survived the seder

I survived the Seder last night! Wahoo! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the evening -- you know, to prove that it really happened and that it really was a huge deal! A bunch of us set up the tables and chairs at the stake center on Monday night. I took the family with me and we called it a family service project/FHE activity. We set up 47 tables and 235 chairs. We had a full house last night. We ran short of salad (that never happens!) and had to dash out at the last moment for more lettuce. When we got to the church at 4:30 to set up, Bro. Rona told us that he needed kids -- about 10 of them to join us for the evening. Say what?! We scrounged up some girls that were willing to dress up and participate in the evening, and you know what? the girls had a fabulous time! The evening was long -- 2 1/2 hours of listening to him speak. Everything about the passover meal is symbolic and it was very enlightening -- if I could pay attention the whole time, which I couldn't, because of being in and out with the food and sitting near the back. Despite that I did learn a few things. The salad, soup and sorbet were good. The matzah was like a cracker or crouton and went well with the soup. The horseradish smelled bitter, as expected, but I didn't actually taste it -- I think I was serving soup or something during that part of the meal. The haroset -- an apple, nut, date, cinnamon mixture-- smelled like apple pie, but needed more sugar to suit my taste if I were going to eat much of it. Clean-up of the event went much faster than expected and I got home around 10:00. It's good to have this event over, but there's much work to be done for the next one...

notes on the week

The week began with my RS dinner plans for next week exploding. Oh the joy! The other ward who shares our building invited us to participate with them in hosting a passover meal for our March RS meeting. We thought that sounded great and each ward decided to plan for 60 people -- a total of 120. No big deal. Well, the idea was so popular that lots and lots of people wanted to come (this should be perceived as a good thing) and so with limited space in our building we jumped through a bazillion hoops and commandeered the stake center for the evening. Once we knew we could have more space we mistakenly told people that and allowed more people to sign up to come and bring a guest, if they wanted. This exploded our numbers to 225!! Who knew?!No more people allowed!! This brought on a whole new set of problems, including wondering if our stake even had enough tables to seat that many (because you can only sit on one side of a rectangular table and round tables are taboo for this event) and if that many tables would fit with the requisite amount of space between them! So, I've spent hours calling people to confirm their presence and count invited guests. I've measured gyms and tables and counted paper products. I'm delivering invitations and delegating stuff left and right. I'll be grocery shopping tomorrow and distributing food for people to cook next week. I'll be glad when the event actually takes place and concludes next week.

In sports news, Jacob began spring soccer yesterday with a cold and windy game. We hadn't planned on playing spring soccer, but since he has the uniform and the team only has 6 kids anyway (they play 4 vs. 4), we decided to play. He was very excited! Hopefully soccer games won't conflict with baseball games in the coming weeks.

Ryan received word from his basketball coach this week that he has been nominated to the all-star team! Ryan was really excited! Apparently this nomination will involve some sort of a tryout next week, a couple practices and one all-star game to be played in mid-April. I'm excited for him -- its a nice reward for giving his best effort all season despite frustrating losses.

Jared has been furiously working on merit badge requirements this week. He is sooo close to finishing up 3 required badges. He even attended the political caucus meeting with Mark on Tuesday to take notes on a public meeting in which different points of view are expressed. And boy, were there differing opinions on several issues! I think he rather enjoyed himself actually.

Toss in all the regular weekly scheduled stuff, visiting teaching, and some small out-of-the-ordinary issues, and we're having an unexpectedly busy week. There's always something though -- that's just life. Keeps us out of trouble I suppose.

jacob lost a tooth

Tuesday night Jacob finally got brave enough to lose his first tooth! It was wiggly, wiggly, wiggly, but wouldn't come out with just a good tug. So Jacob got brave and Dad got the needle-nose pliers, and just like that his tooth was gone!

He was sooooo excited! He couldn't get to sleep for a long time that night. He finally fell asleep with a death-grip on the tooth envelope that he placed under his pillow. Somehow the tooth-fairy managed to pry the envelope out of his hand, without waking him, and replace the tooth with a silver dollar!

He was completely happy with his money and toothless grin. That's one reason I like this picture so much -- you can see the excitement in his eyes. And, I finally captured a REAL smile!

pinewood derby

Here's Ryan with his pinewood derby creation: His car is the one on the left. They're ready to go!

Waiting anxiously near the finish line.

Look at those cars whiz down the racetrack!

A photo finish for that race for sure. Ryan's car took first in this heat. After 70 some odd races, Ryan finished 2nd place overall! Wa-hoo! A big sigh of relief and much rejoicing ended the evening!

Note: Pinewood derby car-building is a PAIN! We're just glad we managed to get one built and ready to compete. We hoped it wouldn't spontaneously combust into a million pieces after one trip down the track. And it's one of those events where we really tried to prepare Ryan ahead of time to just be a good sport and have fun regardless of what happens -- we finish last, middle, or at the front, and most likely NOT first! This year we got lucky and finished in the top. We're glad to be done and glad to not have to worry about anther derby car for a couple years!

once there was a snowman

About two weeks ago, we finally managed to get enough snow to play in. The snow was really wet and Matthew was so anxious to go out and build a snowman, that I allowed him to head out still dressed in his pj's. We built this little snowman together and snapped a picture. Not even two minutes later the snowman had toppled over and by afternoon all the snow was completely melted! It was a good thing that Matthew dragged me out first thing in the morning or we would have missed out on the snow.

the 3 F's of basketball

Fun. Frustrating. Finally over. Jared & Ryan finished up their basketball seasons this week. They've had some fun with friends, lots of frustration with team members and losses, and now it's finally over. As much as we all love basketball around here, I think we are all ready for a change. The most likely change will be watching basketball instead of playing. Let the March Madness begin -- go BYU and Jazz! Here's a couple of pictures of Jared (he's in the white jersey):

Last night Ryan scored 90% of his team's points, but you just can't do it alone and come out with a win -- unless you're a Michael Jordan or a Kobe Bryant, of course. Here's a few pictures of Ryan:

Despite the losing season for each of the boys, they've both done well at improving their skills. I am proud of each of them for sticking out the season and giving their best efforts in every single game!!

star scout

Jared officially recieved his Star Scout rank advancement last week! Yay! He also earned 2 more merit badges: dentistry and safety.

He's got 5 more merit badges in the works. If he can get those finished up by May or June, he'll have his Life rank and could get started on an eagle project this summer. Wow. That's ambitious-- not sure I'm ready for that!