The Eve of a New Week

It's late Sunday night, and I should be in bed, but I've been finishing up a few things on the computer (namely the monthly family newsletter I compile) so I thought I would post briefly. Mondays are always big days it seems like -- lots of laundry, cleaning, etc.

Tomorrow is an especially big Monday because Hannah is starting piano lessons and she is SO excited. She has been wanting to take lessons like McKay for awhile, and I've tried working with her a little myself, but it is so hard for me to do with all the interruptions, etc. Plus the kids seem to take the lessons and practicing more seriously when it's not just Mom they have to report to (most of the time, anyway -- McKay has been fighting his practicing recently). So instead of having her do soccer again this fall, we decided we'd let her at least try piano lessons. I think she'll pick it up okay -- she's done pretty good with the very little I've done with her.

McKay has had his lessons on Tuesdays for the past year, but in order to get their lessons back-to-back, we have to switch to Monday afternoon. (They take lessons from a lady in the other ward.) It's not cheap, so it's hard for me to pay someone else sometimes, but hopefully they will both get to the point where they can at least play hymns and such. I have a feeling Hannah is going to be asking me all day long if it's time to go to piano lessons yet.

Speaking of piano, I have been subbing as the Primary pianist the last two Sundays, so it's been fun for me to be back in Primary and watch my kids from behind the piano. The girls still have a hard time sitting still, especially Courtney. Next week, I've been asked to fill in and do the whole Sharing Time presentation. I have actually never done that before when I was the secretary, so it is kind of scary for me! I need to start thinking about some ideas. I told the chorister today she would probably have lots of time for Singing Time. :-)

I'll end with just a few pictures from the weekend (how can I not include any pictures in my post?) :-)

Here is Hayley having her breakfast cereal while her kitty eats her own cereal (plastic doll cereal). Hayley asks for cereal almost every morning. She and McKay are the only two who eat cereal with milk in it.




The girls watched a Tom & Jerry episode on Saturday about traveling to Mars, and right after it was over they hurried upstairs to play "astronaut." When I came up to this scene, Hannah & Courtney were the astronauts in their rocket with the little red chairs and they were communicating with Hayley who was in the part of the rocket that got detached from the main part. All 3 of them told me that they are now going to be astronauts when they grow up and go to Mars.


Brian wanted to try making homemade dry ice rootbeer like we did in Wyoming, but we didn't have a container big enough to mix everything in (and we were planning to cut in half the recipe his mom used). So we bought us a 5-gallon Igloo water cooler. There have been other times when I've wished I had a large container for mixing punches or whatever, so it should be nice to have this. When I stopped to get the dry ice, the people in the checkout line with me were very curious about it!



Finally, this afternoon Courtney pulled out this bead jar (you put the little beads on a "frame" with a bunch of tiny pegs and then iron it so they kind of melt together and stick to each other). After Hayley's nap, she came to the table and started making her own "masterpiece" as she kept calling it. (And after this, Courtney was supposed to be cleaning them up for dinner and ended up dropping the jar on the floor. Those little beads are a big pain to clean up!)