Joy School---I Can Help Myself!

This week was my first week to teach to Ryan and his friends. They were adorable. We talked about all the things we CAN do! We talked about how we are children of God. We read the Little Engine that Could. We talked and showed the different things we can do (jumping, stomping, etc.) We showed how we can get our socks and shoes on. We pulled items from a bag that started with the letter D and then traced and colored ds. We also circled the number 4 and colored 4 apples. We also talked about how we are all important as children of God. I had them help me each put ingredients in a bowl to make cupcakes. I had cupcakes without oil and eggs and some with. We talked about how we needed all the ingredients to make the cupcakes work. We saw what happened when we baked the two kinds of cupcakes. We needed the oil and eggs to make them look and taste good, just like how each child of God is important. They also cut out their paper doll. The last thing we did was finger paint a picture with their name taped out. Here is Rhett mixing the cupcake batter. Rhett was very expressive when he was telling me all the things he could do. He can "Ka CHOW" and he was showing me all kinds of martial arts moves. :)

From October 2012

Here is Ryan at the puzzle station. He liked to talk about how he can ride a bike.

From October 2012

Here is Tyler and Rhett during playtime. Tyler was quieter when it came time to telling me what he could do but he really wanted to show us how he can run REALLY fast.

From October 2012

Ryan and Alana hugging after a misunderstanding--it's all about the social skills. I was impressed with how well Miss Alana could cut with scissors. She did really well.

From October 2012

I loved Tyler's face during finger painting. He was hesitant to smear it around but he told me all about the process about how he wanted to mix the blue and green, etc. It was adorable.

From October 2012

Here the kids are seeing the different kinds of cupcakes. I hope they understood what I was trying to teach here, but if not, they got a cupcake out of it. :)

From October 2012

And a group photo. I promise Alana had fun!

From October 2012

Geo Cache Adventure!

This weekend was busy. We enjoyed watching General Conference and learning from the prophet and other church leaders. We also attended a wedding reception and went to the park. Sunday, after dinner, we decided to go on an adventure. We found two geo-caches! Ryan loved this little stream that we had to jump over.

From October 2012

Tony found some fishing line and realized that it was a pully system and that the geo-cache was in the other tree.

From October 2012

So he lowered it down.

From October 2012

The boys coming to see.

From October 2012

From October 2012

Then we went looking for another. Ryan was the green ninja and Max was the black ninja.

From October 2012

This one was so well hidden. It was also in a fake bug. Tony had to goof off of course. We had a lot of fun on our adventure.

From October 2012

Celebrating the Baby Boom of 2013

In our church a local congregation is called a ward. This year, in just our ward, there were 13 babies that were born (and one that moved in). We had a girl's night to celebrate! A few random pics:

From October 2012

From October 2012

From October 2012

From October 2012

In this picture, we are missing four of the mamas and babies. It's been a busy year in our ward! :)

Max's Walk-a-Thon

Max's school's fundraiser was a walk-a-thon. He and friends had a lot of fun running around their field. I joined the PTA and volunteered to help. I helped hand out t-shirts and water. Everyone had a lot of fun. Go Max!

From October 2012

Go Maxwell!

From October 2012

Go Russell!

From October 2012

Go Caramel!

From October 2012

Go Zach!

From October 2012

The water station! :)

From October 2012

Before the walk-a-thon, we had Maxwell over and the boys caught a frog. Sadly, Hopkins escaped and hopped away while the boys were at the walk-a-thon.

From October 2012

Grandma Came

Grandma came to work in Washington. Jason loved snuggling with her.

From October 2012

More on the Salmon

We haven't painted in awhile so the boys painted some Sockeye salmon.

From September 2012

From September 2012

From September 2012

We went to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery where we learned a lot. They mostly have Chinook Salmon there.

From October 2012

The salmon are diverted to the gates on the side and so many at a time are allowed through to climb the fish ladder.

From October 2012

From October 2012

So many fish, but...No fish for you!

From October 2012

This display shows all of the things that can prevent a salmon from returning to spawn. A female lays about 4,000 eggs and somewhere between 2-10% will make it back to spawn themselves.

From October 2012

From October 2012

playing around

From October 2012

From October 2012

Exploring Fall

Every opportunity to explore can be an adventure, even if it's not the way you meant it to be. After taking the older short people to school, Cachet and I decided to try a trail she had seen that circled Lake Youngs. There was a lot of fall foliage and even some blackberries, but there was no lake. In fact there was a fence along both sides of the trail most of the time. We passed a car graveyard, some signs that said bears had been spotted in the area, but no lake. We learned on the way back from some other walkers that Lake Youngs is a watershed--good to know--and now we know (google maps did not tell us that). we did get to go out and enjoy the autumn weather though.

From October 2012

From October 2012