Mini Society

I am a big believer in education. Going to school is not my favorite - it disrupts life too much - but I do see it as essential so we live with it. I also believe that a parents involvement in education is paramount. So I try to be involved and supportive of all the programs the school thinks up to educate my children. Some things I whole heartedly agree with, others, well not so much. Mini society falls into both categories.

So ever since kindergarten Taylor has been excited to be in the 5th grade so he can do Mini society. I've been looking forward to it too - kind of- part of me has also been dreading it. It's the lazy, tight wad part of me that's not so excited. But I guess the excited part of me has prevailed because I now have a freezer full of 6 of those big buckets of ice cream, 20 liters of rootbeer as well as chocolate syrup, sprinkles, cookie crumbs and enough cups and spoons to feed an army. Hopefully that is what we will do, that is if Taylor's business model proves to be successful.

So now mini society is over - so I though I would report. It was a success. Taylor did really well. He sold ice cream sundaes, rootbeer floats, candy, and paper mache. He also hauled over our air hockey and Foosball table and sold time on that. He sold quite a lot and had a blast doing it. I think he did learn a bit about business and finance although I don't think he got the concept of watching his overhead. My guess is things would be a bit different if it wasn't mom's money he was spending. The neighboring stores would have suffered too since they ran out of cups and spoons pretty early on. Being the kind soul that he is Taylor gave them some. Once again it is easy to be kind and giving when it's moms money. I on the other hand tend to think a bit more like a hard businessman - if they didn't come prepared and spend enough of their mom's money on cups and spoons too bad for them - nothing personal, it's just business.

Mini Society is a lot of fun and a great learning experience - it is kind of messed up that you spend real money to buy supplies that you sell for fake "minibucks". But I guess what I was really buying was a smarter son - and in that case I got a great deal.

Hershey track meet

Once again the 4th and 5th graders in the area met at the high school to run, jump and throw. Rachel, Ryan and I went to watch first Dallin and then a few days later, Taylor. Both boys did great - winning their heat and doing really well overall. Taylor once again got first in the long jump. He jumped 81 inches - down from his 84 inch personal best. I was a bit disappointed he didn't try a little harder. He played with his friends at the meet, when it got to be his turn he went over stood on the line and jumped then went back to his playing. No stretching, no practicing, no stressing over it - nothing- he just seemed to not even care. But he got first so I guess that is ok.

Well we found out the next meet is while we were going to be gone to New Mexico. I asked Taylor how he felt about not going to the meet. He said I don't really care about going to the meet - but I do really want to go to Nationals and I want even have a chance if I don't go to the meet. I decided to check out last years results at the National Hershey meet to see if they were a lot better than him. Turns out he would have placed 10th in the nation with his best jump. That's not too bad I thought - (although I think lots of kids don't go to the national meet because it is so far away- so there is not so much competition) so I decided to let him take the chance and just see how far he can go. I am not really expecting him to go to PA - but I am hoping he can get to state.

It is exciting to see my kids grow and develop talents and skills. It kinda bugs me that I can no longer beat them in a race. As toddlers I would race them and I would let them win. The older they got the harder I tried but I still would hold back to let them finish first. Well a few years ago I decided they were old enough to lose so I did my best and beat them - problem is I didn't start doing this soon enough because it didn't take to long before I was doing my best and still losing. I keep trying to get Taylor to run a 1/2 marathon with me - I am hoping that even though he is faster his body isn't strong enough to do 13 miles and I can pass him up and win. He won't do it - I think he knows he would lose and now he knows he can beat me fair and square in a race he doesn't want to give that up. I know how that feels - luckily I still have Rachel to race.

President Monson?

No this isn't Thomas S. Monson - but it kind of looks like it, doesn't it? Dallin was President Monson in the 4th grade wax museum. It is an activity where the kids choose someone famous who came from Utah, a Utah hero. They do research on the life and contributions of their hero and write a little paper, make a poster, design a brochure and prepare a short monologue. And then the parents are invited to the wax museum. Each student comes to school dressed as their Utah hero and pretends they are a wax sculptor of that person. They have a little "button" near them that if you push the "sculpture" comes alive and gives you their monologue. You can also pick up a brochure and read all about the hero. It was a very interesting assignment that Dallin loved. He wanted a suit so he could look like President Monson. I just didn't really want to go and buy one for this one event but he persisted until I compromised and took him to DI. We found one that looked pretty nice, he slicked back his hair and he became President Monson. After the wax museum the 4th graders sang some songs and then showed us the square dances they have been learning. Each student then came and ask someone to dance with them. Luckily Rachel came with me and got to be Dallin's dancing partner. She loved it at first and then when they started stitching partners around and a strange man grabbed her arm to swing her around and promenade her she got a bit nervous- but she made it through the dance. Dallin did a great job dancing with her and being Thomas S. Monson.

The half

On June 12th Rick will be running the Utah Valley marathon. In preperation he has been hitting the pavement most mornings running between 5 and 20 miles. He has been killing himself running up hills that feel more like moutains and pushing harder and harder to beat the clock. He has done amazingly well. Well he decided to do a little practice race and run the Thanksgiving point 1/2 marathon. The kids and I went up there to watch him come in. He did great he came strong beating his goal time by several minutes. It was exciting to watch him and be there with the excitment of the crowd cheering on their runners.

They gave each runner and their family a day pass to Thansgiving point so even though I am sure Rick would have rather crawled in his bed we spent the rest of the day digging for dinosaur bones, riding ponies and strolling through tulip gardens. It was a really nice day. Thanksgiving point is a beautiful place with tons of things to do and see.