Mother’s Day was a great day! Several moms and daughters sang a musical selection with the primary children that was very sweet. Jessie had used her creative talents to make me several hand-made gifts. The kids helped Aaron make a restaurant worthy steak dinner along with fresh asparagus, sautéed mushrooms, corn-on-the-cob, fruit and strawberry shortcake per my request. He even through in some ribs for good measure. He did a mighty fine job!
Allie and did some mom-daughter shopping at the galleria Mall. We didn’t even she 1/10 of the stores but with that we were pretty successful. That afternoon we joined Jessie for her 4th grade maturation program. Jessie has had lots of questions leading up to this that I was happy to explain and reassure her that it all wasn’t ‘Yuck and Gross’ but a natural part of growing up that she would one day appreciate. The nurse did a really nice job presenting the information in a positive manner.
Aaron and I continued the last of our interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had some off transfer returns this week our two temple square sisters returned to their assignment there on Tuesday and one of our elders returning to Samoa went home on Wednesday. It adds departing interviews and running up to the airport and making sure they feel the same love as when the others leave.
Jessie had Frontier Days at school on Thursday. I would liken it to Pioneer days. They were encouraged to dress up. Their activities included a horse shoe toss, made dolls out of yarn, made corn bread, butter and trail mix, weaved coasters out of rags and made a craft that represented bluebonnets, the Texas state flower. It was a fun, memorable day for our little miss Jessie.
I spent most of Friday at the elementary for Jessie’s field day. It was full of dancing, water games, snacks and fun! I volunteered afterward to sit with the class while they ate lunch and the teachers had their lunch break. Field days are a little bit different down here in their timing. All the fun is had in the morning. Afterwards the kids changed out of their wet clothes which is a major process and then have a very late lunch and watch a movie until school is out. Plus, it was held two weeks before school is out. Different but it works. Bode had his 8th grade graduation party at Main Event. It is a place like Toad’s. Their ticket was a shirt that we had to purchase. The theme was “Here’s to sweet beginnings!” with an image of wrapped candy. I was not impressed. What 8th grader is ever going to wear that shirt again? Bode and I came up with 3 ideas within 5 minutes that would have be far better but unfortunately no one asked us for ideas. Needless to say, the shirt will go to goodwill very soon.
The weather was super nice Saturday so we played in the pool. Even Izzy got in….albeit against her will. Later that evening, Aaron and I had our own Stake Conference that we attend with no assign talk but ended up sharing our testimonies when we were asked to. ;) The kids volunteered to watch the Nielsen kids so their parents could attend. Allie really wanted to play with Kai guy and the others just love the Nielsen kids so it was a win-win for all. Pretty sweet week for us here in the mission!