Category: Field Trips (Page 3 of 10)

Valentine’s day done right

February 19, 2014 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

My husband gave me a shower head for Valentine’s day. Uh-huh. Yes he did. Installed it, too. Now that’s what I call a gift.

For a few weeks our shower has been kind of dribbling. Not great. I asked him if he knew what was wrong with it, and he did not. That shower head has been working hard for over 12 years, so I guess it got tired. Instead of buying a new shower head, however, my husband pulled one out of the boxes under our bed, and gave it to me. Instant gift.

What? Why do we have a shower head under our bed? We have a lot of neato shower parts in boxes hidden around the house. You see, several years ago, a certain shower maker wanted to partner with Ryan’s company and do a really cool automated shower. Somehow Ryan was the guy, and we got a whole bunch of shower stuff delivered to our house. Where is the really cool shower? In boxes. Ryan didn’t want to demo the bathroom and redo the whole shower, especially not when we were trying to work on the basement. So, in the boxes it sits.

Until now. Now I have a really cool shower head that does multiple functions. Like a hotel shower. And the cost? FREE. Better than flowers in my opinion.

(I gave him a shirt. A pink shirt, no less. Because we are ALL about the sappy valentines day stuff here.)

BUT, the next night, we got all dressed up and went to a Ball. Yes, that’s right, a BALL. A Regency ball. Where people dress up in their best Pride and Prejudice era garb and eat fancy food with the right forks and all that.

A friend of ours was turning 40 and wanted to throw herself a ball. She LOVES stuff like this. Well, it wasn’t exactly her birthday, but Valentine’s weekend, instead.

They hosted this party at the White willow Reception center in Provo. Everyone came dressed up. Some rented their clothes, some used what they had at home, some borrowed. It was so much fun.

Here I am sipping my juice. Elegant, right?

After dinner, there was even dance instruction and some dancing, and fancy desserts.

Ryan had to try on my gloves. I think he’s doing a magic trick or something.

There was even a photographer there taking pictures of us when we came in, and then candid shots throughout the evening. I can’t wait to see those.

What a fun way to celebrate Valentine’s day! I’m so glad we got to attend.

Share the music

February 11, 2014 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

I just got back from taking 18 of my 3rd-6th graders on a little performance field trip. We played the National Anthem at American Fork High for a basketball game.

Why? Why? Why do I bring these things upon myself?

Hmmm.

There are several reasons, none of them seem all that valid right now, when I’m tired. Tired of the kids and just tired.
1-After we played the National Anthem at Lone Peak’s basketball game in December, the kids were SO excited. They felt like they were the most important ‘musicians’ in the world when they got that huge applause. I want them to have that kind of experiences with music.

2-We had already learned the song, so it wasn’t that much rehearsal to just adjust it for the few kids that are new this semester. I felt like since we had already put so much work into the song, it would be a waste not to play it again.

3-I want to share the love of handbells and handchimes. Most people who go to a basketball game haven’t seen or heard anything like this before, and so we want to share our art.

4-I may be trying to prove to myself or anyone who cares that I can actually do this job of teaching a chime choir. Maybe.

This time, at least, it was only ONE game. When we played at Lone Peak, they had us play for the girls’ game at 5:30, then play for the boys game at 7:00. This time it was just one game, but we still had too much time. I had everyone meet over at the school too early, and we had too much time to kill. We found music stands, rehearsed our song a few times, but don’t want to overrehearse, so we played a little game, then got ready. I told the kids if they wanted to do more fun stuff like this, they would be ABSOLUTELY silent in the halls. We had to go around the auditorium (where they were just starting the school play) go outside, and around to the gym door. Try keeping the kids quiet through that!

They actually did GREAT. The song sounded nice, and even though they were nervous, they played well.

Two people stopped me on my way out and said, “That was amazing!” The second one was a cop, who put his hand on my arm. I thought I was in trouble, but he said, “WoW! They did GREAT! I guess that’s why I do it.

Afterward, we traipsed back outside and around to the music rooms, put the chimes back in the boxes, and hauled them to the car. I brought four noisy boys home with me.

And my hubby just brought me a shake, and it tastes yummy and feels great going down my throat.

I can feel proud of a job well done. I can feel good that I got those squirly kids to calm down long enough to learn and perform our national anthem, and hopefully they are learning a thing or two about music along the way.

Goofy? This is just our normal

January 31, 2014 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Natalie needed new glasses, so when I took her to get them, there was a LOT of trying on of glasses.

And not just by Natalie.

I might just have to get myself a pair, because I think I look cute in glasses.

Natalie just kept laughing at me and said I looked like mushroom hat girl from the MERLIN show I did in the fall.

Come ON. I don’t look THAT silly. I was TRYING to look goofy in those glasses.

Whatever.

Anther day, the kids were looking for jerseys for our ward’s youth conference. The theme was “Same team, different Jersey”. Megan decided to put ALL of her sports jerseys on. At the same time.

She then took each of those shirts off. Talk about goofy.

Then there’s the time Megan said “I need something RANDOM to use in an art project.” After suggesting a few random things around the house, I pulled out these copper pans I have been saving forever. I bought a few random copper bakeware things that I thought I would use in decorating. But didn’t.

But they could make great DEVO hats.

Or princess buns?

Or a Madonna bra.

They didn’t know what I was even talking about on that one. I tried to explain it.

Or there was the time I ripped off a shirt Natalie was wearing. It was falling apart. I just helped it along.

We might sometimes do goofy things, like when I made everyone at the family party draw on paper plates on their heads.

And then there’s the crazy boys. But they are always goofy.

Am I right?

We even have goofy pets. Since it’s been cold, the chickens seem to think it’s cool to hang out on the porch. Maybe they like the sun, or maybe they just like to watch the humans, I don’t know.

So, yeah. We’re goofy. We like to take silly pictures, and love to have fun.

Denver

October 1, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Ryan invited me to attend this year’s CEDIA trade show with him in Denver. It’s actually been on on the radar for a year, since last year, he said, “next year’s show is in Denver. You should come to that.” Since I can stay in the company paid hotel room for free, it’s not expensive for me to join him, so I booked a flight.

It took a bit of arranging to be able to leave for 3 days, but thanks to some awesome relatives, the kids were chaperoned and carpooled and fed the whole weekend.

I flew in on Thursday, and thankfully, Ryan picked me up at the airport. I am not a fan of flying by myself, especially when I have no idea where I need to go after I arrive. But he was able to borrow the company’s rental car and pick me up. We dropped my stuff off at the hotel and walked back to the convention center. He worked in the booth while I walked around the show floor, trying to find fun free stuff to take back to the kids.

I ended up getting myself lost in the convention center. My attempt to walk it in grid style defeated because I would get sidetracked by cool things (Ooooh, something shiny) and veer off course. At one point, I stopped and looked around, and some nice gentleman said, “are you lost?” Yes, in fact, I am. No worries, I’ll find it eventually. “What are you looking for?” he said. When I said Control4, he pointed, and it was seriously just two booths away. Like I said, I would have found it eventually.

By 5:00, I was ready to leave. Sadly, the booth doesn’t close until 6:00, so I hung around, talked to the few people I knew, met some more people that Ryan introduced me to, and then we left just before 6:00.

Ryan didn’t have any scheduled group dinners that night, so we went to Chili’s. It was a beautiful night, and we ate outdoors.

Downtown Denver is very walkable, with a free bus that goes along the 16th street mall. So Friday, I was set to explore. The weather, however, was wet and not welcoming. I may have taken a bit longer getting ready for the day than I usually do, lounging on the comfy hotel bed and watching MONK. But I did venture out, and went to the Opera House (gives tours on Saturday, not Friday), the Money Museum (a little sign outside saying they were sorry for the inconvenience, but closed today), a Big old book store, and some shops in the mall. Then I went to the convention center to see how Ryan was doing.

That night we went to the Control 4 party in a museum on a former Air Force base (Wings over the Rockies). There were planes everywhere!

The food was all fancy and airplane themed. They had camo cupcakes, even.

We even could climb into an old fighter plane. The party was huge and VERY well done.

Control 4 invites their dealers and partners and employees and people they want to schmooze to this party. It was fun to meet the people from around the country that Ryan works with. One guy came up to us at a table and said, “Someone just told me who you are. I just have to come and say thanks, man.” I kid you not. I thought it was a plant. I asked if Ryan had any idea who that was, and he said he didn’t.

We talked a bunch to some friends of his that he works with from England and New York. Funny guys. And since many of the people there are taking advantage of the free bar, they get funnier as the night goes on.

Eventually we were getting tired, and took the bus back to the convention center, then walked the 6ish blocks back to the hotel.

Saturday was nice and sunny again, so I set out on more adventures while Ryan went to work. I didn’t even GO to the convention center on Saturday, instead took the bus the other direction. I saw the Capitol Building,
as well as many other beautiful houses and buildings. My destination, however, was the Molly Brown Museum. It was more of a walk than I thought it would be, but I found it.

It was an interesting tour (an hour long, too), but they wouldn’t let us take any pictures inside the house “for insurance reasons”. What the heck? I was kind of disappointed at that, but I took plenty of outside pictures.

In my walking around, I saw a bunch of teams of people running some kind of race. Their tags said the Great Urban Race. I guess it’s some kind of amazing race type event, where teams must find and decipher clues. When I saw team Eeyore, I just had to get a picture.

That night we went to dinner with a bunch of the Control4 guys (and two other gals) at Mellow Mushroom, a pizza place. They all had to carb load before taking down the booth. After dinner, I walked back to the hotel and they went back to work. Yes, I had the good end of the deal there.

I really enjoyed Denver. It’s a beautiful city with so much rich architecture and art. I had never been there before (can you believe it?), but I hope to go there again!

TREK

July 7, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

week Megan and Natalie went on Trek. After a whole month of prep, they left on Monday morning. I had t get them to their respective churches by 5:45 am.

It was a relief to have them drop off their stuff on Saturday, because it just felt like we were NEVER done getting the stuff! We had bonnets, but I sewed two skirts, two aprons, altered some shirts, sewed elastic in some pajama pants for bloomers, and we borrowed or found the rest. After buying the tick spray, the hiking socks, the dishes, small Book of Mormons, moleskin, bug spray, sunscreen, vasaline, etc, etc (times two), I probably spent over $200 outfitting these two girls for their roughing it experience.

I woke them up around 5 so we could leave at 5:30. I took Natalie to her drop off church first, and she was the first one from her “family” there.

Both girls had great “families” and had had a few activities with their Ma and Pa and family to get to know them and feel comfortable with them. I am SO THANKFUL for all the wonderful people who worked so hard as Mas and Pas to make this experience a good one for our kids.

Then I took Megan to her drop off point, which was our church, and I asked if they had gotten their ancestor cards. NO! said Megan. WHAT? Each person walking on trek was supposed to find an ancestor who actually crossed the plains, make up an ancestor card and have it laminated. They would wear that ancestor card while they walked. And they had forgotten them. Ugh. Time to race back home. We got home, Megan ran in and grabbed those two cards, looked for her sunglasses that she had forgotten, and then I took her to her drop off point. Because of our detour, it was a little past 5:45, but she wasn’t the last to arrive.

(There’s her cute Ma, waving to us)

Then I had to race over to the church where Natalie was, and bring her that ancestor card. Mission accomplished, and all by 6:00 am.

Then I came home and fell asleep on the couch, I’m not going to lie.

I thought about them all day, worried over how they would do with 13 miles of walking that day, if they would get sunburned, if they would get along with their families, praying for them to have good attitudes and not get blisters. It seemed quite without them, and quiet in the neighborhood. All the teens aged 14 and up were gone, as well as several sets of parents..all on trek. I texted my neighbor and mentioned that I wondered how the kids were doing. She texted me back and forwarded me a picture her husband, the bishop, who was there on trek, had sent her of her girls. The message read, “Girls say hi. L–hello we love you. E–We’re in hell.” That made me laugh, and was a little bit reassuring to know that they were alive. The next day he sent a message for me. “Ericksons–Blisters, but everyone has blisters, great and brave on women’s pull, great attitudes.” I don’t know if he was sending updates on every family, but I appreciated that little bit of info to know that they were working hard and hopefully keeping a good attitude.

Thursday, it was lonely without three of my kids. I couldn’t help thinking about Cole, and wondering what he was doing for the holiday, and hoping the girls were ok, too. The four of us went to the This is the Place Pioneer park to have a little fun.

Even though it wasn’t the hottest day of the week, it was still WAY too hot to be wandering around dirt roads acting like a pioneer. Hmmm. And the girls were doing that for four days.

To face the heat, we had root beer floats. Very American, right?

WE came home in the afternoon, and the girls got back around 3:00. I thought they would be SO tired, but they were full of energy, talking and laughing about how dirty they were.

Megan said, ‘Look at my tan!’ and showed me her brown legs. They were indeed brown, until she wiped them off with a wet wipe, leaving a streak of white leg where the dirt had been.

I kept telling them over and over…’Go TAKE a SHOWER!’, but they were telling me about trek and laughing (getting dirt all over). Finally I got them to both take showers. Long showers.

Party

July 3, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

Happy 50th Anniversary to my Mom and Dad!

Whew! 50 years! Can you believe it? That’s a long time together..a big milestone.

When I asked my parents what we should do for their party, they said, “Oh, we don’t need a party. We just took a trip instead.” What? I just couldn’t accept that. What happens with the other aunts and uncles have THEIR 50th, and they they are thinking, “Hey, we should have done a party or something.” So, we discussed this with the siblings. Feelings were mixed, because, after all, they did say they didn’t want a party or anything, right? But it’s FIFTY years. We had to do something.

So, I planned a party at my house, invited all the relatives, but didn’t really tell my mom and dad, I just invited them over.

Things we had to have
-cake
-a photo book or a slide show type thing to share pictures of them throughout the years
-a collection of letters to them congratulating them on this accomplishment
-music
-food
-flowers

And the unwritten requirement that really is the most important thing would be SHADE. Since they cut down the big old junk trees and put in a lovely fence, we have virtually no shade in our backyard, and that ends up being a problem when we want to have parties. We only have three umbrellas (strike that…two umbrellas since one of them got broken in a wind storm) and we have lots of wind.

Ryan’s sister Julene was such a dear to lend us some shade canopies. They actually have a lot of things like that. They have a LOT of parties, and he is the president of the Chilean association, so the association also has some canopies, too. Saturday night we started setting things up, because we would be at church on Sunday, and couldn’t set things up in the morning. It was about a million degrees as we were setting them up, and tempers were short. Oh, and did I mention we had been getting things ready for trek all day and had to turn in the girls buckets and sleeping bags that night by 6:00 and it caused quite a bit of stress? Well, we did.
Thankfully, I did NOT take any pictures of us setting this thing up, but we did finally get it set up, attached a couple of the hanging curtains, and VIOLA! SHADE! Amazing! We set up one 30×10 shade thing, and one 10×10, and with the hanging curtains, that was enough shade at 7:00 or later in the evening. We had TWO of the big white ones, but I convinced Ryan that we didn’t need to set up both of them.

It was quite dark by the time we were done, and, proud of ourselves and happy with how the backyard looked with the tables and chairs and canopies, we went to bed. I don’t know if it was an especially windy night, or if I was just AWARE of it being a windy night, but I heard every howl of the wind. Seriously. Crappy night’s sleep it was for me. In the morning, a sense of dread settled over me, but I had to look. That big white canopy was twisted and definitely not in same place where we had set it up. And we had staked it and everything. Why, oh why, did we leave it up overnight? This is Highland. There is ALWAYS wind. What were we thinking? We went out to discover a few bent poles, but nothing too serious. We put everything back, staked it again, found more tie downs that we should have used in the first place, staked those down, and went inside (because even though it was about 9 in the morning, it was already so hot.)

When we got home from church, we realized that canopy was blowing in the wind AGAIN. What a pain. SO HOT, and SO much trouble with the canopy. Should have done this thing inside.

Cake– I had asked my friend Janeen to make a cake for me. I told her my budget and said she could do whatever she wanted to do. Really.
Well, she came through for us, and even delivered this cake to me on Sunday afternoon.

Isn't this a pretty cake?

That 50 on the top is out of modeling chocolate, and she used her new airbrush to stencil on those swirly designs. So pretty.
And when we cut into it and tasted it, it was SO YUMMY!

When my parents arrived, they thought we were just having my sisters and families over, they didn’t know we had invited the WHOLE family, and they were surprised that this was an actual party.

We had flowers,

lots of food, music (Ryan had installed outdoor speakers for this and future parties, isn’t he awesome?) and even had them cut the cake a feed it to each other.

It turned out to be a lovely party, even though it was too hot. By 8:30, it was perfect out!

I”m so thankful for these wonderful parents of mine. I’m glad that we could throw them a party. I hope it was a great anniversary for them, and i hope when WE reach 50 years together (we’re at 21 this year, so only 29 to go…) our kids will throw us a great party, too.

Great weekend. Bring on Summer!

May 28, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

What a great weekend! I wish they could ALL be this great.

Saturday night we went out to Eagle Mountain for the Pony Express Days Rodeo.

Rodeos are an American thing, and we thought Larissa would enjoy it, so we were glad to be able to find a rodeo so early in the season.

It was windy, but not as windy as it had been the couple of days before. The bad part of the evening was that John really wanted a soda, so I told him he could have a Fresca from the back of the car. He stuck it in my purse, but not before starting to open it. I didn’t think it was open, so I wasn’t worried, but the bouncing around was just enough to make that soda leak all over my purse. And my camera that was in my purse. Ack. I took it out to take pictures, and the light blinked at me, but the camera wouldn’t do anything. Ugh. I took the batteries out and let it dry, but the next day it was still not working. I don’t have the best track record with camera. Probably because I take the camera everywhere, and it often gets dropped, splashed on, and generally abused. Still. With Cole gone, and Natalie can’t find her battery charger, we’re left with only Larissa’s camera and the tiny cheap one I got from a friend. Such is life, right?

The Rodeo was fun. I really liked the clown at this one. There was a scary time when a rider hit hard on the ground, and they had to call out the paramedics. He was on the ground not moving for a long time. I sure hope he is all right. Larissa asked why the horses were bucking so much, and I had to explain about the strap that is placed in an uncomfortable position.

Fun night. Although we were pretty much covered in dust and dirt when we came home. Showers for everyone!

Sunday dawned early for some of us. I had to get up to the Tabernacle by 7:35, so that meant getting up at 6:00. I don’t see the Memorial Day Broadcast on YouTube just now, but it was a really great program. We played America the Beautiful and then played with the choir on a couple other songs. As I was sitting there on the stage, I almost forgot that we were there to perform. I was just so enthralled with watching the amazing orchestra RIGHT IN FRONT of me, with the Choir behind me. I love my calling!

This is a busy week for us in bells. We have our spring concert on Friday, and that means extra rehearsals this week. It’s always nerve-wracking right before a concert when we realize we are not quite ready, and things are not perfect. We do the best we can, right?

After the broadcast, I made it back in time for the end of sacrament meeting, where it was the farewell talk for not one, but two missionaries. I just scooted into the back and heard the end of the last talk before going to nursery.

The rest of the day was nice and casual, no other places to go. I had a much needed nap.

Monday we did some garden work first thing. The kids even found a garter snake and we all took turns holding it and playing with it. It was just a little one, so not too scary. We let it go in the flower beds, so hopefully it will carry out it’s job of eating bugs or mice. We got the tomatoes planted, and Ryan’s bucket system is up and running again. I have also been sorting out Cole’s room. Sheets to wash, clothes to donate or pack away, etc. Larissa’s mom is coming to stay with us this Thursday evening, and that’s the room she will use, so I can’t put it off any longer. Luckily we was only in that room for three weeks after he moved home from school, so it’s not too entrenched with his stuff. Speaking of Cole, though, I’m quite disappointed that I haven’t heard from him yet. Wasn’t he supposed to write to us on that very first day? I even made him a mad-libs type letter that he just had to fill in the blanks, then put it in the addressed, stamped envelope and drop it in a mailbox. But here it is Tuesday, and we still haven’t heard one word from our missionary. This is going to be hard.

After lunch, we piled the kids in the car to go to This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake. I haven’t been there in years, and I think I only had two or three kids when we went, so it’s been a long time, and they have made lots of changes. It was SO MUCH FUN!

We rode the train, toured Brigham Young’s house, bought some candy at the ZCMI, made a craft at the furniture store, went to the leather working store and the kids pounded a little design in their leather.

I don’t have many pictures (see above), but I may add some once I borrow the pictures from Larissa’s camera. When we stepped into the barber’s shop, he had John hop up into the chair for a shave.

After his “shave”, the barber suggested John might need a tooth pulled, or perhaps he wasn’t feeling well and might need some leaches, or other blood-letting. He declined.

We had so much fun there, and it was the perfect day! Sunny, but not too warm, and not very crowded, since it’s just the beginning of the summer season. Since it was only $20 more to purchase a year pass, we splurged on that, and now we can go a few more times and enjoy all the things we missed.

The kids had fun with the pony ride, and the petting zoo. There were even baby emus! And chicks. Of course, there were baby chicks. The kids all went gaga over the chicks! Then they were all BEGGING to get some. Do they not remember what a PAIN it is to have baby chicks? I guess not. Even Ryan was saying he wanted some chicks, and the guy walked by and said, “Oh, these are for sale.” No. We don’t need more Buff Orpingtons, thank you very much. Isn’t 5 enough for you? But we did get talking about buying some chicks….. Can you believe this is the same guy, who merely two years ago did NOT WANT chickens? This is CRAZY!

After we left the park, we went for dinner at Cafe Rio, which pleased MOST of the family. One of them wanted a hamburger, but he was voted down. Can you guess which one that was?

The kids were so sweet, saying, “Thanks, Mom! This was the best Memorial Day EVER.” I don’t know about best ever, but it was a darn fun day.

Success!!

Just a few more days of “school” to get through this week, and then it’s full time summer break.

Eek! I had better get myself organized or the chaos will take over.

John’s television debut

April 15, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

This week I got a text from a neighbor. She said she was a talent scout for a local informercial company, and they were looking for a boy who looked like John. Would John like to go on a shoot?
Heck, ya!
I told her that sounded like fun, and we worked out the details.
The night before, I casually mentioned to John what was going to happen, that he would get to be checked out of school so we could go to this commercial filming thing, and how fun is that?
“I don’t really want to,” he said.
What? Having already committed to take him, I had to do some quick thinking. “They’ll pay you $12 an hour,” I said.
“What?” exclaimed Megan, “that’s more than I MAKE!”
I didn’t mention that it’s also more than I make as a substitute teacher, but that’s a sore subject, so I wasn’t going to bring it up and get ridiculed.
“Ok,” John said, “I’ll do it.”

We had to get a few clothing options ready, they said “colorful shirts” both long and short sleeved, and two different pajama options. So, I packed a big bag of clothes for John and a couple of snacks, and went back to the school (I had already been there from 8-9 for chime choir) and checked John out of school. We were supposed to be to this place in Springville by 10:30.

We got there in plenty of time, and Kandice at the front desk was super nice, and escorted us to the green room. Wow! It was like a nice, cozy family room. There were couches and a big tv, complete with x-box and cool games. There was also another tv around the corner and movies. John was glad he came. So, we settled in to play x-box for a while. No problem.

I had been told that it was a lot of waiting, so I was prepared with a good book on my Kindle, and I didn’t mind the wait at all. It was a little cold, but there was even a cozy blanket I could use to wrap up in. After a little while, Kandice came in to check out what clothes we had brought, and it seems they wanted a long sleeved blue shirt, which we hadn’t brought, so she went to go buy one quickly. More game playing. After a while, we were beginning to get a little bit bored, and then she came for us again. She had John change into the dark blue shirt and sweat pants, and we went into a big garage like studio in the back.

I forgot my camera, and had to take pictures only with my phone, but I’m having trouble getting those on to the computer, so we may be pictureless for this post–darn.

They brought us in, and told John that they were going to replicate a commercial that they had already done, and that’s why they needed a blonde boy in a blue shirt. You can check out the original infomercial here. This new product, instead of Dream lights by pillow pets, it’s dream WAVES. They had him sit up on a mock bed, with lights all around and green screen. He thought it was cool, except that he had to sit there on that “bed” (which was NOT cushy and comfy like a bed, by the way) for a long time while they worked on getting the lighting right. When they finally said “action”, he just had to push the light, look up, and look around on the ceiling and walls with wonder. No lines, no speaking, just looking. And they only filmed him from the back.

When I asked him if he thought this was fun, he said, “Not really,” but I thought it was kind of fun. Interesting, too.

We were there about 2 1/2 hours, and it’s maybe a 5 second shot. But it was something fun to do with my boy, and he’ll be super excited when they send his check, AND when we can see him in the commercial!

What a weekend–Spring Break edition

April 3, 2013 / Superpaige / 3 Comments

Friday–Birthday party for Larissa
Since it was her ONLY birthday in America, we had to throw a party for Larissa. There were about 12 kids there, including the family, and they were a casual, fun bunch, who were willing to play the silly games I had planned. When people first came, they went downstairs and played Fussball until I called them up to eat. Larissa loves salads, so I had a salad bar. I know, right? It was quite a spread, and it made her so happy. There was also pizza for the non-salad lovers.

After they ate, I sent everyone outside for a rousing game of flour ball tag, where you throw nylon balls filled with flour at each other. It doesn’t hurt when you are hit, but it leaves a white mark. It’s like a softer gentler version of paint ball, and lots of fun.
flour tag

Then it was time for “Chubby Bunny”. Everyone has to stuff a marshmallow in their mouth and say “Chubby bunny”. The next round, another marshmallow, etc. Until the person gags, throws up, or spits out their marshmallows.
IT was funny and quite disgusting.

After that, we came inside and played a quieter game, called the pictionary telephone game. People write down a phrase, then pass it to the left, and that person has to DRAW that phrase, and cover up the written phrase. The next person has to write whatever it was the person in front of them drew, and then pass. They came up with some pretty weird interpretations.

There were also Charades, lots of talking, a movie, presents,and, of course, cake and ice cream. Nothing fancy in the cake department, I just made Texas Sheet cake.

The kids all seemed to have a great time. I hovered, wandering in and out of the family room while they were watching a movie, cleaning up and putting things away. At 11:00, I thought everyone would go home, but they were still laughing and talking. One of Larissa’s friends even ASKED a boy out to the upcoming spring fling. She was all casual about it, like she asks boys out every day. So proud of her! After the boys left, I encouraged the girls to ALL take her example and ask boys out. You should have heard their reaction to that. Ha. At 11:30, I did make everyone go home. Ryan wasn’t home, or I would have let them stay up later, but I was just SO tired, I had to go to bed.

(A little pat on the back for me, Larissa told me that was the best Birthday party she’d EVER had. Of course, she also told me that she hasn’t had a party since she was about 8, so the bar was set pretty low.)

Saturday–Young Women Broadcast
On Saturday, Natalie had to get ready to go to the conference center to sing in the YW broadcast. Many of the girls in our stake had been asked to sing in the choir for the broadcast, and they have been preparing and rehearsing for over a month now. It’s been a fabulous experience for them, and I’m so glad Natalie was able to participate.

She had to have her hair all curled and meet her carpool by 11:15. I took the other girls up at 3:30, and we had some time to wander through temple square a bit before we took our seats in the conference center. I forgot my camera, but she looked lovely in her yellow.
The meeting was wonderful. I paid so much more attention to the talks, and the music was SO beautiful! I wish we could do that every single year!

Afterwards, when we had met up with Natalie and gotten out of the parking garage, we met our friends over at Crown Burger. It was SO fun to let the girls all sit together and chat, and I had a chance to talk to some of my dear friends. Since it was Larissa’s actual birthday, I got the girls to sing to her, and she was thoroughly embarrassed.

Sunday–Easter,
Sunday morning came early for this girl. I had to be up at the Tabernacle by 7:30 am to prepare for the Easter Broadcast.
I can’t seem to get the video embedded, but you can watch it HERE, if you want.

The Bells played one song without the choir, and two songs with the choir. It was such a beautiful program, all about Easter and rebirth. My sister, Amy, even drew the artwork for the Spoken Word, so that was cool that we could both be involved in the broadcast on the same week. Even though I LOVE ringing with the choir and will take any opportunity to do that, it’s SO exhausting. By the time I come home at 11:30, I feel like I’ve put in a full day’s work, and I still have to go to church. I made it for the last part of sacrament meeting and nursery, of course. The kids were a little bit hyper, and one sweet little girl told Ryan, “I am so mad at you!” when he told her to stop grabbing toys from another child. They make me laugh.

At home, I left instructions for the kids to set up another table and finish the devilled eggs.
I HAD to have a little nap. Even after my nap, I was still tired and grumpy, which isn’t the best combination when you are trying to get the house cleaned up and food ready for a large gathering. But we got the tables set up in the basement and the kitchen, made the funeral potatoes, and then people started arriving.

Between the three of us girls in my family, we have about 24 kids. Really. So, with adults and grandparents, we had 35 people there, (give or take a few small ones). Luckily, I had pre-filled a LOT of eggs for our Easter egg hunt, and each of the kids was able to find 5-9 eggs.

The weather was nice, too, which was a relief, because I didn’t think I could find that many hiding places for eggs inside the house.

The kids had fun getting together with their cousins, and we all enjoyed talking and eating together with family.

Monday-Spring Break

Monday morning was the start of our Spring Break, which meant no school and we could all sleep in, thank goodness!
I started the day off with some weed pulling, then took the kids to Tracy Aviary.

We took an abundance of bird pictures.

Even though it wasn’t really warm and it was sprinkling rain, we had a nice time.

After lunch, I took the kids to Sheels, the HUGE new sporting goods store. Good thing my camera battery was dead, or I would post pictures of John and Megan on time out sitting outside the store. Seriously, kids, stop fighting and acting like brats, or I will never take you anywhere every again!

Anyway, once inside, everyone had a good time, and they especially liked testing out the exercise bikes.

That night Ryan and I met some friends at the Hale Center Theater in Orem for a great night at the theater. We saw Civil War, a musical. Kind of a downer of a subject for a musical, but it was very well done, and there were some excellent songs. I was afraid Ryan would totally hate it because of his reaction to Les Mis was “too much singing and too depressing”, but he made it through this one. A big thanks to our friends Tammy and Marin who invited us, it was a great night.

So, that was our big exhausting weekend! Wow, right? Maybe that’s why on Tuesday, after Larissa left to go to Moab with friends, and I took Megan shopping for some much needed clothes for her birthday, I fell asleep on the couch while watching Mission Impossible.

Spring Ring

March 12, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

A few months ago, I got a call from Mary, one of the directors of the Handbell Guild. They are the nice people who have loaned me the chimes to start my elementary school hand chime choir. She asked if I would like to bring my choir to perform at the annual Spring Ring, where hand bell choirs from all throughout the state come for an all day workshop with a guest clinician. This year’s event would be held at Davis High. I pretty much dismissed that idea, because first of all, I only had 12 students at the time, and second.. Davis High? That’s in Kaysville. Do you know how far that is to drive? I politely thanked her and told her I would think about it.

Well, she called again in February and reminded me that we were invited to come and play at the spring ring if we could. The board thought it would be fun to include an elementary choir, and say a little bit about the chime loan program to encourage other people who might want to get a choir started at their school or church. Well, I told her I would ask the parents and get back to her. I sent out an email to the parents of my choir and told them we had been invited to this bell choir event that was WAY up in Kaysville, and they would have to drive their kids there, and if they didn’t all come it would be fine. I figured I would need 11 kids to make it work. Maybe 10. Within a few days I had 8 kids committed to come. With my two kids, that would be 10, so I decided to go for it.

I told the kids and the parents that we would go, and accepted the invitation, but not without trepidation. It’s one thing to play in the band and orchestra concert where the only people who come are the parents who think whatever their kid does is great, and another thing entirely to play in front of a whole crowd of BELL PEOPLE. Not only bell people, but my peers. I told LeAnna Wilmore, the Bells on Temple Square director, what would be happening, just to make sure that was ok with her that I would leave our group for a bit to go and direct my little choir, and to ask her if I could borrow some chimes if we needed extras. She was nothing but supportive, telling me I could use whatever I needed, and that it would be no problem at all.

Then she announced it to the group that I would be bringing my little chime choir to this event. My bell choir peeps were SO supportive. I don’t know why I was surprised. We have been together for 8 years, some of us, and we really are like a family. One friend said, “What song are you playing? If you want, we can stand behind and ring just in case they mess up. I was really blown away by their kind comments. It made me feel encouraged. A little bit.

We rehearsed the Star Spangled Banner in earnest, and even had some early morning rehearsals this week so that all of the kids could ring together. Normally half come before school and half come after school, which makes it a little difficult to hear the whole song together. All but one of my kids committed to come, so we didn’t even have to do any switching around.

But I was still nervous. This being our first “on the road” performance of any kind, I had a big mental checklist of things I had to remember. Two boxes of chimes, all the music folders, get covers for the tables, bring the old quilts we use as table pads, bring chocolate for the kids (I had promised them chocolate), as well as the stuff I usually have to schlep with me to an all day ringing event (water bottles, diet coke, slip, shoes and nylons to go with my uniform, snacks, advil, etc. I seriously had a TON of stuff. And since Ryan was going to be bringing three of the chime kids up there, I didn’t want to drive another car, so I transferred the whole load into my carpool buddy’s car to take up to Davis High on Saturday.

Set up for this kind of thing is Huge. It’s about 240 bell ringers from many different choirs all set up in the gym. We started set up at 8 am, then starting our workshop at 9:15. We learned 5 songs that day, and it’s really neat to learn from the actual composer, who was our guest conductor for the day. A lot of the high school choirs spend a few rehearsals learning the music beforehand, but we found if we do that, we get too bored during the long day of rehearsing, so we go in cold (but don’t tell the other choirs–we wouldn’t want to sound cocky or anything.)

I was so nervous about the chime thing that I really couldn’t concentrate on the music. So many things could go wrong, and I have trouble getting my brain to not focus on the worst case scenario. What if the kids don’t get there in time? What if some of them don’t come? What if they get nervous and fall apart? It wasn’t helping things when one of my friends texted me at about the time they should be leaving asking for the address of the school, and what time is it that they need to be there. Are you freaking kidding me? Do you not read ANY of the emails I sent you?

At around 4:15, the director dismissed us to go and get changed and get ready for the concert at 5:00. I knew that one of my kids was there, and I started to set things up, with a churning of stress and worry in my gut. I soon saw Ryan arrive with three of the kids, and then another parent with three more of the kids, and I was so happy to have them there. The kids, however, were more interested in seeing the really big bells and chimes than in rehearsing. I had to get them to focus so we could play the song at least once, and I told them we could all see the big bells AFTER the concert. By 4:40, all of the kids were there.

We quickly ran through our song, then I got them seated in order, and went to go change. Originally I thought I would wear regular clothes and not my Bells on Temple Square flashy raspberry dress, but I didn’t really have the time to change back and forth. I didn’t do much with my hair, either, so it looks pretty sad.

I joined my choir and played two pieces with them, then slunk away when another group did their solo. When it was our turn, I stood up, got my kids up, and got them ready to play. Mary got up to introduce us and explained about the chime loan program, and that we were an elementary choir in our first year of rehearsing, etc. And then it was our turn. I whispered to them, “Don’t play on count TWO” and we started.

Because we were playing the Star Spangled Banner, people stood up. I kind of wish they hadn’t stood up, and my director mentioned that she hoped they would announce that the audience didn’t need to stand up, but they stood up anyway. Oh, well.

The kids did great. They played it just like we had in practice! I forgot to have them bow or anything (I’m new at this), but they got a lot of applause. Because they’re so cute, right?

Then I had them go back to their seats in the stands, and I went back over to my group to play the last couple of songs and our solo.

After the concert, when I came back to get the chimes put away and show the kids the “REALLY really big bells and chimes” like I had promised, the parents were all gathered around. “What will it take to buy a set of chimes for our school?” one of them said, and “We want to do a fundraiser or something because we want this program to continue”,and “You need to meet this guy, he’s in charge of booking groups to play the National Anthem for the Jazz games.” I was overwhelmed. I hadn’t realized what a good opportunity this was to get the PARENTS together, for them to hear about the chime loan program and to talk to the other parents. I wish I had been more organized and I already had my kickstarter fundraiser program up and running so I could just tell them where they could donate, but I was a little frazzled at the time. But at least I know that they WANT to help, and sound like they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep this choir going next year.

Once I got changed and got everything loaded up in the car, I was elated. That had gone SO WELL! All my stress and worry were not necessary (when are they ever, really?) and it had gone even better than I thought it would. I was so happy with the positive reaction, and the mention of playing with the Jazz (probably won’t happen because they only have 10 more home games, but at least he thought enough of us to bring it up!). Exhausted from the very long day, but so pleased. And I finally feel like what I am doing really matters, and not just to me.

Happy Dance (to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner, because it will take DAYS to get that song out of my head).

Category: Field Trips (Page 3 of 10)

Valentine’s day done right

Share the music

Goofy? This is just our normal

Denver

TREK

Party

Great weekend. Bring on Summer!

John’s television debut

What a weekend–Spring Break edition

Spring Ring

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