JV Water Polo Tournament

By this time of year, life really becomes all about water polo around here.  In addition to the daily practices and weekly or sometimes bi-weekly games, we now have tournaments for, I think, 4 weekends in a row.  The weather couldn't have been better for the JV tournament this weekend.  Playing outside could have been a miserable experience, but it was perfect.

Tournaments are generally 2, or sometimes 3, days long, with the teams playing multiple games over those days.  Sometimes it's pretty exhausting for the players.  And since both the girls and boys teams play, it  means Shawn is gone all day during the tournaments, too.  Good thing we love water polo as much as we do.

SkOly girls JV team.

SkOly boys JV team.

The line up.

It's fun to see Jonas be aggressive.

He has lost all fear of going up against bigger, stronger players...

...because he knows he can just put them under water, I guess.

All the players were busy soaking up the sun while they weren't in the water.

More of Jonas' "I'll just put him under water to get the ball" stuff.

I'm pretty sure someone is under the water here...

Love this picture because of the perfect angle of the ball -

 it looks like it sprouted legs and ran away.

The Little Mermaid

The school play at William Penn this year was The Little Mermaid.  Both Samantha and Amelia were in it.  Samantha was a sea gull and Amelia was part of the sea chorus.  I have to admit that I get really tired of the early morning practices and I'm always glad when it's finally here, but it is always a fun thing for the kids to participate in and I am always impressed with the talent that these kids have.  (Samantha - 4th from the left of the kids standing up.)

Amelia still sorting her fishy lips after the play.

Samantha, too.

A close up.

See?  Peter and I had a great time.  (He was totally caught up in the show and was actually much better behaved than his 14 year old brother!)

Can't believe that this is Samantha's last year in the elementary school play.  Onto bigger and better (?) things in junior high next year.

Cactus &Tropicals and Chuck

This month's preschool field trip was to Cactus and Tropicals - a local gardening store.  The kids were given a list of items to find, but mostly Peter wanted me to take his picture next to all of the fountains and statues that he saw.

We loved the little fairy gardens.

And there were lots of really cool and colorful plants to see,

but once Peter found the koi pond, he pretty much lost interest in everything else.  Here he is hanging out with a few of his preschool buddies, Cole and Gabe.

I was pretty mesmerized, too.  And it was such a beautiful day, I didn't mind just sitting outside in the sunshine watching the fish.

This was one of the days when I was helping in the classroom.  I asked Peter what he was and he said, "I'm Chuck, the evil sandwich guy."  Of course you are...  I have since learned that Chuck is a character on the show "Word Girl."  I guess I need to pay a little more attention to what's going on on PBS.

Anyway, it made me laugh.  He spent much of the time pretending to spray people with catsup, mustard and peanut butter.  Fun times at preschool.

Random Happenings

Took the kids to the dentist.  Peter was awesome.  He wanted Woody along with him and made sure that the dentist counted Woody's teeth, too.

They enjoyed watching Toy Story 3 together.

And in other happenings - Samantha and her friend Emma wanted a ride to the store for some cake decorations and candy, but they had to get themselves ready first. See, a few months ago, one of the store manager's thought they were shop lifting and followed them out of the store.  (Don't worry, they weren't, but it did freak them out a bit.)  But since then, they haven't dared to go back, so they decided they needed to go in disguise.  Chef's coats, wool hats, a tie, glasses and mustaches.  I'm sure no one will recognize them.

These girls are just a little bit crazy.  I'm glad that they have so much fun together.

I'm also glad that they asked me to just drop them off at the door and not go in with them - because you know, I'm an embarrassment to them.  Although they did manage to find me on one of the aisles when they decided they needed help paying for some stuff.  I think they were just using me for my money.

Conference Sunday

We took a vote and it was unanimously decided that we needed to be back home in time for General Conference so we could have beignets.  We were sad to leave St. George Friday afternoon, but glad to get home and see Shawn and ready to enjoy beignets on Sunday morning.

Everyone is ready with their aprons on.

I love that everyone participates (although there is a direct correlation with number of helpers and size of the mess.)

We always need someone monitoring the placement of cookie cutters.  "Near the edges - not in the middle."

Amelia took on powdered sugar responsibilities.

This year's pick for beignet shapes.

I volunteered to do some quality control taste testing.

A large delicious bowl of sugary goodness.