Happy Birthday Charlie!

Charlie had his 10th birthday yesterday!
Waffles with strawberries for breakfast!

Lots of presents!

Charlie got water noodles that squirt for his birthday. Uncle Bryce wanted to just see how far they would squirt. Of course that turned into a full blown water fight! "Get him Charlie!"

Charlie is such a great guy. We are so lucky to have him in our family. We can't believe he is ten already. Happy Birthday Charlie!

I will Huff, and I will Puff...the Huffs come to visit

Calvin and Melissa (Janelle's sister) came to visit this week. Unfortunately, we have been attacked by the flu bug. So our visit has been filled with comforting kids, watching videos, playing games, and when Janelle and Melissa caught it, just huddling under blankets on the couch. We did recover enough to make it to the park..... Charlie is one cool dude!

And the kids decided just today to try out the pool for the first time this season. (The water was 65 degrees.) When I say kids I include Melissa's husband Bryce. The rest of us just opted for the hot tub.

Calvin has been a hoot. He really is quite a character. Whenever Janelle walks into the pantry he runs over to close the door to lock her in. He also calls for his dog Milo all the time. (I'm sure Milo misses him too.) We hope we all get feeling better so we can enjoy the last few days of their visit!

Highlights of Grandpa and Grandma Johnson's Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came for a visit for the last week. We crammed as much fun as we could into a few short days. Here are some highlights of their fun filled visit.....

A picnic at the park was Isabelle's one request. Charlie, Janet and Izzie rode bikes....

....while Anne, Grandma, Grandpa, Scott and Janelle had a long visit......

.....of course, Elizabeth read her books!


We all went to the Tucson rodeo. (A first for Janelle.) We all enjoyed the crazy fun, although it was a HOT day. (Close to 90 degrees.) Earlier that day we went to Kartchner Caverns. (No cameras allowed.) They were amazing!

Dan's family came down for the rodeo and pizza at our home. It's always great to see the cousins.

Grandpa Gordon gave us a country western concert. Charlie plays the air guitar.

Every night Grandma read Isabelle her bedtime stories.

We saved the best for last. Tuesday night both Janet and Elizabeth had concerts. Janet's Jazz Band was fantastic. Janet just wailed out her solo.

Elizabeth's Steel Band concert was awesome. Elizabeth had two solos. If you have never seen a steel band concert, you are missing out. It's hard to hold still. It just makes you want to dance. (If you would like to hear a steel band play...go to the playlist at the bottom of the page and click on #1 Pan in A Minor. Elizabeth's band has played this song.)

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for coming! We had so much fun. Come again soon!

Ugh.... Socks

So, this is what I did for an hour and a half today. Find the matches to all these socks! Let me tell you... it was soooooooooooo boring. Plus, there is nothing interesting on TV on a Thursday morning so I ended up watching PBSkids. It was an interesting morning.......

*ANNE*

Science Olympiad---Gold Winner!

Elizabeth attended Science Olympiad last weekend....and look what she came back with! Gold medal for Math. Bronze Medal for Astronomy. 6th place in Remote Sensing (the study of satellites orbiting earth.) 6th place in Experimental Design (Basically doing a science fair in an hour.) She can now officially be called a "Clinker" (Someone who clinks when they walk because of multiple medals. She is the first ever at Empire High School.) We are sooooo proud of her.
Okay....So this needs some explanation. This is a picture of Dr. Frank, Empire's Biology teacher. He heads up the Science Club. He couldn't go to the Olympiad because of Vail Pride Day. So the kids made this t-shirt to honor him at the competition. He loved it.

Vail Pride Day

Yesterday was Vail Pride Day. This is a festival that our school district puts on at the County Fairgrounds. It is so fun. There are art shows, writing displays, science projects, Academic Jeopardy, Math Bowls, and lots of performances. This picture above is Charlie with his art project. (It is the vase on the top right.)

Izzie with her Giraffe writing and picture!

Charlie's Academic Jeopardy team.

Janet's Math Bowl team. Janet had quite a reputation to live up to. Elizabeth competed in this competition every year for Old Vail Middle School. Brent Edwards introduced this event. He is also one of the coaches at another middle school. He went through each team and had them test their buzzers to make sure they were working. When he got to Janet's team and the buzzer worked he said, "I wish YOUR'S didn't work, Toller!"

Charlie sang with his choir.

Janet plays her trumpet.

As you can see, it was a busy day. But so much fun. Anne was also there but mainly participated by turning Mom's pages in the music performances, and cheering everyone else on. Elizabeth spent the day in Phoenix at the State Science Olympiad. (I will blog about that later this week.)

Dead Lizards Don't Blink

For Family Home Evening tonight we decided to prepare the garden for planting. We had a lot of fun weeding, shoveling, and raking. While Anne was raking she found a lizard that she thought was dead. But as we picked it up and looked at it, he blinked. We realized he was just hibernating. We all debated what to do with him. But after a little "googling" we decided it was best to put him back in the dirt and bury all but his head. We hope he has a good nap by our strawberry plants! Anne named him "Rooty", because he came from the roots. She seems to think that they are now best friends.

There weren't enough rakes to go around. Elizabeth and Anne argued over this one.

They learn sharing is much better than fighting!

Janet wasn't sure she wanted her picture taken.

No Toller family activity would be complete without Morgan (Isabelle's friend) helping out.

Charlie digs up weeds.

Here is Anne explaining how they found the lizard "Rooty". She is a little crazy tonight. But we still love her...