Catching Up

We've had a lot going on - it's a busy time of year.  Let's catch up!

First - Valentine's Day:  It was a good one.  We shared lots of Valentines and we received lots of Valentines.  And our class parties were fabulous!

Here's Sam - he made a car Valentine's box this year.

And I made a football Valentine's Box.  I was super excited and proud of it! 

And we both gave out Monkey/Banana Valentines this year.  They were a big hit!

We stopped and played at a neighborhood park on the way home from a tough day at school one day.  It was fun to get out and play.  

We've had such a warm winter - it's been wonderful!

And here's Sam playing.  It was a great afternoon.

And here we are playing in the yard with dad one afternoon.  A little baseball - and we're are quite the good catch.  Another fun day!

And then it was time for our Science Fairs.  Sam's was first up. 

He did a class project on the best method to clean copper pennies.  

It was great.  

Here are a couple of quick videos from his program.  Sam - part 1.

Sam - part 2.

And Sam - the Scientific Method chant.

Then it was my project time.  This was my first year of individual projects.  I chose to do a project called Parachute Power - I looked at whether the shape of a parachute affects its drop time.  And, in fact, it does.  The circle shape fell the slowest.

I loved my project - my written report, my oral report, and my display board all got 100%.  

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  We are in the middle of our school's Read-A-Thon.  I am determined to win for first graders this year.  I've been reading every free second.  I've been reading every book in our house.  I just finished up the Calendar Mystery series that I got for Christmas.  And I just found Mason's Geronimo Stilton series.  I love it!

Sam out - have a great week.

Taking Care of Boy Business!

We've had some extra time on our hands this week.  Mom has been working some long days and even Saturday.  

This allowed us to take care of boy business - as we like to call it!  

We started with a kids workshop at Home Depot.  That's always fun!

We went to visit Grandma June's grave and gathered some pine cones for her.

And then we went to Grandpa L's grave.  We left pine cones there too.

After that we dropped by a Valentine's balloon, card, and gift for Grandma L.  

And then we had a delicious lunch at Hires.  Super yummy!  We ended with a visit to Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy's.  

It was a fabulous day!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - We've had the weirdest winter ever - it was nearly 70 degrees today.  We spent some time in the backyard playing soccer . . . . 
In T-shirts and Shorts!  Can you believe it???  

I did some serious scooter riding too.  It was fabulous - our spring fever has officially kicked in to high gear!

Sam Out!

College Bound

Both Sam and I love to read.  We read all the time!

We've taken to doing some reading out loud to each other before bedtime.

Dad even joins in and reads to us too.  We love these times together!

We had a super fun family outing this weekend.  We got to go see the play "Beauty and the Beast".  It was fabulous - we loved it.

The play was held up at the University of Utah.  Mom and dad wanted to show us around while we were there.  It's a cool place - really, really big.

After the play, we wandered around campus for a little while.  Go Utes!

Sam Alert:  It was great to be at the University.  So many buildings.  And the play was great too.  We had brunch in town before the play and then dad and I had a dinner date while Mason and mom went to dinner on their own.  It was an all-around great day!

The Dog Days of Winter

We're officially in the dog days of winter.  It's been a warm winter here, but still cold enough that we don't spend a lot of time outdoors. 

We did have a couple of warm hours one afternoon and we spent some time playing basketball.

And we tossed around the football with dad.

We got the remote controlled cars out.

We also did some game playing indoors as well.

I got a new football play set with some of my Christmas money.  Dad has been teaching me some cool ways to play with it.

Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE football right now?  It's true!

And we've been working hard on my science fair project.  I'm doing a project about parachutes.  I'm learning a lot and having a lot of fun!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - It's been quiet and actually pretty dull around here the last few weeks.  We did have some super yummy take out one night - - sushi!  

Take care and have a great week!

Work and Play Time

It was a a good week and we fit in both some work time and lots of play time.  

We had some family game nights a couple of nights.  We played Zingo - and guess who won?  Yep, dad.

We played lots of Life too.  Love it!

Sam did his Snap Circuits.  He's gotten quite good at these - building circuits to power different objects.  Here he is problem solving a dysfunctional circuit with dad.

And I've been working hard on my science fair project.  Here I am doing my project outline for my teacher.

We spent Saturday doing a really fun family activity.  First we rode the train into downtown.  That's always a really really really fun thing to do.

After we got off the train, we went to Walking with Dinosaurs.  We weren't really sure what to expect but ended up having the BEST time!  It was so cool!  We started with some pizza.

Here we are at intermission.

And here we are at various times through the show.  The dinosaurs look and sound real.  It is absolutely amazing!  They have done a really great job of putting this show together.  You really feel like you are right there with real dinosaurs.

We saw a T Rex, a Stegosaurus, a couple of Triceratops, some Utah raptors, and a couple of super giant Brachiosaurus.  We also saw an Ankylosaurus too along with lots of other dinosaurs.  It was really fun!

We're popping in a short video from the show for you - we talked a lot afterwards about the kinds of careers you could have to work with this show - lots of cool robotics and engineering.  See for yourself how great it was!

Here we are with the raptors - we were completely impressed.  It was really a great time!

You totally believed the dinosaurs were real.  And they were HUGE!  and LOUD!

 Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  I did some building this week.  Mason gave me a cool KNex set for Christmas and I've been creating like crazy!  Here is my fish.

After the Dinosaur show, we wandered over to the downtown mall for some lunch and then rode the train back home.  

A great time was had by all!  Sam out until next week.

A Warm Sunny New Years

We got to go to Southern California right after Christmas Day.  We love flying on airplanes and those planes make it such a quick trip.

Reading and playing games on the iPads help to keep us busy on the flight.

It was sunny and warm (to us anyway . . . everyone there thought it was cold)!

We're just kicking back, relaxing and waiting for our ride.

We went to visit family, especially Grandma G. who hasn't been feeling well.  We had to put on gowns and gloves to visit her in the hospital.  The goal was to keep us from giving our germs to her.

She got to come home from the hospital while we were there - she had to come home by ambulance though.  And the EMTs were nice enough to let us explore the ambulance before they went back to work.

Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle Michael made us a yummy Sunday dinner.  This is what everyone looked like after dinner.  Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy!

We took some time out from helping at the house to go play at the beach one afternoon.

It was a beautiful day!

We had a lot of fun chasing the waves.

And we had a lot of fun getting wet.  

Sam and I had a grand time!

Dad did some amazing sea shell collecting too.  It was a great afternoon!

A quick, slightly crooked family photo.

Here we are in front of Grandpa and Grandma's house before we left.

And check out what the front of our house looked like when we got home - lots of snow.  What a big difference!

We had a small celebration for New Year's.  We had a yummy dinner out and then did some toasting for our New Year's wishes.

And of course, there was the traditional party hats and noise makers.  Boy can we make a lot of noise!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - I had an enjoyable trip to California.  It is always nice to see family.  I especially liked our trip to the beach.  

I even did some "jumping for joy".

Oh - and here is some proof about exactly how smart I am.  Mason and I carried our car seats to California.  On the shuttle bus from the parking lots to the airport (and back) I was smart enough to think of actually sitting on our seats.  All the other families were just carrying their car seats - why not sit on them?  Everyone was pretty amazed at my bright idea.  

He he he!

Ok - Sam out.  Have a great week!