8th Grade Wackiness!

Landon and Mason

We already thought they were a little wacky, then "Wacky Day" came along at the middle school, and these two got WACKIER! 

Landon and Mason are both ASB officers this year, so they got to be involved in planning the first pep assemble of the school year.  

Landon wasn't there for the assembly but their was a Bulldog

 that had some of his dance moves;)

Is that Bulldog pestering the principal? 

Lots of wackiness going on at Mt. Baker

 Zeke and I took a sneak peak into this assemble to see all the fun.  We love that the boys don't mind us being there.  They are confident kids, and it brought lots of memories back for us of the our days in Middle School.  Which was only a few years ago-Right?

Mason (left) participating in a "Minute to Win it Game".

Mason our future politician looking comfortable at the mic and sitting up front. 

Blue Dragons

From the time Jacob could hold a toy he loved balls.  Anyone in the house could throw or roll a ball to him for hours and he would never get tired of it. So we were excited to have him start soccer this fall, knowing he would enjoy being on a team, especially after watching his older siblings for so many years.  It was almost a  perfect season for his first time playing: great weather, small team with nice boys and great parents, and one terrific coach! 

The Team "Blue Dragons"! 

Zeke became the coach after the original coach went AWOL

At the start of the season Jacob did fine, he dribbled the ball, laughed, played and enjoyed making new friends.  He was excited every night he had go to practice.  He was into the game some times and then in his own world another.  

He's coach (dad) was only encouraging and patient.  

Below: At one of the first games giving a fellow teammate Leo a hug.  

Then one game mid way through the season... he got it!! Almost as if he all of the sudden understood how to play the game.  He was not afraid to attack, was determined to get the ball and the only thing slowing him down was an occasional fall on the ground. 

I love the picture below: taken right after Jacob steals a pass from the opposing team and goes for a goal.  The coach of the other team has his arms out asking his team, "What happened?"

The traditional tunnel!

 At the end of the season pizza party.  

Great Season! 

What a deal!!

The ladies in our family have always enjoyed the ballet, early one morning while checking my email, there was an email from the Pacific Northwest Ballet, saying they were having a special (15% off) on the recent show "Cinderella".  My first thought was "Lydia would love to see the Cinderella ballet."  Out of curiosity to see how much tickets were I clicked on the link.  To my surprise every ticket in the house was $2 .  Not believing it I decided to pretend I was ordering some, so I picked the seats that would typically be the most expensive, still $2 each.  With Lydia not even awake yet and knowing that my boys wouldn't really like the ballet, I ordered 4 knowing Grandma and maybe Jama would come with us. One hour later the website was fixed and the price was back to normal at  around $100 a ticket.   Jama wasn't able to so Lydia invited her good friend Ella.  Our seats were awesome and the performance was amazing.  It was perhaps the best $2 I had spent in a long time.  

With two intermissions, these girls were able to dance their hearts out during the breaks.  

Since we felt like we hardly paid for the ballet, we bought the girls some adorable dancing cupcakes.  

Sunny days

This month we were lucky to have several sunny days.  Here is how we spend some of our time outdoors.  

Our afternoon Sunday walks.  It's great to have big brothers that can carry you. 

Landon and Mason went on two 10 mile hikes this month.  One with Mom to the trails up at Green River  and one with Dad along Interurban trail from Auburn-Kent.   10 miles can take 3-4 hours to do, so it was good quality time with one another.  

 Lydia got "much wanted" roller blades for her birthday.  She loves to go to the school's play ground where it's flat to ride.  

Memorial Day

Camping has been a Memorial Day tradition for many years.  With the dance festival falling on the Saturday of Memorial Weekend our plans were changed and this year we decided to celebrate Memorial Day honoring those that served our country and those that gave their lives for the freedom that we enjoy.  

We started out the day going to one of our favorite breakfast places in Puyallup.  Landon who was not feeling well ended up staying in the car at the restaurant.  We knew he was sick because he loves breakfast and especially when we eat out.  On our way back from the restaurant we dropped him off at home so he could rest.  After we knew he would be alright the rest of us headed to the Tahoma National Cemetery, in Maple Valley, WA.  

 

 The Tahoma National Cemetery is beautiful.  It is surrounded by trees and is lush and green.  Every headstone there is placed an American Flag.  We spent some time walking around, reading some of the names and picking out the religious symbols.

During the middle of the day they have a program.  It was a nice tribute to those that serve and have served.  There were speakers, musical numbers and Tapps was played, then cannons were fired.  We were touched and glad we had choose to spend the day remember the price of FREEDOM, and how blessed we are in the USA

 GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Arise and Shine Forth Dance Festival

Every four years our stake participates in a multi-stake (Kent, Maple Valley, Renton, and Auburn) dance festival.  This was our stake's youth conference for 2012,  and since Landon and Mason are deacon they got to participate in the deacon dance, which was a "Tinkling" Philippine Dance.   For the six months before the dance festival they would practice every other week learning the steps to their dance, it was a lot of work, and at times very discouraging but in the end it paid off when they got to perform with over 1000 other youth in the area at the Sho-ware Center in Kent.   

Landon and Mason with their good friends, Caleb and Jonathon after the final performance.

The "Tinikling" dance is a pre-Spanish dance from the Philippines that involves two people beating, tapping and sliding bamboo poles on the ground and against each other in coordination with one or more dancers who step over and in between the poles in a dance. It was a difficult dance for anyone, but especially for growing deacons.  Zeke spent many of the practices with the deacons so he knew how hard it was.  On the day of the performance they practiced out on the blacktop in the hot sun.  The ground was hot and the boys worked hard.  After the first performance, Zeke felt a little teary knowing how hard these boys had worked, and how all that hard work showed.   

There were many other dances performed by that youth that we enjoyed. Each time the youth would come running out on the dance floor excited and it would give us chills to see their excitment.  Most of these kids don't dance on a regular basis so it was impressive to see them do so well.  

After the dance festival was over the boys were exhausted, but so glad they had this opportunity.  

Way to go Landon and Mason!  We are so proud of you!