Tonight all the boys are gone for the Father's and Son's outing. It's just me and Lou Lou. It's been a fun night. We went an saw a matinee, Mirror, Mirror, the Julia Roberts Snow White movie. The costumes and sets were amazing, the story was meh, but it was fun enough. Then we went to Noodles & Co., because Elise loves her noodles. I had Pad Thai, but it was kinda meh too -- all Pad Thai pales in comparison to Pei Wei Pad Thai. I know I should probably say, "All Pad Thai pales in comparison to that one super authentic plate of it I had at that hole in the wall joint run by actual Thai people," but no. I simply love the Pad Thai at Pei Wei. With chicken. There you have it.
But I promised some photos that still haven't been posted due to my St. Lucia-induced backlog. First, Easter photos. Very late Easter photos. But better late than never!
First, the group shot:
I didn't try to make everybody matchy matchy, and actually had no idea Elise and Wyatt's shirts matched so well. Then Ethan's tie (not new) just happened to go well with Jonas's shirt. And voila! It looks like I put lots of thought into something I didn't think about at all. Love it when that happens.
And here are some individual shots.
Wyatt was having more fun on the monkey bars than posing for photos.
I did manage to snap a couple, though.
So dapper.
I love seeing those baby blues without the glasses.
Such a fun dress!
I love the sunlight in her hair.
I do have some smiling Ethan pictures, I promise, but all the other close up shots he was trying to get something out of his teeth, which rendered them unacceptable. Plus he looks mysteriously handsome here anyway.
See! He does smile. :-) And wear size 12 shoes.
And a pic of Forrest and me, just for kicks:
Good job, Jonas the photographer.
There are a few other photos I need to share, too. First, I forgot to commemorate Forrest's birthday here on the blog. He turned 41 right after we got home from St. Lucia and the day before the insanity that was Jonas' birthday party / Forrest's pulled pork sandwich extravaganza Priesthood session. Since we'd done so much in St. Lucia, it was generally understood that the birthday would be an understated deal. Still, I wanted to do something nice, so I decided to make him a cake from scratch from one of our fancy pastry recipe books. I'm usually a box mix gal, so from scratch? That means love. I chose one that had a homemade butter cream frosting. I figured I could tackle it.
Three hours and three boxes of butter later, after separating eggs for merengue and gauging the temperature of the sugar and cutting all that butter into tablespoon-sized pieces that I had to drop one by one into the mixer, I had my cake. Granted, it wasn't done by the time he got home, as I had hoped. But I did it, dang it. Voila:
The picture in the recipe book looked nothing like this, of course. No time for fancy frosting application!
Gotta love this picture. I am married to a supermodel.
Forrest was a great sport about the cake and said he quite liked it, but here's the thing: the frosting was weird. Instead of being luxurious and creamy, it just felt overly thick and tasted overly sweet. The kids didn't like it at all. Forrest had a big piece, the rest of us had a small one, then half of the cake sat and languished in the glass cake stand for almost a week before I acknowledged defeat and threw it out.
Lesson learned! Duncan Hines? I am a fan.
Finally, Elise went to her very first stake dance last Saturday. She went with her good friend Ashlee, and they both looked absolutely adorable. See?
How can my girl be this old? And beautiful?
Elise and Ashlee went to the mall earlier in the day and Elise bought this dress with her babysitting money. Isn't it cute? Poor Ashlee had a brand new dress she brought to our house, and then while they were getting ready she spilled fingernail polish down the front of it! But she was a great sport and ended up wearing some of Elise's clothes. Luckily, the fingernail polish came out.
The girls ended up having just an "okay" time, mainly because there was only one other person from our ward who attended and they didn't know a soul. (Ethan was at a cast party, and there were a bunch of other things going on that night. ) A few guys asked them to dance, but they said they felt kinda awkward because it seemed like everybody else already knew each other. I assured Elise that the next dance would be better: Ethan and his friends would go, and they would also get to know a bunch of MN kids at EFY. EFY! Just a few short weeks away.
And now that's where we are. Wrapping up the spring, ready to head into summer: EFY, camps, UTAH! I, for one, am ready to start sleeping in.
There's been so much kid stuff going on over the last two months that hasn't been blogged about. It's shameful, really. So I'm just going to try to summarize as best I can, kid by kid. Deep breath!
Ethan
Ethan has spent the last couple of months finishing up the speech season, then practicing and performing his role as Mr. DePinna in East Ridge's production of You Can't Take It With You. He ended the speech season strong, coming up with a number of top ten wins and a handful of top five at his tournaments. Here he is (you can kinda see him, right?) receiving an award at a meet where I served as a judge. (Didn't judge HIM of course. It's fun judging speech meets, btw. This whole subculture of kids striding purposefully through the halls dressed in business attire, talking to walls as they practice their speeches: it's fascinating.)
He's in the middle. Squint and you can see him.
But the play has been the biggest news of late. Ethan had a fabulous time in his first big speaking role on the high school stage. He played Mr. DePinna, a crazy friend of a crazy family, who helps the father of the family manufacture fireworks in the basement. You Can't Take It With You is a wonderful play for a high school to produce because it's truly an ensemble piece, and there are so many fun, hilarious characters to play. And the did SUCH a great job. I watched it all three nights (much to Ethan's confusion: why do you keep coming? You've already seen it once! Well, pardon me, son, if I enjoy seeing you up on stage. :-). Every night the audience loved it. There are so many talented actors at Ethan's school, and Ethan loved his director -- all together they put on a hilarious, heart warming show. On the second night (which was probably their best performance) the lady sitting behind me said, "That's the best play I've ever seen at a high school." High praise.
Here are some photos taken on opening night. One of the parents got permission to take these, and then shared them for free (so kind) with everyone else:
Mr. Depinna and Paul Sycamore, discussing fireworks technology
And more thoughts on fireworks technology
The basement where the fireworks explode
Mr. Depinna doing his best to get introduced to Mr. Kirby
Nice shot of Ethan
Another nice shot of Ethan. (Opening night he had blue socks. The last two nights they were red.)
Yep. He gets to wear a toga. He also gets to pose as a discus thrower, but alas, no photos!!
Mr. Depinna, apprehended by a G-Man for his stash of explosives in the basement.
Chaos ensuing!
The final shot of the family at dinner together.
Ethan has a big AP test coming up next week and is busy with school and studying and good friends he's made from speech and drama. I can hardly believe that next year he's going to be a junior. A junior! Seriously.
Elise
Elise has had a jam-packed couple of months herself, most notably including her 14th birthday and her middle school's performance of Honk Jr., the musical. First, the birthday.
Elise's birthday falls on St. Patrick's day, so Forrest and I decided we'd take her downtown for some authentic Italian food. Little did we realize that we'd get stuck in a giant crowd of drunken revelers -- when St. Paddy's day is on a Saturday, lots of people show up for the parade and start drinking EARLY. We finally gave up trying to navigate the enormous crowds and find a parking place and wound up at the Olive Garden in Woodbury. :-) It was an experience anyway. Here she is, wearing her birthday shirt from Grandma Sweat and enjoying a little cake with the fam:
She also went to DQ and to see a movie with her friends for her birthday too. Here they are, being cute:
Elise also had fun performing in Honk Jr. She was in the ensemble, but even though she didn't have a speaking role, she was in a ton of different scenes. Here's part of the opening number:
She had a great time and sang and danced her heart out.
Elise and her friends after the show.
Cast photo
Prettiest duck of them all!
She's also looking forward with great anticipation to an anime convention that's coming to Minneapolis this summer. She and a few of her friends have become a trifle obsessed with anime, and she used her babysitting money to buy a costume (called a Cosplay -- I'm learning the lingo) and her wig recently arrived. She's a big fan of her wig:
Needless to say, there will be adult supervision with Elise and her friends as they attend this anime convention. Ahem. But she's doing well, and really looking forward to the last few weeks of school wrapping the heck up. A couple of mornings ago when I went into get her out of bed she moaned, "It's not faaaaiiiir," in real distress. Mornings are not Elise's friend. She'll be so glad to sleep in here soon.
Jonas
Jonas ALSO had a birthday, not to mention two concerts, his Arrow of Light award, the Pinewood derby, baseball, and an opportunity to dress up like Albert Einstein. First, the birthday:
Jonas rejoicing at his family gift.
We had a "Hunger Games" party. Like my sign??
Jonas being serenaded by his friends
A little basketball out back
All the guys
We took the kids to The Hunger Games, but it was kind of a crazy night. I'd sent out the invitations the day before we went to St. Lucia and I was a little harried, to say the least. I had completely forgotten that was the Saturday before General Conference, which meant it was Priesthood session, which meant Forrest, as the YM Pres., was somehow in charge of feeding every man in the ward pulled pork sandwiches. So that Saturday, while I was getting the house all decorated, Forrest was cooking pulled pork. Then he took off with Ethan for the Priesthood session whilst I entertained ten 11-year-old boys, then he sped home and helped drive them all to the movie, then he drove back to the Stake Center, then I sat with all of them at the movie, then he sped back to the movie theater to help shuttle us all home. Meanwhile, Elise had closing night of her musical and there wasn't a soul to watch Wyatt, so my dear, dear visiting teacher took Wyatt and picked Elise up from the musical when it was over. Whew! It was an exhausting day, but fun. Jonas had fun. And the movie was really good.
Jonas had a few other milestones. Getting his Arrow of Light:
He's now an official Boy Scout!
And speaking of Scouts, he also managed to come in second place at the Pinewood Derby while Forrest and I were in St. Lucia! The best showing ever by a Hallstrom kid, and we weren't even there:
Shark fin on the top. That must have been what put him over the edge.
He's also had some band and choir performances. Here are a couple of short videos, for the Grandmas listening pleasure. (Of course, anyone else can listen if they'd like.)
His 5th grade choir did a bunch of 80s songs. It was great. I love seeing Jonas (try :-)) to "cut foot loose."
And here Jonas is, playing the trumpet in his 5th grade band. Alas, he is adamant that he no longer wants to play the trumpet. My trumpet dreams for my boys, dashed! Ah well, maybe Wyatt will pick it up in a few years. We bought the darn instrument.
Jonas also worked really hard on his 5th grade project, a report about Albert Einstein. He had to write a research paper, memorize a speech, dress up in costume, and make a display. He is now an expert on Albert Einstein. And he looked so great in his giant wig:
We tried putting flour on the wig to make it more grey. Did our best. :-)
And he's also playing baseball, but I don't have any pictures of that yet. Forrest is coaching the team, and although they've lost their first two games, we're hopeful they can turn things around.
And finally . . .
Wyatt
First off, Wyatt has been having all sorts of fun just being himself. For example:
Wyatt at the "Pirates" exhibit at the science museum. We went during spring break and he insisted on wearing his Halloween costume. I am convinced he had much more fun than the rest of us who were not appropriately dressed.
Springtime! Wyatt is an outside kid, moreso than my other have been. Now that warm weather is here, he wants to be outside running around all the time. I love it.
Just cute.
Enjoying a little cake.
Yo, eggs, dude. What up?
Wyatt is the master of the monkey bars. Master! He has callouses on his hands to prove it, callouses of which he is very proud.
Wyatt also started t-ball this spring. (He insists I call it t-ball. If I ever mistakenly say "baseball" he corrects me immediately. Every. Single. Time.) He's having a lot of fun so far and is always excited to play. He's a good hitter and has made a few throws to first base. (That's the only play they can do right now: catch the ball, throw it to first. It's a good way to introduce them to the rules of baseball.) Here he is, playing and looking handsome:
And that's about it, as far as the kids are concerned. I have some pics from Easter that I'll post soon (yeah, yeah, you don't believe me, do you?) and I'll try to stay on top of things a little better. But -- oh! -- in case any of you don't know already, I got a job for Fall semester! I'm so excited. I'll be teaching composition at Inver Hills Community college, three sections: two while the kids are at school, MWF, and one online. The pay is a lot better than Utah, and Inver Hills is only 20 minutes away from my house. It's the perfect setup for me, and I'm grateful and excited.
And I'm also grateful and excited to be done with this post. Bet you are too! Finally signing off.
