Seven Somethings for Sunday

1) It's blueberry season again! We had a lovely time at the farm picking berries yesterday. Anwyn ate a lot more than she put in her bucket.

Lily mostly filled her bucket with dirt and a few unripe berries. Near the end she started acting like Little Sal and Little Bear, following behind Anwyn and swiping berries from her bucket. We enjoyed reading this book again this past week in anticipation of our farm excursion.

2) Anwyn got a new bed! Finally!

We have had our eye on this bed from IKEA for over a year now, but we couldn't ever work out the logistics of getting it home from Orlando in our smallish car. Our wonderful friends the Jermans offered to pick it up for us and transport it here. Hurray! We are thankful for nice friends and Anwyn is thrilled to have a new bed. We really like it because of all of the storage space underneath the bed.

3) Lily got promoted! Since Anwyn got a new bed, Lily finally gets to move out of the pack-n-play and into the crib. (Anwyn had been sleeping in it in the toddler bed format).

4) Jared continues to be very busy with graduate school. He is preparing for his qualifying exams in the month of June and is spending a lot of time studying research articles. Keep him in your prayers!

5) Anwyn gave the scripture and prayer today in Primary. She did this scripture and had it memorized! We have kept busy this week with reading lessons and piano lessons.

6) Kristi made homemade bread for the first time ever! Completely by hand--I've used a bread machine before, but this was the first time completely by scratch. I followed this recipe and it turned out pretty well. I think I'll be adding "make bread" to my Monday to-do list in the future. Anwyn was a good assistant and liked the bread with butter and honey.

7) Lily continues to be our sweet little girl. She gives great hugs and kisses. She likes to dance and play with her big sister and ride on her car. She does well in nursery and is generally a very pleasant child (except for when we stop adding more milk or water to her already full cup). "More" is one of the things she is very good at saying. She doesn't say a lot, but it is amazing what she understands.

Anwyn's Answers About Dad

Anwyn answered these questions about Mommy last fall. Today I thought it would be fun to see what she said about Daddy.

My Dad

How old is your dad? 28

How tall is your dad? Ummm, we need to measure.

What was your dad like as a child? I don't really know. That one's really tricky.

What makes Dad happy? By playing with him and doing surprises.

What is your dad really good at? Playing playstation games.

What is your dad's favorite food? Macaroni and cheese

If your dad were a cartoon character, who would he be? Diego. He's also like Diego because he rescues. Do you remember that day we came home from campus and there was that armadillo in the garbage can and he rescued it? And it rained after that.

What do you and your dad do together? Play and play playstation games.

How do you know your dad loves you? Because he gives me hugs and kisses.

What is somethings that Dad always says to you? I love you.

I really love it when... my dad reads.

My dad likes to wear... what he's wearing right now (shorts and a t-shirt).

The best thing Dad does is... go to school.

It makes him happy when... I hug him.

My dad loves to relax by... I think play playstation games.

I like it when he... plays with me.

The best thing he cooks is... spaghetti and lasagna and macaroni and cheese.

When my dad shops he likes to buy... That's tricky. Daddy's never gone shopping, right?

My dad's favorite household chore is... take care of the kids while you're (Mom) gone.

My dad's favorite tv show is... I think Star Wars.

If he could go on a trip he would go to... Wales.

I love my dad because... he hugs me.

Spring Piano Recital

This week I held a Spring Recital for my 7 piano students. Actually, make that 8 students. Anwyn was inspired by watching me teach and so last week she started asking for lessons too. We started off with basic things like finding black and white keys on the piano, 2-black key and 3-black key groups, high sounds and low sounds, etc. She was enjoying it so I decided to try her out with the My First Piano Adventure books (this series is what I use with my beginner students and I think it's great). In no time at all she had learned to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She decided to play her song for the recital, even though she had just barely started lessons (one week, with a lesson everyday except Sunday). Here is a video clip of her performance. I missed recording the beginning of the song, but rest assured she can play the entire song.



Anwyn wanted me to say that the beginning is the same as the end.


All of my students did a fabulous job and I was very proud of each one. They are great people and I have really enjoyed my time teaching lessons. We had a lovely evening--I like to turn recitals into a bit of a party with yummy refreshments (thanks to all of the moms for helping!).

Anwyn says: fvhfvfvggfgf nfgngnnjhkhgbhgghttyhyy ybgjynhjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkujytthrhyuhyhff vdhfn bvfffnnxzfcbfvbbvfbvfbf bgv hnnnnnnnnnhhjnhh cvgvgvgggffbvbvhggbthf gbvbvgvvhghghgfhghfghgfhhgfggfhgfhhghffhhfhgghgggggggt bgtbbnn bgbnhbngnghnhbg gbvvbgbgvbvvbbgbnbbnnbn bbvbnnnvnnvvnvv nvnnnvvnbnnbnbgnnvbvjbjjbnbnbbmbv
"I had a great time!"

Introducing the New Blog Design

I reposted this so people's feeds would update with the correct title. I believe we are done with our blog redesign. This must be the week for redesigns. I redid my gospel blog the other day and now just updated our family blog. Let us know if there are any problems or annoyances.

Old website.

New website (of course, the picture is redundant until we redesign the blog in the future).

Exploring St. Augustine and the beach

On Monday we celebrated our anniversary by driving over to St. Augustine to see some of the city, some historical sites, and the beach. We had a great day driving around and playing. We were quite thankful for our GPS, which helped us get around flawlessly. I can't imagine what people did before GPS! :) They probably had to stop and ask directions instead of just listen to the nice British lady spout off when and where to turn.

A statue of a Spanish conquistador (Pedro Mendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine in 1565). He might look placid in this photo but you should have seen him a few seconds later when he tried to skewer me with his sword! No wonder the Spanish government asked him to go explore the New World; he caused so much Godzilla-like damage to downtown Madrid in the 1500s that the king said, "If you're going to destroy a city, go found your own!" So he did.

At Flagler College. We couldn't believe how big those frogs were! We also couldn't believe that the college trained them to sit there and shoot water out of their mouths all day; now that's impressive!

We always end up with some really nice photos of Anwyn in trees.

We saw a few wild dolphins while waiting for the ferry at Fort Matanzas! This is the only picture I managed to take of one.

Fort Matanzas, an old Spanish fort that is now a national monument. It is free to visit and we even got a short ferry ride over to it.

Fighting off the English hordes.

Our pet heron that we've trained to catch fish for us. Some say that learning how to fish is the best way to never go hungry again but I say that having a heron do it for you leaves you more time to lounge about eating bonbons (especially if you train another heron to make and feed you bonbons). :)

Lily likes stairs.

Where I hid with the girls while Kristi fought off the English army.

At Crescent Beach. I love this photo. The girls' reflections are just about perfect.

Lily wasn't very fond of the waves rushing up at her. Of course, what is a small wave to us probably looks like Poseidon's charging chariot to her!

I manage to keep sharks at bay by blinding them with the glare from my pearly skin.

The small sand castles we built didn't last long with the rising tide. Next time we're bringing mortar and bricks!

Disclaimer: Some of what I wrote really isn't true, just in case you are wondering. Neither the previous sentence nor the present sentence are true on Spanish holidays or when Achilles beats the tortoise. ;)

7 Years Ago Today We Were Doing This

It was a wonderful day, and we have had so many wonderful days since!

Anwyn's Song

Anwyn loves to sing. She sits at the piano and works her way through the Primary Children's Songbook, playing and singing as she goes. She has a pretty extensive repertoire, but she also loves to make up her own songs.

Recently Anwyn asked for a piece of paper so that she could write a song. This is what she came up with:

My Mom by Anwyn

I like that she included a staff and quarter notes. She is picking up on a few music concepts as she listens in on my piano lessons. We've had a few discussions about the music alphabet and she asked about the Grand Staff I was preparing for my students. Maybe piano lessons are sooner than we think!

Anwyn saw me posting the first photo and creativity hit again, so this is her second song.

My Dad by Anwyn

If you ask Anwyn what she wants to be when she grows up, she always says "a mom". Now she says "a mom...and a songwriter".

Here is what Anwyn wants to say today:
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