Bravo!

This school year my kiddos have been busy... busy being super duper!

 Luke started his kindergarten year off to a great start!  He was chosen for student of the month the very first month.  His teacher, Mrs. Karlquist is the best!  The Kinder teachers dress up like something that starts with the letter of the week every Friday.  Any guess what the letter of the week was?  Yep. "T" for Toothfairy.  Kindergarten is the best!  Way to go, Luke!

 Last month the middle school had an honor roll assembly for the first quarter's grades.  Derek got a Silver award and an award for doing a great job on his state testing last year.  Derek has done a great job pulling his grades up!

 Dylan was also recognized with a Platinum award for straight A's, as well as a recognition award for his state tests!  Nice work, buddy!

 The high school also had an assembly to recognize the kids who did great on their report cards at the end of last school year.   I was surprised that the school would do that, but it was actually very nice.

Also also received his first Varsity letter for academics!  Now we just need to get him a letterman's jacket!  Nice.

 They provided donuts and juice for everyone, even the parents, and when it was over they let the kids stay there and encourage the parents to spend the rest of the period with their kids.  I like that.  High schoolers are so busy and parents don't see them as much as they used to.  I was grateful that the high school recognizes that and also recognizes that even teenagers need their moms and dads.

Alex wasn't the only one to get recognized.  This who group were all in my seminary class last year.  What a great group of kids!  Nice job everyone!

Here is Alex's cell model project.  It was a cake.  We just went to Winco and found candy that looked like the parts of a cell.  The only hard part was cutting a section out of the giant jawbreaker, but Grandpa helped with that.  Who knew science could be so delicious?

Now he has to build a DNA model so I guess we will be heading back to Winco.

Jazzy!

The twins are in full swing with their band in the middle school.  They had their first concert a few weeks ago and it was a jazzy good time!

Derek plays the trumpet and he is in Concert band.  He likes playing the trumpet, and I think it fits his personality perfectly - loud and clear!

Dylan plays the French horn, and is in Patriot band.  The French horn, with its low mellow sound is a great fit for Dylan.

Dylan is also in Jazz band, which is a more exclusive group.  They are very good and get to do a lot of fun performances beyond what the other bands do.  There are apparently no French horns in jazz, so Dylan plays the piano instead.  He really rocks it and it is fun to watch him tapping his toes to the beat next to the electric guitar.

I'm so glad my boys enjoy playing and performing music!

Jazzy!

Kinder Karnival

I love Kindergarten, and the very funnest day of Kindergarten every year is the Kinder Carnival!  All of my kids have gone through the same kindergarten program and all of them will tell you that their very favorite part of kindergarten was the carnival.  Even my teenagers will tell you the Kinder Carnival was pure magic!  The teachers really go ALL OUT for these kids, and I love coming to help so I can see the magic happen.

The whole kinder yard was completely decked out with giant blow ups, colorful windsocks and dozens of booths and games.  It was so festive and fun, and when the kids walked out and saw it all they were absolutely delighted!

Inside the classroom was all decked out as well with ghosts on paper chains.  The darling witch paper bags that they kids made were all lined up ready to be filled with goodies at the carnival.

This little sorcerer's apprentice didn't have to make any magic this time - the magic was already happening all around him!

Luke had a GREAT time!  It was so fun to watch him win every game.  All the kids win every game.  That is what makes it so fun!

It was fun to watch Luke's buddies having so much fun too.

The carnival would not work without the dozens of parent volunteers, all in costume, that run all the booths and feed the kids lunch.  This year I got to run the bean bag toss game.  It was really interesting to see how the different kids play the game.  Some kids are completely clueless and they just stared at the bean bags in their had like they had no idea what they were supposed to do with them, while other kids had arms like pro ball players, nailing it every time.  Those were the ones who played t-ball.

Friends are fun!

Luke LOVED his carnival, and he really made out!  His witch bag was loaded down with toys and favors that he had won at the carnival.

I was so glad I helped at the carnival and am kind of sad that that would be the very last kindergarten carnival for us.  But we still have out great magical memories!

As soon as the carnival was over and all cleaned up, I hurried over to the 2nd grade building to help the kids in Caleb's class make stamp Halloween goodie bags.  Caleb was so excited and the kids had a great time rolling and stamping.  Again, some were very careful and others just slapped it together, but everyone was happy.

It was so cute to see all their bags done and sitting on their desks ready to be filled with goodies.

What a busy, fun, exhausting, magical day!  No wonder everyone loved Halloween!

Halloween Fun

This year Halloween just seemed to go on for weeks for us!

  

A full week before Halloween, the elementary school had their famous Boo Bash fundraiser: dinner, trunk or treating, game booths, spook houses, cake walks, and more.  Always a fun time that the kids look forward too all year.

We made out!  Look at all that loot! We won the soda bottle toss 3 times, the cake walk 4 times, and a few gold fish to boot; not to mention the $30 gift certificate to Red Robin that the twins won in the costume contest!  Not bad, boys.

Then, on the Saturday before Halloween, our ward had the Trunk-or-Treat.

My parents looked terrific in their costumes that they each made themselves (yep, my dad actually sewed his chef pants himself!).  You know that witch has made it big time if she has her own private chef brewing up her potions for her.

Donuts on a stings and a cake walk kept the kids happy and their blood sugar high.

It was fun seeing everybody in their great costumes.

The Van clan made out in the costume contest, though.  Caleb won for the boys, Alex for the young men, and Dennis for the adults.

A good time was had by all!

 On Halloween itself,  before trick or treating, we met with the cousins and the missionaries at my parents house for our annual Freaky Food dinner, complete with blood and guts, witch grins, mummy meatloaf, and of course...

severed fingers.  This year Derek volunteered.

Aren't those just nasty?  But they actually taste really great!

Of course the kids had a great time trick or treating and really packed in the candy too.

Cast of Characters

Dressing up for Halloween is always a serious matter at our house.

 Like I said on Facebook:
  2 skeletons, 2 cartoon characters, 3 warriors, 3 Disney characters, 3 historical figures, and one grumpy old man.

That all adds up to a crazy cast of halloween characters this year!

Mickey, The Sorcerer's Apprentice : played by cutie-pie Luke.  Abracadabra!

The Skeleton Pirate: played perfectly by Caleb.  Yo Ho, Yo Ho!

Injured Confederate soldier: re-inacted by Dylan

And his brother, the Union soldier: re-inacted by Derek.

The Grumpy Old Man: by our resident Thespian, Nate.  Back in my day...

Jack, King of the Pumpkin Patch: by none other than Alex.  Boo.

The Spanish Flamenco dancer: who else? Olé!

And the Spanish knight: the man himself with a real helmet and sword!  Back off!

I'm not sure what kind of play would have this particular cast of characters,  but I can tell you that it would be a mighty interesting one.

Caleb's Special Day

He did it!  Caleb got baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

Caleb got baptized two days after his birthday.  Here is the invitation.

Before the baptism we took the opportunity to snap a few family photos since everybody looked so sharp.

My handsome boys!  Growing up way too fast!

Our sweet Caleb on his special day.

Here is the sign-in table.  Caleb greeted everyone as they arrived.

Caleb sure is loved.  Here he is with both sets of grandparents, his great-grandparents, and Bev and Kelly, who are practically Caleb's adopted grandmas too.

It was a wonderful baptism!  So many family and friends came out to support Caleb in his decision to enter the waters of baptism.  The room was packed.  I was so grateful to every one of them!

The program was simple and sweet - a family affair.  Brothers said the prayers and led the music, both grandmas gave really great talks, Dylan and I sang a duet of a sweet primary song, and of course, Daddy baptized and confirmed him.  It was a joyous occasion.

I was so proud of Caleb who was so reverent and listened attentively to the talks as they were directed right at him.  He really understood what he was doing.  It was so cute, at the end, when the bishop finished, Caleb really wanted to go up and bear his testimony for everyone, but when he got up there he   decided he needed to just read it, because he had written it down to be included on the program.  Maybe he was afraid he would forget something, or maybe he figured he had already worked hard to write it down so why should he have to come up with it again?  So he read his testimony and it was just a great way to finish off the whole thing.

I personally really enjoyed this baptism.  I remember some of my other kids' baptisms being stressful for me - so many little details to be taken care of and screaming babies to attend to and such.  But this time, for some reason, I was prepared and everything went smoothly.  I was really able to sit back and enjoy the day, feel the spirit, and reflect on my love for this sweet boy, for the wonderful people in attendance, and for the Lord and his glorious gospel.

It was a very special day indeed!