Ethan Allan

Ethan, Jeff's sister's baby boy decided to take his time. The boy wanted his own birthday apparently. He was born March 22 just after one in the morning. He weighed 9 lbs 9oz. 21 in long.
We had to go to our ward because Jeff was a speaker, and church starts at 1pm. We decided to be crazy and leave after sacrament to make the almost three hour drive to South Bend to meet the little guy. (The kids are out of school for the next few weeks and Jeff had a late start at work today.) So we decided we could handle a late night. It was a fun trip.

Photo courtesy of Natalie - hence the angle. The proud Uncle Jeff.

All five grandkids together. (on the Read side)

Natalie and Anna couldn't wait to hold him.

Jeremy is a baby lover.

Jeff's Day

Jeff turned another year older. For the first time ever I didn't make his cake. It felt weird, but I bought him one he likes from Costco.
The kids were excited about his birthday. They were disappointed when he had a morning meeting to go to - so I got them excited about cleaning the house to surprise Jeff with a clean house. He's been doing a lot of the cleaning lately. Then the missionaries stopped by while he was gone and asked if they could take down our Christmas lights. Perfect!

To figure out the numer of candles we put on one for each child we have....yes there are five candles on the cake. Yes, we are expecting our fifth. The due date, unless it changes again, is Sept. 29.

Jeff spent his day relaxing and staying, for the most part, at home. The kids had trouble figuring out why he wanted to stay home:) We also spent the afternoon and evening thinking Jeff would share his birthday with his nephew, but we went to bed still awaiting word of his birth.

Another turn

Anna's ballet class ended last Monday. I waited to take pictures until then because for the last class we are invited inside and it's much easier than trying to get shots thru blinds.

Bar work. Anna runs as fast as possible to get in the front. Everyone tries to squeeze into the front. It was hilarious.

Here she is showing off. After we took the picture we motioned for her to look at her teacher again and she did.

I had a hair dilemna. Anna looks so much like a beautiful ballerina with her hair pulled back - but over the summer I cut her bangs. How to get her bangs to stay back? I found this hairstyle on the hair blog and tweaked it to fit our needs. Her bangs all stayed in the braids and her bun stayed up.

Her teacher Ms. Johanna. We'll see her again in June. Anna can't wait. Neither can Natalie. Poor Natalie tried to join the class since we were in the room. She sat on my lap the whole time and watched closely. The teacher let her join right after they were done and gave her a treat with the rest of the class. It appeased for the moment.

Egg Experiment

After Jeremy's egg drop Jeff and I hung around to hear the comments shared by his class. At the end his teacher told us about another fun egg experiment and of course Jeremy wanted to try it. So after dinner we went outside - without coats!- to try it. Here's how it went:

(the multiple videos are short, but there for grandparents who want to see them all. You do not need to play all of them if you are not that interested.)

Explanation:

Jeremy:

Brenden & Kristiana:

Jeff:

Natalie and I did it as well. There is no video of Natalie - Jeff stood too close to her to get any. I'm refraining from posting myself because I don't like the video. It didn't break when I did it either.

Jeremy's Egg Drop

Third grade means the egg drop out here. Jeremy is in a HA (high ability) class so to challenge the kids in his class his teacher changed the rules.

• once you let go of the egg you can't touch it
• you can't wrap the egg - the egg must touch the ground
• no dropping the egg onto a pillow or cushion (see rule above.)
• you must construct something to slow your egg down
• the teacher will provide the egg (read - no cheating!)
• your egg must drop eight feet

Jeff was able to get the afternoon off to come in and see the egg drop. I was grateful because he was able to do the knots. Not pictured is the eight and a half foot pole constructed from two broom handles. Jeff lashed them together with knots he's learned being scoutmaster.

Here's Jeremy and his teacher inspecting the egg before the drop.

He built a zip line that went 22' 9" and sent the egg down a 22 guage wire inside a section of egg carton styrofoam. If you look closely at the picture down on Jeremy's right leg is a blob of white - that's the egg. I climbed the ladder to drop the egg. Jeff held the pole steady. Jeremy was in charge of making sure he was the right distance away and holding the wire tight.

After a cracking sound which turned out to be the sound of the styrofoam absorping the impact the egg was announced free of any cracks!

Way to go Jeremy!!! Prior to this we explained to Jeremy how sometimes an experiment works and sometimes it doesn't and warned him the egg might crack at school - even though it didn't at home. We're glad that it worked for him when his grade was on the line. (A cracked egg was only minus one point)

(After we left the school Jeff and I took the girls to the zoo since it was such a nice day. We enjoyed ourselves - and the fresh air. I am ready to air out my house - too bad I wasn't home today to do it.)

Egg drop. Check.

Science Fair. Next year.

Fun Do's

About a week ago I finally ventured to a website for girl's hair that my friend told me about ages ago. Then I spent a week gearing up the nerve to try it. Since we have afternoon church this year I had plenty of time Sunday morning to try. This is the view from the front. Looks normal. The succor in Natalie's hand is because it took a looooong time for me to do this and she was done before I was.
Finished product.

Close up of Natalie. (It's supposed to be a heart shaped braid - this was the better shape of the two - I did Anna's first.)

Close up of Kristiana. Her's didn't hold all the way thru church.:(

I was going to try another, easier style today for dance, but with homework and HOP I forgot to even get Anna ready for dance before trying to leave for dance. We borrowed a rubber band from the office desk at the studio so her hair would be pulled back. Lovely.