Parentheticals

Monday was a holiday! Mike had Memorial Day off work, and we had our first barbecue of the season, and the barbecue didn't even blow up or light on fire or anything! Mike made hamburger patties with blue cheese in them, which were great; we also had vegetable skewers with bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms in a soy sauce and pineapple juice marinade, which Alison (and everyone) loved, and watermelon, and hot dogs for the kids. Then we went to the play "Pirates of the Caribeener" at the Off Broadway Theater. The kids were ecstatic; they love the OBT plays. They enjoyed this one; Rea might have understood some of the jokes, but probably not because she's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean or Sponge Bob, which was the other reference they pulled in. But they all enjoyed the story and the singing and dancing anyway. Gideon didn't even scream, even though he was obviously very tired but unable to sleep in the noise. Best baby ever! On Tuesday, we went to Forest ...

This week in Family Meeting we decided that Alison would speak French with the kids when Mike was home. We have been trying it. The kids complain sometimes, but they're getting better at figuring out what Alison means. Mike had to translate a lot at first, but less as the week went by. Sara also really enjoys getting a French lesson every day. Rea and Alison saw an ad for a collection of books called the Herb Fairies. They are very excited about the idea of learning about medicinal plants in fun stories, but the company only opens enrollment for one week a year, and Alison bought an expensive music program this month, so we'll have to wait. Rea read the free sample and now is eager to collect and use medicinal herbs. She regularly gets a collecting bag and gathers supplies for her herbal shop. Tuesday we got lots of exercise. We walked about half a mile to playgroup, then Mommy and Gideon walked home and rode the bucket bike a mile to the grocery store and a mile home. Then...

Mike left for a work convention last Sunday after church, so we didn't do our blog post. So this post will cover two weeks. Last week, Alison and the kids started doing Forest Kindergarten again. After mushroom hunting, the kids really wanted to go to Dimple Dell, so we went there all week. The kids loved it. Alison was not huge fan of the switchbacks, but the creek and trees at the bottom are nice. The kids had a fabulous time, and Alison and Gideon sat and read and cuddled. Friday we had Brown Family Dinner, because Daniel had graduated and his parents were in town. We met at Amy's house and had pizza. It was fun. Mike showed off the Brave Lala illustrations Sheila made; they are awesome! The kids loved playing in the playhouse and on the trampoline. The adults talked about investments. Saturday morning Alison had to attend a Stake Baptism for a girl in our ward. Rea was invited along to sing, and all the kids ended up coming. They were decently well-behaved, and Rea sa...

It rained a lot last weekend, so the kids had a great time seeing how the creek changed due to the weather patterns. We all love Forest Kindergarten, even if we don't have anyone joining us right now. Alison is holding off inviting people more because this baby might come at any point (even though he's not due for three and a half weeks). Thursday we picked more grapes. The kids did a good job of staying on task this time, and they got a lot of grapes in the box. Rea enjoyed climbing up the fence to get the grapes. They have been eating them since. Mike also found a website  to generate planet images. He will use this in creating his games. He is really working hard to try to get them done before December. On Friday we went to a play: Drac Man vs Superior Man. It was one of the plays at the Off Broadway Theatre Utah. It was in their usual style: silly jokes and a light story. They had a few parts where they totally went off of the script and ended up improvising a whole...

On Tuesday Mike went to his first Board Game Design Guild meeting. He played a game, and had a fun time. Before he can join officially, he has to attend three meetings. They meet twice monthly, so hopefully he can get in enough meetings before the next Ion Award deadline to gain the benefit from joining it. Sara's date night this week was delayed to Wednesday because of Mike's meeting. She ended up picking watching My Little Ponies as her date night. The kids ended up with a lot of movies this week, because on Thursday Alison was feeling rather nauseous in the morning and canceled Forest Kindergarten to let the kids watch a movie while she took a nap. Three movies in one week is unusual for us, but they really enjoyed it. We also came up with the idea of bribing Timmy to stay in bed all night with the offer of a YouTube clip in the morning if he does. It's worked on about 50% of the nights this week. Mike is getting very tired of getting up with him. While we were hom...

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 ...