What we've been doing this week

As this week winds down and I have a few minutes to myself at the computer, I think I'll document a little about the latest in our lives.

Sports and more sports

This week we spent a lot of time at soccer and flag football practices and games, many in the rain. The parents grumble much more than the kids, who are used to playing in downpours. In related news, Joseph scored a goal in soccer and a touchdown in flag football this week!  Go Joseph!

Into the Woods to Grandmother's House

After four months, Aubrey finished rehearsals for her school's play "Into the Woods."  The last few weeks she had rehearsals every day after school until 10 p.m.  Boo to that. I don't like the fact that VSAA saw Aubrey for over 12 hours a day and we saw her about half an hour.  And I didn't like driving bleary-eyed to pick her up from school at such a late hour. To be honest, it wasn't terribly safe driving on my part since I get up so early. I had to blast podcasts to stay awake until I got her in the car.   Tonight is the 5th of 6 performances of the play. Dan and I went last Friday and I attended last night while Dan watched Joseph's football game. Tonight Dan and Bailey are there to clap for our actress.

 This is right before her toes are chopped off to fit in the golden slipper.  After which birds pecked out her eyes and blinded her. The original Grimm fairy tales were bizarre and violent!

52 days till Wedding

Preparations for Brandon and Angela's wedding have really ramped up this last week. I probably spent 3 hours a day on preparations and meeting with people about arrangements.  The good news is that everything is coming together and we have some great help. The smartest thing I did was hire a friend to do all the decorations for the reception. She is going to do a fabulous job, and I don't have to do it. Win/win for everyone!

So much to study, not enough time

Bailey has been nonstop and round-the-clock studying for her four AP tests. She had a good system going, with piles of notecards and highlighted study guides. This last week she took three of the tests. She feels pretty good about all of them - hooray! After she takes her last AP test next Wednesday she and I are going to Portland to get lunch and dessert at some trendy and fun eateries (Portland is the best place for foodies.) . 

Candidate Bailey
Last week Bailey finished her campaign for Senior Class Activities Director, an ASB position. She had an awesome campaign and the coolest shirts ever (thanks to my friend Kristi's skills with vinyl letters/heat press and our late night work punching out letters and adhering them).  She didn't win, but was appointed to be part of student government again. She has loved being part of the student government this last year.

I love Screen-free week

This last week Joseph's school challenged all the kids to be screen free. He willingly agreed to it in theory, but after arriving home from school on Monday and remembering the challenge, he threw himself prostrate to the ground and declared that there was nothing to do.  

I had to leave then for a few hours to help serve dinner to the actors at Aubrey's school, and when I returned I found that Joseph and Bailey had been riding bikes and playing basketball and Joseph had been playing outside with neighbor kids. First of all, shout out to a big sister who likes hanging out with her brother and who took a break from studying to play with him!  Also, I loved the fact that the siren call of media had been silenced and Joseph was able to totally focus on all the other cool things to do.  

I am fan of excessive media time anyway so we have limits on screen time per day in our home. However, there is an omnipresent tension, with our youngest wishing he could play/watch more and me needing to police the level of media consumption. This creates grumpiness on the part of the child and the mom. What this screen-free week did was remove that tension. Media was not an option, so we thought of other activities to occupy us.

This last week Joseph and I rode bikes every day, played with remote control cars almost every day, read most of the second Fablehaven book, spent more time than usual outside, attended a Science, Math, and Tech night at his school, and interacted more with neighbors. We talked a lot more and I learned so much more about the world of Joseph Porter. The only downside: I didn't get anything else done once he was home from school. But it was worth it. Screen-free week was a wake-up call for me too. We are all too addicted to the entertaining power of media.

I'm an NPR nerd

Given my rant about our addiction to the entertainment power of media, I'm a little embarrassed to document this next item, as it's about how I'm entertained by media. Now that all my kids are in school I spend a lot of time during the day listening to my own thoughts. I also do a lot of driving around and the radio is boring to me. I listen to a lot of conference talks, and I love that. But sometimes I want something different. Lately I have discovered the fun of listening to podcasts. I'm a little slow to the party on some media-related things (when Dan bought me an iphone I was amazed that I could actually load music onto my phone).  Anyway, I now download and enjoy listening to lots of nerdy and fascinating podcasts on my iphone. My favorites are Science Friday, All Things Considered, and Planet Money, all on NPR.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

Joseph is our first and only kid who wants to take the bus to school in the morning every day. He rides the bus home every day, but for his entire elementary school life I have driven him to school (as I did his siblings), but he decided last week that he wants to also ride the bus in the morning with his friends. He does not like to be late or anything close to late for anything. So,  every morning he bounds out of bed, gets ready in a jiffy, and we are out the door, walking down the street, and waiting at the bus stop about 15-25 minutes before it arrives. It has been a good chance to look around at the beautiful springtime and visit with my little guy.

A year ago . . .

I meant to blog about this on April 30th but didn't, but on April 30th it was a year since Brandon got off his mission to Donetsk, Ukraine. What a year it has been in his life and in the lives of those living in Ukraine. We are very, very happy that he is not still in Ukraine, which is currently filled with unrest and violence and threatening civil war or invasion by Russia. All the missionaries from his mission were first transferred to Kiev and now have been sent state-side to complete their missions.

Early morning Seminary is almost done

Hip hip hooray - we are all excited to have Dan back to ourselves again!  Because he teaches Seniors, he is done after Seminary graduation in about a month.  I can't wait!

Prom

Last week Bailey attended Skyview's Prom with her friend Alex. They doubled with more friends, Skyler and Emma.

Bailey and I had a great time putting together her outfit for Prom. The morning of the dance I drove Bailey and Emma to the beauty school to get "prom hair." 

Afterward they had a friend do their makeup, and then they put on their prom finery. Bailey let me snap a few pictures outside our house.

Here Bailey was waiting for her date to arrive.

The group drove back to Skyler's beautiful house for pictures.

  

 And they are off to dinner (Thai Food) and the dance at the Vancouver Hilton!  Afterward they drove back to Skyler's house for ice cream sundaes.

At the end of the date she came in with a big smile - 

it was a great night!

What we did the week before Easter

We returned late Saturday night from a wonderful trip to Missouri to visit Ellefsens and reluctantly jumped squarely back into a hectic week.  These are some of the things that happened that week:

Dan - got off the plane and, in between helping unpack, do laundry, and grab groceries, started preparing Seminary lessons for the coming week. 

Aubrey - is in the final two weeks of her play Into the Woods. Before Spring Break she had rehearsals 3-4 days a week. On Monday she began daily afterschool practices until 9 p.m. and all day Saturday. This has/will continue(d) for 3 more weeks, except now rehearsal ends at 10 p.m. and performance days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week and next week) she won't be home until 11 p.m.  This is a lot of driving on my part - at this point my car could probably find its way to and from her school without my assistance.

Joseph -is continuing soccer practices and games. The day before Easter I was at the beauty school with Bailey who was getting a prom updo while Dan was at a soccer game with Joseph. It rained so hard that the kids looked like they had jumped in a pool. But in Washington they never cancel soccer for mere rain! 

This week he also began practices for flag football, which he is trying for the first time. He had the same coach a few years ago for soccer and two of his buddies are on the team. After every practice they are muddy!

Tiffany - early morning Monday I was at our church building to start helping with the setup for our stake's annual Life of Christ event. It is so amazing - I can't even describe how unique and elaborate this event is. This is the first year I was the main person in charge of my area (in the past I was a helper in the same area). It was much more time intensive to be the "person in charge," and it still makes me tired to think about that week. I was at the church setting up (putting together the tomb, shoveling dirt, moving rocks, placing arts and plants, etc.) all day every day that week. On Saturday (the night before Easter) I was at the church until midnight, taking down the exhibit.

I was going to add pictures from this year but for some reason can't find them on my computer. So,  moving on.

Bailey - jumped back into preparation for her 4 AP tests and infinitely more fun preparations for Prom. Before we left out of town she had ordered a custom prom dress online from a company based in China. For a really great deal (half the price of most prom dresses) she was able to get a dress which fit her body and was really well made. We don't want to think about what kind of wage the seamstresses were paid to sew the dress. The package from China arrived when we were out of town, so she was excited to try it on.  It looked beautiful.

But she felt like it needed something to give it more "bling." On Wednesday afternoon Bailey and I did a "power shop" at the mall. We looked for (cheap) blingy jewelry, sparkly shoes, and other necessities to make her look her very best. We also borrowed the sash from the dress she bought for Brandon and Angela's wedding. 

But, more about Prom in a separate post.  Bailey also immediately  began preparations for her campaign for senior class activities director: posters, Tshirts, a speech, etc.

And there is a snapshot of our slightly crazy but wonderful life.  Now I need to go run to my exercise class!

The Easter celebration that almost wasn't

We had a busy week last week. The kind of week that had us staggering to the finish line and exhausted at the thought of Monday coming again so soon.  I'm going to let that fact take the blame for our pathetic Easter celebration.  

Before I list some of the things that kept us so busy during the week, I'll describe our Easter Sunday.

7 a.m. - In the interest of neighborly camaraderie, I dragged myself out of bed after getting to bed very late and threw together some breakfast-type food to take to the annual early morning Easter egg hunt held in our cul-de-sac.

8 a.m. - I tried to get family members to get up, but they were all also very tired, and only Dan and Joseph slowly made their way downstairs. In the meantime, some neighborhood kids knocked on the door to tell us that we were late and were holding up everyone's egg hunt. We made it across the street almost half an hour late.  Joseph found his 9 eggs and we talked to neighbors for a bit and then headed back to the house.

Joseph was the only kid who really cared about what was in his Easter basket. Coincidentally, he is the only kid who has a picture of himself by his Easter basket. He received a furry bear friend he has dubbed "Lee Bear."  Lee Bear likes to read, snuggle, and just hang out amiably.

10:50 a.m. - We careened out of the house toward the church building, almost late but with everyone awake and dressed for church. We did not, however, have time to take an Easter morning picture of everyone in their finery. It's the first time in the history of our family that we haven't taken an Easter morning picture. I told everyone we are taking one next week and pretending it is Easter.

2:30 p.m. - Home from church. Dan stumbled up the stairs and collapsed on the bed, oblivious to the need for food. I threw a few random food items at children in the vicinity and then staggered up to bed as well. In fact, everyone was asleep in short order (except for poor Bailey, who had been so busy all weekend she hadn't addressed the homework for her 4 AP classes, so she spent the afternoon studying).  Joseph actually fell asleep face down on the floor. Do you think we were all a little tired??

6:40 p.m. - I opened my eyes slowly, wondering where and who I was. It took a few minutes for me to realize that we had slept the day away. We had slept EASTER afternoon away. And, sadly, no nice little elves had cooked us our Easter dinner. We also hadn't done anything else Easter-related the entire week, so we had several must-do traditions still on the docket for the evening. 

The night before Easter I had arrived home past midnight and Dan and I then assisted the Easter bunny by hunting down our Easter baskets in the garage. Luckily, we set out the baskets in time for the bunny to fill them with candy, books, and a few small gifts. 

In the week before Easter we did manage to focus our scripture study on the Savior's last week before His crucifixion and resurrection.  We also covered the fireplace with pictures of Jesus and watched some fantastic movies about Christ's life earlier in the week.


7:00 p.m. - Now wide awake and slightly panicked as the sun was beginning to set, I quickly dumped out the candy from everyone's plastic Easter eggs and stuffed them with coins. Then I threw the eggs out in the backyard and summoned the kids for the traditional family egg hunt in the backyard. Excited about the prospect of some extra coins for the piggy bank, Joseph and Aubrey joined me for the hunt.

 Joseph was the lucky one who found pesos from Mexico mixed into the coins in his egg. Oops!

We pulled together a passably decent Easter dinner with impressive speed, and at 8:00 p.m. we finally sat down to eat. 

Joseph was in charge of decorating the table, and he did a great job, even making "Happy Easter" signs for each place setting.

 We call this the "Logan Ellefsen smile." When I finally get the Missouri pictures posted, it will be clear why that is the case!  

 Bailey was at the table too but declined to be captured in a photo.

 Ham, potatoes, various fruits and veggies, rosemary garlic bread, and strawberry shortcake for dessert!

During dinner we had a really fun gospel discussion, with the kids all posing questions they have been wondering about. I love those kind of discussions.

Finally dinner was done and more or less cleaned up, and at 
9:30 p.m. on Easter evening we colored Easter eggs. Why bother at that point?  So we could take a picture of it, of course, and so our 9 year old didn't feel cheated.

And now, I have so much more to say about our busy week but this post is getting ridiculously long. So I'll start fresh with a new post. 

Here's to Easter 2014, a year in which we didn't do everything perfectly, but did focus on what really matters . . . our Savior Jesus Christ and our family.

March

And, a few random March (non birthday) events:

I have been patting myself on the back for being the mean Mom who requires children to take piano lessons, drives them to uncounted lessons over the years, and calmly ignores their protests and pleas to stop lessons. All of the kids love music, and lately some beautiful solos and duets are happening in our house!

When Brandon lived at home we had a birthday celebration every St. Patrick's Day, but now that he is off on his own we aren't able to party with him.  Instead, we had a special St. Patrick's Day dinner. When Joseph saw me preparing the green food, he decided that we needed to have a Porter Restaurant, and he would be the very official looking maitre'd.  He set up a table to greet guests, complete with a plant, a notebook to track availability at the tables, and a bell to ring.

February

A roundup of some of our February 2014 activities:

One or two Battle of the Books competitions per week for Joseph:

Basketball games every Friday night for Joseph, in which we were able to see him put into practice many of the new basketball skills he has worked so hard on:

Next in the Birthday Month lineup, Joseph's actual birthday (two weeks after his birthday party)

Joseph's birthday started very early in the morning for me. I remembered during the night that he had requested white powdered donuts as part of his birthday meal (which also included strawberries, muffins, and bacon.) I had forgotten to buy the oh-so-important donuts, so after I got Dan and Bailey off to Seminary I dashed over to the nearby Minit Mart and grabbed an incredibly overpriced package of donuts.

And, it turns out, the Franz brand donuts are not nearly as preferred by the Porter kids as is the Hostess brand. Thus, my early morning donut run was in vain and no one ate them.

I think this next series of pictures is funny. We brought in Joseph's tray of food and sang him happy birthday and then I started taking some pictures. First it looked like he couldn't even open his eyes.

March birthdays marched onward . . . Aubrey turned 14!

Aubrey's birthday fell on Fast Sunday this year, which meant that she didn't have the traditional breakfast in bed. Instead, we planned to have her come home from church, climb into pjs, and then receive her "breakfast in bed" at 2 p.m.

It didn't quite work out that way, but she was flexible.  At church we realized that some good friends needed to spend the day in the hospital with their oldest son, so we invited their four younger kids to come over to our house. When the friends came to drop the younger kids off, we invited them to share some of our piping hot french toast with buttermilk syrup. They were happy to get some lunch, but poor Aubrey . . . we had her breakfast in bed tray ready to transport upstairs but got distracted by the company. Eventually she came downstairs where she enjoyed her brunch with the rest of us.

Everything is Awesome . . . Joseph's 9th birthday

Joseph had a fantastic birthday, starting with a party a few weeks before his birthday. We timed the party to coincide with the release of the new Lego movie.

 Dan and I worked together to decorate for the party

As each of the eight kids arrived they were greeted and handed a scorecard for six fun activities. When they had completed all six they could earn a prize (candy for the Lego movie).

Update on life

We wore what in the 1980s?

Today at Joseph's school it was "dress like the 70s and 80s day" for a spirit week activity. I have to admit that I was stumped by this one. I mean, I lived through the 70s and 80s, and as far as I remember the boys dressed pretty much like they dress now - jeans and Tshirts.  Joseph told me that I was wrong, and in the 70s and 80s everyone (boys and girls) wore tie-dye shirts and neon pink headbands around their heads.  When we got to the school, sure enough, everyone had on neon headbands and tie-dye. How strange it is to have lived long enough to see extreme and convoluted interpretations of fashions of a particular era. Wait . . . does that mean that in the 50s they didn't all wear poodle skirts and ponytails or white Tshirts with leather jackets every day??

I have passed 3rd grade three more times