Field Trip, Accident, and Precious Sign

 We started this week with Laurel getting hit in the eye with a tree branch.  We were going to head into urgent care, but waited it out.  It was not a scratch to the cornea and healed nicely by today.  She was pretty nervous about it but a very brave girl!

 Erika and I went on a field trip to the state capital on Monday.  It was a really fun field trip!  The volunteer tour guide did a great job of keeping the 4th graders entertained.  We saw the House and Senate chambers, the governor's ceremonial office, the rotunda, and met the senator from our district.  I was so happy that I had the opportunity to go!

Erika sitting at the ceremonial governor's desk.

Senator Kim Thatcher did a question and answer period with the students.

Erika made this sweet sign for her and Laurel's bedroom door.  Such a sweet saying!

Easter week

We had a great week this week!  Lots of new routines and changes.  April 18th was Tax Day this year so I am no longer working.  I spent the rest of the week catching up on errands and helping in the kids' classrooms.  It is a nice change for me!  And the kids love it when I'm in their school.

We had a beautiful Easter....nice and warm and not rainy which is a good change.  After church, we came home to hunt Easter eggs in the backyard, eat roast dinner, and play outside.  The kids got Rogue One for one of their presents so we ended the day watching that movie.

Laurel had a busy week!  She left school early on Monday to go to the orthodontist to get expanders in her mouth. She did great!  It was a bit of a challenge to talk that first day, but she is used to it now.  Laurel was happy to eat milkshakes, pudding, apple sauce, and yogurt for a day.

Tuesday night was Biography Night at her school.  She was assigned Dr. Suess and had to do a research project on it.  She wrote a biography on him, turned her work into a power point book project, and then dressed up and read her writing to parents and families on Tuesday night.  She did a great job!

Weekly Update

 Another busy week!  Matt finished planting the rest of the Christmas trees in the field...the last 100 trees.  Now they are all in the ground and ready to grow nice and beautiful!

I have a couple more days of work until tax day!  The hours are getting longer and the days are much busier, but I love it!  I am looking forward to Wednesday when I plan on doing nothing but catching up on some rest.  I am so very grateful for Matt and the kids and my mom helping me fill in the gaps with chores and dinner and homework help.

This was my fifth year of helping plan the Crater carnival.  The big day was this past Saturday.  It was a bit more stressful with the other items I am involved with at this time, but we had a great committee working on the carnival!  The kids had a blast playing games and eating junk food and winning prizes.  Levi played Surprise Door over and over again and got sprayed with water almost every time....but he kept coming back!

Erika had her big field trip with her fourth grade class to BizTown.  I was working on the day they went so Matt went with her as a chaperone.  They both said it was an amazing experience!!  There is a small community set up in this huge warehouse and the kids run the town.  Erika has spent the last month or so learning about banking, checking vs. savings accounts, budgeting, etc.  She got to apply for different jobs and then they 4th grade teachers looked over everyone's applications and assigned everyone a job in the town.   She was the meteorologist and Matt said she did a great job!  She was on air a few times throughout the day....they had tv screens in each little shop in the town....and she had other parts of her job she was responsible for.  She got paid for her BizTown work and was able to spend her earnings in the shop.  Such a great experience for her!

 

Our church participates in a service project called Loads of Love where we collect money for a couple weeks and then hand out quarters and laundry soap to people in our community who are doing their laundry at a local laundry mat.  While Matt, Laurel and Levi stayed home tending to the weeds/grass around the new trees, Erika and my mom and I went to the laundry mat to serve.  Erika did a great job helping!  She was a little hesitant at first about approaching strangers and asking them if they wanted some quarters, but she said she would love to do it again!  I was glad she was able to serve right alongside me and her grandma.

 Laurel got to go to a friend's birthday party at the pool and had a blast!  She spent the majority of the time playing on the water log float.  Such a sweet spunky girl!  

 Levi is quite the helper in our family.  He does whatever is asked of him, especially outside chores.  He is getting very fast and strong and runs to whatever task is assigned him.  He helped Matt twice this past week cut away grass around the tree seedlings and didn't complain about it. 

Hammar Family Update

Only two more weeks of working for me at the tax service and then I am on break until January!  I have really enjoyed my time at the office and am so blessed with this job.  I am also looking forward to having more time at home....especially in the summer with the kids.  Very thankful that God gave me this job!

The kids had a great spring break!  I felt very guilty because it was the first one I had to work, so I asked Mom and Sarah to fill in with fun!  They got to go see Beauty and the Beast with Sarah and I, have a sleepover at Sarah's, go out to lunch with Grandma, go bowling with Sarah and Grandma, and then Matt had Friday off so he took them to the zoo.  It was probably one of their best spring breaks!

Erika has a big field trip on Thursday.  The fourth graders go to BizTown....a modified town that they get to run.  She gets a bank account, a job (meteorologist), a paycheck, and has to pay taxes and get necessities at the store.  She is super excited!  Matt is going as a chaperone since I will be working and I am very thankful that his job allows him to do so much with the kids.

Laurel is working on a biography project with her class.  She was given Dr. Seuss to research.  In a few weeks, there is a showcase where she gets to dress up like him and give a report about his life.  So I need to figure out how to make a beard for her.....

Levi was playing with his sisters and the neighbors the other night and came inside with a strange bug bite.  We can't really identify it, but it doesn't seem to be affecting him.  He didn't even know it was there until Erika saw the red mark!  So far he hasn't turned into Spiderman so I think we are in the clear.

Matt has been working very hard outside getting the property ready to grow things.  We have more Christmas trees to pick up this weekend and get in the ground.  We have also been putting a vegetable garden together with a fence around it to keep out the deer.  His latest project is buying fencing to line the edge of the property that borders the highway.  He is really making our place look great!