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Brian has been bugging me to get Caroline’s hair cut for a while now, because her long hair kept getting in her face. So last week I took her with me and we both got our hair cut. Now we both have nice short hair that doesn’t get in our faces.

Nancy worked with Caroline and Sam for a couple of weeks each morning to help them learn how to ride their bikes. After much whining and complaining, a few wrecks, and some threats/bribery/cajoling, they finally learned how to do it within a few days of each other. Their reward was a lunch date with Mom or Dad. Yesterday I took the day off work and paid off my lunch debt to Sam. He rejected all the places that I suggested (Training Table, Chilis, Thai food, etc.) and selected McDonalds. Off to McDonalds we went.

Caroline learns to ride a bike

Now that they’ve learned how to ride their bikes we can’t get them to stop. It’s funny how one day they’re whining and moping along with one foot on the curb and one on the pedal and the next day they’re zooming around the neighborhood and doing “jumps” off the curb.

Last week we went to the girls spring piano recital. Grandpa Kent and Grandma Connie were in town and able to come and the kids were excited to have them there. Texas was up first. She played Colors of the Wind by Menken and Stuck on C by Vandall

Texas

I generally like what their teacher does with the exception of recitals. The teacher let’s them play pieces in their recital that they haven’t fully learned. I really wish the teacher would require them to memorize their pieces and not let them play pieces that they haven’t fully prepared. I also wish the teacher would teach them to bow afterwards.

Next was Emily. She played Witch’s Dance by Hill and Song For a Princess by Miller.

Emily

I think Emily has improved significantly since the last recital. Because she’s not fond of counting, she typically does better on the types of flowing songs where a rigid rhythm isn’t as important. She’s also learning to play hymns and plays for the Young Women organization in church occasionally. I have no dreams of my kids making it to Carnegie Hall. In fact, I’ve always thought that if my kids learn well enough to play hymns in church, the lessons will have been worth it. It looks like Emily is well on her way to achieving that standard. Now I just have to figure out how to get her to memorize her songs.

Anne followed Emily and played Fur Elise by Beethoven and Dorothy by Smith.

Anne

Anne probably enjoys playing the most out of the kids and I think it shows in her progress. She does a good job of memorizing her songs. She also delights in the fact that her pieces are becoming more difficult for me to simply sight read without mistakes. Although not a child prodigy, I think she did a pretty decent job for a 10 year old.

After the recital Grandpa Kent and Grandma Connie were gracious in enduring the chatter of our excited kids as they took us out for an ice cream celebration. It was a great way to top off a fun evening.

Texas has been excited the past week or so because her second grade class has been getting ready to perform the play about the Ugly Duckling. She is constanty reminding me of the day and time that it is to be so I won’t forget. I have tried to get her to sing some of the songs she has learned, but she says that I just have to wait until I go and see her play. I guess she wants to heighten my curiosity so she can be sure I will be there. Of course I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

So on Wednesday April 9th I arrived at the school about fifteen minutes or so before the play was to begin. Diana and I got pretty good seats and we sat and waited. All the kids came walking in and took their places and luckily Texas, who was playing a pig in the farmyard, was on the side where I could take her picture without any other parent in the way. The bad news was that the kids who sat in front of her blocked a good view of her instead. Luckily when she had to say her lines she got to go up in the middle by the microphone so I could see her well. She remembered all her lines and she sang all the songs very well. I was really proud of her.

Next time any of you family members see Texas, make sure you ask her to sing the song the mean farmyard animals sang to the ugly duckling before she turned into a swan. I wish I remembered the title.

Texas is our first child to have cavities and yesterday we went to the dentist to get them filled. I got her ready before hand by telling her that the only pain she might feel would be when the dentist gives you medicine so you won’t hurt so much and that it would not be as bad as a shot that she gets at the doctor. So I picked her up from school about 1:30pm and on the way up she questioned me further on about what would happen at the dentist and what would happen after she was done. She was pretty nervous but when push came to shove, she came through like a trooper. She sat in the chair and did not fuss one bit and the dentist got done in no time. She got to choose two prizes when she was done which made her happy. She even felt good enough to go to piano lessons just an hour later. It just goes to show you that our children can show us that they are braver and more capable that we ever thought.

This is a picture of Texas’ second book report this year. She had to read her book and then make a float that represented what happened in the book. She wanted to choose an easy picture book at first but I made her choose one that had more words and not so many pictures. She chose a Junie B. Jones book because those are the ones she is really into lately. Junie B. Jones Toothless Wonder is very applicable to Texas lately because she is at the age where teeth seem to be falling out right and left.

Texas was just recently seen by the orthodontist who recommended that she have four baby teeth taken out to make room for the permanent ones. Luckily for her one of them was wiggly already so she got that one out with the help of her dad the other night. Now the dentist just has to take out three teeth. I just hope she is not like me when I was a kid because I was somewhat combative if anyone tried to give me shots or do procedures that I thought might be painful.

Today was Caroline’s baptism. While the older girls were excited for their baptism day, Caroline was particularly so. She has spent the last two weeks exhibiting her excitement as only Caroline can (annoying squeaking noises, pestering with questions, clapping hands and wiggly fingers, etc.) She was especially looking forward to getting a new set of scriptures with her name on them and for going out to dinner with Grandma Connie and Grandpa Kent after the baptism.

There are at least 10 wards in our Stake and all the baptisms for children of record are done on the first Saturday of each month. With 15-20 kids being baptized each month, the Stake has the whole operation down to a science. Our ward was paired with two other wards. The other two wards had two kids each while Caroline was the only kid from our ward. Thus, we didn’t have to do anything for the program and we got to have baptismal font all to ourselves.

The baptism went off without a hitch: the water in the font was warm, Caroline bent her knees and went all the way under, Grandpa Kent and the Bishop were the witnesses, and we had a nice little family testimony meeting when Caroline was confirmed.

Of course, best of all was going out to dinner after. Caroline settled on the Mayan restaurant (also known as Jumping Man) after changing her mind several times over the past few days. The Mayan has long had a reputation for unremarkable food but decent entertainment (who doesn’t like cliff divers?). I guess they’ve been trying to raise their game over the past year though because the entrance has been completely remodeled to look like the start of an Indiana Jones excursion and the menu and food quality seem upgraded. In fact, the food this time around was actually quite good. The entertainment has also been kicked up a notch in that the cliff divers no longer just wear speedos but now wear loinclothes and body paint. There are also Mayan warriors decked out in feathered headdresses roaming around. In fact, one even guessed that Grandma Connie was looking for the restroom because he said “Oogah boogah” to her and pointed her in the right direction.

We waited for about a half hour for the table even though there was a ton of table space in the restaurant once we finally got inside. I guess the main problem was lack of servers (the Mayan had a big Help Wanted banner up outside) because by the time we left there were still tons of empty tables while the lobby was even more crowded than when we got there. Once we were seated it wasn’t too long before the lights went down and the diving show started. The kids love to see the men jump off the cliffs into the water (thus the restaurant’s nickname of “Jumping Man”) although Diana was a bit scared each time the lights went down. They also loved to order strawberry smoothies. They’re never allowed to order those kind of things when I take them out to dinner and thus are very keen to order when Grandpa Kent takes them out.

After a meal of strawberry smoothies, nachos, hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids, burritos and tacos for the adults, and a chocolate raspberry mousse cake for dessert, we waddled out of the restaurant and said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa as they embarked on a drive down to Cedar City. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for taking us all out to dinner and thanks to Caroline for letting us participate in her special day.

Caroline got an invitation to a birthday party. She was so excited because she usually watches her older sisters go to birthday parties or else gets to go with them but this time she was going all by herself. Nancy helped her choose a present for her friend and wrap it up. She couldn’t stop talking about it all week and I think everyone was a little bit glad when Saturday rolled around so she could finally go. This morning she aksed me about 20 times, “How many minutes until I can go to the party?”. The last half hour Caroline waited on the front step until Nancy walked with her down the street to her friends house.

She came home full of candy, party prizes, and excitement. To her credit, she was gracious about sharing her candy with her siblings. I’m glad she got to go and do something fun on her own instead of under the shadow of her older sisters.

Caroline’s front tooth has been loose for quite a while now although she has such short stubby little teeth that they don’t wiggle much even when they’re loose. I wiggled it last night and decided that it was finally time to come out. I subscribe to the plain and simple yank-the-tooth-out-with-dental-floss method. None of those fancy tie it to a door knob or tie it to a brick techniques for me. I tie the floss on and then count one-two-three; however, I yank on two and the tooth is out before they even know it.

In my experience, upper teeth are harder to pull out than lower teeth because upper teeth don’t have an hourglass shape that the dental floss can get good traction on; however, Caroline’s tooth came out rather easily without the floss slipping. She was excited to show it off and pose for the camera and she got four quarters from the tooth fairy.

December has been a busy month so we’ll take a walk down memory lane and post some of the things that happened during the month…

Caroline’s Challenger School class held their “Winter Sing” this year. Unfortunately, I missed the program because I was on a business trip to Massachusetts but Nancy went and took pictures. Here is Nancy’s description of the event:

Caroline was excited for the Winter Sing and waved at me as all the kids walked in and sat down in their chairs. All the boys wore white scarves and the girls wore red scarves.

The kids sang cute little Christmas songs and did little actions to each song such as holding up a snowflake while singing “Let It Snow”

When Caroline wasn’t busy singing and doing actions she was busy checking out what her fellow classmates were doing. At the end of the program each child presented their parents with a special present – a self-portrait that they drew with the help of their teachers.

Caroline loves to go to Challenger School and is looking forward to finishing the school year there then starting kindergarten next fall.