Brooke's Dance Competition

Oh snap, Brooke had another dance competition this weekend!  She had to be there really early in the morning and it was an hour away, so just Monica took her, and I watched the stream with the other kids when she was on stage.  It was incredible, and I'm so glad I was able to catch it.  We can get to more of Brooke's weekend when we get to the end of the week.

The garden is growing nicely.  Monica planted some winter crops, and it was a pretty nice harvest this week of kale, parsley, cilantro, purple brussel sprouts and even a couple strawberries.

When Grayson was heading into school, he noticed a spider next to the path.  Turns out, it was a pretty big spider.  I think Monica said he wanted it for a pet.  He went and sat by it for a picture.  Glad he left a little space.  I think there's a chance it was dead, as they took a picture on their way into school, and then again on the way out, and it was in the same spot.

I took the kids to volleyball on Thursday because Monica had a bad headache.  Brooke really likes coming, so Monica even got to have some time to herself to recover.  I even remembered to head over and get a video of Winry.

Here's Grayson throwing a ball into the bag.  They also practiced serves.  Sometimes Grayson threw the ball, but he also had some good serves in there too.

Brooke made a claw machine at school.  It was pretty cool, but a little hard to see here.  On the top there's candy and toys, and then you use some sticks to control the claw, and when you drop the thing out... well... Jelly grabs them!  She can't help but play in there.

On Saturday morning, I made a smoothie to go with breakfast, and it was pretty thick, so I thought Grayson might need a spoon.  He stuck it out with a bigger straw though, straight from a bowl.

Meanwhile in Bastrop, Brooke and her teammates were... eating candy?  Pre-dance of champions!  I guess I don't know if this was before or after their dance, but it seems like a good time.

After the dances, Brooke and Monica needed something for lunch, and found a little crepe place nearby.

And Bastrop just so happens to be where the closest Buc-ees is, so of course they had to stop by.

Saturday morning, we had a pile of rocks and mulch delivered.  We are going to put rocks all over the side of the house around the shed.  Stuff (weeds) grows crazy there, and we really don't want any of the plants, and we're having random pest and rodent problems over there, so trying to take care of it all at once.

I moved a little bit of the rocks with a 5 gallon bucket in the morning.  The kids were willing to go to Lowe's with me, however, the wheelbarrows are all assembled, so definitely wouldn't fit in the Corolla.  So when Monica and Brooke got back from dance, I ran over to Lowe's with the van to get a wheelbarrow, which sped things up greatly.

The rock shoveling was pretty intense, and I ended up working through dinner to get the last little bit of the area I was trying to cover done.  When I came in I found the following still out on the counter... unopened pumpkin.  Yeah, Monica had actually cleaned up the leftovers, but it was worth the joke!

Monica made cinnamon rolls as it is our general conference tradition.  Grayson wanted to help her, and did a great job, especially spreading the filling.

I went out to play with the kids between conference sessions, and they were all sitting on the little playground together.  I thought they all looked cute up there together.

And that's everything for this week.  I've been enjoying General Conference, and I feel like I've been learning a lot.  I hope everyone is having a great week and weekend!