Braedi Turns 9

There is something about a 9 year old. When someone tells me they are 9, I think that is old (at least so much older than 8). I can't believe that Braedi is 9!
Braedi requested a surprise for her present. I'm not good at surprises--I like to be told what they want. I just think it is easier and I'm a lazy shopper. I went shopping a was looking around and couldn't find anything that I thought she would like. Then I tried the game section and I found something I thought she would like. We were playing the game Clue Jr the other day and I told Braedi how I thought she and I should play the regular Clue. We borrowed it from my mom and were excited to play, but half the pieces were missing. We were bummed. I saw Clue at the store and decided to buy it. I hid it in the car until I could bring it inside without her seeing it. I put it in my room. Faythe got into my room and found the present and called to Braedi, "Is this your present?" Braedi saw it and it was no longer a surprise. All that for nothing! But, she was still grateful and we played a game of it this afternoon.
Braedi got to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa Garrett. They went to dinner and then shopping for clothes. The next morning they took her to a school carnival put on my sister's PTA.
Grandma Mecham brought over a special ding-dong cake and we ate it after Braedi's favorite dinner of tacos.
Braedi loves to play with friends and her siblings. She often says how grateful she is for her siblings because if she didn't have any she would be bored. She loves activity days and doing Faith in God activities with me. Braedi loves to read, draw and learn. She is excited to try new things and is a good helper. Happy Birthday!

Twins

Faythe has a little friend and they are so cute together. They also get into a lot of mischief together. Before kids are supposed to "play" together (usually it's parallel play) they were playing together. They look forward to seeing each other. Today they wore matching shirts and I just had to get a picture. That was a lot easier said than done. They would fold their arms over their shirts, or lift their shirts up or when one was looking the other wasn't. I finally got a halfway decent one.

How Many Coins?

We did a few money activities for math today. One went like this: I gave an amount and the kids had to find the coins that equaled it. Braedi tried really hard to be different and found creative ways to get the amount. Lindy and Corbin went with what they knew. I liked seeing the different ways they came up with.

Teeny-Tiny Tot Activity

As another of the Faith in God activities that Braedi and I work on each week, she planned a Teeny-Tiny Tot activity for Faythe and some of her friends. I helped her come up with a theme and some games and activities, and I tried to help her understand the attention span of almost-3 year olds and made sure she was over prepared. Braedi prepared a craft project for them, thought of songs and games, read a story, brought out theme-related toys and snacks and had fun playing with the kids. She's going to be a great baby sitter.

Guess Who is Ridin' Without Training Wheels, Now!

Dyllan decided that she would get on the bandwagon and learn how to ride without training wheels.
She says that she wants to practice where she has more room, so we'll try to go out tomorrow and practice. Now all I have left is Faythe. Unfortunately she doesn't even know how to pedal her trike. She has a long way to go.

R-E-D, Red

Faythe and I have been working on colors. She actually knows most of her colors, but it's always fun to read a book and do an activity. We started with red and will work our way through the rainbow and onto the rest of the basic colors.

We read the story The Little Mouse, the Hungry Bear and the Red Ripe Strawberry by Audrey Wood, then looked at my collection of red stuff. We also sang a song to learn how to spell red. (I don't expect her learn how to spell it at this point, but the song is cute.) Each day we did a different craft. We made a strawberry, a firetruck and an apple.

A Day in the Desert

Jonathan's sister, Alison, was in town and we decided to get together as a Mecham family. Last weekend (at the tres rios festival) there was shooting, but the kids were too young so today we went out to the desert to get some shooting in. Jeremiah brought his guns and bows and he helped the kids.

Before I get into the shooting I have to tell what happened to Corbin. As soon as we got out of the car I pointed to a jumping cactus and told the kids to stay away from it. About 2 minutes later Corbin slinks up behind me, a little embarrassed and a little hurt, saying that he had a cactus in his hand. I knew that I didn't want to touch it so I tried to get it out by hitting it off with a rock. I think I only made it worse. Luckily Jeremiah had some pliers and was able to pull it out. Poor kid--he just cried into my side while Jeremiah worked. Everybody asked him why he did it and all he could say was "I don't know!" Luckily no one else had a problem with the cactus!

Corbin loved the shooting and hung out with Matthew and Spencer and Grandpa and Jeremiah. Braedi tried once and so did I. Braedi had to shoot left handed because she couldn't figure out how to look through the scope with her right eye. Then she tried the other one and was able to shoot right handed. I shot left handed, too, when I used the shotgun. I was worried about the kick on my shoulder.

Dyllan, Ephram, Faythe, Maggie and Kendal played in the dirt. And boy did they get DIRTY!


I think all the kids tried the bow, but I didn't get a picture of Dyllan.


We did some exploring, visited and enjoyed the weather. It was a fun, tiring day!

New Pajamas

I started going through the kids' clothes this week--pulling out of the drawers clothes that were too warm or too small and going through the boxes of hand-me-downs to find summer clothes. We made a list of needs and went shopping. Included on the list were pajamas. Today we found the 4 younger kids some new pajamas, but Braedi is getting to the age where pajamas are too short shorts. We found her a T-shirt top, but I still need to find her some bottoms. She was bummed not to get something new, but the other kids are thrilled.

Tres Rios Festival

Christy invited us to attend the Tres Rios Nature and Earth Festival last Saturday. It's an annual event but this was our first time. We learned a lot about the habitat and history of the area. The kids got to do a little fishing in a pool, watch a recycle fashion show (their cousins participated and they will next year), ride in a canoe, make a walking stick and visit booths to learn a little about conservation and the wildlife of the area. During the fashion show Faythe fell off her chair, then as we were getting off the hay ride to the river she fell out. She had a few more rough experiences--she FREAKED OUT when we got on the trailer for the hayride and took a while to calm down and she didn't want to ride the canoe. Other than that we had a great time. The weather was great and we got to spend the day with our cousins.


My camera batteries died after my first pictures--bummer!

Dyllan's 6th Birthday

Dyllan celebrated her 6th birthday on Saturday. She chose to go she "Gnomeo and Juliet" as her family activity. We had to go on Friday because of Jonathan's work schedule. It was a cute movie. The Grandma and Grandpa Mecham came over to wish her a happy day. Grandma made a ding-dong cake and hid a surprise in the middle (it was money).
Dyllan chose to have crepes for breakfast. Jonathan and I made them the night before because they take so long to make. We spent the day at Estrella Mountain (a later post) then came home and had gnocchi for dinner. I don't like to make birthday cakes so Dyllan chose to have a birthday donut. She got a new barbie and some clothes.

My parents came over on Sunday. They brought their traditional ice cream cake, but we couldn't eat it because it was fast Sunday. In hindsight, I could have given the kids some, but we decided to have it as a family home evening treat. Dyllan got some new clothes from them.

Dyllan is such a good helper. She is usually the first to volunteer for a job or to help a sibling. She is a peacemaker and tries to do what is right. She loves to wear dresses and skirts and is trying to grow her long so that she can donate it. She likes to read and play with friends. Her favorite color is scarlet. We love her and are glad that she is part of our family.

Piano Ensemble

Back in October Braedi's piano teacher asked if Braedi would like to participate in an ensemble. I didn't know much about it, but thought it would be a good opportunity for her and signed her up.

She started learning her piece, and in January she started having practices. She met with her teacher and her duet partner and practiced. Then she met with all the other kids who would be participating. There were about 10 pairs kids that would be playing the same duet on 10 pianos. There were a lot of practices. The kids had to learn to play the song together and with the same rhythm.

Finally the day of the event arrived. Braedi was nervous about the practices because she didn't know what to expect. But the practices helped prepare her for the event and she wasn't very nervous that night. They performed in a high school auditorium and it was packed. It was awesome to see all the piano players play. I was very proud of Braedi.

I forgot my camera, but my mom had her phone. The picture isn't very good, but it's a little memento of the night.

Spring Garden

I finally got my garden planted. According to my info from UofA I'm a little late, but hopefully it will be OK.

We have a compost tumbler in our back yard and are daily putting fruit and veggie remains into it. Last season I made a horribly expensive "sieve" for it. (I can't think of what to call it, but it's basically a frame with chicken wire stapled to the bottom of it to let all the small stuff through so the big stuff can go back in a finish decomposing. It was horribly expensive because of how I bought the wood--too long of a story and too embarrassing.) This is a picture from the fall of 2010, but it's just to give you an idea of what it looks like.
This time around the compost was a little more "composted" so I was able to just scoop stuff out with my trowel and put compost in each individual square. Then I planted seeds and plants. I'm always optimistic, and hope that "this time" my garden will be successful. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother, but one of these times I have to do something right. Besides I know there will be a time when will live off what we plant. It's better for me to figure it out now than later. I planted beans, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, peppers, yellow and green squash, watermelon and cantaloupe, carrots, radishes, flowers and some herbs. I even planted something that I've never planted before--lavender. I loved how it smelled and I'm excited for it. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

Weapons of War

For family home evening last night Jonathan taught a lesson on the people of Ammon burying their weapons of war and promising never to fight again. He asked us to think about what kinds of things we do that invite the wrong spirit into our home and lives. Then we each wrote down one thing on a paper sword and buried them in the back yard.


The one person that I know remembered her "weapon" was Dyllan. Two times today she stopped her behavior and made another, better choice. Awesome!

Old Mac Faythe Had a Farm

For 1 on 1 time with Faythe we learned about farm animals. We read stories, sangs songs and made animal masks.


We also continued to work on ABC's, counting to 10 and recognizing her name.
She is always asking if she can work with me. And Ephram has requested 1 on 1 learning time, too.