First Day of School

8th Grade!

She is attending Treasure Valley Math & Science Center again for half the day (Biology, Geometry and Earth Science) and then Les Bois for the rest (Choir, World Studies, Orchestra and PE/Health).  She is on the tennis team, and prefers playing doubles.

3rd Grade!

He gets to pick up Hyrum from Kindergarten every day.  Said his teacher is the BEST because she gave MOM homework on the first day of school, not him.  He didn't really care for the homework on the second day of school, though.

 Kindergarten!

August 27, 2012 was Hyrum's best day ever!  He started school!  Interestingly, he has said that every school day since has been his best day ever.  I hope he continues his enthusiasm for school.  Wearing his backpack starting at 9am (when school starts at 12:30pm) can be dropped, though.

Last Day of Summer and First Day of School

On Tuesday, we celebrated "Building Day." Together, we (Roderic, Hyrum and I) worked on separating the Lego sets and then building them. (Sabrina was at her final exam for Pre-algebra at the start, and didn't participate when she returned.)

Roderic's patience ran out quicker than mine, so he went to play with the sets, break them a part and rebuild. Roderic really likes Legos. He currently says he wants to work for Lego when he grows up so he can continue to play with them.

Can you believe our builder is so cheap that he expects me to help? Well, he isn't. I just thought it would be a fun diversion from Lego building. And it was. Sabrina took the photo, trying to have John out of the shot to make it look like I was doing all the work. There were 2 other guys lifting it at the same time. I felt like I was a part of the barn raising scene in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" but without the fighting, or the singing.

We have some exterior walls! The plan is to get this section covered with a roof before tearing of the rest of the existing roof for our addition.
John took this shot and emailed it to Ryan with the caption: Malauna demonstrating proper nailing technique on the addition

Those nail guns have quite a powerful kickback. I put in 2 nails.

School started on Wednesday this year. With Sabrina going to Junior High this year, we're going to have to change our routine for morning family prayers. ie. We'll have one family prayer at 6:15am with Sabrina and parents and have another one at 8:15am with the boys and parents.

Sabrina only had to go to Les Bois on the first day of school, since it was early release. Treasure Valley Math and Science Center (TVMSC) does not operate on days when the junior high school has early release. Since she had no class at Les Bois until 4th period, she got to sit in her "homeroom" class for the first 3 periods of the day, listening to the teacher give her "Welcome to my class rules and routines" lecture. Then she got to listen to that same teacher in 5th and 6th periods when she actually had her. She said it was quite boring. In the future, when she doesn't have TVMSC, she's going to stay home until 4th period starts.

Both Roderic and Sabrina woke up happy and excited for the first day of school. I got to ride bikes with both of them. I was the only parent out on a bike with Sabrina, but there were a lot with Roderic. I hope the bike-riding weather keeps up through the end of October!

Lego Parade

I gave Roderic a writing assignment this morning. He need to write a story about legos and the 4th of July. First, he told me that he needed to build it and then he'd write about it. He spent an hour just building.













Then he wrote the story:


In case you can't read his writing, this is what it says:
By: Roderic and Hyrum
July 4th. It was a beautiful day. Blue skies. No airplanes. Some soldiers were marching in a parade.

Calvin and bikes

We got a bike for Roderic from a friend whose son had out-grown it. It was parked for a while on our front porch by leaning against the house because it didn't have a kickstand. Roderic's imagination and fascination with Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strips have caused him to nickname it his "Calvin bike". The bike doesn't have training wheels and when learning to ride training-wheel free, he would often say, "It's trying to kill me!" Just like Calvin. He has mostly gotten over this fear and will ride the bike for short distances (around our cul-de-sac).


One day while I was trying to convince him to ride his bike, I told him about a time when I had a "Calvin bike". It was a present from Ryan in 1997. I recently found a picture.


Here is a video of him riding his "Calvin bike".

May Madness!

The end of school craziness has begun.


On Thursday, Roderic performed with the First and Second grades in their annual Spring Concert. The theme this year was patriotic. Roderic got to learn "You're A Grand Old Flag", "America the Beautiful", "My Country Tis of Thee", "The Star-Spangled Banner", and "Yankee Doodle". The kids did a great job.

On Friday morning, Sabrina played cello in the orchestra and then sang in the choir during the Orchestra Band Choir concert. During lunch, she played violin and cello with a couple of ensembles for the volunteer luncheon.


On Friday night, Sabrina played violin with EHO in the Boise Music Week School Night Gala. (No pictures, but you'll have to take my word that the music was awesome!)


On Saturday afternoon both Roderic and Sabrina played in the Boise Bench Studio's violin recital. Roderic played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star variation B and Boil 'Em Cabbage. Sabrina played the duet part for most of the students throughout the recital and played Gavotte in D major by J.S. Bach as a solo.



Here is Roderic playing his solo. Sabrina's solo didn't get recorded due to operator error.

100th Day of School and then President's Day

In First Grade they have all sorts of celebrations. Like Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, the 100th day of school, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Dr. Seuss' birthday.

100 seems like such a large number, especially to a 6 year old, so to celebrate the 100th Day of School, he got to do a worksheet to help grasp what 100 is.

I can eat 100 crums (crumbs). {Cookie and Cake crumbs preferably.}
I can hold 100 LEGO. {As long as they get put away afterwards.}
I can run 100 mils (miles). {Not all at once, though.}
But I would never want 100 pupees (puppies). {AMEN!}

For President's Day, he filled out a booklet on what he would do if he were president. The underlined words are Roderic's responses.

If I were President, the first thing I would do is mac lose (make laws).
If I were President, I would eat chickin (chicken).
If I were President, I would travel to Uootuoe (Utah).
If I were President, I would have a pet cat named Fluflee.
If I were President, I would pass a law that teflfoones (telephones).
If I were President, I would help Bagpaprs (Bagpipers).

Missing Teeth

We now have a boy with a "Jack-o-lantern" smile at our house. Roderic's tooth has been loose for a while and last Thursday night it was really loose. I offered to pull it for him and he said he'd rather wait and pull it out at school so he could go see the nurse and get a small treasure chest to put the tooth in. Sure enough, Friday he came home from school with a tooth in a treasure chest. He pulled his tooth out right before lunch.

6 year olds say the darnedest things

Mom, don't you think it would be really great for the first time to have our whole house clean?

Roderic just said this to me as he was working on cleaning his room. Yep, it would be really great.

Dear Santa

Dear {fun-pretend} Santa,

I am writing this letter to let you know my opinion before you get a letter from my son, Roderic. He has been a pretty good boy this year. He has learned to play (a bit) with his little brother. He only occasionally gets so excited around his baby brother that he pats his head harder than I would like. When I ask him when he's going to learn to ride his bike without training wheels, he replies, "December 11." When I ask him when we're going to practice his violin, he replies, "Tomorrow." When I ask him to do his homework he says, "Later." He has started to read a verse or two from the Book of Mormon with us when we read as a family each night.

I believe Roderic is going to ask you for Legos, Legos and more Legos. Pirates, Star Wars, Toy Story, Atlantis, City any and all.

He loves to create and build and destroy and rebuild them. We have hundreds of pictures on our computer of his creations, so if they get ruined, he can recreate them. (I don't think he has yet asked to see a picture so he can recreate one, though.) He will happily play for hours with them, especially if it is bedtime and he's been sent to put on his pajamas. He goes to violin lessons each week so he can show his teacher how well he plays the violin builds with the Legos she has out for him during Sabrina's lesson.

They have become the bane of my existence. The stress of keeping all of the pieces so he can build the ships and vehicles and such weighs heavily upon me. I am even more stressed about them being left on the carpet for curious, crawling Leo to get his hands and mouth on. And then there is the whole sharing thing.

I can only hope that the letter you get from him is this:

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Sincerely,
Roderic

would you look at that gap!

I'll be prepping for more Legos, though. They're better than Magnetix, right?

Sincerely,
Malauna

School Days

Hyrum is attending Joy School this year, today was his first day! With 6 children in the class, I'll be teaching every 6 weeks. I'm excited for him to have his own school to attend. He is even more excited than me. Last night it was all he could talk about. He even made up a song called "I Love Joy School".

Hyrum's goal for this school year: Learn to play the drums (said as he's playing air drums)
My goal for Hyrum: Learn to write his name


Roderic is one happy kid, ready to start First Grade! He has become much happier over the summer. He still has some issues about respecting the personal space of others. During the last few weeks, he has decided that he CAN read with the family out of the Book of Mormon, although he only wants Mom's help on the big words.

Roderic's goal for this school year: Wants to be a really good listener
My goals for Roderic: Learn to tie his shoes [and swim trunks]; learn to ride a 2 wheeler


It is hard to come to terms with the fact that my baby is now in 6th Grade! And what a great girl she is. A month ago she decided that she should play her violin for 20 hours before the school year started, which was an hour a day, 5 days a week. She met her goal, so now we're in the planning stages for a party!

Sabrina's goal for this school year: Run a 9 minute mile
My goals for her: Keep a tidier room/desk; budget for school clothes

First day of School August 25, 2010

The View from Sunday

Sabrina and 2 of her friends played "Faith of Our Fathers" in Sacrament Meeting today - a violin piano trio. It sounded great, although a little soft. They were more used to the acoustics in my music room compared with the chapel.

Hyrum learned a very important lesson in church today:

He can be a friend to both his Dad AND Darth Vader!

After taking Toto on a long walk around our neighborhood, Roderic grabs an apple, climbs up into a stack of 4 chairs, puts his feet up on the table and says, "Ah, this is the life!"

Indeed, it is the life!

And in case you're wondering, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now has 134 operating temples in the world. The newest is in Kyiv Ukraine!

Ryan Gibby and Gordon Roylance: at the Kyiv Temple to attend the Cornerstone Ceremony.

Happy Birthday Roderic

So excited to have Uncle Carson here for Roderic's birthday! And he got firetruck LEGOs!




Roderic wanted to go home and play with his new LEGOs instead of playing with his friends at his party.

Sam, Roderic, Clara, Taryn (Blake had to leave early) When the sun was not behind clouds, it felt warm enough (barely) to swim.

When the party moved to the swings, Roderic joined in again.

At Roderic's request, I made an R2D2 cake. I call it "R2D2 on Dagobah" because of all the 'dirt' on the cake.

Play Ball!

Roderic played T-ball this spring. All of the teams in the league were given university names/mascots and Roderic got to be on the hometown favorite -- BSU Broncos! I think this sport was a bigger success than soccer last fall, where he liked to run up and down the field waving at us with a big smile.

He made considerable improvement as a batter from the start of the season, meaning he would hit the ball on his first attempt instead of hitting the T many times before.

He liked to sit in the outfield and pick grass. When he was a base player, or runner, he liked to pick up the dirt. When he wasn't on the ground, he liked to run at the ball and tackle another player if there was one to tackle.

All of the players wanted to be the catcher, so they could dress up like a "Storm Trooper."

Thanks to Amy for taking good pictures of my boy (and the rest of the team)!

Cooking with Roderic

Sporting a chocolate-y smile...the true sign of a good cook!

On Sunday, Roderic decided he needed a snack. I asked him what he was going to make and he replied, "Ants on a sidewalk."

You have probably heard of "ants on a log" but not "ants on a sidewalk", so I'll give you his recipe.

Ants on a Sidewalk
Toast one slice of bread
Spread some Nutella on the bread
Sprinkle some craisins on top

Dear Tooth Fairy

Let's just say that Roderic has an extremely low threshold for pain. A few weeks ago he noticed that one of his teeth were loose. He wouldn't allow any help in wiggling it, and he would hardly wiggle it himself. A few days later, we noticed that the replacement tooth was growing in, a little behind the loose one. Because I am such a mean, caring parent, when Roderic fell asleep in Sacrament meeting that Sunday (3-7), I spent the hour wiggling his tooth. Still no luck on getting it to come out. On Thursday (3-11), for an after school snack, he got a cookie (Samoa, yum!) and a fruit roll-up. Afterwards, he said, "Mom! My tooth came out!" I said, "Great! Where is it?" Roderic said, "I think I threw it in the trash." Apparently, the tooth came out with the super sticky fruit roll-up and he thought it was something gross and crunchy, so he took it out of his mouth and put it in the trash. I did not search the trash for his tooth. I told him that he would have to write a note for the tooth fairy to tell her that he lost his tooth. If it wasn't such a chore for him to write for long periods, I would have had him explain that the tooth was in the garbage. This note worked just fine though...Roderic woke up so excited with quarters under his pillow! He exclaimed, "Mom, the note worked!"



And here is Roderic, missing one tooth! Welcome to the missing tooth club, son!

Healthy Eating with Roderic

This week Roderic went with his kindergarten class on a field trip to Albertson's (the grocery store in our neighborhood). They learned about eating healthy and shopping. He got some bread - instead of a cookie - from the bakery. He ate a tortilla, celery and apples and they gave him a bottle of water. With the money he took, he bought a can of peas, a can of tomato soup and a can of mixed fruit that was donated to the Idaho Food Bank. He came home with a coupon for basically a free pasta meal for our family (we'll have to pay a little bit for a bag of salad) and a small reusable grocery bag.

He told me that he wants to use this bag when he goes Trick or Treating, because it will hold more candy than the small fire hydrant bag I made him 2 years ago.

I think perhaps this message was lost on him.

Flight Benefits

My mom is a huge fan of travelling. HUGE! In fact, she suggested I apply for a job with Delta Air Lines when they opened up a call center on the campus of Weber State University in January 1996 (where I was attending school). Of course, it was good for me to have a job on campus, so my commute time would be minimal, but what she was really looking forward to was the flight benefits that she would receive. For their first trip, my parents went to Europe -to Romania (with a stop in Vienna) in April to pick up my sister, Shanda, who was serving a mission there. My mom graduated from Weber State that June and in August, moved to Alabama (Bama-bama as 3 year old Carson called it) to attend Auburn University to work on her Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She (and my dad) used those flight benefits to be able to fly back and forth to see each other. Those flight benefits came in rather handy when we moved to Boise in May 1999 Ryan and my dad (and brother Colle) drove the Penske truck from BYU to our house in Boise, unloaded it, then returned the truck to the Thrifty Rental Car/Penske Truck Rental location at the Boise airport and hopped on a flight back to Salt Lake. And my mom flew up a week later to help us unpack and pick out new furniture and pamper me. Needless to say, she was sad to see me quit in June 1999 when my 6 weeks of maternity leave was up.

Fast forward almost a decade and my sister, Shanda, was encouraged by my mom to use her phone number to apply (for the 2nd time) for a job with JetBlue Airlines. Once again with flight benefits on the brain. And then about a year later, my sister, Keturah, got a job with Skywest Airlines in Denver. My parents are now able to fly free on JetBlue, Skywest and United flights.

So, yesterday morning I got a call from my mom, who was in San Diego for a MFT conference, saying that all the flights into Salt Lake were full, so she was going to fly into Boise and have my dad drive up and pick her up and take her home. A half an hour later, my dad called to let me know that Mom was flying into Boise and he would be driving up - both arriving about 10:30 pm and they most likely wouldn't stay the night. I was excited for the chance to see them both, but saddened that my kids would miss out on the visit. Then, about 1 pm, I got a phone call from Carson, asking if he could hang out at my house and eat dinner with me - he got to be the lucky one to come pick up Mom. My kids were so excited when the doorbell rang at 6:00 pm and Uncle Carson was there to play with them! He even taught Sabrina how to play "Heart and Soul" on the piano.

Kids were vying to sit next to him at dinner, he got to pick our Family Home Evening activity (hand-eye coordination games), no one wanted to go to bed, everyone wanted Carson to tell them a bedtime story, and eventually they did sleep.


Flights were delayed due to weather and airplane issues, so my mom finally arrived at 12:30 am. She got to fly through Denver, so she was able to visit with Keturah for a couple of hours (who was working at the gate for the flight to Boise).

I'll take these unexpected visits any day! Roderic has a request, though. Carson, the next time you come to Boise will you please stay for 3 days and bring a Wii remote control with you so you and Roderic can play?

Jedi Training Academy

All Star Wars fans will appreciate the coolness of this attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Several times a day they hold a Jedi Training Academy right outside of StarTours. (I thought it was so cool, I sat through it 2 times!) My nephew, Tegan got picked to be a part of the academy and Roderic watched the end of that and thought it was so cool, he wanted to be in the next one. We lined up for the next 'show' and Sabrina got picked. Not Roderic. He was happy for his sister, but disappointed, so we coached him during lunch and he got picked at the next one!

After a 10 or so minute training session with real practice light sabers, where they learned how to activate the weapon, deactivate the weapon and perform a cool series of moves with the weapon, they had to face the dark side!

Darth Vader came out. While he was strutting around the stage, Hyrum waved at him smiling and Darth Vader looked at him and shook his head.

Sabrina's shining moment.


Roderic's shining moment.

Happily, neither of them succumbed to the dark side and we're going to continue to remind Roderic that to follow the force and resist the dark side in real life, he has to control his aggression.

Roderic and Math

Last night I drove carpool to soccer practice. Three 10-year old girls were in the back of the van talking about stuff (loose teeth, how much the tooth fairy should give per tooth, things that make them queasy, etc.)

Roderic decided that it was getting too noisy back there and he said, "It's time for math. It is too noisy. What is 5+5?"
Girls reply, "10"
Roderic "1+1?"
Girls laughing questioningly, "2"
Roderic "16+7?"
Girls still laughing, "23"
Hyrum, "Why are they laughing?"
Mom, "Because they think he is the cutest 5 year old boy they have ever come across!"
Roderic, "What is 6+1?"
Girls, "7"

And it continued until they got to practice...

Traumatized

On Saturday, we decided to make a practice bike ride to school. We went with our neighbors because I'll be riding in the mornings with the kids (Roderic goes to Kindergarten!). On our way to the school, the neighbor girl fell down and scraped up her leg. We kept pressing forward - after a break to rest and reassure the 6 year old - and thought it would be a good idea to put a first aid kit on my bicycle. We played for a while on the toys at the elementary school and then got ready to return home. On the ride home, Sabrina fell down, after making a sharp turn. She scraped up her knee - even put a hole in the capris that I made. We rested again for a while. She complained that both of her arms felt weak and they were shaking. She didn't think that she could make it home, but she did. After we were home and ate a ice cream popsicle, she still complained of her right arm. I wondered if it was broken -
she broke this arm when she was 4 while getting off of a friend's trampoline - but nothing was obvious. No swelling, no bruising, no bones sticking out. I wrapped it in an ace bandage and she said that it felt a bit better. I convinced Ryan that there was no need for us to take her to the ER because she wasn't in dire pain. We kept her arm wrapped Sunday and Monday. After school, she said that it had hurt to write and color. Tuesday afternoon I got an appointment for her to see the Dr. When I picked her up from school to go to the Dr., I asked her how her arm was and she said it wasn't so bad. I wondered why I was taking her to the Dr.

We waited for the Dr. for quite a while. Let's just say that waiting in the exam room for a half an hour at 3 pm with 2 young boys was not a joy. The Dr. looked at her arm asked her where it hurt and poked and prodded her arm. Then he ordered an x-ray. The x-ray came back and he stared at it for several minutes, then he came over to Sabrina and poked and prodded her arm and asked if what he was doing hurt. He repeated this 3 times. Then the diagnosis:


A "Green Tree" fracture. Meaning that the exterior of her bone is intact but the interior is broken. She gets to wear a splint for the next 2 weeks, after which time she should be healed. Ouch. I asked about soccer, violin and bike riding. The Dr. says that she can do anything that doesn't hurt. So she'll play soccer, but not goalie. It hurts her to hold the violin bow, so she's taking a break from lessons this month. The splint impedes her holding onto the bike handle, so she'll be riding her scooter to school for the next week and a half. We'll see what else she has troubles with.

While we were at the Dr., I asked about Roderic getting the remainder of his shots for kindergarten. The wait was agonizing for him! He received 3 in his thighs. The nurse and the doctor gave him Laffy Taffy for the pain. Then we stopped for ice cream cones on the way home. He is still complaining that his thighs hurt.