Hubbard Happenings: Spencer's Big Day

I am still trying to figure out my schedule. I feel like things are all mixed up. I think Caleb is a bit confused too. I will have to work on trying to get things figured out of when I do shopping, library, laundry and letter writing. It has been a busy week, the first full week of school. The kids did well. Spencer has a hard time getting up so early, we leave at 7:25 and that has been hard for him.

Last Friday Caleb and I went to Neal’s work. We were able to see where he is each day. It looks like a neat program he is working on. It was “ice cream Friday” at work. Every month they do home made ice cream with liquid nitrogen and families are invited to come and join in eating it. Caleb and I enjoyed being there and the ice cream was delicious.

Saturday was Spencer’s birthday. He was happy that he didn’t have school on his birthday. We had a fun day as a family. He wanted to go to the park to play. We all went over walking/biking and enjoyed the pretty day. Neal took Ruth and Andrew on a longer bike ride home. That was good for them. Spencer didn’t want cake and ice cream. He wanted ginger bread boy cookies. So that is what we made in the afternoon. The kids had fun decorating some of them. We had home made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and home made pizza for dinner. Spencer wanted me to spend the day in the kitchen, but it is nice that he appreciates my cooking. He had a wonderful 7^th birthday. He didn’t even seem bothered that he didn’t have presents to open, he remembered that he got a fishing pole.

Our traditional balloon fight on birthdays. We had the kids get ready for bed early so we could party.

Cookie decorating

The candles did stay in for blowing out, it was a bit small of a space though.

Sunday Neal got a calling. He has been asked to serve as a financial clerk in the ward. Spencer was a bit worried that it would mean that Neal would be gone all Sunday morning again, like he did with being the ward clerk. He was happy to hear that it would be just for a little while after church each week.

Monday we were invited over to a family in our ward for FHE. We enjoyed walking over, they only live about 1/2 mile away. It was a beautiful evening for a walk too. We enjoyed being with their family. They have young children and the kids had fun. The kids got to make marshmallow catapults. They have enjoyed them through the week.

I have seen signs about town about coyotes. I thought that was interesting, especially in the middle of all the houses. Then one day last week I heard dogs barking and looked outside and there was a coyote walking along the trail behind our house. Then on Tuesday when Caleb and I were going to the library we saw another coyote walking at the side of the road by an open field. So I guess they are around and we need to be aware of them.

We did hair cuts for the boys this week. They don’t look so shaggy any more. The kids have been happy with school. Andrew has been very diligent about doing home work as soon as he gets home. He seems to be enjoying having men teachers (2 out of 3 teachers are men for him.) Tuesday evening Andrew and I went to the church for Pack Meeting. They were doing awards for the summer and so it was a long meeting of just giving out awards. There are a lot of boys in this ward. We were noticing that it was just our ward and there were more boys there than we would have in the Waco 2^nd and Hewitt wards combined. I am glad that Andrew can be making friends.

Ruth is also making many friends. She had fun going over to a friends home Wednesday afternoon. She talks about other kids at school, especially a girl named Bella. On Saturday I measured the kids for Spencer’s birthday. I marked Spencer on my board at 4 feet 2 1/2 inches. Ruth wanted to be measured and was at the 5 foot 3 mark! She has grown 2 inches since her April birthday. I took her shoe shopping before school started because the shoes I bought last March were hurting her feet. We bought size 9 1/2, the same size I wear! I was a bit silly about putting on her new church shoes one night, because she had left them out. I think she will continue to grow. She is a beautiful young girl.

Caleb had fun playing at the park yesterday with some friends. Two families in the ward have 4 year old boys. We got them together and let them play. I also enjoyed visiting with the mom’s. We came home from the park and our neighbor was outside on the lawn with the kids she does day care with. We went over to talk to her. Her son is in Spencer’s class at school and the older son is in 4^th grade with Andrew. I enjoyed visiting with her and even sat by her last night at the school Parent Teacher night last night. I am glad that there are children in our neighborhood (there are a lot of kids that come out to play in the afternoons). While I was talking Caleb picked up some chalk and started to write. She asked me how old he was and I told her. Then we looked at what he had done, he wrote “mom and Caleb” on her drive. She laughed and said it looked like he was already ready for school. He loves playing “Stack the States” on the iPad and has almost earned all the states and has memorized all the states names now. He can put together his state puzzle by himself. He loves to draw pictures. He has started gathering pictures he makes in an envelope that he says are for my birthday, even though it is still about 6 weeks away.

I enjoyed going to the school last night and learning more about what is done in their classes each day. I feel good about the schools they are in.

Neal has gone off on an adventure this week end. He met his brothers this morning to hike King’s Peak in Utah. He had all his back packing gear ready to go and was excited about it all. I hope that they can stay warm and enjoy brother time together.

This letter got long. I guess I do that. I hope you are all well.

I decided to take some pictures of the house to show where we are. I didn't take time to clean the house though, so it looks lived in.

At the top of the stairs looking at the loft, our play room

Looking down the inside balcony into the family room

The view out of the upstairs balcony

Standing in the loft looking towards the kids bed rooms

Looking down stairs into the front room

The front room, dining room area. Notice all the pictures by the wall, I don't know what to do with them, we don't want to make holes in the walls since we are just renting.

The family room on the main floor

The kitchen, we bought the stools but the counter is up too high for them

The kitchen, Caleb loves the state magnets I bought for him

The view from our back door. Don't mind all the weeds in the yard, maybe I will get my life in order enough to start doing some yard work. Thankfully it is a small yard, so maybe we can get it cleaned up. We like our view and think it is much better than looking at someones back yard.

The dining room looking towards the front room.

The front of the house. The suburban just barely fits in the drive, the back bumper hangs out over the side walk. It does fit in the garage, but it is a very tight fit, so I have just been parking it outside for now.