Report for the week

I haven't posted much this past week-- no time! Nothing too unusual this week. Normal lessons. It was the last week of school for the Round Rock school district (the one we're in), and I told the boys that when public school lets out for the summer, that's when we'll start our abbreviated half-day lessons. So they're pretty excited. :-)
So. Highlights from the week.
Last Sunday was the boys' art show. They take art classes every Wednesday afternoon. Yes, I could do these art projects with them at home, but I probably wouldn't. And somebody else gets to clean up the mess. :-) The boys made paper mache animals, "tin foil" paintings (think the "Rainbow Fish" book-- a painting incorporating pieces of aluminum foil), and several other projects. It was fun to go and see the boys show off their work. And very interesting to see their extremely different styles of art. Brigham didn't finish his paper mache cat because he is so detail-oriented and perfectionistic that he didn't have time!
We made doughnuts last Monday night for FHE. I needed to try out a recipe for a potential Relief Society activity. We used the "Brigham Young Doughnut" recipe. Verdict? Delicious! We borrowed an electric deep fryer which made it very easy. I fried the donuts and the boys rolled them in cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar. I don't particularly care to know about the calories or fat grams. :-) I made a half-batch and they were all eaten within 24 hours.

Tuesday was horseback riding lessons. They have a new teacher who I like very much. She's a lot more dynamic and personable than their last teacher (who was also extremely nice, just very quiet). Brigham gave her one of our homemade doughnuts after his lesson. :-) They'll keep doing horseback riding during the summer. Monday was their last day of gymnastics, and art is over for the semester, so our summer schedule will ease up a bit.
Wednesday was an easy day because we had no activities in the afternoon. We did lessons and then went to Target. The boys love Target because I let them get icees.
Thursday we did school lessons and piano lessons. Our school lessons were abbreviated because the boys had to pick up the house before the cleaners came in the afternoon. But I kind of count that as lessons-- isn't learning to fold clothes valuable learning? At least as valuable as grammar, right? :-)


One day this last week we looked in the back yard, and there were 5 of these pretty blue jays flitting and chasing each other around. We don't know what they were doing, but aren't they pretty?


Brigham spent a lot of time this week working on block creations. Well, he spends a lot of time *every* week on block creations. I just happened to actually upload the pictures we took on time to post them on the blog. He likes to take pictures of his creations before knocking them down. He has the coolest way of knocking them down, too. He catapults blocks at them, one at a time, until they eventually fall down.



I love this one he made this week-- a block cat! I think Joseph and Mosey helped him a little in the artistic concept, but Brigham was the chief engineer.



Look, it even has eyes and a nose and a mouth!


Friday was Friday! I wasn't feeling great in the afternoon, so when school lessons were done and my visiting teacher had come and gone, I took a nap. Rare for me. We got Chinese takeout and watched the 24 finale in the evening.
Saturday we didn't do too much. I made blueberry bars (soooo good). Squirrel went to her new home with Brian. I think the boys will miss her. I know Mister will miss her! It has been very fun to have her at our house. But it is nice to be able to open our front door without a dog going crazy barking. :-) I told Brian to bring her over to play so that Mister won't be so sad.
Here are Mister and Squirrel this past week. You can't see, but Squirrel was pretty much sitting on Mister's lap. Cute. The boys think Mister's glowing alien eyes are really cool in this picture.

Our good friends the Talbots are moving to St. George. Ben helped load their van Saturday morning, and Saturday evening we brought Rudy's barbecue to their house for one last family get-together. I'm sad they are leaving. Ben and I are not too social, and they have been good friends to us. They are at least as busy as we are (probably more considering they have 5 kids and Charles has been traveling for work Monday-Friday for most of the past 3 years), so we're a good match. Charles has been our home teacher and by far the most consistent one we've ever had. Charles and Ben are/were in the Elders Quorum presidency together, and Liz and I are/were in the Relief Society presidency together. Which made juggling presidency meetings a little tricky, but was also nice because we got to spend time together. Making "couples friends" isn't always easy because the 4 spouses don't always click with each other, and so we are pretty sad to have the Talbots go. But also happy because they're going to St. George where both their families are from, and I know it will be a good situation for their family.
The Turners and the Talbots.
Top row: Mosey, Joseph, and Brigham. Clearly thrilled to be taking *another* picture.
2nd row down: Sessel Talbot. Their gigantic 13 year old and thoroughly nice kid. He stayed with us for a few days while Liz and Charles went house hunting in St. George. My boys love him.
Next row down: Sage (Brigham's and Joseph's age), and Liz with 5 year old Ethan on her lap.
Bottom row: Ben, me, Daniel (11 years old and sunburned from his last day at the pool), and Charles with 2 year old Chase.
Gosh, we will miss them. And Liz's wonderful cookies.

After that we drove out past the Mansfield Dam, much to the dismay of the boys. We promised them treats on the way home, and they were not in the slightest bit interested in exploring. But we don't spend much time out past the dam, and Ben and I were curious to see what was down there. So we told the boys we would drive around for 5 miles and then turn back. That was 5 miles full of the most moaning and groaning you ever did hear. Gosh, our boys' lives are sooooo tough. We drove to Emerald Point Marina on Lake Travis, which was extremely crowded. Note to self: stay away from Lake Travis at the end of a beautiful summer Saturday because it is CROWDED with people leaving the lake. It was weird driving around the marina. I don't think we saw anyone there under the age of maybe 16 or over the age of 30. I guess that's the cool place to party for that demographic. We didn't fit in, let's just leave it at that. :-)


Out near the Talbots house in Steiner Ranch is a street called Brigham Drive. We made Brigham jump out of the car so I could take a picture of him under the sign. There can't be many "Brigham Drives" in America!


As we were driving toward the dam, the sun was setting bright red over the horizon. Bad picture, but beautiful sunset.

We finally did make it to Shakes for treats and then home to bed.
Today was Sunday. Normal day. Got to take an after-church nap. (What?? TWO naps in one week?!)