Diversity Day

Braxton writing down answers to questions about Mexico.

Parker thought Diversity Day deserved a thumbs up!

One class did Egypt and had these set up for picture taking opportunities.

I didn't think about it at the time, but this one was the Egyptian woman and all three of them stuck their heads in this one instead of trying out the Egyptian man. Hee, hee.

Braxton in his South African hat he designed.

Saturday was Diversity Day at Braxton's school. Each class chooses a country to transform their classroom into. They serve authentic food and try to wear something they would wear in that country as well. The students have their "Passports" with three questions for each country which they find the answer to in the classrooms, write it down and then receive a stamp on their passport. It's always a fun and interesting day at the school though Braxton never makes it to every country. This is our third year of doing it and nothing has changed. He gets bored after about five. However, when he was in kindergarten it was more of a painful process to try to get him to find the answers and write them down when he could barely read or write!

Father/Son Overnighter

Bryan took the boys on the Father/Son Overnighter out at the Valk Ranch. It was Parker's first time! They set up their tent, explored, fished in the pond (or attempted to, but never caught anything) and then ended the evening with a fireside. They built a huge bonfire and gathered around. One of the guy's from our ward had his dad come dressed as a "wild man" and talked to them about the early pioneers and the priesthood (or something like that. I wasn't there and Bryan's not the best about remembering details.) Anyhow he had a gun and fired it off which scared the heck out of Parker. He's very sensitive to noise so then he was kind of clingy for the rest of the meeting. Once the fireside was over, Bryan tucked them in and they all went to bed. So Parker was already scared when he went to bed. In the middle of the night, Bryan woke up and reached over to Parker to see if he was still covered and doing well. He was covered all right. He had the sleeping bag pulled up over his head and he said, "Hi Daddy," surprising the heck out of Bryan. He pulled him over to his sleeping bag and he could feel he was slightly damp. Parker had been awake for hours, huddled up in his sleeping bag, so scared he was sweating. I think all the strange frog and cricket noises were freaking him out. Bryan felt so bad. He held him tight, but Parker still didn't even settle down and fall asleep for a while. I felt terrible when he relayed that story to me. He's so sensitive to noise! Poor boy!