Fly me to the moon

Last week Lisette's class launched rockets! I missed it, but Arden and Lorraine took the rest of the kids to go check it out.

Here is Lisette and her friend getting the rocket ready.

Everyone's waiting for the countdown.
The launch was successful!

I guess public school actually does have a few fun things once in a while.

Garden proselytizing

Tonight a taught a class on Square Foot Gardening to a group of senior citizens. Only about 10 people came, but it was still a lot of fun. I always like it when I can spout off about gardening topics to a captive audience.


Square foot gardening is a great way to garden. It eliminates the grunt work and leaves you the fun part.


They have an plot of land behind their apartments, but it's really rocky and the soil looks poor. It would be a perfect candidate for square foot gardening, but I don't think they're going to go for it. I'm not sure if they have the energy or means to build the garden boxes, which is too bad, since gardening would be a lot easier and more fun if they could.


I have to admit I was pretty skeptical when I first attended a square foot garden presentation for the Master Gardeners. But I have since been converted; I have seen the light!


Square foot gardening is great! You don't have to weed, rototill, dig, or thin! You fill your garden box with 1 part peat moss, 1 part vermiculite and 1 part compost. The plants love it and it's so easy.
It's also really fun getting the kids involved. I made 4 boxes so the kids can have their own garden plot.

It's really cute watching them choose what plants they want and how excited they get when they harvest their crop. We'll all be planting soon!

Disneyland burned down!

Melinda was reading the kids a story in their bedroom tonight while I was working on my presentation. Just then it occurred to me that it was April Fools Day and I hadn't fooled anyone today!

So I worked up a tall tale really quick. I ran in their bedroom, and told them that their was a big fire at Disneyland! (trying desperately to keep a straight face and to sound distressed at the same time.) I told them there was an explosion in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and that it was spreading to the Haunted Mansion!

Lisette caught on first, but Melinda looked really concerned and upset. I think Ian went for it, but it didn't take Miles too long to tell it wasn't true. I think Lisette remembered what day it was, plus the kids all know the "Disneyland burned down" joke. It's from an old "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey:

“One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.”

We actually saw a burned down building in the Anaheim area the last time we went to Disneyland. I tried that joke then, but they were pretty sure that Disneyland was much bigger. Sigh. Kids are so sophisticated these days; they're getting harder and harder to trick all the time.

Harlem Gospel Choir and Jelly Bellies

Friday morning the kids and I went to Kingsbury Hall and saw the world famous Harlem Gospel Choir. This was a daytime performance for schools, some senior citizen groups, and home schoolers. We've been to these concert series before, but this one was definitely unique. They demanded participation! It was really fun; they had us on our feet, clapping, waving our arms, and singing!

I think this exercise was a little more extroverted than we are generally used to (especially Ian.) They started out by having everyone standing and clapping, and then they invited the audience to get up on the stage and dance. I think the kids weren't expecting to have to actually participate.

I thought the music was great, and it was refreshing to hear religious expression in a public / secular setting. I made me think about if as a nation we could all share our different faiths with our neighbors in a spirit of understanding, how healing that would be. Not to get too ecumenical, but I think that learning to appreciate the richness of other people's faith helps us to better live our own faith.

It's enlightening to see a portrait of how other people worship. I think that gospel music is a very moving way of praising the Lord. It's very foreign from my religious (Mormon) background, but I find it very inspiring.

It was fun to see all the school kids dance around, wave their arms, clap their hands, and get all into it. Their was one group of high school kids who were singing and dancing, and they even synchronized all their moves! It was refreshing, since usually when I see that age group of high school kids, they seem so non-committal about everything.

Afterwards it was raining and we ducked into the University Pharmacy and got some Jelly Bellies. We made up a game where we had to grab 2 without looking and eat them together whatever they were. We had some interesting combinations: bubblegum-licorice, lemon-caramel apple, root beer-dr. pepper, tangerine-cinnamon, and popcorn-pear.

Kids update

Lisette had an un-sleepover party with a friend in Bountiful, Friday night. Melinda picked her up even though it was snowy, and she they got home at about 1:30 AM. She had fun with her other friends staying up playing and watching movies.

Miles has been baking for us. This week he has made:

1. Peanut butter cookies
2. Blueberry muffins
3. Puff pancakes
4. Blueberry shake

Ian has washed the dishes 4 times this week. The other kids are horrified by washing the dishes, but Ian isn't. He says, "it's easy you just have to wipe, wipe, wipe." We got tons of snow this weekend and today Ian started shoveling. If you're in the market, I highly recommend buying a home with the driveway facing south. Most of the times we ignore the driveway and the snow will just melt. It's great!

Saffron loves playing out in the snow. She thinks Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas tree is a toy tree. She been having fun playing with all the ornaments.

Tricks n' Treats

Here is Hobbes, Broom Hilda, and Darth Leopard at the obligatory (yet somehow compellingly convenient) Trunk or Treat activity. They are trying to look menacing to scare away other kids so that they'll be more candy left for them (or maybe the sun is just in their eyes.)

Here is the ever-charming Good Witch Lisette. Saffron is conspicuously missing from the photos because she refused to get into her little lion costume. Oh well.

We skipped neighborhood trick or treating and instead went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a little Halloween party. We ate donuts from a string, bobbed for apples, and drank witch's potion (Crystal Light with dry ice.) Deja and Brian were there and we all had a good time.

I forgot to bring our camera, but we played with Grandma's nice new digital camera. Talk about features, this one's got 'em! It makes my poor camera look pretty sad. Amy also got a new camera and the pictures on her blog look fabulous! Sigh. We'll have to upgrade our camera someday.

Greatest Show with Grandpa

Eric wants me (Melinda) to do a guest entry in his blog. While Eric was at his company retreat, the rest of us went with Dad (Grandpa) to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Dad wanted to see the circus once from a decent vantage point, not the very front row, but not the nosebleed seats either. However he thought it would be silly for him to go alone, so he asked if the grandchildren wanted to accompany him.

We were somewhat surprised that some of the children seemed less than enthusiastic about the idea of going to the circus. I wondered if it was because we had just read Pippi Longstocking. When Pippi goes to the circus, she leaps into the arena, joins the circus acts, gets in trouble, but then becomes the crowd favorite. I thought that maybe they were afraid that they would have to leap onto the back of a galloping horse. But it turned out that the Scary Clowns were the problem!! (And all clowns are Scary!) However, as soon as we cleared up a few circus misconceptions, the kids were ready to go!


Everyone enjoyed the elephants, horses, zebras, tigers and the trained, back-flipping dogs. Then there were the tightrope walkers, the Chinese acrobats, the trapeze artists, the wheel-in-the-sky walkers, the human cannonballs and more! The show lasted about two hours, but it seemed to fly by as every moment was action-packed. After it was over, Lisette said, "That really was 'The Greatest Show on Earth'."

Thanks Grandpa! Now the kids know what a circus really is all about. (Not just Scary Clowns.)

Saffron with Grandpa. She is holding pieces of the confetti that was blown out into the crowd and rained down on us.


Oh, no!!! A Scary Clown!!!! Ian refused to wear the clown nose, but Miles was brave!

Retreat!

Oh no, retreat, retreat! Well, that's always my initial reaction to the annual company retreat. But even so, I always make it through and I (surprisingly) end up actually enjoying it a little. Since I didn't have to go the meetings yesterday (because of the down server) it doesn't seem so bad today.

Thursday when I told the kids I had to be gone for 2 nights they said, "you never used to leave us at all and now you do all the time!" They're right, 3 months in a row leaving them for 3 days and two nights (Florida and Chicago.) But I actually got to stay home last night, and I'll be home tonight so it will actually only be 2 times. I'm actually very lucky and glad not to have to a traveling job.

I found out that after dinner they don't have any specific activities planned so, I'm going to sneak home and sleep in my own bed. They have a room for me, but the 2 other guys already have the beds, and I really don't want to sleep on the hide-a-bed. There's nothing like your own bed. I'm pretty sure Melinda would rather have me home as well.

We had our management meetings, and they weren't so bad. After several years I can finally keep a straight face during the motivational and inspirational pep talks about being all you can do, and giving it a 11o%, and all that schtuff. It's actually good to see co-workers and people who call me on the phone in a non-work environment. It reminds you that these are actually real people and not just disembodied computer problems.


Fall is really pretty here in Park City. After our meetings they gave us free time to explore Park City or do what we want. Some people went horse back riding and others golfed. I optioned to do the restort activities so they gave me an all day activity pass. I rode up the lift and went on the Alpine Slide twice, and a new Alpine Coaster twice as well.


Anyway, I don't have to feel to guilty about having fun without my family, since Arden took them all to the circus. It will be nice to see all my sweet little niños tonight. Then I'll just have to make it through tomorrow's meetings and awards and my weekened will be mine again.