1st Day of School 2011-12

Wake up sleepyheads, Summers over! LOL After a good breakfast, we decided to walk to school this morning. It was a bit chilly but the kids loved walking! They got their stuff in their lockers and off they went to class.

Looks like they had a fantastic 1st day of school! Good Luck this year! Love ya!

[PS Kindergarten doesn't start until Monday]

Best Friend Visit

B.F.F.s are the BEST!!! No matter how far apart you are or how long you are away- with best friends, things stay the same or... at least for these two. Liberty was so happy this weekend because her bestest friend, Savannah came to visit. We did lots of fun things together and the girls meshed just like they'd never been apart! They played together, worked together, climbed trees together, ate together, built things together, watched movies together- just like the old days! So glad she could come! Thanks for making time to be with Liberty! We miss you & your family!

As part of the day, we took the Tuckers (Justice is in desperate need of guy friends! LOL) and went for one more swim @ the Larsens. It was overcast but the kids didn't seem to mind. When they'd got their fill of water, we took them for a McDonald's dinner @ Elmwood Park. We got a bit rained on but can't complain since the rains held out for the evening. What a great day!

P.S. We got lucky enough to have Savannah one more time before she left. Once again, the girls spent a good chunk of their time in the treetops. They are so silly! We also got to meet Brett for lunch at the Olive garden. The girls were so excited to have Zuppa Toscana. It's Liberty's favorite! Favorite food, favorite friend and favorite family! Life doesn't get better than this! ;)

We miss you, Kings!

Liberty's Talent Show

Liberty was bummed last year when she didn't get into the Westside Talent Show. But she is a great persevere-er! She has been taking Piano lessons for a year now and is so good at it. She found a song called "The Dragon Hunt" and practiced it diligently. Because of her hard work, she made it into the Talent Show this year! Our whole family went to support her. They had dancing, Magic shows, Comedy skits, Tae Kwan Do, Hula Hooping (she was amazing!) and several musical talents. I have to say--Liberty was the BEST Piano Player in the show! Awesome job, Sis!

Here's what we recorded. Hope you can hear what a great job she did!

{I'll see if I can cut it a bit so I can load it!}

We are very Proud of You, Liberty!

Bonanzaville Fieldtrip

One disadvantage to volunteering on a regular basis in your kids class is that in a bind- they think they can count on you! You just might find yourself on a fieldtrip or two that you never even signed up for. LOL. Mrs. Spanier had told me (not asked- mind you) that I was coming to the bread-making day. Not a problem- I made it work. I did my duty, right? You'd think I did. But then Liberty came home Friday and informed me that I was a chaperon for the all day fieldtrip to Bonanzaville today. I already was assigned a group and had a packet to study! Lucky me! ;) It worked out fine though. I found a babysitter and had a fabulous time!
We paired up with one of Liberty's best friends and her Mom's group for the tour. My group was a lot of fun. It consisted of 2 good-hearted boys and Liberty's little Ethnic-diversity posse. LOL. Such cute girls! They always flock to Liberty when I am there. Seba's family is from India, Gianella is from the Dominican Rebublic, Aluel is from Africa and Kaitlin is from the US. So fun! I was so glad I got to spend one last day with them before the end of the year. It was chilly and a chance of showers but we walked the mile or so from the school. We tried to not get blown away. Quite appropriate, I thought since we were going to study Pioneers. ;)

This was my 1st time at Bonanzaville. We saw and learned lots of cool things. Some of the kids favorites were the Air Museum, the naked manikins (in the Iron lung and the Barber shop--totally funny), the free candy, ringing the LOUD train bell a million times and running as fast as they could between buildings. What a fun day!

Bread Making

I got to volunteer at the School today for a "Bread in a Bag" Project for the 4th grade. A lady comes and talks about Farming in ND and teaches the kids to make Bread in a Bag. It was fun to spend time with Liberty & her friends one last time before the year ends. 10 more days! Can you believe it?
Liberty's bread turned out amazing! We had it with some of our home-made strawberry jam for dinner! Delicious!

Funny little the Mormon saves the Day story-
I got there early to help set up things. There were 2 ladies in charge telling the parent helpers what to do. The 2nd lady asked the Main lady where she wanted to set up the wheat grinding stuff. [That way the kids get to see first hand how the wheat they were going to talk about gets from the field to their bread- a once in a lifetime experience for some of the kids] The Main lady said she had run out of wheat so they were NOT going to do it this time. Well... "I have wheat," I said. She was a bit surprised but said she hadn't brought the grinder. Well.... "I have a grinder," I said. I actually have a hand grinder and an electric grinder- which one do you prefer? She asked where I live and one of the other moms who knows me said "like one minute away". Well... OK then. So, I quickly ran home to raid my food storage. I grabbed both grinders and one of my 5 gallon buckets of wheat. Back at the school, people were amazed at how much wheat I had. I didn't dare tell them I have like 20 to 30 times that much at home- (Mormon food storage to the rescue). LOL! So by some random turn of events, I got put in charge of showing the Westside 4th graders how to grind wheat. Too funny! Oh the joys of unexpected opportunities to share my food storage with others! I love it!

Mr. & Miss Fixits

Remember those bikes I told you that Brett collected from Clean-up week? Well, I must have teased him too much about last year's one still being in the backyard. It must have been a "I'll show you" moment cuz he & the kids fix, scrubbed and cleaned them all up this weekend. They look fabulous! They're gonna sell them on Craigslist to make a little mula. Way to go guys!

10 Years in the Making

Can you even believe that Liberty turned a decade old today? Holy Moly girlfriend- would ya just stop already? LOL! Here's what we did to celebrate our amazing girl:

Liberty's morning started with chocolate chip muffins, scrambled eggs and apple juice. Along with flowers & balloons and opening a present- Harry Potter: Book One. Yeah! She was so excited last night she stayed up really late because she couldn't sleep. Silly girl!

Today also just happened to be the day for Mom to come volunteer in Mrs. Spanier's class. How cool is that? So Mom got to spend the morning with Liberty and even got to eat lunch @ school with her. What perfect timing and a very special day!



The afternoon was full of opening a few of her presents and playing Harry Potter! BEST DAY EVER! She was so excited!
As soon as Dad got home, she opened the rest of her presents and we ate a special requested dinner. Dad grilled chicken on the BarBQ and Mom made her home-made salsa which Liberty LOVES! We also had a few of Liberty's favorite veggies- radishes, carrots, snow peas and lima beans! Yummy for the tummy! We even got to watch her new movie Tangled as a family. Such a cute show.
We ended the night with singing, blowing out candles, eating cake and licking chocolate ice cream cones. What a great night!
We are so lucky to have Liberty in our family. She is an amazingly smart girl. She's so kind and thoughtful and helpful. She is constantly thinking of others and is the BEST missionary ever! She loves to talk on the phone and play with her many friends. She is an incredible reader and loves the Harry Potter series along with Junie B. Jones, the Leven Thumps series and about anything that has words written on it. She is gonna be a fabulous babysitter and helps out so much with her siblings. She loves to snuggle with Mom & Dad and could sleep until noon every day if we let her. She is an amazing artist and so creative. What a beautiful young lady she is. We love you so much, B!!!!!!

Happy Birthday!

Liberty's Nine Favorites

It was really tough but we narrowed down a few of

Liberty's Favorite Things from when she was nine!

What a fantastic NINTH year!

Here's hoping for the tenth is even better!

Luv ya Girly! XOXO

Back in Time

They had a Rock-n-Roll 50's day at the kids' school today. Justice is home sick (again!) but Liberty looked Neat-o! (A real bonafide Sock Hop Beauty!)

Peachy-keen Princess! ;)

Liberty's Christmas Program

 

Winter Holiday Program 2010

Holiday of Music

Holly & the Ivy

On Christmas Day

Feliz Navidad

Deck the Halls

Chime In

Winter Wonderland

Up on the Housetop

Jingle Bell Rock

March of the Kings

Do You Hear?

Reprise: Holiday of Music

Awesome job 4th graders!

Your Christmas Music Program was fantastic!

Thanks to Mrs. Eidenschink and Mrs. Zerface for putting it all together. Liberty- You were amazing on the ribbon stick part and sounded terrific. The whole family was so excited to be able to come. (It turned out that Justice's class got to be there as well) Merry Christmas!