February happenings

I know blogs are somewhat going out of style. .  but I am grateful for this cyberspace to record family history highlights. I've been looking over my grandparents' life histories and records. It's fun to see where my roots come from and the stories. It's interesting to see some of the same attitudes and traits in my own kids. So whether anyone ever reads this or not. . . it's really for posterity so here is this months' highlight.

 Brothers on a bean bag during an ice-day that never was.

 Lily's classmates on Valentines' Day

 Lily playing a game at the V day party

 Gavin and Mom on annual V day date. This year we doubled with Jhonny and Lily to the Rollerskating rink. Apparently that was the popular choice among all our children. Jessica and Jhonny enjoyed their evening out to ASA on Friday and then the rest of us came out on Saturday while Jessica babysat Ammon.

 Who says inline skates are easier? We switched over to old school after I realized I couldn't even stand up for long, much less help a beginning skater figure it out. Maybe when we are more experienced we can opt into that.

 These roller/walkers are a life saver! I was able to avoid being the human walker and my kids got independence with these fancy do-dads!

 I should mention that about 30 minutes into our skating I went to make sure our shoes were okay. They weren't. Someone took off with Lily's boots that Jessica gave her for Christmas. Boo. We looked everywhere. Gavin's shoes were moved, but we found them. Lily went home in her socks. I even tried to replace them, but alas when I returned to the store they no longer existed in her size. Darn!
After skating, we went to McDonald's for dinner. That's when Gavin kept complaining he was cold. It was a little chilly, but not freezing as he claimed and he was wearing a jacket. I checked his forehead and sure enough, my baby had a fever. When we got home he was 103. Jhonny and I took turns staying home all week with him. Even with oils coming to our aid, it took a week to get him healthy again. Then another week to get Jhonny and I over it too. This weekend - ALL SHEETS in the WASH and everything sprayed down with Onguard!! I'm done with whatever that was. . . I might mention Lily started in at the end of January with the same thing. She was also out a week. Jessica caught it on and off. Marcano's are done being sick.

 Lily entered the PTA art contest this year with a piece she made in creative gators. She had to write a paragraph about how this piece represented the theme Believe, inspire, dream. The picture was of her and me in a garden. She wrote that I inspire her to do good because I always help people as a counselor. So even though I have a standing obligation every Tuesday evening and this recognition event was the same night and I had missed it the week before because of work, I couldn't NOT go. She was recognized for the category above honorable mention. They had her walk across the stage in front of LOTS of people and shake hands with some important district people and get this certificate and ribbon. One of the girls in her class was also recognized. They are both in Jhonny's class. Thus the picture with him. She was pretty excited to be so recognized. After this she asked to go on a date with dad to an art class. Our old bishop has an art school where they were holding such an event. Lily and Jhonny attended and had a good time.

So not photographed here are Jessica's accomplishments this month. Somehow they missed the camera's view. She went on a daddy daughter date with her father. She was invited to attend a YW New Beginning meeting where we found out what she can expect once she turns 12 this summer. Girl's camp!! And she will get to go to the temple and be baptized for Jhonny's grandmother who passed away in 2011. She's pretty excited about that. Her choir went to UIL competition where she was chosen to sing a solo that started the last song. I was very proud of her performance. Her 6th grade choir earned ALL Division I's from all three Judges. They were pretty excited. Then her innovation station program wrapped up with a booth at the imagine event in Round Rock last Friday. She has been working on a light up belt buckle since last fall that was there for display. We didn't think it would make it because the 3D printer she was using kept messing her pieces up and she wasn't able to complete it exactly. But the guy who was helping her with the project put all of them together for her and it was there. They told me how she had done all the soldering of the wires herself and how she was really good at it. I was impressed. She also programmed the lights and had to put the wires together to make it work. It was kind of awesome to think a 6th grader could do all that and understand the technology behind it. The program director and library director were there and very complimentary of Jessica and her participation in the program. Maybe we'll get a photo of her buckle on here soon.She has it at home now.One sad note about the ending of the program - she has to give back her chrome book that was out on loan to her for the past 4 months. She is having withdrawals and it's not pretty. Poor baby. Now that she has earned her money for girls' camp and Schlitterbaun, she wants to save up to buy her own chrome book. Sounds like a plan to me.