Reformation Day Faire

Oh what a fun night we had tonight!  We hosted a reformation day faire in our backyard with about 65 other friends.  We celebrated the anniversary of Martin Luther tacking up his 95 Theses on the church doors of Wittenburg where the practice of Indulgences(buying your sins away) were encouraged.  October 31, 1517.  We had time period food and dress, a real medieval feast.  Our back patio was transformed into a market place where we spent between 1 and 5 pence at the shoppes.  Anything from candles, to a crazy apothecary  to musical instruments, a bake shop with hot cross buns, smelly tissues (and talked about the black plague), etc...  We had town criers come deliver the news of the great fire of London, Martin Luther dramatically reenacted the historical events.  The kids could not stop talking about it all day the next day.  It was so fun, so educational and such a difference from the usual Halloween traditions.  A definite keeper.    

 Princess Ella, the knights and Robin Hood Protected her.

 Robin Hood, who performed a most impressive show using his homeade bow and arrow.

 Knight Owen

 Knight Payton

 The Shoppes

 Martin Luther burning the Pope's rebuttal of his 95 Theses!

 The bad guys who captured Martin Luther and put him in jail.

 Ella buying a dolly for 3 pence at the shoppe.

 The crazy apothecary doing a blood letting.  

 The sister Missionaries (Avanesjan and Miller) with their "Knight in shining armor"

 The creepy looking Monk guy (Jeremy)  heading up the Candle Shoppe

 Writing with quills.

 Learning about the Plague, and singing Ring around the Rosie with the meaning behind it.

 Hot cross buns, fresh out of the 'oven'

 Kids playing an international type war game they made up, I believe there were either French or Englishman represented in this game.

Primary Talent Show

Primary Talent Show 

June 29, 2013

What a fabulous event.  The kids all got to choose a 2 minute act to perform.

Miles did a beautiful rendition of Mozart's Sonata in C first movement. Gorgeous as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytP8U92knko&feature=youtube

Payton blesses us all with his sweet sweet voice and sang a SOLO.  A new primary song called 1 Nephi 3:7 ("I will go and do....").  He was the last child to go and boy did he bring in the spirit so strong into the room!

SEE it here:  http://www.youtube.com/audio?video_referrer=watch&v=DKsEgDMJQls

Owen and Ella decided they would dance to one of their favorite songs, The Piano guys rendition of Star Wars (called Cello wars).  They dressed up in Star Wars costumes and had light sabers...and then were too embarrassed to do anything.  The video was hillarious.  They both were nudging each other to start.  The audience is laughing (but you can't hear it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiTkC67oAKI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUBj6ZCPz8Wo4xZgmHlLX1nQ

(The audio got muted on their video when I uploaded it, so you will have to play the song at the song time using this link to get the full effect:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgAlQuqzl8o


Then, Owen and Ella decided that they wanted a "re-do".  So after everyone left, they went into the gym and redid their song with most of the things they had planned on doing during their skit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4pXgzCBrLI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUBj6ZCPz8Wo4xZgmHlLX1nQ

Week of May 12, 2013

Payton got invited to a neighborhood boy (travis) b-day party Monday afternoon.  They had rented out the entire Stapely Jr High pool, so they invited all of us to go.  What a fun time to have a big pool with high dives and water slides all to your self essentially.  That was really fun!  The kids deserved to go too because I was on about 3 hours of online classes that day and they were so diligent in doing their daily routine without me supervising every move.  They are so responsible.

The next day we got invited to a special tour of the Japanese Friendship Gardens in Phoenix.  Apparently a sister city in Japan named Himeji.  They have helped develop this garden area to be as authentic as possible.  it is quite fascinating.  WE of course are so intrigued with Japan because of Reita our foreign exchange student last year and cousin Tanner who is serving in Tokyo right now.  We all have hopes that some day we can visit Japan, and not just on google earth!  The gardens were spectacular, and the favorite was feeding the Koi fish.  Some of those fish can go for 50,000 in Japan at the Koi shows (kind of like Dog shows here in the USA).  :)  We surpirsed dad at work when were were done since we were close.  Poor Miles wasnt feeling well that morning and had really pushed it to go to the Gardens in the first place.  So, by the time we had been outside for 2+ hours, he was just exhausted.  We ended up going home after a short visit with dad at the office rather than doing lunch with him.  Another time.

We had some really great fun with the Webelos here as we all worked on the Craftsman activity badge and made a wood creation.  It is a fun old game with nails and rubber bands.  You set the marble maze with the rubber bands in whatever way you want and then put try to get your marbles through it. Everyone had a blast.  Jeremy thought I was crazy teaching table saw use with 8 boys in the house.  When I replied that they needed to know some ‘power tools’ for the badge, he replied with “an electric screw driver would have been fine.”  Ha ha ha.  No incident.

We got to head up the 101 into Scottsdale kind of towards where Aunt Alison and Grandma Norma used to live on Friday.  We had another field trip (trying to get a few in before the kids get out of school around here).  You would have thought Miles just was part of the staff at the Phoenix Herpetological Society.  (Basically an reptile refuge and educational place).  We got to feed some African Tortoises, and a wallabies came right by us (he just roams freely), a crocodile did a huge snap at us which sent everyone jumping, we saw probably 75 different venomous snakes (all in one room), we saw a brand new tortoise cracking out of it’s shell, and the highlight was everyone holding the snake!  Miles even held the snake as it wrapped around his neck and had it’s head right on his cheek!  Crazy.  Turns out you can adopt some of the tortoises there, so it’s looking like the kids are going to do a little research and present a proposal to dad for a back yard tortoise.  He would just roam the back yard and burrow a little hole…could be fun.  They want a huge one, but I think we will stick to one of the Desert Tortoises who don’t get much bigger than 18” or so. 

Friday night, Pizza…always a blast.  The kids made the dough just about all by themselves this time.  We’ve been trying to have different people over and this time we had our next door neighbor Michelle (who’s boyfriend just died a few weeks ago).  She is a wonderful friend and it’s been nice to be a small part of helping her through this reall  She stayed and helped me paint Owen’s bedroom and we talked until almost 1am.  All good stuff.  Sweet Owen chose his paint color and he got a periwinkle type blue.  Although I was hesitant with how it would look, I am well pleased with the result.  The main thing is, he loves it! Now everyone has some color in their room, except for me and Jer.  Some day….

We got to go to another enormous birthday party (where the whole family was invited again) on Saturday.  It was really a carnival and just a great way to really get to know people in the neighborhood better.  There are some really great people here.  It’s good to put yourself 'out there' and yet not always easy! 

Week of May 5, 2013

Spencer family happenings week of May 5, 2013

We had a fantastic and triumphant return home from CA!  The trip was amazing and so powerful for our family.  Jer and I are re learning how to be fun again, so this really helped.  :) Sadly, as we were driving into AZ on tuesday evening, heading "home", we realized that it still didnt feel like we were on our way home.  We have been living here in Mesa three months this week, and it is still an adjustment.  We are so close, but it just takes time.

We came home to a pool that had been completely overtaken by Algae.  Apparently you need to leave more chlorine tablets in the pool when you are gone for such a long time (and the solar cover on top heating the pool up the entire time probably didnt help to prevent things from growing).  No big deal, cute pool boy Jeremy to the rescue.  It is taken some doctoring, but looking better each day.

Homeschool moment:
I all of sudden felt impressed to take a turn and begin reading to the kids about Victor Frankl (a Holocaust survivor and amazing inspiration of living thru hard things).  I just "happened" to already have gotten a book at the library weeks ago and pulled it off the shelf and started to read.  I wasn't sure they were ready or that I was really ready to dive into some of this stuff but it is sure time.  There have been so many moments this week where the kids are making connections with other things in history and in current world affairs.  They (and I) are awakening to similarities in the Book of Mormon, in the Roman oppression of the Jews in Jesus' time, in current legislation and are having amazing discussions.  This is what makes all of the home learning so fantastic.  God leads, we try to listen and stay out of the way, and truth is abundant.  I could not be more happy to have the kids home with me all of the time!

Payton got to go on a field trip to the local Dump with the Wolf Den.  He loved it.  He learned all about how to recycle and how to NOT put plastic grocery bags in the recycle bin (he was sure to tell us all about it).  He was a little disappointed he didn't get to get out of the car on the tour to find a 'treasure". Boys boys boys...

Miles is working on his Fitness badge at Boy Scouts.  It is adorable.  He came home all exited and started a fitness plan including running, yoga, and various strength exercises (including a pull up bar that now is the new resident outside of his bedroom door).  He is getting all of us involved and is really into it.  He's is even trying to eat less cheese (cause the kid eats cheese like he's a mouse).

We took a fantastic field trip to the Sea Life Aquarium.  It was homeschool week and the tickets were significantly discounted, plus they were offering a free 30 minute classes.  There was a new exhibit on Jelly fish that was just installed that morning that we got to see (quite amazing).  Miles is just such an animal lover.  He takes his notebook everywhere he goes and writes everything he can about the facts he learns.  He proceeded to write every fish he was unfamiliar with there at the aquarium in his notebook so he could research them later.  Seriously?  The kid had over a page and 1/2 full.  He just loves it and is considering a career with animals somehow.  There is a new profession he had not heard of called an "Aquarist" (Spelling)  that he is considering too.  It is so fun to watch the wonder in these kids as they lead their own learning.

We ended the week with 4 hours of yard work.  Let's just say, 2 + weeks of being gone, some sprinklers not working, over 1/2 acre to contend with, and no clue of how things grow here....our yard was turning into a weed fest! All 6 of us busted our humps in the yard to really get things back in order, and I must say, it was really tiring but rewarding in the end.  We got a late start (after 9am) and boy, it sure is getting hot here fast and earlier each day.  The best part was not only everyone helping in their own capacity, but all of us together having fun, and kids coming back asking "what's next"!  We had so many weeds to pull, sure, we could use the Round Up poison, but then we wouldnt have the satisfaction of discussing each weed as we ripped it down to it's rediculously deep core and comparing it to Satan and his lies and his negative thoughts that he tries to plant in our minds!  We thought of so many negative patters of thought, or lies that we have trying to take root in our minds and we pulled them out (while physically pulling weeds).  It was a great day!

Jer's cousin Liza had a birthday party/pool party later that day that we attended as well.  It is so nice to have some family here.  The boys like hanging out with her boys so that makes it even better.

Payton ended up having a day where he just felt miserable, running a fever and just burning up.  He slept, drank and rested all day and then was fine.  His immune system is just amazing.  Owen ended up having the same issue Sunday too (and Jer had to stay home with him during church).  He too is running the same course.  It looks like Ella is having a little touch of it too, not as bad as the boys, but a little warm.  I don't know that she has ever run a fever before in her life.  Talk about an immune system in that girl.

Mother's Day was the best ever!  Probably because I have finally realized that it is my choice to have a great day or not and I deserve it!  The boys all made me adorable letters and cards and of course Jeremy cooked a fantastic meal of Lamb, Wild rice pilaf, amazing salad, steamed carrots and fruit and chocolate fondue for dessert.  Yummo! 

How you know our individual mentoring with Ann is working...when your child's mothers day card includes two drawings of mentoring principles! See attached example from Miles today.  We must be "getting this" if they are "getting it".  Picture one...a brain.  With a 'filter' and your subconscious pushing it out!  To illustrate how you can push past the filter in brain. 
Picture two....a picture of a fast upside down roller coaster Miles got the courage to do in DisneyLand last week because we kept repeating "you can do hard things in a safe environment"!  He did it and loved it and broke through his fears and feels like a new kid!

A great week!  Tough times mean rewards ahead.  God is so good to us.  We can't praise Him enough for the transformation that is ours.  Until next week......