Do you think I could speed blog? It's 22:39. I wonder if I could crank out a blog post in half an hour... Highly unlikely, but I'm willing to try it!
I think it will be easiest to group by person.
Merrick is dropping teeth like a shark.
It was...a lot of 7 year old boys to have in the house at one time.
Merrick wanted to have hamburgers and play board games, so that is what we did. We made the hamburgers in the oven and it was a super slick way to make a lot of burgers fast in the winter. I did a present passing game where you read a story and every time the story says the word "right" or "left" you have to pass it that direction. It was very challenging indeed for seven year olds and there was much confusion. Then after all the presents had been opened I did the thing where you have two sets of two dice going around the circle and if someone rolls doubles they have to switch presents with someone. I think everyone mostly ended up with something they were ok with. And then it was time for cake!
After the party was over I let them pillow fight in the basement for awhile, but then I was tired so I loaded the stragglers up in the car and took them all home.
Here is Merrick in the same basement. I was trying to get them to do a synchronized jumping picture to celebrate its cleanliness one Saturday, but Merrick was not cooperating. He kept jumping early on purpose. He does things like that.
And here's a good transition video of he and Annie on one of our Tub Nights. It takes so long to fill up the tub that when we do, everybody gets a turn for a set amount of time. I think they look like soup!
Annie had a big March! Her team made it to the finals of Battle of the Books. I got to go watch their match. She loves reading Clementine and knew all those questions very well.
She played Chorus from Judas Maccabeus and Gossec's Gavotte for the Utah Valley String Festival and got top marks from both judges.
And she gave a Suzuki Book One recital to about 40 people.
It's so many songs!
She had to practice almost an hour a day in the week or so leading up to the big event to get through them all.
All of us took a turn accompanying Annie for the recital. She and Merrick played a duet of Allegretto.
We played all the Minuets together while her little cousins danced to the music.
And Rafe played for May Song and Allegro. He was thrilled to do so (he actually was a great sport about it, until we made him wear pants and his "nice t-shirt").
Anyway, Annie did an amazing job. She got a new dress, got to play for all her friends, and did a very hard thing. We were all very proud of her. Annie is Libby's first student to ever do a Book 1 recital. She said it reminded her of the recitals her parents used to make her and her siblings do. They'd invite the whole neighborhood. The kids hated it and called it "The Family Brag Show." But Libby said she thinks there should be more family Brag Shows, because she loved watching it! Here's another instance of Annie's penchant for Sacrament Meeting Drapery, in the new dress.
Here's a good transition picture of these two little weirdos.
Let's just do a little review of some of the funny things Rafe did in March. He got that frisbee he's holding above stuck in a tree and instead of getting a chair or a ladder, he built himself a platform out of the leftover bricks that are sitting in the side yard.
One Monday night he needed some laundry done, so to make sure it happened (because let's be honest, I'm not very good at getting to it consistently), he chose sorting and starting the laundry for the family night activity.
Another week he gave us a lesson. I love when Rafe gets into his presentation mode. He's very expressive.
He will not sleep under his sheet, preferring to cocoon himself in the quilt he's claimed.
Or just in a different bed entirely.
He mentally prepped for his piano recital by making these kinds of faces.
Here he is rocking Prowling Panther from memory:
It was actually a really fun recital to listen to. Yvette does a great job! As people walked in she handed them a sheet of cardstock that had a space with every child's name in it and a pencil so we could write them a compliment during their performance. She collected them at the end and took them home to cut out, so at the next lesson every child received an envelope full of kind words. We are lucky to be in this studio.
And here he is shooting his BB gun at the PUD with Drew, wearing what are becoming his signature mismatched socks.
Rafe also had a birthday this month. He wanted to have a joint party with Cael since his birthday is the 22nd, so we invited all the boys in their school class. I made another ice cream cake like Merrick's Friday night, then Saturday morning I spent an hour or so running around the PUD setting up a scavenger hunt. Rafe wanted it to be like a "POW behind enemy lines" sort of thing, so I hid all the clues in Nerf bullets.
And to really up the ante I had Drew dress up in his blueberries and patrol the park with a huge Nerf gun. He caught some of the action on Marco Polo for his family.
The boys had a blast with this, but evading Drew became much more of a priority for them than finding clues, so when they had been out in the rain at the park for an hour and were only on clue 6 of 20, I had to go find them and keep them on task.
As soon as the last clue was found I ran back to the house to get the cakes ready. And oh, the sadness. I had put them in the chest freezer overnight, but I didn't know that someone had changed the temperature on the little knob that is on the face of the freezer right next to the floor where any little hand can get at it, so the ice cream cakes turned out onto their serving plates turned into ice cream soups.
Extremely messy, but still delicious! The boys were all tucking into their soups happily when the first mother arrived. "Isaac, your mother is here!" No answer. "Isaac?" Alas, the boys had all come back from the park helter-skelter and Isaac had become separated from the group whilst trying to evade Drew, so he was still wandering the park alone. His mother was not impressed. We were mortified. But he was still smiling when we found him, so hopefully no lasting damage done. All in all, a very successful party, and we have significantly increased our Nerf arsenal.
Here's a closeup of Rafe's beautiful blue eye.
Vivien attended the Mountain Ridge Junior High Open House this month.
She is very excited to move on to bigger and better things. It was fun for me to walk through the school and remember learning in all the different rooms. They still look the same! I remember cutting the squares for the quilt I made for my grandpa at that counter, and the teacher explaining principal and interest on that whiteboard. I hope Vivien will "do her best" and get "full points!"
I'm sure she will. She is a goody!
And like all good teenagers, she likes to rest. Especially when she can do so in the warm sunshine with a cat.
We got to watch Vivien perform in her COPA Spring Showcase. Every child performed a monologue and sang a belt solo. It was a fascinating recital! Monologues are riveting!
The Richardsons were visiting that weekend and came with us to watch. Even little Brock was engaged the whole performance. Brava!
What other fun did we have with the Richardsons? We went to the pool! Look at Bruce's beautiful face.
What am I talking about? They're all beautiful faces.
We had a good time swimming around, practicing our strokes with relay races, sitting in the hot tub while the lifeguards looked at us resignedly (kids under 14 really aren't allowed in the hot tub, but the lifeguards are reluctant to enforce it), and playing on the Wibit. McKenzie had an excellent wipeout that I watched vicariously through the lifeguard's face, which was fun. I did attempt one blind race with Vivien and about lost my swimming suit and then my life. Big people fall hard!
That night we had a St. Patrick's Day feast of corned beef and cabbage (that I didn't braise long enough, so it was like hot cabbage salad--still edible, not amazing) and in the morning they came with us to church. My children were not being super cooperative for this photo. Richardson boys all have their million dollar smiles down.
After church McKenzie made us some scrumptious guacamole, which we inhaled, and then we watched Singing in the Rain until their cousins claimed them. It was a fun visit. But it's always fun with the Richardsons!
I have a couple pictures of all the kiddos here. They played Pandemic one night and ran out of cards one turn before they were going to win. It's always a sad way to end a game night.
Here they are having a little spring sleepover on the lawn. Rafe said Seiji joined them in the night and would not stop purring on him, so it made it hard to sleep.
We met Papa Mark at the Developmental Center Cafe for his birthday.
These kids sure love their Papa.
And we went out to eat at a sit-down restaurant to celebrate (drum roll, please)...Drew's last week of class for his EMBA program!!!
He did it! All that's left now is a trip to India. And then he's a graduate...again.
We went and had dinner with one of Drew's TikTok running buddies who was recently married and had this heavily filtered photo taken of us. Behold, our even-tone skin and pearly white teeth.
There are a couple things we will miss about him being in the program, like occasionally being invited to movie night at the Sanderson theater, but it's going to be really nice to have all our weekends back. We are about to have a lot of yard work! The trees are coming back to life. The silver maple put out its funny flowers.
The cedar waxwings loved them! And I loved the cedar waxwings that I could just sit and watch from Rafe's bedroom window. They are SO CUTE.
I tried to do battle with the overgrown apple and apricot trees...
...but I think Dad got tired of watching me lop a branch, then step back and study the tree for a minute, then saw another one, then study some more, so the minute some yardwork guys came through the neighborhood he hired them to cut his trees and mine. I want to learn how to take care of my trees better, so I watched them secretively so I would know what they did and how and I'll be able to observe the effect of their pruning this summer.
Other yard happenings include beautiful sunrises...
...Scout checking on the chickens (he also likes to watch them through the back fence of the coop that is kind of falling apart)...
...Jiji going to the vet to be put down because of her debilitating stomatitis, but actually being adopted by the animal hospital to have all of her teeth surgically removed and then be charitably rehomed instead...
Since it's getting warmer outside, the Dad Workout Plan now includes weight lifting and cardio in the basement...
...the LB Long Course Special at the pool...
...and outdoor biking! Oh. Oh dear. Why is the wheel not on your bicycle Sabrina?
Is it because you're so bad at mountain biking that you fell down a dozen times and the tire finally couldn't take it anymore and fell off? And are those all your bruises from your falls?
And is that from when you were going to try to jump a curb but were nervous (for good reason), so you unclipped one foot, then jumped way too soon and ended up smashing your full weight into said curb and breaking your toe? Cool, cool, cool, cool.
It's been a rough month for the old body. I tried to give blood for the first time in decades. It went about like this:
Also, I noticed a strange and suspicious rash on my stomach the week before Rafe's birthday.
It was so strange that I was pretty sure right away that it was shingles. Dad confirmed it and called me in some acyclovir, which I had to take EVERY FIVE HOURS for the next TEN DAYS (this was very hard for me--I am lucky enough to not have to take medicine often).
But I think my case was thankfully mild, and I got on the medicine quickly, so I didn't have much nerve pain and the blisters themselves were never too bad.
Wow, light makes a big difference in what color something is, huh? Luckily the shingles waited until after Kate had welcomed her new baby so I got to be a part of the birth!
She had asked me to be there, to be someone who believed in her and knew what was going on. She had a ton of early labor. Like, weeks. One night the contractions seemed stronger, and her apps were all saying, "Go to the freaking hospital now!"
So she went, but there was still a long ways to go yet. 8 more days in fact. They sent her home with the ever so helpful advice: "you'll know when it's real." She was not happy, Bob! Not happy.
But she went home and lived her life for the next week. They are finishing their basement, so I went one day to help Dad with the drywall. He sent me to pick out straight furring strips while he looked for other things. And I felt like I was 10 years old again.
I had not done drywall before, so there was a lot of teaching. The teaching commands started to sound like Bop-It commands, so we made a video.
Still PREGANANAT??
But not for long. I believe she called around 3:30am on the day of the birth, so Mom and I brushed our teeth and threw on some clothes and met her and Justin at the hospital. She was a rock star. She made it all the way through transition in the triage room and basically birthed her baby on the bed in the hall while they were wheeling her into the delivery room.
The respiratory therapist gruffly declared little Birdie a "grunting infant," so she got to spend some time in the NICU, which turned into a longer time in the NICU. Once you're in it's hard to graduate. For good reason, of course. They don't want you to get home and then have to come right back. But it was a rough week and a half for the Alworths going back and force and back and force. And I was no help, because I had shingles!
I guess I did go with Sarah and her kids to heart attack the Alworths' door. That was something.
It was very cheery.
Sarah made Kenny stay in the car, because he had a broken leg and was in a full leg cast.
It didn't stop him from hobbling around though. His walk reminded me of the Mordor orcs stationed at Cirith Ungol and this little guy:
And one more baby thing--Lawrence had his little ear in a mold all month. His ear helix is pretty significantly folded over, so they were trying to unfold it a bit while he still had malleable baby cartilage.
Look at 'im. He's such a sweet little bean!
I think the rest of these pictures are just "settling in" projects. I finally had to get Joey Riggs to come and fix the drywall screws I installed incorrectly. I hate drywall screws. But Joey did a great job.
I spent many hours scouring the internet for a suitable rug for my music room. I took a picture of the room, printed it out, and cut around the couches, then printed pictures of the rug options and slid them into the slot to try them out in the space and help me decide.
I really love how the one I got pulled everything together. I used Melanie's Christmas sibling gift money (thanks Mel!). I also found an old table off Facebook marketplace, so now this room feels like an actual place to sit and BE instead of a transition area.
I also got a bookshelf/desk combo from Linda Larsen down the street for freeeeeeeeeee. So now I have a place to sew. And Drew has a back up office desk when we have guests.
And we finally got some dining chairs (also off Facebook marketplace, from a guy who buys old furniture from the people in Park City who are redecorating their homes and comes down here to sell it), and Paula had a print of one of B.Y. Andelin's beach paintings that she brought over, so the dining room feels much better as well! I get to sit comfortably and eat, imagining we are all on the beach somewhere watching the sun set. It's wonderful!
Ooo, this probably should've gone higher up there, but we had our symphony Young Artists concert at the end of February, starring our very own Colette! She played the Walton viola concerto. It is very difficult (for her and for us). Lots of crazy counting. The clip below is from our first concert, which was a little rough. I think the cellos are one measure off from the winds, and the confusion on all the violinists faces as we try to figure out where the heck we are sends me.
We did better the second night. Colette rocked it both nights! For some reason I don't have a picture with her, but I do have a picture with one of the other soloists, Isabelle. She played Wieniawski.
I don't know if the Walton was my favorite or the Prokofiev piano no. 3 was. They took turns being stuck in my head. I went on a hike up Grove Canyon the week before the concert and had it pounding through my brain with every step.
Last thing! Easter was suuuuuper early this year, so it belongs with March. We had most everyone here at one point or another.
Even baby Avis!
We had ham dinner, then hung out for awhile, then I took all the kids upstairs and we reviewed the Easter week and sang some Primary songs while the adults hid the eggs all over the house (it was sleeting outside). Rex sat on the couch and tried to free a 3D printed model of a protein from its plastic supports. It took a lot of concentration.
But my favorite moment of Easter this year was when we sang Beautiful Savior in church with the choir. Sister Valentine wanted us to sit in the choir seats if we could, so I sat in the choir seats and Drew sat down with the kids. But when it was time to sing, Drew did not stand up. He didn't even look up. I was wondering if he had decided not to sing, when Annie leaned over and whispered something to him and all of a sudden his head snapped up and he had to hustle up to take his place just in time for the downbeat. He had been trying to talk to Merrick about something. The happiest part is, they still broadcast our meetings, so I have it on tape! Tee hee!
Happy Easter! Happy March! Did it take me 30 minutes? No. It took me 173 minutes. Blogging is hard.
