Here are some more pics to catch up - I've gotten so behind!!
I'm sure there are a ton of typos in here - I will try to fix as I see them
Beginning of January Matthew had to head back to Utah for his second semester
Emma's book bowl team won first place at the school competition and advanced to Read-gionals.
Sadly they suffered a hard loss in the first round at regionals - there were a few tears - but it was a great season!! Way to go, ladies!!
John saved up his money for months and bought a Nintendo Switch 2.
We celebrated Papa Guptill in Gladstone as he got the high school gym named after him for his decades of service to the high school. Most of the cousins were there. What a great night!
Emma's Valentine Box - it was supposed to include at least one simple machine. We used a pulley.
A fun choir event - Anna as a mermaid
Regular season basketball for Emma. There were some tough teams this year and, sadly shortly after this picture was taken, Emma took a fall and sprained her arm. She wasn't able to play in the final tournament as a result. But she's feeling better now.
After the final game - her team got 3rd place - you can see Emma's bandaged arm.
Emma making a cake.
Somehow I got it in my head that maybe cake can help see me through some of these hard days.
Emma helped make this one look pretty
Anna made macarons from scratch - strawberry flavored cookie with lemon curd.
They were delicious, but a lot of work.
Emma, like Anna, has always had high crafting ambitions. I have guilt because I am bad at (and also don't like) most crafts. So I have very little to offer them in the way of help. Anna made little things like this when she was younger and taught herself (with a little help from her Grandmas) how to make so many things. Emma wants to level up her crafting game too, and again, I am helpless in this area. So I feel bad. But I like this sock bat she made. Completely on her own.
Emma won an award at school for being a good self manager
Maybe she can give me some tips
Emma got to tour the middle school - this is the school mascot, Ryan the Lion
John after his band concert
Anna and I went to visit some colleges in California - first stop San Francisco. We enjoyed some onigiri and a rice bowl. San Francisco has great food.
Visiting the campus - SFSU
Anna was interested in living in San Francisco and SFSU was an affordable choice because she can get in state tuition there.
The campus was beautiful and it was an unusually warm and sunny day - we laughed because this building just said "Science" on it. A legacy building we are told.
After visiting SF we drove south - we stopped at a beach near Santa Barbara - we should have left more time to site see
We visited Cal Poly Pomona - another school we considered because of lower tuition (on WUE)
It was fun to be in California and tour the schools.
Anna decided in the end to go with BYU, but I'm glad we got to visit
Back at home we celebrated Scott's birthday
Anna assembled this cake for us
Being in San Francisco inspired me to try making sourdough bread for the first time.
I'm not sure I will keep this up - it feels like another chore
But we did get some good loaves out of it
Anna painted her nails in a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. So cute.
It's getting warm enough for outdoor play - Emma and her neighbor friend
John and friends hatched a plan for April Fool's Day
They got Mayonnaise containers, cleaned them out and then filled them with vanilla yogurt. Then took them to school and ate the fake mayo with a spoon in front of their classmates. I'm told it was an effective prank - and not the kind that hurts people - which made me happy.
We have some water damage on our wood floor in our kitchen and we had some water/moisture mitigation being done this past week. We had a large fan and an air purifier running non-stop for 10 days. It was miserable. We couldn't use our kitchen and it coincided with spring break - when all the kids were home. Also our dishwasher is out of commission. So we are handwashing everything. Not super fun.
My birthday!! I was given the gift of sunshine on my birthday this year and went for a sunny 7 mile walk around a nearby lake. It was great. Scott got angel food cake (even though he doesn't like it) with berries and whipped cream. So good!! It was a great day!
John at the allergist. He had a skin test - we are sleuthing what causes him to cough so much
Happy Birthday Grant!! We went to a nice dinner at Gustav's for Grant's bday. He turned 15 this year.
Happy Birthday. He got an electric guitar for his birthday - very excitiing!!
Grant also was the big winner of the Easter Egg Derby this year. His eggs won first and second place
Second Place: Trolli Worm
First Place: Matilda
On Easter we had the loud fans blowing in our house so we didn't have a big dinner until a week later. Glad the fans are gone
