destruction

Ok, these pictures are really bad--too dark because of the bright outside--but it was so hilarious I had to post it anyway! Lewis got one of our big umbrellas we had in the back yard from the rainy party and brought it inside. Helen kindly opened it for him and then he decided to go back outside to play with it. Problem? Just a little one, the door wasn't as big as the umbrella. Luckily our Handsome Prince is one determined kid! What an accomplishment!

Brad thinks I should have stopped the destruction instead of taking pictures but it was so funny and that umbrella was on it's last leg anyway.

Superman Lego Starwars Party

Griffin couldn't decide on a theme so we went with all his favorites--Superman, Star Wars and Lego's, what could be better? All the bases were covered. His actual birthday was just family. We opened presents and played and went to lunch and the movie; Monsters vs. Aliens. Not too shabby for a birthday.The next Saturday, Grammy brought down her bouncy house for his friends party. It was a big hit and the pouring rain even let up for the party with just a few sprinkles. We had the bouncy house, a Darth Vader pinata, bubbles, hot dogs and cake and lots of friends. This made for one great party. Griffin had lots of fun and scored big with all his gifts. This is one happy 6 year old birthday boy! Happy Birthday my big boy!

This pinata was so ugly but exactly what Griffin wanted. We lined up all the kids and had Griffin go first at whacking the pinata. Brad said "you only get one hit" and that's all it took! One hit from Griffin and BAM candy everywhere! So beware of decapitated head pinatas, they aren't that sturdy! Last years Superman took all the kids taking their turn twice with multiple blows before he gave up his candy!

Oh, the red stuff on Griffin's cheek is "fire" We had a church Easter party before Griffin's party and there was face painting involved and somehow Griffin got fire. Sweet!

What a great reminder for the real reason for this Easter season: the Atonement and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

Spring School Pictures

Here they are. Not my favorite pose or background at all but at least the kids are cute!

April General Conference

Wow! I loved it! I know I was listening carefully for what would touch me most. From the start with Elder Hales telling us about provident living to the end with President Monson telling us to go to the temple so we can find peace and a strengthened resolve to keep the commandments I was completely inspired and filled with the spirit. I noticed how much the talks emphasized that we could be happy in our adversity. No one promised if you kept the commandments all your problems would be solved, no one said things would turn around soon and all would be well, no, the talks just told us that we needed to be happy, we have to choose to be happy because that's what God wants for us.

Some Quotes I Loved:

Fear Not, be of Good Cheer, The Future is as Bright as your Faith.

Personal Righteousness is a CHOICE!

Nourished with Testimony and Watered with Faith.

You can't be a Lifesaver by looking like all the others on the beach.

After your 'spiritual virtual tour' of your home do you need a few home improvements or an Extreme Home Makeover?

Historical patterns show the cycle of Righteousness followed by Prosperity followed by Material Comforts followed by Greed followed by Pride followed by Wickedness and a Collapse of Morality. All this is found within the pages of Old Testament, New Testament and Book of Mormon. Does it sound familiar?

No matter how difficult the journey our destination is Paradise!

Do your children know that you KNOW?

Your are never lost when you can see the temple.

Protect the formal, proper language of prayer by using Thee, Thou, Thy and Thine to show humility.

Missionaries are underutilized teachers, they spend too much time finding instead of teaching, we need to find so these servants of God can TEACH.

Fear and Faith cannot coexist! Does your faith exceed your doubt and disbelief?

We Get what we Focus On Consistently!!

6 destructive D's:
Doubt;
Discouragement;
Distraction;
Lack of Diligence;
Disobedience;
Disbelief
all these lead to our Spiritual Destruction!

There is a difference between church-attending, tithe-paying members who occasionally rush in to the temple to go through a session and those members who faithfully and consistently worship in the temple.

We don't acquire Eternal Life in a Sprint, this is a race of Endurance




Any favorites you want to share with me?

My Big Boy is Sick

For the past week Griffin has been very sick. He hasn't felt well at all and has a lovely allergy cough that if he runs around too much turns in to a hackin cough with throwing up at the end, which leads to him being sent home from school. TMI, I know. So, I knew he was coughing and probably didn't need to share the contents of his last meal with his friends at school so I kept him home M-Tu-We and he finally went to school today. I asked him if he ran around at recess at school and he said, "No, I just walked around slowly." He didn't eat his lunch, only drank his water and juice, came home and crashed. He's been asleep since 5 and when I transfered him from the couch to his bed at 8, he didn't even flinch. I guess he's worn out. Poor guy.
So, here is his week in a nutshell: in Helen's Bed laying down (I don't want Lewis to get sick and Helen is in with Mary till he feels better) or On the Couch. He has done nothing but play his DS, watch TV, and play with his Lego's. Sounds kinda fun except for the not eating a thing for 3 days, drinking only Gatoraid, red watery eyes, a runny nose, and coughing, coughing and more coughing. It's been naping, and sitting quietly which is practically impossible for this little man. Good thing his 6th birthday party is next Saturday--11th--and not on his actual birthday--4th or it would be one wiped out Birthday Boy.