Lotte Love

Wednesday nights Levi gets to spend just with Lotte. And Zona. The rest of the crew goes to church activities and then we wait to pick up Nephi from wrestling. Wednesdays are SUPER long right now.

They went on a ride to go visit the pond. The weather was beautiful this past week. 

 

Valentine Day Party

 We had our traditional Valentine party at co-op! 

Everyone had a great time and lots of little goodies. 

It was even better that one of our moms in co-op works for a local flower shop and brought flowers for the kids to put together bouquets! 

Busy day - Science experiments, art projects, valentine exchange, pjs, visitors....

 For Science we dissected flowers, perfect timing.

The oldest group all led games or crafts. 

 Friends at Lunchtime!

Cecily gave watercolors for her Valentine gifts - they LOVED painting.

 Mrs. Malcomb flower station. 

 Science lesson

 Art lesson - they made Viking boats

French Lick Vacation

For New Year, we had to cancel our regular tradition of going to a hotel with friends because a few of us were really sick. 

SO when we felt better we headed to French Lick for a quick trip to spend some of the Christmas money we got from the family. 

We had never been to French Lick so we decided it was time to go check it out. 

It was an easy getaway and the kids had a great time - it seems to be getting easier to travel now that most of our big kids understand the routine and have more freedom. 

 Walked around town and found fancy woodworking place. 

 Christmas Lights!

 Included in our hotel stay was miniature golf and laser tag. 

 Coraline insisted she have my phone to run to the bathroom and take a picture of this.

 We drove to the zoo and saw the local Christmas lights. It was a fun short getaway. 

 Water Park Fun!

 French Lick Resort- we drove around and checked it out - the Christmas trees and casino looked so beautiful! It would be fun to go back and stay there - we didn't because we thought the kids would enjoy the waterpark more

 

 We walked around town and found this German Restaurant! It was super fun and different. 

 Pretzel!

 All the things... It was yummy and tangy

 C took this from the top bunk - if you ever want to see what a hotel room looks like with six kids before bedtime. 

 Lotte could not hang at the water park the whole time, but our room was super close to the waterpark so we got to sneak back and relax. 

 Morning breakfast time! Or maybe this was late night snack time. Poor Lotte. Either way it was nice not to have to leave to find food. 

 

Welcome Night for YW

 Once a year we have Welcome Night in Young Women's to welcome the new girls who are turning 12 and to show love to our leaving seniors. One gets an emblem of belonging and one of achievement. I also introduce the new theme for the year. This year our theme worldwide is Walk with Me. I gifted the girls socks that have Walk with Me embroidered on the top ruffle. The older girls always plan the night - they chose to have everyone dress up in 18th century style dresses and 'take a walk together around the garden' it was so cute. They had a list of questions, the girls would pair up - some leaders too and walk around the room talking then switch partners. Cheesecake and a soda syrup bar. 

Klairr is graduating. We will all miss her sweet spirit. 

 Ella is too! She has been the YW leader for so long and has such a strong testimony of Christ. 

 Sister Clayton giving Coraline her necklace and introducing her to YW. 

 One of our advisors - she is a math teacher and comes every other week to teach the girls a lesson or help them teach a lesson. 

 Walk around the room time.

 Random photo of this goof - who forgot her dress in another car. C goes from co-op to choir to church each week. 

 Brighten with Coraline 

 Coraline and Lucy

 Clairana and Sister Clayton - Sister Clayton is one of my counselors and her only daughter is at Purdue. She has the opposite of our family - 5 boys and 1 girl.

 I had a brief scripture discussion when introducing the theme.

Clairana took this one - this is my other counselor Sister Garner. She is Klairr's mother that is graduating - her baby of six. She laughed at this picture and said she best frame and give it to her husband because she looks so angelic. 

Bella, Cecily, & Besties

Over the holidays, Bella and Cecily got to spend the day with friends! They had such a great time!

 Bella got them matching best friend necklaces. 

 So cute! I love their house layout. 

 

Church Life

 Coraline spoke to the congregation this past week. 

 I was task with finding a new theme for the year and Clairana drew this one up for me. The idea is Find Christ. Believe in Christ. Trust Christ. Follow Christ.