A birthday, a calling, and a king

Tuesday the 13th was Darik's 5th birthday. Monday night we had the Mallonee family over and had presents and cake. Tuesday I took him to McDonald's for a Happy Meal, a big deal at our house. I'm way too cheap for Happy Meals so he really enjoyed it. Wednesday he got to bring the treat for pre-school so he picked cookies and pudding. I was the helper that day and we had a field trip to Yoke's grocery store. At the bakery they showed the children how to decorate a cupcake. Since it was his "birthday" they gave him the cupcake. They sang Happy Birthday at pre-school at snack time.















We had planned an informal party for Friday afternoon. All of his friends from church were invited over for "playgroup" with cake. Unfortunately, Caleb threw up all night long Thursday night. I called my friend Shawna Friday morning and she graciously agreed to host the birthday party at her place. So he got a party there also, but I couldn't attend. Caleb did just fine on Friday and no-one else got sick at my house. Not sure what exactly was wrong but all's well that ends well.

On Sunday the 11th our stake was reorganized. Previously it had 6 wards (geographical boundaries for attending church) and now it has 7 wards. We happen to live inside the boundaries of the new ward. This means that there is no leadership except a bishop. On Friday night the bishop stopped by and asked if I would serve as the Primary President. In my last ward I was the 1st counselor in the Primary presidency. I chose my two counselors and a secretary and on Sunday we were presented as the new ward's primary presidency. We have a lot of work getting a primary up and running. We have to fill about 20 positions and have had two meetings this week to come up with names of people who we would like to serve in primary. It's been humbling and overwhelming but the work is coming along and we should be functioning pretty well by the end of February is my hope. We now meet for church from 1-4. Not our favorite time but next year we'll get the coveted 9-12 slot.

Nathan told his Miller Grampa I would be including this picture in my blog this week. It's a lego creation he did.



This Tuesday was Nathan's ABEL class presentation. They had a renaisance fair. Each child researched a person from the renaisance and presented their report as that person. Nathan selected King Henry VIII. I've been sewing a costume for him for the last several weeks. Here is Nathan's spiel. The format for this presentation is very informal. Every child set up their booth and the parents walked around to the different booths where the person presented their information. Organized chaos is a very good description of the night. So his spiel is a little noisy but that was not rudeness, just the way it was. He looked great and did a great job.





Sarah has started choosing to walk instead of crawl. I've included some little videos to see how she's choosing to and enjoys walking about 50% of the time. She's also learned to clap. Enjoy!