Ballet (with VIDEO), birthday, and carnivorous plants

This version has the video of the dance recital in it.

Quotations of the week:

Gwen-“Fweeping booty when it was not her birthday the evil queen gave her a bad gift that she would pick her finger in the finning wheel and DIE!”

Kelly: Did you guys eat some breakfast yet?
Isaac: No, we were too busy traveling through time.

We had fun with Kerry and Mike on Memorial Day, making English Muffin Pizzas and just hanging out.

Gwen and Laurelin had their Ballet recital yesterday. Grandma and Grandpa Wilson, Kerry, and Mike were in attendance. The girls did great...Laurelin had expressed some worries about stage fright, but she beamed the whole time and was right on with the music. Gwen, who never lets that stuff get to her anyway, hammed it up a little, but not unduly. She even knew to keep going when her antennae headband fell off, and didn't miss a beat. Video will be available in some form for those who request it. The girls with their ballet teacher, and the girls in costume:

Laurelin had her friend party on Friday afternoon in a park near our house, and on Saturday after the recital, Mom and Laurelin had a joint birthday party in the park in Orem. In between, we did some much needed yard work (thanks to Utah Mom and dad, who brought up some equipment) so yesterday was pretty full, but we all had fun.

Harvesting radishes and salad greens from the garden:

The Time Machine:

Laurelin's Friend Birthday Party:

A short video clip of our own Venus Flytrap, Mars, catching a fly:

Antelope and Bison and cats, Oh My!

Greetings All!
Many of you already know the cat, Cosmo, who lived outside at Rick and Shelley’s house. He had been Tricia and Ryan’s cat, then when their landlord said they couldn’t keep him anymore he came to live with Rick and Shelley, but since several members of the family are allergic to cats he had to stay outside. He became a sort of neighborhood mascot, and moonlighted at several other people’s houses; everybody knew Cosmo. When we moved out the plan was for us to take Cosmo with us so he could have a more permanent indoors situation. But the house we’re in has a fairly significant pet deposit and we hadn’t been able to pay it yet. So Tuesday Shelley called and said that Cosmo had been injured somehow (we found out later at the vets that it was a bite from another cat) and so couldn’t stay outside anymore. He was in their garage just then, but it would be too hot in there soon, and they were going out of town. She offered to pay the pet deposit for us (THANK YOU!!!!!) and brought Cosmo up to us. So long story short (too late) we have a kitty now! Hooray! Cosmo is settling in nicely. He’s picked Isaac’s bed as his preferred place to sleep at night, and follows us to whatever room we’re in during the day. We’ve restarted his clicker training (Ryan and Tricia had done some), and have plans to teach him to go potty on the people toilet for a litter box-free existence. Last night we all watched a movie together and he sat in our laps the whole time. It’s a wonderful feeling to have a furry friend around the house again.
Yesterday we spent most of the day at Antelope Island, a large island in the Great Salt Lake. We went to the Fielding Garr Ranch, which was started on the island in the 1840s. They were having some fun activities for the Memorial Day weekend, so the kids got to make candles, try out some old fashioned tools and try a lasso. We toured the old buildings and had a picnic lunch. There were even baby great horned owls in one of the Cottonwood trees behind the buildings. After the picnic we drove back over to the other side of the island and paid a visit to the Sea Monkeys (aka brine shrimp). The plan was to just wade with our feet as I forgot to bring towels, but Gwen-fishy-mermaid-girl decided to lay down and swim anyway, which was fine.
Other than the owls we saw about 5 antelope, a herd of about 50 bison far away and one by it’s lonesome up close, a race runner lizard, large cranes, some chuckars (quail looking birds) various other kinds of water loving birds, a jackrabbit and either a fox or coyote (it was too far away to tell.)
Rus had a fun opportunity this week. The Discovery Gateway people called him and said they needed him to help them with the experiments, so he got to go play Mr. Wizard again, which he enjoyed.
Remember to buy your tickets to the Viktoriya benefit! -yes I am going to keep reminding you : )
Pictures: the kids playing with Cosmo in a box, Isaac playing cowboy, Kelly and the kids at the Antelope Island Visitors Center, Kelly, kids and Cosmo, Xander at Fielding Garr Ranch, Gwen on the play saddle, bison, Laurelin trying out her blacksmith skills

Accidentally Patriotic

We saw the bird show at the zoo yesterday, something we hadn’t done in almost two years. When I worked at the zoo, I sometimes caught 2 or 3 minutes of it at a time during my breaks, and while I was stationed at the Elephant Encounter I could hear it, but that’s hardly the same. There are a couple of new birds since last time, including an absolutely gargantuan Stellar’s Sea Eagle, the heaviest eagle species in the world. Laurelin got to hand a dollar to a cockatoo, who took it and placed it in the donation box to “renew the zoo.” They have a new exhibit, “Madagascar,” in the building where I used to hang out with my friend Antoine the leucistic alligator before he went back home to Louisiana. I also chatted briefly with my supervisor from when I worked there last year, so it was a fun visit. I freely admit that I’m one of those people who would never take offense at being told that I “belong in a zoo.”
Until this week I had understood that I wouldn’t be getting any vacation hours until sometime next year. However, I had misunderstood. I’m actually going to have a dozen days of vacation in July and August, with enough left over for some days off around Christmas. That’s one advantage of teaching…you get a pretty good amount of time off.
I decided to take one day of this past Friday, since we’re in between sessions of classes. It was very nice to have a break, although a large chunk of the day was dedicated to yard work. I actually like yard work, but I’m a bit behind, and have vastly inadequate resources to work with. The lawn mower that we’re supposed to use is broken…after fiddling with it several times, I discovered that the fuel line leaks prodigiously. No wonder the blasted thing wouldn’t work! In an act of desperation, we bought a push mower, and I was able to mow the front lawn…now I just have to figure what to do with the veritable sea of dandelions, which are flexible enough that the blades of the mower doesn’t touch them. I’m hesitant to use chemical controls, but after digging them out by the bagful, we really haven’t made much of a dent. When we buy a house, I think I’ll put a tall, meticulously maintained hedge all around the property, and let the dandelions be our little secret. At least the garden is thriving. As part of my work on Friday, I put some tomato plants and zucchini out there, and we’re almost ready to harvest some of our greens.
It has been satisfying to see the kids learning to help around the house more recently. Laurelin was particularly excited about digging out dandelions. Gwen volunteered to haul the play mat downstairs, and even provided herself with a “Heave, HO! Heave, HO!” on the way down. Xander helped me adjust the valves as I did some water changes on the aquariums (this is a somewhat delicate and time-sensitive operation.) Isaac happily scrubbed the toilets this morning. I guess if you keep trying, some of it eventually sinks in.
Hi, Kelly here now. Rus and I had been assigned to speak in Sacrament Meeting today, we were supposed to speak on charity, as well as introduce ourselves to the ward a bit. I think it must have gone well enough, several people said they enjoyed it, and our peculiar personalities must have come through in the introduction since several people also said they felt like they knew us now. What was really cool was that there were three ladies visiting from Wales. One of them had been asked to share her testimony and conversion story before we spoke. People from Celtic and Gallic areas of the world tend to be good storytellers, and it was a very cool story anyways, so it was very good to hear. I kicked myself after church for not thinking to ask them the proper pronunciation of Gwen’s name (Gwenhwyvar), that would’ve been nice to know….
One last item of business. Most of you probably already got my email about this but you can now purchase presale tickets for Viktoriya’s benefit show. Presale tickets are $15, at the door tickets will be $20. We aren’t using physical paper tickets, but if you prepurchase your tickets your name will be on a “will-call” list at the door. If you want to preorder tickets you need to Paypal the money to Rus’ email with a note that it’s for the benefit show, how many tickets you are buying, the name of the person who will claim the tickets at the door and a phone number and email you can be contacted at. I will email you confirmation of your order. (If you need Rus’ email address you can leave a comment here or email me, we just didn’t think it a good idea to put his email up here on the blog for all the world)
IMPORTANT: you will be required to show id to claim your tickets at the show.
Here’s the show info again:
July 25th 2009 6-9pm
Academy of Performing Arts, 2207 South Main St, Salt Lake City. There will also be a silent auction, raffle, tarot card readings and a henna artist I believe. And the show should be great!

The first picture needs no explanation; A Stellar's Sea Eagle, Olga, a golden Eagle, a pigeon "John Wu" style; Kelly and the kids in a Jon Boat; the kids with a brass gorilla.

Happy Mother's Day

A few days ago, Gwen and I were taking a trip to the recycle bin outside.We were discussing things to put inside it. I asked Gwen if I should put myself in the bin. She replied with an immediate "No!" some distress evident in her voice. I asked her why not, and she responded, "Because I LIKE you!"

Yesterday we attended a Renaissance Faire, the first I have ever attended. We got a discount for attending in costume, although we probably would have dressed up all the same. We all enjoyed the event. Kelly saw a friend of hers do a bellydance number (though Kelly is the first to admit to the lack of relevance to the actual Renaissance, the point of a Ren Faire is to have fun.) There was a magic show in which Xander participated: he was a volunteer for a card trick. The magician demonstrated how Xander's subconscious cues revealed the card he was holding as the five of hearts.

One of the main attractions was the jousting--the next best thing to the fifteenth century!

I'll include a short of an impact here. In a subsequent pass, one of the knights was forcefully unhorsed...and the other one fell off a few paces later.

(Kelly here now) Everyone was very nice to me this morning for Mother’s Day. Rus made sure I didn’t have to get up early or make breakfast or anything. He also brought me a rose and made a montage of pictures with a Wolfstone song we both like as a card. (He’s become quite good at making “computer” cards.) Xander and Laurelin both made me fun crafts at school and Isaac picked out some of his pictures to give me. Laurelin made our bed for us and picked up without being asked (yeah!!) and Gwennie drew me a picture (I came into the room and was told “I’m drawing you a picture! Don’t peek!”) I realize more each day how lucky I am. Happy Mother’s Day!

Three of the kids with a knight (post-joust); Xander with Eric the Magician; Rus and the kids; Kelly and the kids; Rus' favorite shot of Kelly from the day.

Sirius Black carries no guilt...

Happy May!!! Honestly it didn’t really feel like May, it hasn’t really been that warm yet…
Friday MaryMegan came up to visit for the weekend. We hadn’t seen her since we moved so it was very nice. She watched the kids so Rus and I could go out (belatedly) for our 11th anniversary. We went to Red Butte Gardens, a botanical garden at the U of U. It was quite beautiful, and wonderfully refreshing to walk around unhurriedly and just enjoy our time together. After the gardens we had dinner at Olive Garden, hung out in PetCo, and then got “safe” ice cream at Whole Foods Market to bring home and share with Meggie Moo.
We love to watch all the bird life in our back yard, but apparently some of them have been making off with bits of our garden. So we got some chicken wire and cable ties and made a bit of a cage to protect our baby greens. Hopefully that will help.
Yesterday we jumped in the car to run to the petstore. Laurelin had brought a pen and paper with her and after a minute called out, “Look what I wrote!” She had written “gone to the pet str” for “going to the pet store”. She proceded to write/sound out a half dozen more words on the trip all on her own, it was so neat! It’s always exciting to see them light up when what they’ve been learning suddenly clicks into place.
While going through Isaac’s backpack I found a list of sentences he had written, apparently for vocab/spelling word practice. Never wanting to miss a chance to write something interesting he had written some less than usual sentences. Some of them were “I admire Western dragons style greatly”, “I have been in thirteen toilet floods” (slightly exaggerated…), “Sirius Black carries no guilt”, “At all costs do not drop a torch in a gigantic tank of gasoline and hydrogen mixed” and my personal favorite, “I am not rude to women.” That’s my boy.
Gwen is hilarious everytime. Here’s a typical scene when it’s time to pick up the kids from school:
Me: Gwennie, it’s time to go.
Gwen (excitedly): Can we walk???
Me: Sure, lets’ walk.
Gwen (about 20 steps down the street): I need a rest!
Me: Gwen, we have to keep going so we can get to school”
Gwen (trying to fall over): But I can’t take it anymore!
I went in to talk to Xander’s teacher a few weeks ago. She basically said he’s doing great. He gets all his work done quickly and correctly, she says she never has any problems with him and she really likes him! I can’t say how wonderful that was to hear.
Pictures: Red Butte Gardens: a crazy orchid, Rus with some playmates, Kelly and flowers, Rus and another friend, both of us
the kids and Kelly outside making the first fairy crowns of the season