New, But Not Exciting

USU Piano Festival

Megan and Ian both participated in the Piano Festival again this year. We enjoyed listening to our children perform as well as several others. It is amazing how much talent young children have these days. They each received a certificate of participation and judges' comments (along with the experience of preparing, practicing, memorizing, and performing their pieces). We are very pleased with the progress they have each made over the past year.

Reading Time

Erin had a play date with her friend Afton the other day. This reading moment was just too cute to pass up. Afton was "reading" her version of the book, while Erin (who has this particular series memorized) was trying to correct her and tell her what the words really were. In retrospect, we should have filmed a short video to catch all the cute dialog.











Jean Bag

Earth Day awareness inspired this creation this week. Kevin pledged to plant a native shrub in our yard, and April chose to reuse some old pants. One can always use another non-plastic, reusable bag, right? This is April's 3rd attempt at making a jean bag, and she has almost perfected her pattern (now she just needs to write down all the dimensions so that she has a record for next time). This time the bag is wide enough to accommodate LOTS of books for library trips. The bag was actually made from jeans plus some of Kevin's old work slacks. The calico fabric and lining fabric are from scraps given to us (yes, April has a problem with hoarding fabric that people give away because "someday" she might have a use for it--like the days she makes jean bags). This distraction is one of the reasons why our dried fruit monster (see below) depleted our jar of plums.








Dried Fruit Monster

Lately Erin has been getting into our dried fruit and consuming large portions of it. Granted, the times to which we are referring, April left the jars out on the counter instead of putting them back into the high cupboard where Erin can't reach. (Note: We vacuum pack our dried fruit into mason jars for long-term storage in our pantry just in case anyone wonders why dried fruit comes in jars.) One afternoon Erin got a pint jar of raisins that had just been opened and ate almost the ENTIRE pint! Just yesterday she took the quart jar of dried plums which was still about 2/3 full. "Mom, I left some for you," she innocently said when April discovered what she had been doing. We'll have to dry double the amounts we did last year if she keeps eating at this rate! Actually, we are thrilled she's eating healthier snacks instead of constantly asking for candy treats, though we do worry about potential short-term digestive repercussions.