6 Points for Ben!

Ben made his first touchdown of the flag football season tonight. He's been waiting...not very patiently...all season for his chance to score. He's had a couple of close calls but couldn't quite get in. If there's one thing he's not lacking it's dedication...to football that is...if only we could harness that to things like piano and homework or chores!

It was the first play of the game and "Coach" lined him up as a receiver and told him to go deep! Zach was quarterback and threw a perfect pass to a streaking Ben who caught it in stride and took it to the house. This one play covered the entire field! The play ended with Ben spiking the ball and chest bumping Zach in the end zone..."Coach" says we need to work on our sportsmanship! Good job Ben...GO TEAM!!

Sara's Family "Meetings"

Sara is our unofficial family activity planner...or as she would say "meeting" planner. Just about every night she'll announce that we are having a "meeting". She puts quite a bit of work into preparing that evenings activity and almost always has something she wants us to write or draw on, she'll have a paper for each of us, all ready to go with our names at the top and whatever else is needed. She is very official and while we are sitting on the couch, she stands in front of us holding a clipboard and gives us very specific instructions about the rules and procedures of whatever it is she's got planned. Sometimes she'll have a little game to play or a writing assignment for us. It's always different...it's a great way to know what she's been doing at school and church!

Well, Thursday night she called us all to a meeting. She had our papers ready with our names at the top and she had divided the paper into four sections and labeled them 1-4. She called for a helper to help pass out pencils...which is always Caleb, Ben is too busy rolling his eyes and moaning.

Then she said "In the first square I want you to draw a bunny, when you are done touch your nose. Don't go on to the next square until I tell you to."
"In the second square I want you to draw three mice. When you are done scratch your chin."
"In the third square I want you to draw a good fairy. When you are done touch your ear."
"In the forth square I want you to write the numbers 1, 2, 3."
"Now everyone put your pencils down. I'm going to read you a poem with our pictures."

Then she started singing and pointing to each picture in turn..."Little Bunny FuFu hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head." She had us stop and draw a bump on one of the mice and then went on "Down came the good fairy and she said..." We sang all the way through until little Bunny FuFu gets turned into a goop....which she asked us to draw on the bottom of our paper.

Troy and I decided we knew just what Sara had sang in Music class that day!

Waiting for the Butterflies...

Yesterday we inherited two caterpillars who had already formed their cocoons. They both looked like little green leaves hanging from the top of their mason jar when we got them. This morning Sara very excitedly came in and said that "one of the cocoons had turned black and the other was still green like a leaf!". We went and looked and sure enough it had turned VERY black. I told the kids we'll have to watch it for a few days and see what happens.

Well, I came home this afternoon after picking Caleb up from school and was more than a little surprised (it kind of startled me!!) to see a huge Monarch butterfly flapping it's wings in our jar! Caleb and I took him out of the jar so he wouldn't damage the second cocoon and went and put him out in one of our little aspen trees...we sat and watched him for a while and I couldn't help but think how amazing it was to all of a sudden have a butterfly appear from seemingly nowhere! Then the rain clouds started to form and I got all worried and of course called Mom who said "You'd better make him a little house and feed him and give him something to drink!" So I very hurriedly grabbed a shoebox and some netting and made a little butterfly house. Caleb and I decided that we would keep him in his house until the kids came home and then maybe the butterfly would be ready to fly.

When the kids got home the butterfly was out of the box and at the window trying to get out! I guess he couldn't wait a minute longer! Sara and I tried a couple of different ways to get him outside...I was so worried about damaging his wings and didn't want to touch him but finally got him on my finger. We took him outside and he climbed onto Sara and...before I could get a picture of her...he flew off over to the neighbors tree. He sat there for a minute and then off he went! Just think...in a few weeks he might be on the beach in Mexico!

We are excitedly watching our second little friend and hoping that we can catch him on his way out...just in case we don't I've added a little video clip so we can all image what it might look like! Amazing!!