Arrrrrgh! A swashbucking week!

Callie's science fair was this week. She wanted her project to be something about cooking, so we tested the effects of baking soda in cookies. We made batches with no baking soda and various amounts of soda. It was pretty much a disaster, from Darrin taking the cookies out without keeping track of which was which, to having them all come out the SAME. But the display turned out well (Callie stamped and painted chocolate chip cookies as a background.) and she was happy.

Brynn also had her last day of preschool. She had a really fun group this year, mostly kids in our ward. Her teacher is also the ward YW president, so she works with Kyra at church and taught Brynn at home. This is the same woman who taught Callie in preschool too. Here's a picture of the whole gang after the last day:

We finally bought a scanner that will do slides, so soon we'll be getting all the slides from the 50s and 60s scanned for your viewing pleasure. Maybe, just maybe, there will be mystery photos here again......
And finally, Friday afternoon we (Darrin, Kyra, Callie & I - we left Brynn playing at a friend';s house) were able to go and see the new Pirates of the Carribean movie! It was much anticipated and we were able to go and see it with all of Darrin's coworkers. Darrin's company rented out a whole theater and all employees and family members were able to go see it for free! (Thank you, Footnote!) My short & sweet review: WAY too long, and yet, they didn't really explain much. I hated the ending, too. The company held drawings for many pirate related things before the movie, including a life sized cutout of Jack Sparrow that Kyra & Callie both really, really wanted, but we didn't win anything. (Had to point that out, because some people seem to think we ALWAYS win. So see, not always. Just sometimes.)
So it's been a fun week, and thankfully all the good kind, no unwanted excitement.

Well, I got my wish!

A completely boring, excitement free week. On the plus side, no fires or accidents. No floods, building collapses, or broken bones.
But then, nothing worth blogging, either, because "Monday Darrin went to work and the kids went to school. Tuesday the same" is just boring. So to make your visit a little tiny bit worthwhile, I'll include this picture of Callie with some bread she baked last month in the shape of a turtle. At least she's cute. So is the turtle. Tasted pretty good, too. (The bread turtle, not Callie.)

Week of excitement!

So let's see.....
Tuesday I took Brynn in for her kindergarten physical and the final immunizations. She knocked the socks off the staff and doctor when they asked her if she knew her letters (for the eye screening) and she said with a little huff "I can READ!" and went on to prove it. Later the doctor asked her to draw a picture of a person (They like to see a child draw at least 5 body parts, so all they need to draw is a head and 2 arms & 2 legs) and Brynn drew a large, detailed person. After Brynn drew the arms, legs, hands, feet, hair, clothing with flkowers on it, and face including teeth and eyelashes, she started adding fingernails to the hands, and the doctor said "Good enough!" I think Brynn could have worked on that picture all day, she was trying so hard to impress the doctor. Brynn was very brave when she got the shots, she just hugged me tight and said "I think that hurt a little" - over and over for the next hour. But she was quite proud of the bandaids and proudly showed them off at preschool show & tell the next day. When they fell off in the bath that night, she tried to convince me to tape them back on with scotch tape.
Wednesday was the real excitement of the week, when the heating element in our oven caught fire, and wouldn't go out when Darrin turned off the oven. After emptying a whole fire extinguisher on it, we finally got it to go out by cutting power to the kitchen. But what a MESS! I was up until after midnight cleaning up all the powder from the extinguisher (Kyra & Darrin helped a lot, but they both had to leave for most of the evening). It got everywhere! I am still finding the yellow powder in odd places I swear I already cleaned. And I can still smell it.
Thursday we had a repairman come out & fix the oven and I did more cleaning in the kitchen.
Friday was a Utah Doula Association Board meeting here and so my house was filled with doulas and their children. Brynn was in heaven with so many kids to play with. That night we had a fun ward party where we saw baby pictures of many ward members and had to guess who was who. We laughed a lot and had a nice time.
Saturday was crazy busy, we got lots of yard work done and the garden half planted. This year we're growing tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, carrots, green onions, bell peppers (red and green), pumpkins, crookneck yellow squash and as an experiment, broccoli. We got everything but the peppers and tomatoes planted yesterday before it got too dark. Sometime next week I'll also plant some herbs, we've never done herbs before and I thought I'd enjoy it.
We also had fun at Grant's birthday party yesterday. Hard to believe the "triplets" are all 5 now. That sure happened fast. The kids had fun running around between the slip n slide, the wading pool, and a little bounce house. There was another little girl named Brynn there, and my Brynn now is going around telling everyone she has a "new cousin" named Brynn - and she refuses to believe anything to the contrary. She is convinced that the new Brynn is Tim & Britanny's daughter, because she was at their house. Our Brynn also got a lovely mess of very green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle green) frosting all around her mouth. Wish I'd gotten a picture, but I forgot my camera.
So that has been our week - I am hoping next week has less of the stressful excitement. I'd be OK with more of the fun kind, though.

CRUNCH!

That was the awful sound I heard on Tuesday when I backed my new minivan into a cement post! Just a small sideswipe on a corner of the bumper, but still it pretty well ruined my day.
Other events this week:
Thursday morning I was lucky enough to be there when a friend (and fellow doula) had her 4th baby. I'd been there for her last birth, which was VERY quick, so when she called and told me she was at the birth center and already 9 cm, I got there lickety-split. Her labor & pushing were remarkably calm and peaceful, until the last push. Her 3 older children were all there for the birth, her 6 yo son even cut the cord! I was there only about 3 1/2 hours, a nice change from my last 36 hour birth!
My next client is also birthing at the birth center, which is one of my very favorite places to attend births, so I'm happy about that.
Yesterday we had my parents and my brother Tim & his family over, a celebration of my dad's birthday (last weekend) and Mother's Day (next weekend). We also watched old slides of my dad's childhood, the early years of their marriage, lots of baby pictures of Matt, and a few slides from later in the 80s (what was UP with the socks over the jeans, Sarah?). We'll be getting those slides, and a bunch of other, older photos, scanned someday and all my family members will get copies.
Otherwise everything here is just chugging along normally. We're all looking forward to summer vacation and a break from homework. I finished a preliminary outline for a course I am writing for the Midwives' College of Utah on Research Analysis & Statstics, so I'll get a break for a few days while I wait for feedback on that. Maybe I'll have some time to do some fun reading!
Yeah right. Not with all that laundry waiting.....oh well.