The Allen Family: January 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Pi, Rock Candy, and Expunge

Jayden has been really busy lately. Lately he has competed in the Science Fair, the Spelling Bee, and is working on a State Report in school. The state he chose was Minnesota! That is the state I chose when I was in 5th grade also, because that's where my mom was born. I am excited he gets to learn more about where his Grandma is from. I still remember (way back when...) when I was doing my report, I sent a hand-written letter to Minnesota and they sent me a bunch of information about their state. I remember they sent me a poster that I used for my report. I am NOT going to tell my kids that because they already think I am WAY old, just because I was born in 1900-something, rather than 2000-something like them. But, it really does make me grateful for the internet! It's so amazing all the information we have at our fingertips.

Anyways...

For the science fair, Jayden decided he wanted to make some Rock Candy. His experiment was "How do different amounts of sugar affect the making of rock candy?" I figured it was best to stick with a very basic/easy topic since I have no clue what I am doing. I don't remember ever doing a science fair in school. Well, he had fun doing it and HE WON!! Out of the whole 5th grade at his school, he got 7th place and will "move on" to the district level. I am still surprised. When we were making the poster of his project, I was wishing I had taken pictures all along the way, and thinking about all the things we had done wrong. Jayden is excited to go to UVU to compete.

His display at the Science Fair

Receiving his award (sorry for the glare)

A better pic at home

These are the crystals he grew

The day after the Science Fair, Jayden competed in the spelling bee. This was his 3rd spelling bee to compete in. This was the first spelling bee that wasn't just for his grade level. There were kids from 4th-7th grade competing against each other, which really doesn't seem fair, but whatever. There were 54 kids total. Jayden was the very last one to have a turn. His first word was deaf, which he spelled correctly. His second word was basically, which he also spelled correctly. His third word was expunge, which he missed. He spelled it exponge. I had no idea how to spell it! (In fact, I just had to do a quick google spell check search because I just misspelled it!) It took 1 1/2 hours for everyone to get past round 3. By that point, Brynn had had enough and so we left. I didn't count how many people got out before him, but I would guess he was right in the middle, around #25. We are very proud of him!

Lastly, Jayden LOVES math, just like his momma! He recently informed me that he has the first 22 decimal place digits of pi memorized. You know, 3.1415... That's all I know. But Jayden know a LOT more. I am proud of my math loving nerd! (PS, in our house, the word nerd isn't a bad thing. My siblings and I grew up calling each other nerd and dork all the time. We say it lovingly )

For those of you that are dying to know, Jayden just told me pi is 3.1415926535897932384626 :)

Monday, January 6, 2014

Merry Christmas!

This years Christmas was an unusual one, and my least favorite Christmas ever... Johnathan had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we had to do things a little different. We debated doing everything early and writing a letter to Santa to see if he could possibly bring presents early, but, in the end we decided to have me load up all the presents on Christmas morning and we would go open everything at the Station. I will never do that again. Oh well. How do you know if you will hate it unless you try.

Anyways, one of our traditions is to open new pajamas on Christmas Eve and also open a new game. We just did it a day early.

Our new game was Too Many Monkeys.

It's a fun and simple game for kids.

Our little cutie pie!

These stockings were my Christmas splurge. Aren't they super cute?!

Christmas Morning!

Waiting at the top of the stairs to go see what Santa left!

All loaded up, ready to go to the station

Johnathan wasn't working at his regular station so we (the kids and I) didn't know the guys he was working with. They were all single men, so we were the only family visiting. We didn't want to bother everyone so we ended up opening presents up in the "bedroom". It looks really tacky in our pictures...

Since Brynn was starting to get cranky, she went first. Right after

she "opened" her present, she fell asleep

She got a portable toy that can attach to her car seat or stroller.

I forgot to get a picture of it...

A big fishing pole!

Ashlyn got roller skates. You can't tell

from her face, but she LOVES them.

A new BB gun

We got our first tablet! The kids didn't even act excited about it.

At. All. I was quite surprised. They love it though.

John got some new fishing pliers

Trying out the new skates

Merry Christmas!

Halloween

At our kids' school, the kids dress up for a History Fair instead of the traditional Halloween costumes. Each grade dresses up according to what they have/will learn about during the school year. Jayden's grade was the civil war theme, Ashlyn's grade was vikings theme, and Jacob's was the New World. I actually really like that they do it. I am not a huge fan of Halloween, especially all the blood and gore costumes, so this actually makes it fun for me. Usually the kids choose to do the same costume for school and trick-or-treating. Maybe with a little push from me so I don't have to make/buy two costumes for each kid.

Jayden is an indian (obviously), Jacob is a knight, and Ashlyn is a viking

And here's our cute little ladybug :)

After school, Ashlyn decided to change costumes and go trick-or-treating as Belle.

I was disappointed because I thought her viking costume I made turned out super cute

Johnathan had to work on Halloween, of course, so we went to visit him that night so he could see the kids in their costumes. I think his costume suits him well too.