Parentheticals

Did you know that in japan the word trivia translates to "bean knowledge"? Sunday was our Primary Program. Since Alison is the Primary music leader, that took quite a bit of our time and energy last week. Réa and Sara earned some money helping her prepare her visual aids for the kids to sing to. They've also been practicing their talks for the past two weeks (they got a treat for saying their parts from memory whenever Timmy got one for potty training) and listening to the CD of the program songs in the car every time we drove anywhere (Alison is SO GLAD to be done with that). It paid off; both girls said their parts clearly and without needing any prompting, and both knew all the words to all the songs. In fact, all of the kids did a wonderful job singing loudly and clearly. The closing song was Praise to the Man, with the kids singing the first verse and the congregation singing the rest, and Alison told the kids that from where she led the music, the kids were just a...

On Saturday morning Mike harvested more honey from our bees. It is probably going to be the last harvest of the year, however as he contracts the hive more, he will likely get a little more honey out of it. Saturday afternoon Grandma and Grandpa Poulson came over and visited us. It was nice to have them over; it's been three months since we saw Grandma and a month and a half since we saw Grandpa. The kids had a wonderful time showing off all their favorite tricks and activities for the grandparents, and Alison was so happy to sit and talk to her parents. We are excited to see them again when the baby comes. (About 6 more weeks, not that we're impatient or anything...) The most exciting thing about their visit for the kids was that they were given new dress ups which they are all very excited about. Rea loves the jewelry, Sara is excited about the dress up shoes, and Timmy is excited about the cowboy costume. He loves to catch horses with his lasso, and then shoot them with ...

This last week began with Labor day. Mike was off of work, and so we worked around the house and had a good time together as a family. We sang the traditional Labor Day song, and generally enjoyed ourselves. We had a bit of a late night Monday because the kids were in a really festive mood, so it was with a little bit of trepidation that (on Tuesday) Mike went back to work and Alison back to taking care of the kids full time. Things went pretty well, although Mike forgot to wait for Scott to carpool with him. Tuesday night Mike had a daddy daughter date planned with Sara. She picked that she wanted to go Geo-caching at wheeler farm with Mike and the other kids. They were able to find the Geo-cache that was there after a few minutes of searching. It was not in plain sight, however it wasn't hidden in a terrible place. They had some things to put in the box, and they took some things out of the box. It ended up being a very fun pastime. They also got to see all of the animals a...

For Rea's date night we bought mint ice cream, and had mint ice cream and watched an episode of my little ponies. Since then, we have been eating mint ice cream every so often, because - hey! mint ice cream. Sara read a book for the first time this week, so we had a goal day party for her. She wanted brownies, so Alison made us a batch, and then we played games together. and ate mint ice cream. On Wednesday Mike finished his dragon game up and entered it into the game competition. He hasn't heard anything back yet, but even if he doesn't win, it was a fun contest. The outdoor preschool is going well. Alison decided to hold it on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays: there is a ward playgroup that meets on Wednesdays, and on Fridays they already have a preschool group. They had a different family join every day this week (which the kids really enjoyed). They managed to stay outside for about 5 hours each day without the kids whining (which was the goal). The kids had a l...