Jack-O-Lanterns and Field of Screams

Since Jenna's birthday was this week she decided to have a get-together with friends. They all came over to our house to carve pumpkins. The jack-o-lanterns looked great! She also made a carameled apple bar with caramel and a variety of toppings. After carving pumpkins they all headed over to the Field of Screams for the haunted corn maze. Fun night! 

Jenna's Birthday Party!!

Jenna had her birthday party tonight. She planned the whole thing herself and made the invitations. She even made her own birthday cakes! She made one gluten free and one regular. She invited Clarissa and Anna to come over early to help her make and decorate them. I told her that she had to keep the party small this year. If you look at last year's birthday party you can see why!! This year's party was scheduled from 7:00 to 10:00. It was much more simple than last year and went great! 

Jenna wanted to paint canvases, have cake and ice-cream (and hot chocolate), and watch a movie. So that is what they did! She told them to bring their pajamas. They painted their canvases and then Jenna gave out a prize for each painting (most colorful, most detail, most funny, Birthday's Girls choice -- you get the idea). Then she opened her presents and had cake and ice-cream. They ended up watching Maleficent on Disney Plus. It ended ten minutes before the girls were to be picked up and so it was perfect! 

(Tonight Jaiden started her new job at Tuacahn. Thankfully Emily works there too and could give her ride since Janelle had the car to go to work. Josh was gone to his Cross Country meet in Cedar City! So Jenna and her friends had the house to themselves!)  

(Pictured: Clarissa Williams, Jenna Jensen, Amy Ence, Ella Thomas, Cortnie Kendrick, Lindsey Gardner) 

 

Scavenger Hunt: Jaiden and Friends

 Jaiden and her friends went on a fun scavenger hunt at their friends' 16th birthday party (Hailee Phillips and Keira Howard). They divided up into three groups and took pictures at various locations. Fun! (This group included Jaiden, Emily Williams, Lizzie Bryner, Emma Hansen, David Bennett, and Lane Reeves).

Cross Country, Soccer, Work, and Parties!!

Josh joined the high school Cross Country team. I am really happy about that! It was quite a bit more expensive than I remembered though! They train every morning at 6:00 so Josh has to get up at 5:30 in order to ride his bike to the school for practice. I am proud of him for being disciplined enough to get up on his own and get there. I went to the parent meeting and was so impressed with all of the coaches and the overall feeling of the team. In fact, the meeting was so motivational that I decided to start running again too! (Just not at 6:00 a.m.!)

Josh also tried out for club soccer again. Both teams (05 and 06) offered him a position on their team but he decided on the 06 team instead of "playing up." They suggested that he double roster on both teams but I was worried about him being too busy -- especially if he is also doing Cross Country and maybe track. He usually C-passes on the 05 games anyway.

Josh had a belated birthday party (Pickleball party) Friday at 9:00 a.m. He made it early so that it wouldn't be too hot. Jared agreed to supervise, so I didn't even have to go, ha ha! They then swam at our house and then went to one of the other boy's houses to continue the fun. So they partied all day long and well into the evening! These boys are all the same age -- as you can see Josh is the smallest one in the group. What he lacks in height he makes up in speed and agility! Hopefully he has a growth spurt within the next couple of years! 

Jaiden went to Mariposa's birthday party -- swimming at her cousin's house. They then watched a movie Friday night.

Jenna had TWO birthday parties today. Her friend, Clarissa, and her friend, Lindsey, share a birthday and so they always have to coordinate their parties every year so that they aren't at the same time! Lindsey's party was a High School Musical Party in the afternoon and Clarissa's was a glow stick party in the evening.

Rick and I went on a date -- dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, some errands, and then watched a movie together. It was really good -- "Mao's Last Dancer." Josh and Jenna might find it interesting because of the Chinese language and culture.

Other events: Jared got a job at Caption Call (even though we had some reservations -- some like it, but others hate it). Jared is so social and so good with people that this type of work (monotonous and behind a screen) might not be the best fit for him, but at least he can start earning money and then later he can look for something else when the economy has recovered somewhat. Janelle has been working a lot at Papa Murphy's and Jaiden applied for a couple of jobs.

I started back up at one of my jobs -- just a few hours a week. This quarantine has really hit the deaf and interpreting community hard and there has been almost no work available. So I am grateful that one of my jobs started up again and that it will be continuing throughout the summer. I had trouble finding a "communicator mask" with a clear plastic window so that the deaf person can see my lips, and so I was grateful that Janika connected me with someone she knew who could make some masks for me. Thankfully it does the trick -- although I hate wearing a mask! Wearing a normal mask is annoying enough -- wearing one with plastic is even worse! But at least I am able to work a few hours a week!  

The neighbor boys are loving having Jared around again to play with them! 

Josh's Birthday Party

The kids were out of school today for Easter Break but DSU was still open and so I still had classes to interpret for this morning.  Before I left I boiled all of the eggs for Josh's party and baked his birthday cake.  Rick was off too and was getting ready to go work out and then go to the temple.  I told him I was worried that the kids wouldn't get the house clean and get everything ready for Josh's birthday without one of us there and so he dropped his plans and stayed home to help out, for which I was grateful.  The kids filled all of the Easter Eggs with candy for the Easter Egg hunt and Jared filled up about 250 water balloons.  I got home at lunch time and then hurried to finish cleaning everything up before the party.

The party turned out really well.  We had 14 kids there (including our four youngest).  Everyone dyed eggs and then Jared helped all of the kids launch balloons.  Then Janelle and Layla hid all of the eggs for an Easter Egg Hunt.  All of the activities were a big hit!  Josh opened his gifts (and got a lot of fun ones) and then we had cake and ice-cream.  The kids put on music and played and danced in the basement.  Things were getting a little wild and crazy the last few minutes with the kids playing tackle football in the basement and so I was glad that it was almost time for parents to come start picking up their kids.  I was glad that everything went smoothly and that Josh could have a fun birthday party!