"How to Avoid Being Caught"

I think my kids need this lesson:.  If you're going to do something naughty, don't leave evidence. 

Exhibit A:

My kids know they're not supposed to touch my cell phone... ever.  (Long story which I won't share.) I found this picture on my cell phone. Lesson: If you're going to touch the cell phone, don't take a picture of yourself! 

 

Exhibit B:

This is what my basement wall looks like.  Yes, that's CARVED into the wall... using a paper clip, I think.  Our poor basement walls.   Lesson: Carve something besides your name.  Better lesson: DON'T CARVE THE WALLS!!

Exhibit C:

If you're going to draw on your brother with markers, maybe you should just draw a picture, not write your name.  (She got caught before she finished the "th")

After looking at all these, I just realized that there are 2 common culprits .  Hmmm...

lesson

First Annual Skip School Day

(This happened May 6th, just for my own records.  I'm just getting around to posting it now.)  We started a new tradition that I hope to keep every year... Skip School Day.  Nathan didn't have early morning seminary on this particular morning.  His seminary teacher said they were ahead on their lessons and declared it Skip Seminary Day.  He also had "late arrival" day so I decided that I was going to keep him home all day, just for fun.  Then I decided to keep ALL the kids home, just for fun. The only mistake I made was that I didn't tell them in advance.  I thought it would be fun for them to just wake up and find out they didn't have to go to school.  I think they would have been more excited if I told them the plan the night before.

So we all slept in, which was heaven! Then we had donuts for breakfast.  Any day that starts with donuts for breakfast has to be a good day.  

We went downtown to Crown Center.  (A big mall in Kansas City which is owned by Hallmark.)  We checked out the toy store where I was really good at not buying them anything.  Be shocked.  My toy store weakness is almost as bad as my gift shop weakness.  We went to Kaleidoscope (go here  if you don't know what I'm talking about).  The kids had so much fun.  And what makes it even better is it was all free. We packed a lunch and Kaleidoscope is free.   Here are some pics of our adventure.  I forgot my camera so these are cell phone pics and the lighting was really dark.  But you get the idea.

Making puzzles.  You design your own puzzle on white cardboard sheets and then they have a machine that cuts it into a puzzle.

 Caleb found a semi truck bench and fell in love with it.

He wanted to drive it around and was pretty annoyed that it didn't move no matter how hard he pushed.

Some more random pics.

Playing with the "Live Kaleidoscope".  This was really fun!  You stand under a camera and it projects your image on the wall just like you were in a Kaleidoscope.  The kids spent foreeeever here.  I was ready to go long before they were.

 We were tired after spending the day walking around.  So we came home and had pizza and a movie.  It was a fun day and we're definitely going to do this next year! 

Anna got an award!

Anna got an award at school!  She actually got it April 5th while I was in Las Vegas.  Her principal told me she was getting the award and wanted me to keep it a surprise.  Then he told me it was going to happen during the week I was gone. I was super sad when I realized that I would miss it because I would be out of town.  What are the odds that I would be out of town and Blake would be in town?!  Blake was happy that he actually got to be there for something fun.  Anyway, Anna got The Sunflower Ambassador Award.

Here's a blurb that describes it better than I can:

"Blue Valley Education Foundation "Virtue Vans" plan a surprise visit to all Blue Valley schools to announce Sunflower Ambassadors.  Ambassadors are nominated in essays written by their peers and selected based on how they demonstrate the seven Blue Valley Virtues: compassion, courage, honesty, perseverance, respect, responsibility and self-discipline.  Each school has only one winner of the award.  A panel of more than 20 community leaders and educators read the finalists' essays and select the ambassadors. Then board members, volunteers and staff visit each school to announce their ambassadors.  The award is presented at an all-school assembly.  Ambassadors will also be recognized at the the annual Community Breakfast on September 4th."

Apparently Anna was nominated by a lot of different people.  She got a medal, flowers from the principal, a sunflower cookie from the district and flowers from daddy.  We're so proud of Anna!!!  She definitely lives all those virtues and more.  She has a very loving, caring, outgoing personality and I really admire that about her.  Congratulations Anna!!!