Big Brain Club

Last Friday Nathan and I went to an assembly at school. Follow the links below if you want to know what it was about.

http://prestonmiddleschool.org/pumas-published-big-brain-club/

http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2014/05/02/big-brain-club-says-smart-is-cool/8643565/

We were very surprised about what a big deal this was. We didn't realize it was going to be as big as it was. Pretty great opportunity to be published this early.

Top of the class

Bryn worked on this poster for her math class. The topic was scale factor. She blew up a pack of Extra to be 8 times the regular size. At school they added sides and a back. Of 3 classes work, her was voted into the top 5 to stay in the classroom as samples for next year.

General Women's Conference Trip with Bryn

Airplane selfie

  

(Long ago in Texas, Nathan and I made a few plans for the future. One of them was to take each of our kids to UT when they were 12 years old to attend a Priesthood session of General Conference or a Young Women's meeting. We wanted them to experience it firsthand and feel strength from the numbers gathered there. We also wanted them to have one on one time with us at a transitional time in their life).

Bryn recently celebrated her 12th b-day and we made our plans to attend the General YW meeting. Then, it changed to the General Women's meeting and was going to include all females, age 8 and up. We decided to stick with the plan and keep it at age 12 and have it be alone, even though Caitlin would have been able to come as well.
 

Bryn's view of the SLC temple from the car

We bought plane tickets. We booked a room at my sister's house in SLC and we were off.

We arrived early FR afternoon. Laura taught Bryn how to make a scarf out of Sashsay yarn. I napped and we spent the rest of the day at their home--enjoying a walk outside and playing in their backyard.

Saturday morning we shopping for clothes & shoes. Our first stop was Down East, a clothing line we don't have easy access to. Then, we hit a shoe store and Old Navy.

After lunch we changed clothes and went downtown. We parked at City Creek Mall and went in West Elm for me and Forever 21 for Bryn. After seeing the $575 and $675 shoes in Nordstrom, we quickly left.
We headed to Temple Square and saw many of the sights there. Our next appointment was the Clinique Makeup Counter in Macy's where we picked out some of Bryn's first makeup.

Temple selfie

Bryn's photog skills

Spring Flowers at Temple Square never disappoint

We realized we left our Conference Center tickets in the car, so stopped back to grab them. We found our way to our seats in the conference center. We were in section 8, the highest balcony section, but we were in the second row, so a pretty good view. The best part is that we sat next to some Neuffers from Oregon, who are related to our favorite Neuffers in Chicago. Small world.

Blurry . . . but it gives you an idea of where we sat

It was lovely.

Along with hundreds of other women and their daughters, we wanted Cheesecake Factory after. A 50 minute wait was not for us, so we opted for Chick Fil A instead and drove home.

After church Sunday morning we spent the day at Laura's. Baking, resting, playing games, prepping dinner.

Monday morning was a tour at BYU, followed by a visit to the the Museum of Arts' display Sacred Gifts, (which we loved), and finishing with a tour to the Creamery.

My favorite university

My sister and her husband were excellent hosts and we appreciate their support of this little goal of ours. Two down, three to go.
Love this tradition & recommend it to you and yours.  

Labor Day Adventure

During the summer of 1995, I worked at a camp in New Hampshire. The story of choosing that camp is a long one, but a good one if you talk to me in person. It is called Camp Calumet Lutheran, and if you want to know more about it, click on the name earlier in this sentence.

Every three years they hold a reunion for the staff members who worked there in the 1990's. I was invited to attend and we decided it would be fun to take Andrew & Bryn there. The price of plane tickets and distance did not make it an attractive option to bring everyone. We enlisted my mom to help and made our reservations.

We left on Friday and came back Monday. It's a short time to go so far, but it was worth going.

Looking away from our tent

Road on the property

Family by the lake

Approaching Camp from the lake

Camp road

Memorial garden

Random granite or marble on our hike

Jackman's Ridge (a 10 min hike from Camp, owned by camp)

Hike

Bryn's footprint photo

Frisbee rescue attempt

Frisbee rescue success

Playing on the beach

It was nice to see people I haven't for a long time. We are all older, many with children, all with daily work, many with spouses. The site is beautiful. It rained about 5 inches while we were there--which illustrates why it's so green. We were very unprepared for that kind of moisture. Next time.

We enjoyed tying a quilt, playing frisbee, riding in a canoe, on a pontoon boat, playing basketball, attending a Lutheran service in the outdoor chapel, a gong meditation session [more than one member of our family may have fallen asleep during this], singing camp songs, and visiting with friends. Nathan won the 5 K race.

There were lots more photos, if you are interested, click HERE.

The view

We may or may not have surprised our babysitter.

Colorful Conference Weekend

This weekend we had great weather--have I told you I love where I live? Tuesday the forecast is for more snow . . . . 6 to 12 inches. I will take it.

Loved listening to General Conference together as a family.

Yeah for Cedar City UT for getting your own temple! And Rio De Janeiro. 

We always go to Sunday morning session at the church. It's worth it, but I will be grateful when our littles are able to sit through it better.

I cut out stacks of fabric into smaller stacks for a quilt I am making--I like to have a project to work on while I listen.  
(When I don' t have a project I lay down and fall asleep, so perhaps a project isn't so bad, eh?)

How I love little stacks of fabric

Bryn really wanted to do a "Conference Concession stand" she read about in the Friend.(I can't find the link but will update if I do. You could earn coins by being on time and listening quietly. She & Diana made all the coins and came up with a list of prizes that were free or inexpensive. In between sessions they could cash in for prizes. I didn't want many toys, so we gave away gum, passes to skip turns on chores, little snacks, etc. They also paid me a "materials fee" for the yarn and pencils they used to keep themselves busy. Initially I thought it would not be worth the work, so I just put Bryn in charge of it all. She really liked it, and I think everyone else did too. We will probably do it again.

The purpose: to keep little hands busy

Finger crochet necklaces . . . yard and yards of them.

The prize he bought? A $1 nerf-like football from Target

Speaking of Orange:
Some families do cinammon rolls for General Conference, but I think they are too much work. I think it would be fun to have a conference breakfast tradition, however. I found a recipe for Buttermilk Orange Donut Muffins the other day and gave it a shot--they are very, very good. We'll see if we want them again in 6 months?  

( I have some March posts, I will probably put them backwards in order of when they happened).

Assembly line Won Tons

We've been reading a book Bryn had me check out at the library a few weeks ago.

Dumpling Days

It also inspired tonight's dinner: Wonton Soup
(from an Everyday Food Tara gave me years ago. Can't tell you how many recipes I've been storing and saving for "someday." Must try new things.)

It's the story of a first generation American of Taiwanese descent and her first voyage to Taiwan. Since my family has a little Taiwan connection, it's very interesting. Hearing her talk about dumplings made me want to make this recipe I've been keeping around for years. It was nice to have Bryn's company while I made them . . . they took longer that I thought.

She laid out the wrappers and scooped most of the filling, even though this is my hand

Ready to go but protected with a damp paper towel so they don't dry out too much

My Chief Photographer was home teaching so this blurry pic will have to do

My rating of this recipe: Delicious.

Nathan came home at 7 so he ate dinner after us. He said, "Do these taste better because of the book we are reading?"
I don't know if it's that, or just breaking your fast after a long day, but if you haven't made wontons, this is a good place to start--they show lots of pictures demonstrating the steps.
3/5 of my kids liked the whole soup, one only wanted the broth, and one didn't care for it at all. Pretty good--we don't try to please all the palates at once.

I remember watching my mom make egg rolls when I was little and learning how to wrap them myself when I got older. I love deep fat fried wrapped up meat and cabbage. Boiled in soup is also tasty.

(I've decided to check out some Newberry winning authors--I think that's what my friend in Chicago read. I don't read adult fiction for the most part, but I love a well written story so I thought it would be a good place to begin).

Have a great week.

Brownies and Layered Jello

 Bryn was very determined to make this layered jello dessert for her birthday. We let her at it and she did most of it herself. Dad helped a bit. She also decided that candles weren't going to work very well in jello, so she put them into brownies. Which were mighty gooey themselves. We had a couple of friends over, pizza, and a very good time.

We found our recipe at ourbestbites.com

 She talked about making this dessert again next year, but decided she probably won't. (It looks better than it tastes).

Gift bags included notecards, rubber duckies, a stamp alphabet and a stamp pad.

We let them create for nearly an hour.

She wasn't really working here . . . this is a posed photo.

Grateful this day for Bryn.

September Highlights

"Super Hunts"

The girls had a superhero themed activity night. They were to wear a modest superhero costume. We don't have any of those, so I bought cheap-ish t-shirts and white paint to make a stencil for the "Super Hunts." Nathan spent hours working on the stencils and the girls got to paint their own shirts. The white paint ended up being "Diamond" which turned out clear with lots of glitter in it. Nathan was a good sport about it, even though I am sure he'd have preferred white.

Churchill spends the day

Diana had her turn to bring Churchill, the kindergarten mascot home for the day. We took him on our morning walk/ride with us. I walk and Diana and Ed ride. Diana is on a bike and Eddie in the stroller.
Churchill got a ride with Diana the whole way, but only wore the sunglasses for this photo.

We taught our UT cousins how to play Hungry, Hungry Hippos. I think they loved it, but may have loved electronic games even more.

Sept. 22

Caitlin was baptized on a lovely afternoon in September. She sang "When I am Baptized" with Bryn as a special musical number. Her friend and her mom were able to come, as well as cousins and aunts from near and far. Both sets of grandparents made it for Caitlin's special day, too. We changed into play clothes when we got home and enjoyed the lovely fall weather outside. It was a great day.

Sept. 22

After the baptism was over, these "twin" cousins were ordained deacons. Both of them helped pass the sacrament the following day. A great day for our family to receive ordinances together. We had 25 family members for dinner that day--good thing we have lots of chairs!

View from our home--Longs Peak in the distance

This view shows one of the reasons we love where we live. That lawn out there is playground central most afternoons at our home. The kids ride scooters, rollerblades, and bikes around and around. They raked cut grass in the summer before the lawn crews could come back for it. This week they took out all the snow-shovels and piled up leaves. That photo does not do justice--my camera can't capture how pretty the view really is.
Life is good.