Music Festival and Saylor "skiing"

Andrew and Carter had Music Festival today at CSI.

Steve worked all morning and was due home right when I was planning on taking the boys to their performance/judging.

Carter had alternative plans and had hatched a scheme for Steve to take them so they could go to the Pawn  Shop afterwards.  (classy...real classy)

So...I stayed home and tried to take a nap while Steve took ALL FOUR kids to CSI.  The man is wonderful.  I was under strict instructions to sleep.  

Yesterday I contracted about every 10 minutes from around 4pm-11pm.  I hurt today like nobodies business.

I tried to sleep as I was ordered to...but Colby got hold of Steve's phone and the kids started texting me pictures from Festival.

Some of these pictures Steve had taken and some of them were obviously the art of a less mature individual.  (Colby)

I enjoyed the texts for a while and then texted back a picture of myself trying to sleep.  (I won't post that picture mostly because of my own pride.  Sleeping squished face is not my best look.)

Steve was sneaky and took this picture of Carter through the performance room window.

Carter didn't know he was there until he looked up.

Andrew waiting in the wings.

Sneaky Dad did it again.

 Steve also texted me the boys' score sheets.

Four days ago I listened to Carter play his songs and was sick to my stomach.  He had not practiced enough and didn't have one of songs even close to being ready.  I spent almost an hour a day the last few days working and practicing with him.  He was champ and hardly complained.

This was his result- a perfect score.

Now I fully realize that in the younger groups the judging is extremely lenient...but Carter worked his tail off the last week and I am so happy he got this small pay off for his huge effort!

My favorite part?  10 full points for looking "very sharp"

Here's Andrews score sheet.

He also got a superior rating.

Hurray!

However, as you move into the higher levels...the judging gets a bit more difficult.

His judge (which he told me was an older lady who seemed very tired and grumpy.  Who wouldn't be listening to the same songs over and over all day long?) gave plenty of suggestions for improvement in addition to compliments.  I'm happy he got constructive criticism from someone other than me.

Andrew worked very hard on these songs and had practiced enough to even satisfy his picky mother.  He deserved this score.

(Pretty happy he got full points for Stage Presentation too.  I like to think I have handsome boys and that's why they earned the full 10 points.  That, or because I spent so much time ironing their shirts this morning...I'm living in my own fantasy world, I know.)

Now to Colby's artistic phone pictures.

He took quite a few, but these two were my favorite...

I asked Steve if he posed for this one.

"No...I was just standing there."

Wowsers!

I had no idea an IPhone camera could get such a crisp close up shot.

Thanks Colby for documenting what your eye looks like.

I'm just really grateful you didn't have a roaring case of conjunctivitis when this was taken...that would have been horrific!

Other gems caught with Steve's phone this week?

 Saylor "skiing"...I use quotes around skiing because these pictures are anything but.

Steve took just Saylor on Thursday to Pomerelle.

  Saylor is progressing nicely in her skiing skills and now goes down the hill all by herself.  I have some pretty cute video of her holding her hula-hoop and making a perfect pizza wedge.

However, Steve admits that she spends a lot of her time resting.

And after only about 30 minutes on the hill she declared it time for hot chocolate.

Steve was more than happy to indulge.

Lucky Lucky girl.

She's had more than one "Ski Date" with just her and Daddy this year.

(Confession...I'm a little jealous!  I think Saylor has been skiing with only Steve more than I have.)

I survived another year...

The 2013 Perrine Elementary Science Fair was held Wednesday.

For me, this included Tuesday for set up and Thursday for open house and take down.

I'm tired, mentally exhausted and looking forward to being stuck in my house today.

(Still in my pj's at the moment.  Carter is home "sick" and I couldn't be happier about it!)

The Fair went well with only one unfortunate judging mishap that I need to make right.  It's not the end of the world, but I still have chest pains that it happened.  The affected participant was very gracious...to her credit...but oh man how I wish I could have caught the mistake.  These kids (and parents) put their heart and souls into these projects.  Mistakes can be heart breaking.  Blast.

 Things to finish up still are trophies to be ordered and thank you notes to sponsors and judges.

I have help so this shouldn't be too daunting (why are thank you notes so daunting?).  I'm hoping to have everything wound up by next week.

In all the madness (I'm 9 months pregnant so I'm giving myself a little slack) I forgot to take pictures of my kids in front of their boards.  They were too busy playing with friends and having fun at the open house.

I was too busy sitting...trying not to contract.

Yeah, I'm done.

Carter did extremely well and came in first out of almost 20 projects in the third grade.

(I lost count of the official number after a few projects no-showed)

The kid owned his project and the judges told me he was awesome.

...just ask him why popcorn pops and this boy will give you an earful.

Plus, he even told his judges how many carbs were in a cup of popped corn.  Diabetics are smart this way!  

Colby did well too.

Out of only three first grade projects...

 Colby came in 2nd.

The boy who beat him last year is almost unstoppable.

(We have a trick up our sleeve for next year.  We'll get him one day...we have four more years to try!)

The best story about Colby and his judge was relayed by a friend who was volunteering and overheard part of Colby's juding.

His judge asked him to tell her what the charts and graphs meant.  He relpied, "There are right there...just read them!"

We need to work on his presentation skills.  (Oh brother)

 I did snap a few pictures of my boys and a few of their friends to send along with thank you notes.

(I asked permission to use these cute faces of course)

 I may not have a picture of Carter and his board, but I did get a picture of him and his posse.

These are the self proclaimed "Littles".

All three boys are all a tiny bit "vertically challenged" and tend to flock together.

They make up for stature in pure talent, charisma and personality.

These boys are a kick!

 I hope these three can stick together through high school and be the support system that every teenage boy needs.

I get chills when I think about them growing up and serving missions at the same time.

In about nine years these boys will be unstoppable.

Army of Heleman I tell you.

Seriously...love these boys.

Texting with Carter

I'm now texting directly to Carter at 9:30 and 1:30...and anytime he feels the need for motherly diabetes advice.

I'm getting a kick out of his messages.

I love how they are spelled phonetically as he tries to write words most third graders should never have to worry about spelling. 

For example here is a text from Feb 28, 9:25 am:

"113 snack with unseen"

"Inselen"

This was him trying to spell insulin...twice.  Love it.

This morning at 9:23:

Carter:  280

Me:  Would you adjust your blood sugar and tell me how much it says to give u?

Carter:  1.25

Me:  Give yourself 1.0 then have a snack with insulin. Ok?

Carter:  Ok by the way my ifush set Bert's 

Herts

Me:  I'm sorry.  If it is still bothering u after school we can change it and put it higher!  Do u need more snacks brought in?

Carter:  No bye

Me:  Bye!

Translation???

 My infusion set hurts. 

Chuckling that he wrote ifush set Bert's...and then Herts.   Spell check on these phones can be a real bugger.

And then every once in a while I get a random text from the basement.

Carter:  What's for dinner?

Me:  Food

Carter:  What kind of food

Me:  Good food.

Cat food.  (I'm mean like this)

Carter:  Ok

This texting thing is going to be comical to say the least.

Summer of 2007

At VCU there was a program where 3rd year dental students could work under a practicing dentist during the summer before their 4th year for extra practice.

We knew just the dentist to set us up.  (Thanks Gary!)

Permission slips were signed and our family flew across the country to work (oh...I mean play) in Twin Falls.

We moved in with my parents for six weeks.

Let me repeat that...my poor mother had our family of five living with her for SIX WEEKS.

I still can't believe we did that to her...but will be forever grateful for her hospitality.

Trying to keep Colby happy on a cross country flight.

 Carter was much easier to entertain.

(love that you can tell he is watching Star Wars)

So Steve worked, and I played.

It was a fabulous summer where we soaked in as much family as possible...we had lived away for four years and it was oh-so-good to be home.

The following millions of pictures are just a few of the things we did to entertain ourselves during those six weeks.

Water fun and Aunt JaNae's.

 To have a real back yard?  What would that be like?

 Colby, Wes and Grandma Walker!

 Grandpa Walker is always good for a horsey ride.

Walker cousins

Steve practiced a little pediatric dentistry...

 but let the real professional step in when things got serious.

(Wait a minute...isn't that man an optometrist?)

Tubs at Grandma's house are always more fun than at home.

(How big was this tub that they needed goggles?)

This tubby I'm sure was not on purpose.

His shoes are still on for heavens sakes!

 When he wasn't pulling teeth without a licence, Grandpa Walker was always good for a tractor ride.

 Wasp killing with Grandpa Dixon should be an Olympic sport.

No really, it should.

Dixon cousins were a-plenty this summer too!

 As were fireworks and tank wars on the 4th of July...not to mention the homemade ice cream!

We love our Grandma and Grandpa Dixon!

 We attended the oldest Walker grandchild's baptism.

Walker looked oh so handsome in his suit!

(Everyone in this picture has been baptized since.  Where did the last 5 1/2 years go?)

 Typical family shot of insanity.

Swimming lessons were taken.

Vision was checked.

 Haircuts were given.

(Goldfish are a great distraction)

 More baths were taken.

These kids must have been really dirty!

 No really...they got clean a lot.

Even though I don't think this really counts as a getting clean tub, more of a play in Grandma Dixon's huge tub of awesomeness!

 Even a few uncles this summer were wrestled to the ground.

One huge event for our family this summer was attending my Mom's Barzee reunion at Bear Lake.
(It was a little bright...)

Love this picture!

It shows the true emotion of taking family pictures.

One Walker grandchild even ended up in the corner right after this shot was taken and I have the picture to prove it...I'll spare that child the humiliation by not printing his/her name!

All of my siblings and our latest offspring.

Jolyn was expecting her first baby (a girl) that winter.

 Another family shot.

Andrew had been threatened with his life to happy-up and smile.

(...maybe he was the cousin in the corner???)

At the reunion, my Grandfather's restored saddle was brought for everyone to see.

All the kids got a turn trying it out.

 Of course, we had to get lots of pictures of Colby with his identical twin.

The resemblance between these two gets closer and closer as Colby gets older...at least I think so.

 Right before it was time to fly back to Virginia...we celebrated Andrew's 7th birthday.

He wanted a Harry Potter cake.

I'm not one to buy bakery cakes (at least I wasn't back then) and this monstrosity of over dyed frosting was the beginning of my steady decline in motherly birthday effort.

Thank you Andrew for letting me know how awesome it is to buy your child's happiness.

 Andrew and Walker

 Seriously...so happy with this hideous nasty thing.

Or maybe the happiness was from the money.

(Does the gleam in his eye remind anyone of my previous post?  We start our kids early with the love of the green stuff.  It's shameful.)

Money Talks

It pays to be smart at Andrew's school.

It pays cold hard cash.

Each semester, every time a student reaches 100 AR points, their name is put into a raffle for $100.

Andrew won for the 7th grade today.

He came into the van after school holding this beauty.

He's rich...and lucky.

He felt bad for the kid in his SSC class that had earned well over 1,000 AR points and had his name in the drawing many many times.  Andrew had his name in once.  

I asked if anyone ran to the front of the stage screaming "I volunteer as tribute!"

Andrew looked at me with a blank stare.

"Oh yeah, I didn't let you watch that movie.  Sorry."

One day he'll get that reference.

In the meantime, I think his brain is on overload stewing over what to buy.

I'm guessing something that will rot his teeth or his mind.  

...hopefully not that projector for his room.