Funny Brielle

Sitting in church and the sacrament prayer was just offered—at the end — AMEN and the congregation can also say “amen”

Brielle is sitting next to me started giggling and I asked her “hey, what’s going on?”

She said at the end of the prayer she said “I know”

Also fitting at the end of the prayer.

Happy birthday girl double digits

OH boy! My birthday girl is 10!!

We had a family party and then invited friends to join us at the swimming pool. The brothers picked out some sweet treats for gifts-- which is perfect because Brielle is a sugar-momma!

A traditional birthday card from Gma Gpa Platt with $5 inside. I wonder what Brielle will get?? more candy of course!!

Trying to the these boys to smile nicely for their sister was like pulling teeth, they couldn't look normal for one, so we had to keep trying... which made them look even worse and then I had to try again. GAHHH....

Okay... this one looks "okay".... but you can see the frustration on Cael's face. He was ready to be done.

The Carr girls came over after swimming for brownies and ice cream. An easy treat to have all ready and prepared when we got home from swimming. 

Birthday girl 9 Years old

We had such a good time celebrating this sweet spunky and sassy little lady. She requested crepes for dinner filled with cream and Nutella and powdered sugar on top, her favorite!

We have also had a tradition of getting pink frosting donuts for Brielle‘s birthday at least for the first couple of years of her life when there is a Dunkin’ Donuts nearby. This year We were able to run over to Jason‘s donuts hoping to grab enough to make her a donut stack and were able to snag the last three pink ones. That place sells out their donuts quick! She wasn’t too happy about the green pistachio ones, but at least they looked fun and tasted good too!

Ben and the boys really spoiled Brielle with the gifts she got this year and the amount of stuffed animals is suffocating to me but she loves them so much!

Wednesday is our ice-skating day and so is it’s always fun to be there with friends and have the whole skating rink to ourselves because nobody else comes for an hour and a half of skating....  but we are there and so are our friend. We are so lucky to have good friends that live close by — I’m so thankful-Brielle and Gwen have each other and are best friends!

 

Back to School 2020/2021

I didn’t do a good job of taking the first day of school pictures, we didn’t really have an official first day of to start- but I would say it was after  Labor Day we “started” school... and since then we’ve been doing more and more each day and the kids are pretty good about getting all of their work completed. Some days are better than others, but I’m okay with what we do and the ability and freedom of our time and how we do things together- lots and lots of learning time together.

So here is my attempt at taking pictures of the kids at the start of the school year late Sept/Oct 2020

#FirstDayofSchoolPictures

Handsome Connor 5th grade

Beautiful Brielle 3rd grade

Can do it Cannon Kindergarten 

Muscle man Cael 11th grade

GQ Lookin’ Brecon 7th

 

Brielle's Birthday

IT'S GREAT TO BE 8... except when you can't have a birthday party with friends because of the social distancing measures and COVID-19 and it's one of the biggest birthdays of your life and you are excited but it's still a bummer...

ummm...... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Even though all of that seems like it was a bit of a bummer, we tried to made it fun. Ben came home early from work and sent me to grab some *goodies from wal-mart (*essentials). The birthday banner, streamers, and balloons, and 2 exploding confetti cannons. A huge mess, but a way to add to the party atmosphere. Ben helped make the Funfetti birthday cake per Brielle's request.

Brielle says: What I like about my birthday is that grandma and grandpa Hoopes were there (on facetime) and I got my favorite kind of cereal- (Cap'n Crunch Berries.)

We had curry for dinner and watched the new Dr. Dolittle. It was a fun family party at home edition.

First day of school 2019

It’s always a little tricky moving and making sure everyone is ready for their first day of school. This year felt a little more difficult moving out of the hotel and into the Hulls house (a missionary couple that has their house available for people who need it while they are away)— driving the kids to school and then picking them up at the end of the day. We did this for about a week before we would move into our empty house on the base, where we will have a bus to complete that task for the elementary kids.

Cael- 10th grade at Lathrop High School

Brecon- 6th grade at Ladd Elementary

Connor- 4th grade

Brielle- 2nd grade

End of school 2019

Brecons 5th Grade graduation- A fun program put on by the teachers and staff for the graduates-- even though Brecon will be back in elementary school when we move to Alaska! They had a few speakers, a hula group performance, and Brecon (with a few other students) played their ukulele for the school song. When they finished the song, Brecon had the biggest smile on his face, looked at our neighbor Sam Wiggins and then put his arm around him in a cool side hug "way to go- bro" way!
At the end of the program, the entire 5th grade danced to "Best Day of my Life" with motions, jumping and clapping! They looked like they were having fun, and it was so fun to watch them all. I thought Brecon looked the best- but I'm his mom so of course I would think that! I know that Brecon's teacher Mrs. Doster was a big influence for learning for him. I'm glad that I was able to reach out and help chaperone field trips for her class-- even if I was late sometimes-- oops! They were a pretty great group of kids!

WHAT A GOOD LOOKIN' KID-WAY TO GO BRECON!

Brielle's 1st grade teacher Ms. Kinsey pose for the end of school picture. The class party refreshments were heavy on sugar and carbs-- which is okay once and a while. I'm happy to say that Brielle did NOT finish her plate... I mean... that is just too much! Brielle thought her teacher was nice (and she was not married) which was something she would always tell me "Ms. Kinsey is not married." When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Brielle would say "I want to be a teacher like Ms. Kinsey. I don't want to be married and I want a dog."

Connor and his teacher Mrs. Distefano. A kind and loving lady who had class projects for the English, Science, and social studies. Connor had to research an influential person, memorize the story and recite it back for a living history museum. He chose Walt Disney and it was interesting to learn more about this innovator and his creative imagination. "If you can dream it, then you can do it" --Walt Disney

CAEL FINISHED HIS FRESHMAN YEAR AT LEILEHUA

What a busy year for this kid. Out the door at 6:05 for early morning seminary, school all day, and then an extracurricular sport for every season, usually getting home around 7:30 at night. Cross Country, soccer, and then Judo. It was sometimes a crazy schedule trying to get him everywhere he needed to be, but we also were glad that he was involved with his school and still had a 4.0 GPA. Way to go CAEL!

LAIE TEMPLE TRIP
What a good looking group of youth doing the good work at the temple. I'm always glad to send them off to this activity, and Brother Asato makes sure that everyone gets a full tummy when they are all finished. Loco Moco or hot cakes... he is a good man to provide the food for these hungry teenagers on an early Saturday morning.

CUB SCOUTS RAINGUTTER REGATTA- Connor
Even though we had weeks to prepare a boat for the cub scout race- with everything going on and getting ready to move, this task had become last on the totem pole. About 30 minutes before we are supposed to leave for this activity, I yell "YOUR BOAT!" and we got to work on it right away. A quick spray paint job and hot glue gun for the sail really did the trick for our quick put together job- and surprisingly Connor won each of his races to get the 1st place ribbon. What a funny night!

Bro and Sis Rigby (and Leia) are stalwart cub leaders. They were always there to help their boys and I know that Connor sure loved having a cute baby in class ("she's so cute, mom")

APRIL- EASTER, Spring Break, Brielle birthday, and short cuts PART 1

Our April was pretty busy with lots of the activities, visitors, and celebrating!

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS SPRING FESTIVAL
Usually a couple times a year, there is a huge party here on post at Weyland field. There are food vendors, carnival rides, and inflatable bouncy houses. We like to take the kids right when they first open in order to get some free "stuff" (sunscreen, fans, pens... more junk) and also to take our free picture with whatever seasonal character they have. It is one of my favorite things... and it is just funny to see how the picture turns out with my crazy crew. We let the kids pick one "ride" and this time they chose the battle balls/orbs. I think they all had a great time running and crashing into each other.

EASTER
I had to make sure we put together baskets this year because Necha & Josh and Maggie and Tessa were here! I think the morning was fun, but I will NEVER buy flarp or any substance that resembles a gooey mess. Also the indoor "sand".... uh... no!  So on the bright side, there was a plethora of candy and sugar-induced hyperactivity from the children while we watched (or tried to listen to) General Conference- now that was really wonderful this year!

STORY TIME with CANNON
We love going to hear stories from Miss Terry at the local library. She reads a few stories and then plays some songs with actions and the little toddlers and kiddos try to follow along. I think Cannon is the cutest kid there- very attentive and does well at following instructions!

BRIELLE BIRTHDAY
For a few years now, we have had cousins or Grandparents around for Brielle's birthday which is pretty lucky for her! Last year we went to the dole plantation and got the BIG treat with 3 tall spirals of dole whip with cherry, chocolate, and butterscotch sauce all on top of a 1/2 of a pineapple. It's expensive, but big enough for the group to share so we splurge a little! So of course that has been what Brielle has talked about all year and we had to go again this year. We walk around and look at the different varieties of pineapples, take a few fun pictures, and then we leave. It is a tourist destination after all, so we don't like to spend too much money there ;)

PCC FIELD TRIP
Brielle's Kindergarten class was able to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center and I went along as a chaperone. This is really one of the best field trips learning about the different island cultures and watching the presentations. Brielle is fun to watch in the group. She is excited and smiling, happy to be where she is. I'm so glad to have my parents here so that I can go and be part of the adventures with my kids while they are in school.