Sam's First Coding Experience

We're going to do a more extensive post later on regarding most of 2013, but Sam (now age 9) wanted us to put this up so that he could share his first coding experience.  It's from Khan Academy, which he really likes so far.  This specific one is the hour of coding.

It's the Three Snowmen wishing you all a Happy Holidays!

Here's the coding behind it:

fill(68, 117, 0);

textSize(25);

text("Happy Holidays, Everybody!", 49, 56);

noFill();

ellipse(52, 133, 10, 10);

ellipse(77, 133, 10, 10);

ellipse(182, 133, 10, 10);

ellipse(206, 133, 10, 10);

ellipse(313, 133, 10, 10);

ellipse(337, 133, 10, 10);

ellipse(64, 312, 100, 100);

ellipse(64, 219, 86, 86);

ellipse(64, 141, 70, 70);

ellipse(195, 312, 100, 100);

ellipse(195, 219, 86, 86);

ellipse(195, 141, 70, 70);

ellipse(325, 312, 100, 100);

ellipse(325, 219, 86, 86);

ellipse(325, 141, 70, 70);

fill(0, 0, 0);

ellipse(64, 190, 10, 10);

ellipse(64, 215, 10, 10);

ellipse(64, 243, 10, 10);

ellipse(195, 190, 10, 10);

ellipse(195, 215, 10, 10);

ellipse(195, 243, 10, 10);

ellipse(325, 190, 10, 10);

ellipse(325, 215, 10, 10);

ellipse(325, 243, 10, 10);

noFill();

ellipse(200, 50, 385, 70);

line(103, 127, 152, 82);

line(240, 127, 256, 82);

line(286, 127, 249, 82);

ellipse(194, 159, -27, 15);

ellipse(65, 159, -27, 15);

ellipse(325, 159, -27, 15);

fill(0, 255, 140);

textSize(25);

text("From the Elliss family.", 49, 387);

Halloween Fun!

We have had an adventurous month it seems and I will try to get some photos up of our activities. But up first, Halloween! I quite like Halloween. Pumpkin carving, Wilson family pumpkin party, costumes (which in my mind means time spent sewing and designing) and candy.
Here are a couple of our pumpkins. These are home grown this year! Sam's is on the left and looks a tad creepy since it is slightly out of focus and he had pushed the mouth piece back in. Michelle's is the middle on with the fringe hair on top. The one on the right is Ben's with Dad's help (a lot of Dad's help). 

Michelle was a fairy. I love this dress. Easy to put together but really fun as well. 

Hannah wanted to be a butterfly so we made up this costume for her. She loved it. The face painting leaves something to be desired but we tried it this year. A little too big and too much. 

The Stick Man. At first he wanted to be a ninja again and I convinced him to try a stick figure, but we went for white on black instead of black on white which is what helped convince him. He loves it and still wears it. (It is just duct tape.) 

Ben got to be a giraffe this year because his costume wasn't done yet when he decided he needed to get sick and spend quality time with mom or dad at the hospital. It was cute, cheap and just a tad small but oh well. Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates will have to wait (although it is mostly together and would finish up fast so maybe for Christmas).

There is a brief look at our recent adventures. We have more: the hospital visit mentioned above, hair cutting, science fair projects, and a camping trip to name a few. 

Injuries

So we have adventurous children. To sum up a few of the medical trips: Ben has ridden an ambulance twice (respiratory issues), Hannah has broken her arm twice, and this summer Michelle got stitches. I was going to put a picture up but it is on my phone as we took those pictures from the doctors office. Sam has alwasy said, I have never had a cast, That's cool that Ben got to ride in an ambulance, etc. Enter this:

After having a cast for less than 24 hours he decided it wasn't as cool as he thought it would be and wondered how long he would have to wear said cast. Fortunately for him, the answer is only three weeks. Obviously it is not a bad break to have such a short cast time.

What did he do? Fell off his bike. And yes he was wearing a helmet (required at our house or mom takes your bike and won't let you ride it anymore). We have the curbs that slope everywhere, not just the driveways. He was riding right next to the curb (like inches away) and decided to turn into a driveway. His bike didn't make that turn well and he came off. Fractured distal radius I believe is what the doctor called it (small break up by the wrist).

And if you see Michelle she will tell you about the hole she got in her head that required 9 stitches this past summer. Monkeys jumping onto the bed gave her that injury.

And the doctor wonders why I am so calm about my kids injuries. Let's just stop with those okay?

Another look at the garden

This has been a fantastic year for our garden. We contribute it to good dirt and consistent watering (amazing right?). So here are some more pictures so we can brag about how great our garden is.

This tomato plant is my favorite. At the nursery it was called Sweet 100 but the gal who was helping me said she calls them the gardners candy because sometimes they don't even make it in the house. It truly is producing lots of tomatoes so they do make it in the house and then I eat them with everything. This will be planted again next year because if I am ever going to get my kids to eat a fresh tomato it would be like this. 

This was early in the producing time. We got a lot of green beans from our two little rows of plants. Good thing I didn't plant more, no one but me likes them but they are so easy to grow. We did try out fried green beans which Justin said made them more edible. 

Another day of picking. More green beans, lots of small tomatoes, some big tomatoes, several cucumbers, and squash. Oh and some corn (that was mighty tasty) and a few apples (we are still working on the apples, knowing when they are ripe and such). 

Let me tell you about my squash plants. I bought a hungarian squash plant which makes a squash kind of like a pumpkin but bluish in color. I also bought a yellow squash and a zucchinni plant and we planted pumpkins and cucmbers (and later more cucumbers) and we had a volunteer plant growing which we really didn't know what it was. I haven't grown squash in a couple of years because we got squash bugs and they ate my plants. Well we did get squash bugs this year but after my plants were big enough that it really didn't matter. Look at that picture! There is one growing all the way to the opposite end of the box and out of it. They are growing into the tomatoes. They are everywhere. The zucchinni plant is not zucchinni, I don't know what it is but I want to grow it again. And I just figured out what the volunteer plant is: it is a winter squash. Justin's parents gave us a giant winter squash last year and we didn't know what to do with it and it got dinged so it started getting mushy so we threw it out in our garden (maybe it should have gone to the compost bin first). So I have a very hardy winter squash plant (I transplanted it and it still thrived) and really probably shouldn't be picking them yet. I wondered why they were thicker outer layer than the other squash. We also have four pumpkins growing so far. I shredded up 4 of my squashes one day and that gave me 22 cups of shredded squash. I still don't like squash bugs but they can have a go at my plants now.  

Yes, this has been a good garden year. Anyone need some squash or green beans? 

First Day of School

We survived the summer and have headed back to school. The older kids started last week so we have settled into our routine there. Get up and out the door. They were excited to start school.

Here we have Sam. He started fourth grade. If you flat out ask him he will probably tell you he doesn't like it but I think he does, at least a little bit.  But, it is "the hardest grade I have ever had." To which he is told: "And they just keep getting harder." We are supportive like that. 

Hannah is way excited to go back to school, after all, her teacher does this thing called super Friday. She doesn't know what that is entirely except that everyone else loves it. She loves going to school and learning and at recess she says she has started playing raquetball. Not sure how that works exactly but she loves it.

And here we have Michelle who started Kindergarten. She was very thrilled to start school. She had to wait a week after the other kids but was excited to go. And I am excited for her. Kindergarten helps my kids like each other again. One goes to school for a couple of hours and when they come home they are ready to play with the younger one without as many arguments. Here's hoping it works for Michelle and Ben. 

Camping Trip

We did manage a camping trip this summer and it included two hikes! This came as a dismay to some kids and was fine for others. It was fun to be up in the mountains for the weekend. Here are pictures from the first hike which was Silver Lake and Lake Solitude.
 

 

I don't know for sure who took the above pictures, but from this picture we can narrow it down. Every time we came to a big rock Michelle and Ben wanted their picture taken.  This was fine for the first quarter mile or so, then we tried to get them to just keep moving.
 

And this is what moving looks like for the little ones. They alternated who was on Dad's shoulders with Mom carrying one sometimes. And yes, Michelle wore a skirt the whole time, but then that is nothing new.
 

I believe this is Lake Solitude but don't quote me on that. We did this hike two years ago for Justin's birthday and there was snow on the ground (the kids remembered the snowball fight) but there was no snow anywhere around here.
 

But there was a cave. This was also remembered and this time flashlights came with us so they could check it out. There are sparkly rocks inside is what I was told (I was playing keep Ben managed).
 

We also hiked to Donut Falls which Sam declared not the greatest since he almost didn't get to climb any rocks. We had to limit how far we went because I didn't need anymore injuries that weekend (there will be a post of Michelle's injuries when I get the pictures off my phone) and my children are part monkey and feel the need to climb and jump over and from everything. It was a great weekend. Fairly relaxing and a dinner of dutch oven chicken and peach cobbler that were both declared delicious by Sam! He even ate the cobbler! Yes I am that surprised. Only a couple more weeks of summer left.

July--Cub scout family camp

First off, before the family camp pictures, here is the trailer Justin bought (it conveniently came with a 4 wheeler not pictured).  The kids are getting good at tying things down and have created their own little play place up there.
 

We have some awesome neighbors we have become friends with who work at scout camp.  They hold a friends and family day and invited us to come.  The girls were thrilled because that meant they got to all the stuff Sam got to do at day camp.  Including BB guns!
 

And Dad had a turn (I had one when I went with the boys the week before).
It's superhero related, so here we have Bat Michelle.
 

They have an awesome obstacle course that leaves everyone very dusty and dirty.  (Think dusty base camp and then crab walk and army crawl and get under the "lasers" kind of dirty).
 

 

We put Ben in charge of keeping the bars swinging as they had to run around them.  He loved it when Justin ran though and just about nailed him with the bar.

And then it started raining and then pouring so we all left.  As we left the canyon there was an amazing rainbow.  This is just one of the many I took out the car window as we drove. 

Garden fun

I just have to show off our garden this year.  We are very excited about it.  In our big box we have green beans, corn, and lots of squash (zucchini, yellow squash, Hungarian squash--it's supposed to be a blue color, cucumbers, and pumpkins).  The squash doubled in size while we were out of town.  There is also one small tomato plant, with very small tomatoes which are super good.  The first one was sampled yesterday.

The other box we have contain broccoli which is very tall but not producing yet (we might have missed the window on that one) and bigger tomatoes. 

One box we didn't take a picture of had our peas in it.  This year was not a good year for peas, it got too hot too early.  It now contains two pepper plants and three more cucumber plants that Justin bought recently.  They are all surviving.  Two more pepper plants are out in the yard as well.  And Hannah is growing her own garden of sunflowers in the very back of the yard.  She even waters them periodically.

Here's to more success from the garden! 

Fourth of July fun

We had a fun trip to Southern Utah over the Fourth of July.  It was a ton of fun and the kids got to play with their cousins which they loved.  There were not a ton of pictures taken but it was a lot of fun.

We went to the Carter Cabin and the kids loved it.  They started building a fort which they said almost kept out some of the rain.  They also all got to go on 4 wheeler rides which was probably the highlight for them.

We left the cabin after the rainstorm and headed to Brian Head for fireworks.  Justin wanted small town fireworks.  It was pretty cool.  It was cold because of the storm that came through and we all got a little wet.  Once the fireworks started the kids loved it.  They had four cases of fireworks and each is set up to have a "finale" type shot, so we to see what amounted to several small fireworks shows.  The one that was Justin's favorite was one of the finale shots that also featured a lightening bolt in the background.  His other favorite was the one that exploded short and pretty much directly over and on top of the front row of spectators (there wasn't much of a drop zone perimeter) or the one that shot off into the nearby trees which the people next to us assured us was okay because that was where the fire station is at.  :)

 

The other big activity was bike riding at Brian Head.  We rode the lift up and biked down.  Well, I only did it once and didn't even ride the whole way.  The boys did a couple of rides without me.  I do not recommend this for one of your first mountain biking experiences.  It was beautiful, when I wasn't going so fast that I could actually see the area I was riding through.  It was also very bumpy and there were lots of rocks on a very narrow trail.  That's my summary.

One more activity, Sam got to go golfing with Grandpa and Dad.  He loved it he told me when he came home.  I was surprised until he told me why, he got to help drive the golf cart.  He played caddy for Grandpa and Dad and has since asked me when he gets to go golfing again.  :)

Pics for post below

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Vacation Week 1

So here we go, lofty ambitions as summer starts out.  Maybe, just maybe, there will be more blog posts about our summer activities.  It could happen, we will have to see.  But here is one to get started:

School ending and Justin having time off coincided nicely.  We were going to go camping up in the mountains because that sounded nice and fun and relaxing and a good way to kick off the summer.  Ben decided to catch a nice respiratory virus that made him pretty sick and changed our plans.  Having already told the kids we were going camping we opted for the tent in the backyard.  It meant things were easier and we could keep an eye on Ben.  We got our hammock out and set up and the kids all climbed on for testing it out.

We did a fire in the backyard and cooked dinner over it.  Hot dogs for the kids, veggies and sweet potatoes in foil packages for us.  Those sweet potatoes (or possibly yams, I don't remember which I bought) were quite tasty and a new favorite for me.  We did try smores in an ice cream cone.  I had seen pictures on pinterest and thought we would try it out.  Not the greatest hit because the one that worked the best didn't melt the chocolate chips and marshmallows and the others burnt at the tips which left the whole thing tasting somewhat charred.  So, if you try it out, don't stick them on the coals, these things need a grill rack.

 Here is a great picture of the kids in the tent, this was them posing, the other pictures before this showed the girls wrestling and Sam reading.  There was eventually room made for Dad in the tent as well.  Ben even joined them but since I had the option, I wimped out and slept in my bed (which meant that I got sleep).

And we pulled out the water stuff this past week.  We had both the slip-n-slide and the pool out one day and the pool was up all week.  The kids loved it and we learned that our little red head needs sunscreen all the time, even at 3 pm in the afternoon!  Another day the pool was used to water the plants in the backyard.  Everyone grabbed a bucket and helped haul water around. 

This is Sam trying to make something like a wet suit because the water was cold.  The kids would jump in the pool for a bit and then go stand against the back window to get warm before going back for more. 

Yeah for summer.  We all survived.  The casualties of the week were one plate, one small side table that had a glass top, and one lamp.  But the fun that was started, priceless (we hope).