From Two Wheels to Four

Before and After:

Daddy's Commuter Vehicle in July

 Daddy's Commuter Vehicle in August

That's right--after weeks of riding half an hour to work in hot sun and driving rain, our motorcycle devotee Daddy bought a car for his commute.  The last straw may have been when coworkers informed him that he would be riding to work in sub-freezing temperatures during winter.  I think Phillip's new MINI is cute; he's just glad it handles well and has air conditioning.

Clouds

Clouds in Southern California:

(i.e. there usually aren't any).

____________________________

Clouds in Arkansas:

I took those four pictures within two minutes of each other today, simply by pointing my camera in different directions.  I love the beauty and variety of the clouds here.

(Dragonfly included at no additional charge.)

Anna Turns 5

Anna turned 5 today!

Her big sister baked her a birthday cake, and let her lick one of the beaters. :)

Anna requested Chicken Pasta Primavera for dinner tonight, then she blew out her candles and opened her presents.  She received books from each of her grandmas, a dress-up kit from Grandma Fancy Nancy, a slinky from her big brother, and a toy magic wand from her big sister.  Thank you, everyone!

I bought her a few little presents I thought any kindergartner would love, but so far the only one she has shown much interest in is a stuffed kitty she has named Daisy.

Todd's favorite present was the spare letters for the birthday banner Red Grandma sent.  You just never know what kids are going to get excited about.

Spells, Sports, and Cupcakes

The Primary kids earned a little party this morning for consistently reading their scriptures over the past few months.

First, they split into groups and made up skits using random props.  Joy and Anna's group had Anna the witch turn rock star Joy into a frog, then Captain America chased the witch away.  The terrified witch dropped her wand, and Joy's friends used it to accidentally turned her into a couple other animals before finally transforming her back into a human.

After the skits, the kids decorated cupcakes (though it looks like Daniel was more keen on decorating his tongue) . . . 

. . . then Joy played basketball until everything was put away and I announced it was time to leave.

Back at home, the kids played badminton on our front driveway.  I'm not sure why a slanting slab of cement next to a road was more appealing than the backyard, but after calling the little kids out of the street for the seventh or eighth time, I declared that future badminton sessions will be held out back.

A Day at the Park, and Helping Hands

I took the three younger kids to the park today while Joy was at gymnastics class.

Todd started out on the toddler jungle gym, which basically consisted of one itty-bitty slide . . .

. . . then he looked over and saw that the big kid playground was a lot more interesting.

Goodbye, toddler playground.  Hello, adventure!

Todd soon discovered that big kid slides are much more intimidating than toddler ones.  Anna was scared to go down it, too, so she tried to convince Todd to go down first to see if he'd survive.  Todd declined to be the guinea pig and eventually got up and left to play on the bridges instead, so I agreed to go down the big slide with Anna.

After that, she decided the big slide wasn't so scary after all, and went down on her own.

In other news, here are all of Daddy's supplies that he took to Louisiana this evening to help flood victims clean out their homes.  He carpooled down to Baton Rouge with a few friends from church, and he'll be joining thousands of Mormon Helping Hands volunteers in a big relief effort.  I'm really proud of him for sacrificing his weekend to bring help and hope to our neighbors down south.

Snakes, Trains, and Magic Tricks

What have the Hendricksons been up to lately?

Confirming that Joy is more than one snake tall . . .

  . . . performing magic tricks via FaceTime (sometimes more successfully than others) . . .

. . . and setting up the big model train. 

We took a break from construction to watch Joy magically flip a dollar bill over (with some help from a magic book she checked out from the library) . . .

. . . then we put snacks in the train's cargo car and took turns delivering them to each other.

First Day of School in Conway

It's the first day of school in Conway.

Boo!!!!

Just kidding--the big kids were excited that school was starting (and I was too!!!).

Kindergarten starts an hour later on the first day.  Todd and I walked Anna to school (in the rain, 'cuz that's how Arkansas rolls) . . .

. . . took a picture with her at the photo op spot . . .

. . . got her bag and umbrella safely stowed, then left her happily coloring a picture.

Todd was pretty faked out when we left Anna at the school.  He kept saying, "Find Anna," and I realized she has been a constant presence in his entire short life.  It took him about half an hour to get used to the new order of things.  It helped when he realized that he now had sole access to the coveted toy stroller.

After school, Daniel arrived home with some big news: he lost a tooth the first day of school. :)

Teacher Meet and Greet

This evening we attended the "Meet and Greet" open house at the kids' school . . .

. . . to deliver their school supplies to their classrooms . . .

. . . and meet their teachers.  Anna's teacher Mrs. Jolivette seems like a real sweetheart, and she has pretty awesome hair.

Incidentally, when you ask Anna to smile for the camera these days, you get an expression like this.  Soooo we take lots of candid shots or ask her to say cheese so she doesn't think about smiling.

Anyway, back to the open house.  We thought it was pretty fun that Daniel Hendrickson got assigned to Mrs. Henderson's class, even if she did get married during the summer and change her name to Mrs. Boogaerts (pronounced "BOH-garts").

Joy's homeroom teacher is Mrs. Buie ("BOO-ee").  That's right, homeroom teacher.  Fourth grade is when the kids start switching classrooms for reading, math, and science.  Joy thinks that's pretty cool.

Just four more days until school starts!  It's hard to say who's more excited--the kids or their mom. :)

Pickles Gap Village

This morning the kids and I visited . . .

. . . a local tourist trap called Pickles Gap (nice rhyme, eh?).  According to legend, the place got its name because a German immigrant accidentally spilled a wagonload of pickles in the nearby creek. 

The kids sampled half the fudge flavors in the store before Joy bought some Cinnabon fudge to share.

We also bought some taffy for Daddy and a jar of their delicious Double Berry Jam . . . 

. . . then we fed the goats . . .

. . . and the kids rode a little merry-go-round.

Shortly before we left, Daniel and Anna found a little wall to walk back and forth on.  Every time they met up and blocked each other's way, they played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who would step aside and let the other pass.

An Indoor Picnic and a Lucky Day

Joy proposed that we pack lunches and have a picnic outside today.  We were all set to go when it started to rain . . . 

. . . so we had a picnic indoors instead . . .

. . . then the kids took some random pictures with my camera.

Incidentally, some of you may know that I've been working really hard to get Anna admitted to kindergarten in our new town.  After months of effort, I finally got the news today that she can attend school this year.  Yay!!!

My dad has told me that in some Asian cultures, the number 8 is considered very lucky.  I'm not superstitious, but it makes me smile that we got Anna's great news on 8/8, a doubly lucky day.

Bark, Bubbles, and Beaches

Joy has volunteered to be her sibs' summertime science teacher for a day or two each week.

Today they examined tree bark and bugs . . . 

. . . tried blowing bubbles with some homemade bubble solution (which didn't work very well, but hey, it was fun to try it out) . . . 

. . . and made pudding covered with graham cracker crumbs and decorated to look like the beach.  What that has to do with science I'm not exactly sure, but when pudding is involved one doesn't ask questions.