General Conference Breakfast Tradition

"Look Mom, I made a Temple!"

Extra Extra

Last night, as we sat down to eat dinner, Peter gave voice to something I'd been thinking for a few days. "Is it just me, or is everybody extra tired this week?"

We are dragging this week, all of us. I can't exactly figure out why. Bryan has been working late, which leads to exhaustion for the parent at the office and for the parent not at the office, and I continue to stay up later than a sane person should, so I understand the reasons for our weariness. But the kids are all worn out as well.

Peter, who has been so devoted to getting up early and checking off his to-do list, has been turning off his alarm clock each morning. Cooper is often difficult to motivate in the morning, but the past few days we've nearly been late to school because the clock simply moves faster than our boy. Poor Sophie and Phoebe have been running out of steam by the late afternoon and spending the remainder of the hours until bedtime alternating between throwing angry tantrums and weeping because "he was looking at me funny."

Seriously.

As we limp toward the weekend, I am extra thankful that we will be staying in our pajamas, participating in church on our couch. That's right, my favorite weekend has come round again. The semi-annual General Conference for our church will take place on Saturday and Sunday, and I'm looking forward to being spiritually renewed and uplifted.

Also to wearing pajamas.

Cute Things

"Cute things come out of my mouth." -Sophie, one morning while eating breakfast this week, speaking truth.

The Mighty Octopus

As part of a recent Relief Society activity, everyone that was able to crochet was invited to make octopuses (yes, that's actually the plural for octopus) for donation to NICUs. A hospital in Denmark discovered that the tentacles mimic the comforting feeling of the umbilical cord for the premature babies in their care. You can read more about it here.

I've had a very busy few weeks, so I wasn't able to begin crocheting until Thursday evening. They needed to be finished by Saturday evening. After several hours of work, I made exactly one.

Do you crochet? Would you like to share your gifts to benefit the tiniest members of your community? Here's the YouTube  tutorial I followed. I encourage you to contact your local NICU and find out if they are in need.

Meet William Penn

Cooper gave an oral report yesterday on the founding father of Pennsylvania, William Penn. His teacher encouraged them to present their papers while dressed as the historical figured they were teaching about. I give you William Penn.

According to Cooper, the presentation went well. And his classmates thought his costume was awesome.

Story Thief

Cooper was given this book for his birthday. Someone else got to it first.

Art Show

In addition to attending parent teacher conferences for all three of my school-goers this week, I was able to see the art their teachers chose for their school-wide art shows.

The first two, a poster of the letter P and a ceramic tile with a shell imprint, are Phoebe's.

The next two, a Japanese style painting and the ceramic fish, are Cooper's.

The next one, a multi-media clock which shows the color wheel, is Peter's.

And finally, just for fun, here's a painting that Sophie did at a friend's house today. Her name was added by Phoebe, the Legend of Zelda triangle was courtesy of Peter.

The Trash Collectors

Wednesday is trash day in our neighborhood. Some of our neighbors wheel their cans out on Tuesday night, some of us wait until the morning of. With the change in our schedule from the snow days last week, I had completely forgotten that yesterday was pickup day.

While I was getting Sophie dressed in the morning I heard lots of rattling coming from outside. I opened her blinds to find the source of the sound. We had an exceptionally painful, exceptionally cold, exceptionally strong wind yesterday. The rattling we heard was the contents of our neighbor's recycling bin scattering as quickly as the wind could drive it. Much of it was in our yard, including a broken bottle, but many pieces of untethered plastic and cardboard where winging their way to freedom elsewhere.

Peter and Phoebe, who had looked out the window at the same time I did, jumped into action. They threw on their jackets, grabbed a trash bag, and raced outside. While I finished getting Sophie ready and checked that Cooper's homework was completed, the other two cleaned up all the debris, save for the broken bottle. Another neighbor retrieved the rolling recycling can and Peter and Phoebe threw away the detritus.

When they asked if they could go outside to take care of the mess, I hesitated. We were minutes away from when we needed to leave for school, I worried that we didn't have time to spare. Phoebe looked at me incredulously, "Mom! You don't want us to do service?!" She made her point and out they went. We've had lots of Family Home Evening lessons about doing service, but this is the first time I've seen them put those values into practice without any parental prompting.

It made my heart happy.

Melting Snowballs

That's My Girl

The boys have started a major project. They're sorting all their Lego by color with the end goal of building all the sets they own. Peter was given his first Lego set when he turned four, and Bryan has employed his mad deal-finding skills over the years to find awesome Lego sets on clearance for pretty much every Christmas and birthday and the occasional Tooth Fairy visit, so they have quite a few sets between them.

I found these signs on their door.

See that scribble at the bottom? Phoebe added her name to the list, which was then quickly removed. Displeased by being turned away, she made a sign for her own door.

What do you do when someone shuts you out? Why, make sure they know that you welcome everyone, of course.