Field Trip - Children's Museum

Adam's 1st grade class went on a fossil field trip to the children's museum up in Everett this past Thursday.  I went along and had so much fun with Adam and 3 of his friends!  They had been studying dinosaurs, so the main part of the field trip was to go to attend a fossil class, but we also got to spend time playing around at the museum.  I didn't get many pictures - but we had so much fun!

They have a very cool light and sound display.  This is Adam playing with it.

 We learned all about different kinds of fossils, and then got to sort a whole bin of them into their different categories.

 They did a fossil dig and found plaster fossils that were replicas of actual dinosuar fossils.

 and then got to paint them with coffee to make them look old.

It was a fun way to spend the day.  I love getting the opportunity to see Adam interact with his classmates and his teacher. 

Mustach Day

It was spirit week at school this week.  They had pajama day, husky day, favorite book character day (Adam went as Flat Stanley) and mustach day.  I only took pictures on mustach day.  Jackson wanted a mustach too...

Sacrifice

Sunday afternoon, I got a call from the Primary President in our ward.  At first, I thought maybe Jackson had done something (he's had a hard time transistioning into sunbeams - although the past few weeks have been pretty good), but she actually called to tell me about something Adam did during sharing time.  Adam is in the CTR 7 class, and in our ward, this class meets with senior primary for sharing time.  They are the youngest kids in senior primary.  The primary president was doing sharing time, and she had put up two pictures of the Savior and had asked the kids what the pictures had in common. One was a picture of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the other was a picture of Jesus on the cross.  The answer she was looking for was the atonement.  She said that the answers she was getting were things like - "Jesus is in both pictures" or "there's a rock in both pictures".  She called on Adam and he said "sacrifice - Jesus is being a sacrifice".  She said his comment really made her stop and think and it surprised all the other kids.
She said she was calling to let me know of a proud parenting moment.  I am super proud of Adam!  I don't think I can take any credit for his answer, or for the young man he is becoming!  He has really grown up the past couple of months!  He LOVES to pull out his Book of Mormon and has started asking to read a verse or two when we read scriptures as a family.  He often says "I love the scriptures" or "I love going to church".  He has two really incredible primary teachers this year, and he is excited every Sunday to go to church.  He even gets up and gets himself dressed.  Last Sunday, he even made himself and Jackson breakfast while I was getting ready.  Scott has meetings before church, so I have to get all three kids ready by myself - but Adam has really stepped up to help!  He is so excited to be baptized this year!  He can't wait until he turns 8 and gets his own set of big scriptures!  He talks about it all the time!  I'm a lucky mom!!

Jackson's language!

Jackson has his own little language - and it's just so darn cute, I can't correct him.  I thought I should record a little dictionary to remember it all:

Drinky:  Jackson's word for thirsty.  As in - "I need a drink - I'm really drinky."

Last Night: When everything happened - even if it happended three weeks or three months ago.  As in - "AJ came to our house last night" or "Adam played basketball at that place last night"

Lipchap: Jackson's word for chapstick.

Escagator: You know - those moving stairs at the mall?  And this is how Jackson chooses to ride up and down the escagator.  He has to sit on the step...

Elegator: The thing you ride in with doors and buttons when their isn't a escagator, or Kate is in a stroller.

This isn't a word that he says, but I had to record this as well.  One Sunday, Adam and Jackson went to church with my parents.  My dad had picked Jackson up from his class, and they were waiting for grandma outside the relief society room.  There were several other men waiting there, and apparently there is a man in their ward who is pretty short.  My dad said that Jackson walked over to him, looked him up and down and said "your not that big", turned around and walked away.  Everyone in the hall got a good laugh!

Jackson sure does keep us laughing around here.  He's got his own crazy personality, and his own way of doing just about anything.  I love spending my days with him!  We've been talking a little bit about preschool, and he has decided he can't go to preschool, because he mom won't be there.  We'll keep working on it!

We've also been working on controlling ourselves!  Jackson has a little temper, and most of the time - it gets the better of him.  We were watching this cute show on PBS called "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood".  They learn about something new every day (it's the tiger puppet from Mister Rogers Neighborhood - its super cute).  One day, they talked about what to do when you get mad!  Daniel Tiger's mom taught him a song, and Jackson's been singing it ever since.  It's cute to hear him sing it.  It goes like this:  "When you feel so mad, that you want to roar, take a deep breath, and count to 4".  It doesn't always work, but when he remembers, it cute to see him do it and learn to control himself that way.  He's really growing up fast!  I'm kind of glad he doesn't want to go to preschool.  I would miss him too!

What Kate does...

She loves to help mom go through the grocery ads to decide what we might need to get at the store...

 She has a sweet tooth, and has discovered that the best part of baking, is licking the spoon when you're done mixing...

 And, she's decided that her dad is the most amazingly wonderful person in the whole wide world!  If she hears the front door, she yells "DA!!" and takes off running!  If he's home, he never gets a moments peace from her.  She tags along behind him where ever he goes!  If he happens to lay down on the floor, she climbs all over him, and if he wrestles with the boys, she yells at her brothers until they leave dad alone!  Maybe it's because he makes such a great recliner??? 

I must say that the admiration goes both ways.  This dad would do anything for his little girl!

Peek a Boo!

Peek a boo, is Kate's favorite game to play!  Everytime I change her diaper, her chubby little hands cover those eyeballs and she gets this huge grin on her face and she grunts at me until I say "where's Kate??"  Then she flings her hands into the air and lets out a huge squeal and a giggle, then starts all over again!  It's so fun!!

I caught some pictures of her hiding her eyes the other day!  I should try to get it on video!!

Camp out with dad!

The young men in our ward had a camp out planned for this past weekend.  Originally, there weren't  every many boys that were planning to go, so Scott and some of the other leaders decided they would all still go with th YM that wanted to, and they would also take their younger boys.  Adam was thrilled!  He loves hanging out with the young men!  As it turned out - almost every single one of the young men attended, which was great!  Adam had fun running around with his friends that were ther, and then Scott said he sat up around the camp fire with all the young men, laughing at their jokes and watching them "juggle" fire (seriously??) until about 11pm before heading to bed.

This is a picture of Adam in his sleeping bag the next morning.  It got down to 31 degrees.  Too cold for me!!

 Adam got up in the morning and built a fire for him and his dad...  He was so proud that he did it all by himself.  I think he's ready for cub scouts!!