Flash Back

I am making baby books for all the girls for Christmas {finally} and have been going through all the old photos. Here are a few I found tonight...

Sara and Ella back when it was just Sara and Ella...

Baby Anna

And then there were 3...

Ella and Sara...

Baby Sara {feels like forever ago}...

School Photos 2013

Here are the annual school photos. Beware, serious cuteness ahead.

Drama - 7th Grade

Pooh Bear - 5th Grade

The Boss - Kindergarten

Outstanding

A little while ago Drama received an invitation to the Lehi Council PTA Recognition Luncheon. Awesome. We didn't really know what that ment. The invite said that they were honoring her as a student. Super awesome, right?

with her invite

Today was the luncheon and what I didn't realize was that Drama was choosen out of all the students at her school to be recognized! One student from each of the schools in Lehi was choosen out of the student body to be recognized at the luncheon. There are 1200+ students at Drama's school and she was nominated by her teacher and selected by her principal! Super awesome.

She went to the front of the room to receive her certificate where Mr. Melville, her principal, had a whole bunch of great things to say about her.

with the teacher and librarian, who were also honored by Mr. Melville

We are super proud of this kid that loves to volunteer for everything, help her teachers or anyone else that looks like they might need someone to help. She's a great friend and student and is growing up way to fast!

with Mr. Melville, the principal at her school

Congratulations Drama, you really are an Outstanding Student and now you have a framed certificate to prove it!

Halloween 2012

"Tender lumplings everywhere
Life's no fun without a good scare."

This morning The Boss, Bea, and I went to the school for the annual Halloween Parade through the school halls and classrooms. It takes a while for the parade to get started, so there is some waiting that can be pretty boring. Good thing Princesses and Super Heroes can make their own fun (or watch Garfield on mom's iphone) while they wait.

Then once the kids start by in their costumes it's supper awesome. 

Pooh Bear {aka Kyle Beckerman #5, Captain of RSL} and her/his class paraded by first.

Then Drama, the Hippie Chick, peace marched past. She's in 6th grade this year and it's her last parade. Sigh.

After the parade the babies and I came home and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas, because it is one of my favorite movies and oh so appropriate. Then I threatened to ban anyone who did not take a nap from trick-or-treating this evening. {so mean, I know}

Finally dad came home from work AND we ate dinner. Then it was time to hit the streets. but not before mom made them all pose for a picture.

And dad dressed up in all the left over pieces of each costume: PB's Beckerman wig that was "too heavy and itchy," The Boss's Spider Girl mask that wouldn't stay on her face to her satisfaction so we just drew on some spiderwebs, a princess tiara from the dress up bucket, and a peace button from Drama's costume {that she didn't even want to wear in the first place because she didn't believe that hippies wore buttons!}. And Buddy, who it has been determined, has dressed up as Mark or an Old Man depending on who you ask!

"This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright"

School Photos ~ 2012

School has started, the weather has actually turned cool, and the mornings are becoming (way too) dark. We've also participated in the school photo right of passage. You never really know what you are going to get with a school photo, but I should have learned by now that if someone is taking a picture of my girls, it's gonna be pretty dang cute. {Not over exaggerating here, just stating a truth.}

Pooh Bear - 4th Grade

Drama - 6th {gasp} Grade

Dance Festival 2012

Today was the annual Dance Festival at Drama and Pooh Bear's school.

It was pouring down rain at 7:45 when I drove the girls to school.

But I have been through the refiner's fire when it comes to sitting in the rain/snow/wind/cold as a REAL Salt Lake season ticket holder so, we prepared for the worst.

But by the time we got to the school around 9:30 it had stopped raining and by the time the festival was over the sun was out and it was hot. Welcome to spring in Utah!

This year they went in order from youngest to oldest so Pooh Bear's grade (third) was up first {well, not first, I guess they were actually 4th, but you get my drift}. It was a new dance with awesome choreography and fun to watch. Pooh Bear did a few round off back handsprings at the very beginning and then rocked out with the rest of her class. Sadly, I didn't bring my good camera because of the rain so I have sad iPhone pictures to share and my phone was doing something weird so I didn't even get very many of those. Mark took video with his phone so you can watch all the dancing excitement! 

Drama's grade went 6th or next or whatever. She's in fifth grade. They had a cowboy/girl theme. They also tried to spice it up this year. Of course Drama is so tall she's waaayyyy in the back. I couldn't even find her until Mark pointed her out. Another awesome jig.

Between dance numbers Mr. Melville, the principal, {I totally just said to myself the principal is your pal to remember how to spell principal. Thank you 4th grade spelling tricks.} Would announce which kids had won the prizes from the Road to Success Reading program they have been doing all year. The kids would receive raffle tickets each week according the number of days they read and now the 5th and 6th graders were all in the running to win a Kindle. And guess which lucky 5th grader's name was called to win the Kindle....Drama's! She said she wasn't even paying attention but I screamed out loud like a crazy person. 

Ironically, she was going to get a Kindle for her birthday on Sunday. Now I have to come up with something else! Great.

Pooh Bear's the one in the hot pink shirt, BTW. {ha} She tumbles first in the back and  then she's on the front row, the 6th girl if you start counting from the left @ the girl with super long blonde hair.

Drama is on row 7 so you can't see her for most of the dance but towards the end when they dance in groups of 2 rows at a time -  she dances with the fourth group and she's front and center with the aqua tee shirt, denim shorts & cowboy hat.

80s Day

It is 80s Day at school today.

Oh the 80s. I had great hair in the 80s. 

And I looked awesome in neon. But really, who didn't?

When I was informed at 8:00 pm last night that it was, in fact, 80s day we had to get pretty creative. So, we found some old tee shirts and cut the neck off and then added some flair to Drama's and cut Pooh Bear's short. To "top" it off we ratted a pony on top of their heads. Oh! And the glove, how could I almost forget the glove?

80s day = Success!

{please don't look at Pooh Bear's shoes. don't buy shoes from shoe carnival, they are the worst. but of course these shoes are the only ones that she can find. her good trainers? Lost. cute boots. lost.}

Typical Tuesday

It's a typical Tuesday here at the Van Horn house. Are you excited to witness it? Yea, I thought so...

First things first, I'm up nice and early to make it to the gym.

When I get home it's a crazy zoo trying to get Drama and Pooh Bear off to school and Mark to work {his hair is the hardest to do}. I try to get a shower in, bathe the Boss and Bea, and get the Boss to preschool by 9:30. Sorry no photographic evidence of this part of the day.

Bea and I drop the Boss off at Ms. Cathie's Preschool and spend some quality time together running errands. We hit Walgreens, the gas station, the Library and then helped in Pooh Bears class tutoring math. Bea's awesome at fractions.

Home for a quick snack. Peanut butter and the biggest apple I have ever seen {seriously it was as big as Bea's head}.

Then back to pick up the Boss from Ms. Cathie's. Buddy likes to come with us.

Today she came home with a plastic Easter egg. Last week she came home with a real live goldfish named "Belle".

Back home to eat lunch and practice counting to 20. We had to take off our shoes and Buddy helped with the counting.

After nap/quiet time, Pooh Bear arrives home from school and it's snack and homework time (Drama has service club and is still at school).

Newest requested snack = green smoothies. Seriously, they watch me put the spinach, carrots and special "greens" powder in the blender with the fruit and oj but they still love it and slurp it down. We made extra for Drama and stashed it in the freezer until she got home.

Dinner is always a fun affair.

{yes, she did poke herself 3.56 seconds after I took this photo}

The after dinner entertainment is always exciting... someone usually ends up injured. That's one fat lip sister.

Jammies, check. Brushed teeth, check. Reading books, check.

Finding a hole in your jammies and laughing because it's super silly, check and check.

The Boss insisted in having her jammies altered to fix the hole problem and then she channeled my Grandma with the "waste not, want not" mentality. New slippers, check!

It's all in a day's work...

5th Grade Science Fair

February 1 & 2, 2012

According to Drama, "If you want to pass the 5th grade, you have to do a science project for the science fair."

All of January was devoted to working on Drama's science project. The very day that the packet came home in her homework folder she wanted to get right to work. We mulled over a couple of ideas until she finally decided to test the "Up Theory." She wanted to find out how many balloons it would take to lift her up into the air.

It was a fun project and she did most of the work {except for tying all the balloons, that was my job}. Here is her write up...

Up, Up and Away!

I wanted to see if balloons could lift me up into the air in real life. Here is how I accomplished it.

First, I learned about helium. Then I built a scale model of me.

I had to see how much one balloon could lift. I had to measure every balloon as we filled it with helium so that they held the same volume. The balloons were all about 30 inches in circumference.

To start the experiment, four small washers were weighed. These four washers weighed 0.1 ounce and one balloon was able to lift the four small washers.  Next, two big washers were weighed together. They weighed 0.1 ounce and one balloon could lift the two big washers.

Following this, a stuffed animal named Leo was weighed at 3.0 ounces.  It took 23 balloons to fully lift Leo off the scale.

A giant chocolate kiss was weighed next. The kiss weighed 7.1 ounces and took 65 balloons to lift off the scale.

Finally, it was time for a 1/145th scale model of me. This model weighed 8.5 ounces and it took 77 balloons to fully lift it.

 

After we finished the experiment, we recorded all of the data from the experiment. We recorded how much each object weighed, and how many balloons it took lift the object. 

We also calculated how many balloons it might take to lift the objects in the experiment. After we found out how much weight one balloon could lift we used that data to calculate how many balloons it would take to lift Leo, the kiss, the scale model of me, and to actually lift ME.

It would be fun to be floating in the air, hanging from balloons, soaring with the birds. Could this really happen to be soaring with the birds and how many balloons would it take? Yes, it could happen in real life. I calculated it would take 12,320 balloons to lift me off the ground. Based on the data from our experiment the actual number of balloons needed to lift me may be lower than we calculated. Wouldn't you want to be soaring in the air with the birds?

At the Fair

She created graphs and a fantastic chart. 12,320 balloons! That is a lot of balloons and a lot of helium! She did a fabulous job on her experiment but the best part is how much she loved doing the work, the experiment, the write up, and the graphs and charts! {But then I already knew she was super smart and amazing!}

Ice Skating at the Olympic Oval

The #1 item on our "to do" list this Christmas/Holiday season {Holidays because we needed Thanksgiving break to New Years to fit all the "to dos" on the list in} anyway, #1 on the list was 

Ice Skating!

The great Groupon had a discount to the Olympic Oval, 50% off for a family of 5. Bea is free except for skate rental because she is still under the magic age limit.

Today we finally headed up to Kearns for the much anticipated Ice Skating Extravaganza!

They had these neat walker/skater holder uppers {technical term} that little kids with no balance or experience could use. In theory, the child could stabilize themselves and learn to skate like a pro. In reality, the child held on for dear life and mom/dad held onto the child's hands and the contraption at the same time while bending at a 90 degree angle scooting around the oval while the child's legs and feet "went all crazy," as the Boss said.

This is the view I had for most of the outing. The Boss couldn't keep her feet going in the right, or even the same direction.

Apparently Bea, who was with Dad, had the same problems as the Boss and I.

Drama got the hang of it right away.

and Pooh Bear was a pro by the end of the outing.

Ahh, a helmet, a really good idea, considering. 

Why won't they even look at me when I am taking a picture?

In the end we had a great time and the Boss cried most of the way  home because she wanted to go back and ice skate. Of course Mark and I will be bed ridden tomorrow from the bending, stooping, lifting, balancing, steadying, and ice skate induced ankle pain.