Bickmore Buzz April 11, 2016

We are winding down to the end of our third school year here in sunny Arizona. We have one more year to go while Isaac finishes his dissertation. Then we'll be headed to wherever he gets a job offer.

The boys finished their last week of swimming lessons. The next round didn't coordinate with our schedule so we'll look into doing lessons again in May. William likes his art class. Today he learned about organic and geometric shapes.

We got to dog sit for our neighbor's poodle Gladys. I'm not a big dog lover but I LOVE Gladys. She is the cutest. The boys had fun taking turns holding onto her leash and giving her a treat at the end of our walk. When we dropped her off the first night and said goodbye, Van called to her, "Don't worry! Your parents will come back!" Then he said to me, "I thought she would understand better if I said 'parents' instead of 'owner'."

We had some cloudy days and a rainstorm this weekend. Lana and I were laughing over the fact that when it cooled down to 63 degrees here, we bundled up in our sweats and drank some hot chocolate. Lana said that it warmed up to 63 degrees on Sunday in SLC and they whipped out their shorts and flip flops.

I took the day off on Thursday. I exercised, got a haircut, cleaned the kitchen, took a nap, and read. It was wonderful!

Friday night we rented Star Wars: the Force Awakens. The boys were so excited. They wore their star wars jammies for the major event. They loved it! Van was jumping up and down when Po reappeared in the battle scene. They wondered at the end why Luke was so old.

Saturday we bought new blinds for our bedroom and kitchen. They really brighten up the rooms. Yesterday, William gave a talk in primary about Jesus Christ being chosen to be our Savior. He did a great job and wrote most of it himself with Isaac talking him through it. After church we drank some hot cocoa and baked some cookies and rice krispy treats for our friends and neighbors. Van loves to help bake and he is getting really good at cracking and opening the eggs.

Overheard at our house:

• Van loves to play this game where he'll ask us a question and then give us five guesses to get the answer. If we can't guess by the fifth answer he yells, "Done!" and then reveals the answer.
• Van also loves to ask "What's bigger?" Then he follows up with, "Me or the universe?" or "A cat or the sun?" any two things that are not even close in size.
• One morning William woke up before everyone else and put our lunches together.  He loves to do random nice things for the family (such a mini Isaac!).

Van showing off his cookie dough

Chef Van is in da house!