Taylor the UMPIRE!

Taylor has been working on he Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge. He selected Gilbert American Little League for the community non profit organization to learn about and to give service to. He helped with opening day and then is volunteering his baseball knowledge by umpiring the little guys playing in the Rookie league. Thanks to my friend Cheryl for taking these pictures for me. This is Taylor umping his 1st game! So fun --

Haleigh's Honors

Haleigh with friends from EVYS also selected for the Honor Orchestra

Haleigh has had quite a month. It started out with an invitation to participate in the Gilbert Public Schools Honor's orchestra. Wow -- she isn't even in the schools orchestra yet! Orchestra begins in 5th grade here but one day she brought her violin in to play for her music teacher and the orchestra teacher heard her playing and immediately went about finding a way to have Haleigh play with her 5th graders. She spoke with her teacher, her ALP teacher (she has to leave math 5 min early) and the okay'd it all with the principal. Haleigh felt very special to be able to participate after all of that. Through that came her invitation to audition for the District Honor's Orchestra. She made it and although it made her schedule very full those two weeks, it was a very fun experience for her. We are very proud of the musician she is growing to be. We love you Haleigh and we are especially proud that you are developing the special talent your Heavenly Father has blessed you with!

Haleigh came straight from her softball game!

Haleigh and her classmate Zion

Haleigh's metal turtle. So cool!

The next opportunity Haleigh was honored with was her Gifted Artist Award. Haleigh had 3 pieces of her Art selected to display at the districts Art Show this year. Each class in the school has 2 children's art selected for the show. This is Haleigh's 4th year in a row being in the Art show. Let me just tell you this comes NOT from her mother. Thank goodness she has talented Grandmas and Grandpas. My stick figures just wouldn't cut it!



PICTURES TO COME :)

The last but not least honor Haleigh will receive this week is making Academic Night. In our school district if you get all A's (you can get 1 B) you qualify for a special award presented by the School Board. This begins in 4th grade and Haleigh made a goal to earn this award. She worked hard and accomplished it! Congratulations Haleigh. We are very proud of you. It is very rewarding to watch hard work and diligence pay off.

Our visit to Southern California

The first weekend in March we went to our nephew Caden's baptism in Riverside, California. It was a special day the kids enjoyed spending time with their cousins and getting to share that day with Caden. Before we flew home on Sunday we stopped for a traditional visit to the tidepools. I think Troy has as much fun as the kids when we do this. He is the best at finding all sorts of creatures to view and hold -- oops just admitted to a crime there :) It was a beautiful day at the beach and we even got a decent family picture out of it!

Sping Break 2009

Taylor & Ashlyn and her friend Dallin at the Californa Academy of Sciences Museum

Dallin & Haleigh

Camden & Sadie

Sadie & Alexa

Sadie in the tidepools

In San Francisco the California Academy of Sciences Museum at Golden Gate Park is free the third Wednesday of every month. In March that happened to fall on our Spring Break. We decided to join the Bruschke clan and visit this newly renovated museum. We got in early but still had to wait in line for over an hour before we got in -- but once we did the kids had a blast. They enjoyed the tidepools, the aquarium, the natural history portion of the museum and the Rain Forest wuth amazingly beautiful butterflies. Our trip was quick but fun. The kids enjoyed meeting up with their good friends. We miss the good ole days of bike riding, ball throwing and trampoline jumping of the old cul-de-sac. It was crazy to watch the two oldest of these two families head off to Mutual together later that night? Sad but fun to watch them grow up!

Taylor Turns 12

Taylor had very specific birthday plans. Football & video games. He got what he wanted. Taylor and 12 boys played football for close to 2 hours. After football they came back to the house for pizza and 4 gaming stations set up for their gaming extravaganza. Playstation 2, X-box, WII. Guitars played, cars raced and boys ate. It was a fun night for all, especially Taylor.