2013 Review Extravaganza--Part 2

Once again I am linking up with Emmy mom for the 2013 Review Extravaganza--four posts over four weeks dedicated to reviewing my blog entries, one quarter at a time, for the entire 2013 year. I look forward to this every December, because it gives me a chance to reread all I've written about my family over the last year and remember.  Here's Part 2--April-June 2013.

April

Hyrum may have had the best birthday party in the history of six-year olds who have ever lived on this planet--a tough mudder. It was awesome and I would do it again and again and again.  Seriously so much fun.  Those ropes hung in our front yard for months because the boys loved them so much.

Evie grew up overnight when I forced her to give up her pacy, and on Friday, April 5th, I reached a huge landmark--my 1,000th blog post.

Tucker's best friend from childhood came home from his mission in England, and I began to see the light at the end of Tucker's mission tunnel.

Boston's marathon was bombed, and I wrote about it from the perspective of an amateur runner.

Ben's rugby team took state for the second year in a row, and it disappeared from my life for a few days.  I found it, but I never really defined it.

scorpions from a scorpion hunt.  Did you know they glow like that under a black light?

 And I confessed at the end of the month that I had faltered a ton on my goals to act.

May

May began with a week-long series focused on educating gifted kids in our country.

A Few of My Thoughts on Gifted Education
Academically Gifted v. Intellectually Gifted
Public Education and the Intellectually Gifted
Society and the Gifted
Learning v. Education: Where Do We Go From Here?

These five posts are among my all-time favorites.  When I reread them tonight (and despite catching a few typos that annoy me to death), I couldn't believe that I had written some of those thoughts.  This week-long series took me down a path over the course of the summer that led me straight back into the bowels of academia--working towards a master's degree in gifted education, which I began at ASU in August of this year.

I almost cut my finger off when I got it pinched between two neodymium magnets as I worked on a project--it's really quite a funny story.

And on May 15th, my oldest son returned home from serving a two-year Spanish-speaking mission in NYC.

It was the best day ever.

Ben and his friends brought the house down during their talent show when they appeared as One Direction.

June

I wrapped up each of my kids' 2012-13 school year:

Hyrum

Ben and Lily

 Micah

 

Evie made up for lost time with her biggest brother and followed him everywhere.

And then came the biggest news of the summer: Tucker and Karli got engaged and planned a wedding for September 20th. Their story: Part 1, Part 2.

With all the excitement of the engagement, I had to backtrack to cover big events for other kids.

Lily's tumbling recital and Micah's piano performance . . .

. . . and a night sleeping on the tramp was abruptly ended when the sprinklers turned on at 4 am (along with some pretty funny kid quotes.

Micah turned nine and we celebrated at Sun Splash, and I summed up six months of focusing on my New Year's Resolution to ACT.

Whew.  I think April-June may have been the most event-filled three months of my entire life.  Rereading them brought a smile to my face--especially Hyrum's belch in the chapel.  I'd forgotten that one.

Until next week . . . .