Happy Birthday Jaiden!!

Wednesday 31: Jaiden is officially a teenager!! Yesterday I brought her birthday shopping for some summer clothes, church shoes, swimsuits, and other items. Rick brought her shoe shopping for running shoes last Saturday. She received two birthday cards in the mail -- one from Grandma Jensen and one from Grandma and Grandpa Westra. She is blessed to have such wonderful grandparents!

Jaiden woke up to the young women's birthday sign on the grass and a cupcake and eos from the YW. She opened up the presents she had picked out yesterday and wrapped herself. I added a couple of surprise gifts. Her friends, Lizzie Bryner and Emily Williams, came on their bikes to pick her up. Lizzie's gift to Jaiden was an outing that she had planned. The girls took her on a treasure hunt with clues around the neighborhood. The treasure was a card inviting her to lunch with a list of possible options. Lizzie's mom then brought the three girls out to lunch at Judd's. Jaiden loved the gift and time with friends! 

Jaiden played and swam with friends in the afternoon and Rick grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. She and Janelle went to YW, which consisted of a color chalk battleship game and dodge ball. Then we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and had brownies and ice-cream.  

We had Jaiden's "friend" party the next day so that it wouldn't conflict with Young Womens.  She invited Emily, Lizzie, and Gracie Newby. I brought the girls to Laser Mania for laser tag and arcade games. Then they came back to the house for cake and ice-cream. Jaiden made a gluten free cake and it was very delicious! The girls then went swimming until 10:00. It was fun listening them chatter away -- cute girls!

 

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Rick and the kids slept out on the tramp last night. It was warm when they started but said that it got really cold during the night and that they were freezing.

I took Janelle, Jaiden, and Jenna hiking (walking) early this morning on a little trail that starts from the Jacob Hamblin home. We then picked up Rick, Janika, and Josh and brought some flowers to Eliza William's grave-site. Jaiden suggested yellow since that was her favorite color.

At the cemetery Rick asked me if we should consider buying some plots in that cemetery. When the kids asked why he would want to do that he was explaining that when a death occurred it made things a little easier if the plots were already purchased so that you aren't having to make a lot of emotional decisions while going through the grief process. He explained that he would be buried next to me, and Jenna said, "I want to be buried next to Clarissa!" You know you have a good friend when you want to be buried next to them! 

Rick decided it would be fun for the kids to have a summer "spelling bee."  A few days ago he printed off a list of grade-level words for each of our kids and today was going to be a practice for the real thing. The catch was when they missed a word, they got thrown into the pool. The kids all did remarkably well and Jaiden was the winner, and thus the only one who wasn't thrown in. But she didn't want to be left out and jumped in.  Actually we let Josh off the hook too (from being thrown in) since he has a cold/allergies.

The rest of the day we let the kids play with friends and swim and so forth and then had a barbecue tonight.

EFY Training!!

Janika has the wonderful opportunity of being an EFY counselor this summer! She will be awesome! This week she attended a training. They split off into companies and had a mock EFY session. This is her company!

Activity Day's Tea Party!

Our Activity Day leaders, Bev Knox and Karen Phillips, do such a great job! Jenna and I went to a mother/daughter Tea Party for Activity Days today. They had tables set up with china plates and tea-cups and had a little spread of sandwiches, fruit cups, and cheese cake squares. We had been instructed to bring a baby picture of both us and our daughter and then they displayed them all and we tried to match up the mom's pictures to their daughter's pictures.

The girls filled out an "all about me" card and the moms filled out one from when we were their age.  I can't remember much of anything from when I was 8 years old and so I had to pull memories from when I was a little older. Then we all decorated cupcakes! Karen Phillips had made a batch of gluten free ones for me and Jenna and sent the rest home with us afterwards! Fun!

Student Council

Jaiden has enjoyed serving on the Student Council for Lava Ridge this past year. She is also excited that she was chosen to serve on the Student Council for Snow Canyon Middle School next year. Even better is that her two best friends will be on Student Council with her. They are excited! Today the student council set up, hosted, and cleaned up the end of year school party!

Jared State Track

Jared ran four races in the State Track meet. He ran the the 4X100 (preliminaries and finals), 4X400, and the Medley relay.  His team won 2nd place overall in the 4X100!! In the 4X4 they won 8th overall and in the medley they won 7th overall.

His 4X100 is Jared, Johan Castro, Keivontae Washington, and Gohki Tsuchida. Gohki is a foreign exchange student from Japan and Jared is really going to miss him! I love the diversity on their relay team. Gohki described their 4X100 team as "white cracker, taco, hot chocolate, and yellow banana!"I am sure anyone else would be called racist if they said that, but it is Gohki and he can get away with it!

 

Jared was pretty excited and inspired to meet Hunter Woodhall, who runs with 2 prosthetic legs. He won first place in the 400 meter, breaking the State record! Jared's coach knows him and invited him to come over to the hotel room where all of the SCHS kids were hanging out and they were all excited to hang out with him! 

Spa Party

Janika's missionary training, Megan Riggs, is currently living in St. George and came by to visit with her. So that was fun!  After she left I went in the basement and found Jenna hosting a "spa" party. It was so cute!

Jaiden's Concert

I really enjoyed Jaiden's Choir Concert tonight. They sounded phenomenal!! It was originally going to be outside on the lawn, but the weather turned cold and windy and so it was inside instead. They had it in the commons area with the choir on risers and the audience members on the lunch benches. I am not sure why they didn't have it in the Little Theater, maybe there wasn't enough room. It was actually a nice arrangement though. There was plenty of room for everyone and the acoustics were great! Jaiden had a little solo in in Hallelujah, from Shrek.

 

 

The next night Jaiden's Choir had their "Giving Back" concert and dinner for community members. Each choir member was asked to invite one guest. Jaiden invited Cindy Frei and Emily invited JoAnn Lindsey.  It looked like a nice event! I was a little stressed because it overlapped with Jaiden's jazz class. I thought I hurried her over afterwards, but there was only ten minutes left of class. At least she was able to run through the song once or twice!

Josh's Fifth Grade Program

I went to Josh's fifth grade patriotic program/graduation this afternoon. This is my sixth time seeing this program and I get a little emotional every time! I love patriotic songs and contemplating on the blessings of living in a free country as the children sing. Josh said that they only started learning the songs a week ago. You would never know it, they sounded awesome!

Those kids who passed off all of the requirements also received their "Give Me Liberty Award." Josh was extremely motivated and was the second person in their whole fifth grade to pass off all of his requirements for this award. The kids also received their graduation diplomas! Next year they all move on to the Intermediate School!

Janelle: SCMS Color Blast Party!

Janelle had her end of year color blast party for her school tonight. Looks like fun! 

Mother's Day!!

We had a wonderful Mother's Day!! Jenna brought me breakfast in bed (gluten free honey-nut cheerios and strawberries) on a placement that she made in school. The kids made cute cards in school and church. The kids also sang in church "A Happy Family" and "I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me."

The young men/young women took over primary so that all of the women could attend a special Relief Society.  It was probably more work and worry having the young men and young women take over primary than it was if we had done it ourselves, but that’s okay, it was a good opportunity for them and it was the first time I have been to RS in almost three years. The speaker was good – it was the kick off to a special 60 day Book of Mormon Reading Challenge.

After church we were able to skype Jase!

 

We had a nice meal of barbecued chicken, baked potatoes, salad, and veggies and then we got ready for Mother's Day Tea!