Dear friend,
Happy Easter! How wonderful it is to know that our Savior lives! We were very engaged with the ward celebrating Holy Week this year. I threw an Easter Eggstravaganza for a joint youth activity. The kids had fun and Rose could be found in the corner snacking on hard-boiled eggs. 
We were asked last-minute to take over the ward activity on Good Friday so we pulled things together adn it turned out to be a beautiful event. I asked Elias to draw a mural of the resurrection scene with a few dry markers and he did not disappoint.
We enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt with friends and spent Easter Sunday together as a family making resurrection rolls, going on a hike, and of course sitting in the laundry room together for our three minutes of darkness. We opted for a delicious breakfast dinner this year.
Earlier in the month Corie and her kids came out to spend a weekend with us and we had a blast!
We sure love our cousins!
I hosted a storytelling club for kids in the neighborhood this month. The first week they came over after school one day to pick a poem or speech to memorize and I taught them memorization skills. The second week we practiced our pieces and I taught them about performing in front of an audience. The third week landed on Pi Day (3.14) so we declared it Pie and Poetry Night. Everyone made pie and performed their pieces for the group. About 15 kids from the neighborhood participated and I was so proud of all of them.
Joy performed:
Sick
By Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more—that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut—my eyes are blue—
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke—
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"
Smith performed:
“Preamble” of the Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Boyd performed:
The Man in the Arena
By Theodore Roosevelt
It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who neither know victory nor defeat.
Summer performed:
THE TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE
BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.
Not the sinner and saint, for it’s well understood,
The good are half bad and the bad are half good.
Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man’s wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.
Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span,
Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.
Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.
No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean,
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.
Wherever you go, you will find the earth’s masses
Are always divided in just these two classes.
And, oddly enough, you will find, too, I ween,
There’s only one lifter to twenty who lean.
In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner, who lets others share
Your portion of labor, and worry and care?
Rose performed:
I have a little frog
I have a little frog.
His name is Tiny Tim,
I put him in the bathtub,
To see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water,
And gobbled up the soap!
And when he tried to talk,
He had a bubble in his throat.
A girl named Emerson came to watch her older sister perform but she wanted to join in so badly that Rose jumped up there and fed her the lines of the poem one-by-one and they were both so thrilled.
March was also the third annual Hindley Heritage Celebration. I have run this event for three year years now and it just keeps getting bigger and better. It's such a special community event and the kids have a lot of fun. We added passport photos this year so I ran the welcome booth, but the kids still wanted to host a table so they (Summer) taught people about Santa Fe.
A few weeks back, I hit my finger pretty hard so I had to text my dad:
Hey Daddy-o, I've been thinking about you a lot lately. Not only because I was trying to teach my kids to perform with spunk, but because I've had a bruise under my fingernail for three weeks now. Bruised fingernails will always remind me of you. In my childhood memory, you always had one. I thought they were so cool. So hard-core. I liked the idea that you dressed up fancy in a suit for work and church but then when you reached out to shake someone's hand, that bruise was a secret clue to how hard-core really you were. It meant you were a doer. You got things done. You could dress classy, but underneath, you were a fighter. A finisher. I laugh at the memory of me trying to hit my finger with a hammer in the garage at the Xenophon house so that I could look like you. I've unintentionally hit my fingers many times since then and never got a bruise until now. (I accidentally dropped a weight on it at the gym.) And I have to admit, it's just as cool as I thought it would be. I feel just as hard-core as I had hoped. But more than anything, it makes me feel close to you. When I look at it, I feel your strength. I feel your love and your legacy. That I'm a doer. That I'm a finisher because I'm your daughter. I can dress fancy, but at the end of the day I'm not scared of hard work and I know how to get things done. Thanks for teaching me that. I love you Dad.
Smith continues to be our outdoor adventure man. He always has some idea or science experiment in the works. He likes going into the woods alone to explore. One time he came home from the beach with little oysters; he cooked them and gobbled them up before I knew it!
Summer is growing and developing in so many beautiful ways. He art piece was chosen as the cover art for the choir program. She taught herself how to make chocolate flowers and she has really enjoyed drawing eyes lately. Our friend Raime teaching cooking classes a Sur la Table so she comes and teaches the kids how to cook different meals every once in a while. She and Summer made an amazing chicken pot pie.
Joy is getting so good a reading a writing. Her performance at Pie and Poetry night was a riot because she really hammed it. (Almost as though she was born for that role.) She's a great friend to others and she loves a good party.
Rosie and Joy have made delicious meals as well. Elias made amazing cinnamon rolls with them one Saturday. Rose loves the Disney show "Bluey" and if their future children want to know more about what Joy and Rose were like at ages 6 and 7, that show is a good representation.
Boyd has found found two good friends at school. He runs with a very academic crowd. He continues to love origami and tennis. He is really working on his tennis strokes. He is doing so many great things!
And Elias my little snuggle-muffin. That guy loves his time with kids. He's always up to play tennis with Boyd, or look for salamanders with Smith or have his hair done by the girls. He loves hiking with family the very most.
Love you all,
Brittany et al.
No comments:
Post a Comment