Winkin Blinkin and Nod

This year for Thanksgiving we went to the Menlove Family Gathering in Boise. We had a wonderful feast, played lots of games and joined in the Annual Menlove Poetry Fest. Everyone, young and old shared a poem. I LOVE this tradition and plan to make it a Neyman Fest next year! It was a memorable Thanksgiving. We loved meeting the extended Menlove Family!

This poem is Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod. We had to get it on film as it is often the poem Geoff recites to the kids when he puts them to bed at night.

Sweet Community Park

This is what Sweet Idaho is all about... This little park was a nice "resting place" where you could come and fill up your jug with the famous SWEET WATER that pours from the historic water trough, and picnic or enjoy the shady trees.

Well, Tamara Walker, one of the residents, adopted this park and is working with the community to make it a BIGGER, BETTER and even more beautiful, a place where the kids can play, and where families & friends can gather. Tamara and many have put in hours upon hours of labor.

It's been a major renovation project. I drive by all the time, and something is always being done. Several Saturdays ago was one of many community work days where Justin, Max, noah and I worked for several hours moving branches that had been cut, and in the picture above, Geoff is doing tractor stuff.

No one is paid for their efforts, and SO MANY volunteer much of their time. I love that it's a community volunteer project and not a paid city project. It is a great way to get to know the community and to work together to make Sweet a great place to live.

The Entertainer

Konishiwa!

This last couple of weeks we've studied a bit about Japan. The conclusion (for now) of our studies was a visit to Kako Graviet's home. I met Kako during swim season--our kids had lessons together, and we quickly became friends. She is GREAT!!!!

Eya, Kako, Emi

Kako took some time to show us pictures and tell us a little about her home town (just outside Tokeyo). After reading books about Japan, it was very interesting to see and hear all that she shared. Here are some of what she shared with us...

Japanese money- YEN

Her daughter, Eya in traditional clothing--Kimono
BEAUTIFUL
and a picture of her older daughter while in Japan

A popular game they play during summer festival--kind of like badminton

The boys names written in Chinese

A little Origami

and making Origami Samari Warrior hats

Japanese lantern and Fan Justin made earlier in week

and then a great lunch of American Pizza!

What a GREAT DAY!

Character Cups

For FHE, we made "Character Cups." We talked about Character and how (like these cups) it takes time and great care to create and maintain a good Character. Next week is part 2 of the lesson... "How quickly a character can be flawed." (not so sure I want to give this part of the lesson!--I'm attached to the cups)

Aren't they cute?!!!!

The idea for the lesson came from
Elder Scott's talk on Faith in this last General Conference.

Wester's Pig Lungs

Gail and Barry Wester are in our ward (I VT Gail--she's really neat). She teaches classes at the public schools about smoking. She mentioned that she had pig lungs as an example of what smoking does to your lungs, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show the boys...

Totally enthralled!

A Healthy lung

A cancerous lung

Gail had it hooked to an air machine so you could pump air into the lungs and see how well they responded. The cancerous lung hardly inflated at all... it was a very cool demonstration.

Love learning!

The King of true recyling

This is one of Geoff's current projects on the Farm. They are building a BIG cooler (the closed off portion of building to the right) and a Bio-fuel operating center to the left.
The very cool thing about this building is that is it almost completely built from recycled materials. Last year, Geoff disassembled this garage from a client he was designing a home for...they wanted a new garage so they took it down and stored the parts until now. They re-assembled the garage and added the cooler from an old greenhouse they had been using on a different part of the farm.
The boys loved helping Geoff with some of it. Max collected MANY nails inside while Geoff and Justin put shingles on the roof.

So many fun things to do!!!

This is Geoff's winter crop...lettuce, radishes and other stuff.

Pack Meeting Fun

Tonight the boys put on a play for Michael Walker who earned his arrow of light. It was Justin's first public performance and he did great! They have so much fun!

Art with Kylee

Every Thursday, we have art class with Kylee Rex (a girl in our ward who also loves art). They are working on a huge mural right now that has 24 pieces they will put together when they have finished painting them all. They love the project (as does Max!)

They've also been asked to paint a mural on the elementary school wall which they are making paint plans and sketches for right now. So much fun!

Our Rental in Sweet and Moondancer

Our House

Garage

Covering for Hay and wood.

What's that out there in the field...a horse?
Meet MOONDANCER...we are keeping her for Shively's who are temporarily out of a location to keep her. She's got a fun personality. As soon as we turn our lights on in the morning, she neighs. We've enjoyed having her here on our property, and Geoff hopes to get more practice training and working with horses.

Our drive out to the road.

Heating our home with wood this year...
SO LABOR INTENSIVE!!--Geoff (and boys) have worked so hard!

What are the boys doing now?

We've always had a rule that the boys must stay on the grass and not go down the VERY STEEP cliff...until now. Justin and Max have been working for HOURS to make a carving in the side of the cliff. I can't wait to see what it is. I sure hope no one loses their balance!!!

Wood Chopping

The BIG POOP Party

When Max was potty training a year ago, I was able to get him to go poop by telling him how much fun his poop would have going down the big toilet slide into a big pool where all the poop and pee had a big poop party. He LOVED that he was contributing to the party!

So here we are... ONE year later, on a field trip that delighted Max to no end...the Big poop party, or aka, the Boise Watershed.

The event opened with a big open house type display of a whole bunch of activities and features for the kids to explore...
Here, the boys have to keep the watershed running by altering water pressure, releasing tanks, etc...pretty intense, but Justin loved this!

The can Monster...Max's favorite!

Tree made out of pipes...very cool.
And a LOT more exhibits not pictured. (bad bad blogger me)

A Class about water and conservation...so fun and engaging for the kids.
Then the much a waited POOP PARTY TOUR....
Hard Hats and headphones for everyone.

Max's favorite part of the tour was the first tank of all the waste collected in a big container. Don't ask me why... it REALLY was STINKY!!!

The rest of the tour was bearable and even very interesting. The waste goes through many cleaning stations that have cat walks over them so you can see what is happening in each one.


And here is a picture on the watered down poop. (They add no water to this...it's all pee.)

A great day of learning.