After my last post, I decided that I wouldn't do another post on my blog until I caught up on the ironing! That's why I haven't posted for a few weeks, and, sorry to say, I still haven't finished the ironing--I decided you would never hear from me again. It has been a very busy last month of school. When I made that ironing decision, I didn't realize that I was going to be making two costumes and I wasn't thinking about all the myriads of programs I would be attending which would leave little time for ironing. So here are some photos and a run-down of some of our activities:

The beehives surprised Minnie by decorating her room and kidnapping her for her first YW activity. Thankfully, she is such a willing helper, because I had her doing a myriad of chores in the basement to keep her unaware while they were upstairs decorating her room for the half-hour before YW started! (I have a few other children who never would have cooperated with extra chores. But Minnie just cheerfully did what I asked!)

This is Minnie again at her last band concert of the year. (She is the third one in from the right on the front row, wearing a white sweater over a floral print dress.) She is now off to the Concert Band at the junior high. The Jr. High band teacher, Mr. Arnold, showed up at one of their rehearsals recently and had each of them play for him and he told her to sign up for Concert Band rather than Beginning Band. Minnie is going to be trying out the oboe in summer band (along with continuing with the flute.) If she likes it, we hope she will be able to play that in the future.

This is Minnie yet again with some of her friends: Samantha, McKenna, and Aubrey. This is during their 6th grade music program. The music teacher at her school used to be in my ward growing up and sings in the Tabernacle Choir now. So she is quite an accomplished musician and does amazing things with these kids. I was very impressed by the program--lots and lots of songs and dances. Most of the 6th graders (including Minnie) weren't too thrilled about the dancing part (with a boy--ewh!) but they still did a great job. Minnie sang with a few small groups and was also one of two couples highlighted during the final dance number. We were surprised by this because she hadn't mentioned any of that to us ahead of time.

On Mother's Day, we hosted the Pew family birthday/Mother's Day dinner at our house. May is Minnie's month, so here she is again opening presents.

Here's my Mom and Dad--best parents in the world!

All the cousins were playing in the basement or outside together. When we started opening presents, we discovered Atom was nowhere to be found. We had searched the house and yard and some of the neighborhood and were getting ready to call the police, when my Dad spotted him trotting down the hill. He had decided to go visit his favorite spot at the church--a big hole in the ground covered by a grate that has water in it. He was barefoot and carrying a big plastic bat (for protection, I guess?) A police car pulled up slowly behind him soon after--he was checking to make sure Atom belonged to us because he had seen him wandering by himself. The policeman was in the area because some of our neighbors had called to report another small child they didn't recognize wandering alone--he had picked this kid up in his car and was cruising the neighborhood trying to find out who the child belonged to, when he saw Atom! He almost had two lost kids at the same time.

The middle of May was the annual Father and Son's outing. Our ward went to Willow Park in Lehi--about five minutes west of my parent's house. Funny, we live 15 minutes from a beautiful canyon in the mountains, but they didn't go there! Willow Park in smack in the middle of civilization (about 1 minute from the middle school Jumble attended last spring) but it is by the Jordan River. It was packed with people, so it is a popular destination for Father and Son's. I wouldn't want to camp anywhere around here in mid-May. Still too cold. I have spent a few freezing nights camping in July in Utah. Here is Atom enjoying the tent.

I took this photo of Jet, Niles, and Atom. I brought Jet over a few hours after Niles and Atom left, because he was attending his cousin's birthday party. We never could have done that in Arizona, where we had to travel 2-3 hours to get to a campground! (Opposite problem there--you had to go to the mountains in the north to find someplace to camp that wasn't too hot in mid-May.)

This is Jet at his 2nd-grade opera performance. (He is the one on the far right.) They had each class write their own songs and script, design the props, and everything. It was pretty impressive and very cute. I made the dragon tail for him. I also made wings, but they kept getting ripped so I gave up on them by this final performance.

Here is Jumble after her final Wind Ensemble Concert. Jumble has also started marching band again. She started the season with a bang--literally. At the first practice of the season they had them running during warm-ups. There was a tree in the path of the pack of kids. Some kids swerved to miss the tree and one of them crashed into Jumble, knocking her down on the pavement. She had two very bruised, very banged-up, very nasty-looking knees as well as a twisted ankle. She is almost scab and scar-free now, after over two weeks of healing. So she had the "honor" of being the first injury of the season. Jumble auditioned for Symphonic Band at the high school and made it. The director put her on bass clarinet next year, which she isn't too happy about. Since she is playing bass clarinet in marching band again, she (and we) would prefer to keep clarinet as her concert instrument--after all, she owns a good-quality clarinet--and we have to rent the bass clarinet from the school. The director doesn't know her too well yet since she hasn't attended at the high school yet, so we aren't sure he realizes she plays clarinet as well as bass clarinet so we are going to talk to him about it before school starts.

The elementary school had a dance festival last Friday. There was no way to get close enough to get a photo during the performances--but this is Jet after his second grade performance. He is holding his "pepper hat" in his hand. I was grateful that the 2nd grade costumes consisted of blue shorts and an orange, yellow, red, or green t-shirt--which Jet already owned.

This is Minnie with her friends: Kristen, Natasha, McKenna, and Samantha. (Minnie is on the right end in the blue skirt.)

The 6th graders needed 50's poodle skirts and scarves, which Minnie did not own. So I spent the week making her a poodle skirt and matching scarf. You wouldn't think a simple poodle skirt would take much time, but it really took me most of four days to finish it. (The pattern I had did have a zipper and a waistband instead of just being pull-on with an elastic waist. And the fur on the poodle had to be hand-sewn. So it wasn't difficult, just time-consuming.)

Here's Minnie again--very stylish for the late 50's!

Last Saturday was the last day of the soccer season for Minnie and Jet. Here is Minnie posing with her coach and team. (She's the one standing just to the left of the coach. Notice she's the same height as her coach!) It was fun that she got to play on the same team as her cousin, Emily, who is sitting in the front row on the far left side (same side of the photo as Minnie.) This is Jet at his last game. Niles was the coach. I got to see their next-to-last game, which they won!

Minnie also was able to referee a few soccer games for the younger kids this season which she enjoyed--especially payday! It has been interesting for us to adjust to the differences between soccer in Arizona and soccer in Utah. One thing we think is crazy here--they play in the rain--not just light rain, but cold POURING rain! They would never even CONSIDER playing in such conditions in Arizona.

Some other things we've been doing that I don't have photos of:

We have had many yummy Sunday dinners with the Cranes.

Niles made three big planter boxes for us and planted a garden. We are looking forward to tomatoes, squash, strawberries, etc. He has worked really hard on it and I really appreciate it.

Jumble and I went on a class presidency leadership retreat for YW at a cabin up Provo Canyon. It was fun but a lot of preparation time for me.

We have been fighting the battle of the wasps--I THINK (fingers crossed) that we are winning. Atom got one up his pants one day and it stung him three or four times. Minnie was exiled from her room for several days because she saw a wasp in her room, but once we got the fly swatter we couldn't find it again! Sneaky thing. So we kept her door shut for a few days--still haven't found a dead one in there so maybe it somehow got back out. We got rid of the one trying to build a nest in between the screen and sliding glass back door. I also killed one in our kitchen. Then we put up some traps in the front and back yard and they both have quite a few in them and we are seeing a lot less flying around, so hopefully we won't be plagued by them all summer. I admit it--I am terrified of wasps--so this has not been fun to me.

Jumble is going to Seven Peaks Water Park today for their 9th grade sluff day. Tomorrow they all go to school for a whole 1 1/2 hours and then it will be officially summer!

Niles and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary last week. I could do a whole post on all of Nile's wonderful qualities that have made my last 17 years blissful, but that will have to wait for later. I think he would rather have freshly-pressed clothes to wear than cyber praise. So I'll save that for another day.

Now that you know we are still alive, excuse me while I go do some ironing!