3rd grade collection

What does an 8 year old boy collect at school, to make school more enjoyable? When Seth brought home all the stuff from his desk at the end of the school year, I found an unexpected surprise in his pencil box. Can you guess what it was?

Broken pencil leads. Hundreds of them. When I first opened the box, it was literally overflowing with little pointy pieces of graphite, all swimming in between the bigger pencils. He started collecting them around October, so almost all year. The rest of the class knew it, so everyone else would pile up their broken leads on Seth's desk. How nice! (I wonder how many were broken on purpose, just to add to the collection??!!!) I guess it spilled one day, and he lost half of them on the school floor. Then they spilled again here at home, so there are hardly any left. This picture is just what's remaining.

Par-Tay Time!

Aspen chose red velvet cake this year, and we tried to make them look like butterflies. Her kindergarten class just finished learning a lot about butterflies, so Aspen has butterflies on her brain. She still had her birthday crown from school too she could use! It's always better with a crown, right? (She was so sweet: she was sad for another boy in her class, who didn't get his birthday crown, because he had to suddenly leave school early for an emergency the last week. Poor kid!)

I can't remember what they were singing. Or was it whistling?

Here's our best family picture we could manage to get. I try and get all the kids in a picture on birthdays. And Bridger IS in there, in the window reflection. See? I guess it really is the whole family...

Here's the one Hanna decorated. I surprisingly was able to dig out plenty of leftover long lost candy in the cupboard to decorate with. The "stash" that was somehow forgotten. Of course, with all the candy on them, no one ate them. We all ate ice cream, and the cakes are still waiting untouched, safely in the oven. Hopefully no one preheats the oven with them still inside.

Hurry! Quick! Bridger came over to this side of the table. Seth, come back here! So Mom can get a picture!

Are we done yet? We want to eat! (The ice cream cones, that is.)
And move on to opening presents. It's already 9:30 pm for goodness sakes!

When the Roses Bloom...

That means it's Aspen's Birthday!

How lucky can you get, to get thousands of roses for your birthday?

The climbing roses always bloom on Aspen's birthday. Even this year, when everything else seemed to bloom 2 weeks later than usual, because of a colder spring. I didn't think we'd get these roses on her birthday this year, but we still did!

Her birthday is on D-Day. June 6. Great day for us though. Delivery Day! not Dooms Day. Our family has been better off ever since she came to us 7 years ago. Aspen Spring Peters brings the beauty of springtime to us year round, with her lively, sweet, beautiful personality.

She just happened to be wearing this shirt that day. (Which also worked well to sorta hide the red-velvet cake batter that ended up on the shirt, from the cake she chose to make for her birthday.)

I just had too much fun taking pictures. And luckily, I remembered to run out there at sunset, with the good sunlight. Ever since Sunny compared her home to the paparazzi with all the picture taking, I think it's like that here too. (Especially with a new baby and big sisters/brother who like to snap pictures with the camera too.)

Every year we (Troy mostly) talk about pruning back this bush. But it's never happened yet, and I don't mind. I like it huge. Though it is taking over the grape vine's rightful spot, and shading the vegetable garden too much...But it's just so grand when it's in bloom!

Aren't you done yet Mom? It's freezing on this side of the bush, in the wind, and no sun!

A Great Gramma

I think I've been blessed with the best mother in law in the world. Really! I have no complaints about her. Nope, she's not a traditional "Great-Grandma" yet, except that we know she is GREAT. We are so lucky she could come help when Molly was born. I know it was a sacrifice for her, with her work internship, to be able to come this time. Her help definitely helped me recover quicker! It was a nice break to not be the household "manager" for a week, and just sit and rest and hold my new baby. She bore and raised 9 children, so she knows what it's like, more than I do.

She always does so good at building up my kid's self esteems, whenever she visits. They know she loves them and accepts them for who they are. If there was ever a fair contest for Grandma-of-the-Year, I think she could win it. (Maybe she and my own mother would tie...) We were blessed to live near her when Troy was in grad school, when Aspen was born, so our children could get to know her better.

Because she's a school psychologist, her professional advice is really nice help for us with Bridger and his challenges. (And it's free!) She really has helped us a lot with him.

Oh, and by the way, this is the gramma that Molly's named after. Molly Sue, named after Gramma Mary Susan.

We love you Gramma Mary! Thank you for coming!

In Training?

This made me laugh. It's a picture from 2 weeks ago, when the older kids came to meet their baby sister for the first time. They all wanted to hold her of course, but some of them also wanted to watch some TV. We don't have TV at home, so it's exciting for them to get the chance. (I have to admit, I enjoyed getting to watch some TV while in the hospital too!)

Is this how it is for little boys growing into men? Their kind of multi-tasking? Watching the baby and TV together. Seth was pretty interested in watching the professional soccer game, and how good they play. Especially since he's getting into soccer himself more this year.

Troy and I were watching these games too, the night before, at about 1 am, while I was in labor, waiting for the baby. Those players are pretty incredible. (Then we ended up both dozing off, when we realized the baby was taking longer than we expected. So we got our only hour of sleep that night, while the soccer game was still on in the background. The nurse probably thought we were crazy. We were just soakin' in any TV we could! Just-kidding.)

Spring Soccer for Seth

(Here's another longer, journaling entry, mostly for grandparent's and relatives' sakes. I should have made it into a few shorter posts, throughout the season, but alas, I didn't. Here's one big conglomeration. )

When Seth got the chance to start playing the goalie position halfway through the spring soccer season, he got really excited, and more into it. He's always liked soccer, but he loves it even more now. (He says he'd rather do soccer than football, and that's fine with me!) He played goalie as a 4 yr old when we lived in Amarillo, but then didn't play it for a few years. He likes playing soccer school recess, but of course, there are no referees there, so there's a lot of unfair play. But his confidence is growing, and he feels like he fits in and is capable, and helps out the team. He used to think most of the other boys were way better than him here, especially since it's more in their ure among the Hispanics, to play soccer. (And b/c we don't play with him at home much.) But he was pleasantly surprised to realize that he's comparable to some of them, and he's continually improving. Whenever we can't find him inside, we find him outside kicking the ball around.

He likes playing defense way more than offense, but he's getting better at offense too. It's just kinda strange when he's used to being "nice" because of how we're trying to raise him, and then trying to switch attitudes on the soccer field, where it's okay to take the ball away from the other team! I told him it's okay to be "assertive" on the field, and that's just how the game is played, and he's getting used to that.

(Before the haircut.)

This next picture was his second game playing goalie this spring. Even though he blocked at least about 8 attempts to score from the opposing team, this one picture was the one goal they did manage to get past Seth. Kind of a funny picture. (It was raining, so we were sitting in the back of the van.)
In the same game, he also scored a goal. Which at first, I wasn't sure about, because he didn't jump up and down and cheer. Then I realized it really WAS him that scored, b/c if it had been his teammate, he would have cheered for him more.

Even though the goalie stays back in the goal box, they still get a good workout, running all over to block shots. I didn't realize that before. He seemed to get hurt more too back there (kicked and stuff.) I for sure wouldn't be brave enough to grab a ball when another player looks like they're about to kick me in the head!


(Seth is number 56.)

He had a GREAT coach too. One who's all about these younger boys getting to play positions all over the field, and just have fun. He had to put up with a lot of stuff from other more competitive parents. And he even gave rides to Seth a lot! Which was SOOO nice to help out our family. We're grateful Seth had a positive experience this year, and I'm happy for Coach Moyer and his family to be done coaching! (I wish I'd got a picture of them giving High-Fives to each other, but I always missed it. Here's his good buddy Anthony though!)

I'm not the greatest "soccer mom" either. I don't cheer as loud as the other parents, and I never keep track of the score. If one of my friends are there, I'll yack with them and not hardly pay attention to the game. And of course, I always have to keep following Bridger around to some extent. (Aspen's a great help with him too, so I didn't have to run all over with him being big and pregnant.) But this year, I didn't have friends there often, so I actually watched the game more, and it's getting more and more fun to watch now! I'm finally understanding why others enjoy watching so much. Some of the boys are REALLY good. It IS fun to watch!

National History Day

First off, I've spent too much time trying to get the layout of this decent, with the text and lots of pictures, but it keeps changing it's looks between the screen where I'm creating it, and the published screen. Probably b/c of the blog background, but I don't have any more time to work with it, so I apologize that it's not the easiest thing to read this time.

It all started 3 yrs ago, because Alana's ride to school each morning got them there very early. History Club met before school, so Alana and Debra thought "Why not?" and joined. Seemed like a positive thing to do when you're waiting for school to start anyway. And luckily, a great teacher was in charge.

For the most part, it was a pretty un-intense club, that didn't take too much time. Except of course the couple weeks before History Day every March. This was Alana's 3rd year, and Hanna's 1st year to be involved, and they really enjoyed the "intelligent" company with the other students in the club. They also actually seemed to really like working and researching their projects, and would do it over Christmas break. Every year, they've entered the group performance category. Except this year, Alana did an individual performance.

They both did great though, placing
1st at regionals, and then Hanna and Brinnley placed 5th at state (against other 6th-8th graders), and Alana placed 4th at state. Our region of the state is not very competitive in the performance category, but by the time they got to the state level, it was very competitive. Most students prefer to do a website/display/documentary. But overall throughout the rest of the state, they probably went against a few hundred entries, in March and April.


I thought Hanna and Brinnley had a bit of a challenge, trying to do their group performance and act out several different parts, with just the 2 of them. But they did a great job. Some of the other Prosser kids that did performances, did them with Alana 2 years ago, and they placed 5th at state as 6th graders too, with a presentation on Sacajawea. And by this year, I can see how they have progressed so much and improved their stage presence/voices.


Hanna and Brinnley did "Anne Frank. Child of the Holocaust." Both girls have grandmothers with close ties to WWII. Brinnley's grandma's family hid and lived in the forest for years, hiding from the Germans, and Hanna's grandma's friend was classmates with Anne Frank before the war. They talked to both women and learned a lot about life back in War torn Germany.














Alana's entry this year was "Narcissa Whitman. Faithful Actions, a Surviving Legacy."
















Narcissa Whitman was a Presbyterian missionary, along with her husband and a few other missionaries, that trekked across the USA and formed a mission near Walla Walla, Washington, where they served and taught the Native Americans that lived near there. She was one of the very first females to settle in the west, so she gave hope to hundreds of other women, that they too, could live a "civilized" life in the west.


After doing so well, the Whitman Mission State Park even asked Alana if she'd go over there to give some performances at the Visitor Center.

Thanks again to a great History Club advisor who supported them through all this! All those extra hours when it came down to the wire. And his wife too! And, the honors teacher who helps all the 8th grade honors class with their entries too.


In the picture above, of Narcissa praying, I persuaded Alana to include a segment, where she sang part of "Rock of Ages", after the part when Narcissa's baby Alice drowned in the river. Alana was really nervous to sing, but I think it added a lot to her presentation. (And ironically, for both Alana and Hanna, it was a challenge to keep under the 10 minute time limit!)