Blue and Gold

At the Blue and Gold banquet last month, Talmage received his Wolf badge.  Aaron is all dressed up because he is our new Cub Master.  I am the Primary counselor over Cub Scouts.  So our family is learning to be "scouty".

The Book of Mormon Celebración Exhibit

On Saturday our family went down to Temple Square to see the new "A Book of Mormon Celebración for Children" exhibit in the Church History Museum.  We took some pictures and a lovely sideways video (sorry) of the kids learning to do a Mexican dance.  This exhibit focuses on Latin American saints and their stories of faith and service.  There was also a replica of the Gold Plates, an area with wooden dolls to act out scripture stories, large soft building blocks for building a tower or a city wall, and a large boat to let the kids pretend they were with Nephi sailing to the promise land.

 Here the kids learned about a man who transported church members and investigators to church in the back of his fathers dump truck.  Some days he had to make 3 full trips to get everyone who wanted to go to church to the building.

This was Anya's favorite-- CHICKENS!  Here they learned about children who gave their best chicken to a family in need because we should give our best when we serve.

 Pretending to sail to the promise land.

 Preparing a "missionary meal.  In this picture you can see my new haircut.

As we were leaving the museum someone was looking for somebody who could speak Japanese.  Aaron thought he could be of assistance.  Little did he know they needed someone to translate for a museum tour!  He did his best and I quickly snapped this picture.  He has since had time to look up some words he didn't know before in Japanese-- like oxen and covered wagon.

Honors Recital

Last week Talmage played at the ASTA solo festival and was asked to play in the Honors Recital.  He played Lightly Row-- a super easy piece for him.  We just attended the recital tonight and he was the first to play.  I think they did it by level.  He is level 1 violin.  After him was the cutest little cello player.  By the end of the recital we heard some amazing advanced violinists and we also got to enjoy listening to some great cellos and a massive bass.

 Here is Talmage outside the Dansante before the recital.

It was a cool venue for him to be able to play at.

 

Here is Talmage's performance.  Unfortunately he was a bit flat on several notes and so listening to this makes my ears cringe.  I'll have to post some of what he is currently working on soon.

Eating My Compost

This dear was caught in the act!  I've taken to yelling out the backdoor, "Hey! Get out of my compost!"  That usually gets them ambling off our property.  The kids have been  trying to come up with ways to protect our garden this spring/summer. They want to plant a pumpkin patch in one part and have plans for me to plant lots of delicious vegetables in the rest.   Fences are out because these guys can really jump.  Talmage wants to scare them away with something but doesn't know what.  I think we need some kind of deer repellent--any ideas?

Little Snow Machines

I went to a meeting and left the kids and Aaron at home to get some chores done.  When I got home this is what I found.  They had done their work and then joined the neighbors in playing in the snow.  Our neighbors have these cute little snow machines (that's what they call them in Idaho) but they may be called snow mobiles here.  Anyway, the kids loved them.  I was surprised that they had Anya driving it with two younger boys on a sled behind it.  They obviously didn't know that she turns into Cruella deville when she drives.  In the end everyone survived and had a great time.  Talmage enjoyed doing his own thing and figuring out how it all worked.  The little boys didn't want to drive and they loved the ride Anya gave them.  It was a perfect match all around.