Sports

Yes, we did it again!  With five kids came three sports and six different teams this year.  Cameron and I juggled most Saturdays watching soccer, football and/or basketball games.  Cameron was also the assistant coach with our neighbor/friend, Nathan Black for Trevor's team.

  

*Fall 2010 - soccer - games every Saturday and weekday practices (La, T, R & K).

*Fall 2010 - football - games every Saturday and lots of weekday practices (Jarin).

*Winter 2011 - basketball - Monday and Saturday games and weekday practices (Jarin).  

*Spring 2011 - soccer - games every Saturday and weekday practices (La, T, R & K).

Add piano lessons for all five, Young Women's and Young Men's, Cub Scouts, school, church, chores and everyday stuff.  It's a little nuts sometimes. 

Kerri - left / Rebekah - right

Jarin is kinda funny.  He did not want to wear the black soccer shorts that came with the uniform because it was too short.  In fact, no one wore the short shorts at this age.  Jarin's only pair was a blue pair that he complained about wearing the first two games.  When I finally got around to purchasing him some black sport shorts, his blue shorts had become famous or Jarin had become famous.  He along with his buddy were the star players and everyone knew Jarin by his blue shorts.  He wore them for every game and scored the majority of the goals.  GO BLUE SHORTS!

Æbleskivers

The Jensen name comes from Denmark along with family stories and a yummy breakfast recipe.  Cameron grew up eating aebleskivers passed on down through the generations.  Aebleskivers, meaning apple slices, are Danish traditional pancakes.  We celebrate our Jensen name by making aebleskivers for breakfast on General Conference Sundays.

Æbleskiver

              2 egg whites

            2 cups all-purpose flour

            2 teaspoons baking powder

            1 tablespoon white sugar

            1/2 teaspoon baking soda

            1/2 teaspoon salt

            2 egg yolks

            4 tablespoons butter, melted

            2 cups buttermilk

            Bowl of small cut apple slices to insert in the middle

            1 cup vegetable oil for frying

-In a clean glass or metal bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they can hold a stiff peak.  Set aside.  

-Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, egg yolks, melted butter and buttermilk at one time and beat until smooth.  
-Gently fold in the egg whites last. 

-Put about ¼ teaspoon of vegetable oil in the bottom of each aebleskiver pan cup and heat until hot.
-Pour in about 2 tablespoons of the batter into each cup.
-Insert a small slice of apple in the middle. 
-As soon as they get bubbly around the edge, turn them quickly with a wooden skewer and continue cooking.  

-Dust with powder sugar.

Wax Museum

The 3rd graders in our school display a wax museum each year.  Each 3rd grader gets to choose a hero, research the hero, make a poster about the hero and dress like their hero to present an oral presentation to their classmates.  Then they set up an exhibit for the public to view them in a wax museum.  It's pretty cool!

Trevor chose Ole Kirk Christiansen of course.  His contribution to society was to have the imagination to build through LEGOS.  Trevor loves to build.  His teacher told Cameron at teacher-parent conference that she believes Trevor will grow up to be a mechanical engineer.  Imagine that!

Ole trying out different wax positions.

Ole creating while everyone else is frozen in place.

Figures!

Hey!  Where did Ole go?

Oh, Ole's back.

Ole frozen in his wax form.

Check out Ole's hair-do.  

He took great pains to gather hair supplies to take to school to achieve this look during his afternoon recess.   Way to go Ole!

This is the Parthenon as it stands in Athens today.  This once magnificent structure was built from 447 to 432 BCE during the Classical period in ancient Athens.

This is the Parthenon as it stands in the Jensen home today.  This magnificent structure was built in three days during the classical period of April by Makayla and Trevor for a Jr. High homework assignment.

Trevor's pinball machine - it really works!

Piano Recital

Our annual piano recital has come and gone.  All five Jensenites take and play the piano well.  The three older take from 'Sister Anne' and the twins take lessons from "Sister Becky'.  I love recitals.  Even though I have heard their pieces a million times, I love to hear them play their music in front of people at their finest.  Jarin discovered that he played his entire music piece an octave higher - hee hee.

Makayla

Waterfall

Jarin

In Dreams from "The Lord of the Rings"

Trevor

La Cucaracha

Washington Post March

9th Grade Dance

I clearly remember my 9th grade dance and the dress that my mom made just for the occasion.   Makayla had decided to not go to her 9th grade dance until her friends finally talked her into it.  Good friends are good to have.  Since I don't have the patience to sew and my skills are beyond rusty,  I took her and two friends dress shopping.  Yeah!  The outcome was a BIG smile and a cute semi-formal dress.  She received a cute french tip blue glitter manicure by moi', spent an hour accessorizing her dress with my jewelry box and another hour doing her hair which her friend finally put up in a cute formal bun.

Tah-dah!

Allison and Makayla

So beautiful!

The Best FHE Game Ever!

The Family:  A Proclamation to the World

Successful families are established and maintained on ..... wholesome recreational activities.

The Sock Game

How to play:  

Put on ankle length socks and get in a circle on your hands and knees.  When Mom says 'Go!' try to pull  socks off while protecting your own socks from being pulled off.  The person with the last sock on wins!

Rules:  

Do not kick the person grabbing your sock.

Stay on the carpet.

Be as loud as you can!

Beware of rug burns!  

Ouch!

Oreo Doggie

We love Oreo.  She brings such joy to our crazy family.  Despite being banned from family prayer for a time (everyone watched her instead of closing their eyes), she is a peace maker.  She performs fun tricks and loves a good tummy rub.  The kids adore her and we wouldn't be a complete family without her.  

Oreo LOVES LOVES LOVES the sound of the piano.  She spends hours just lying under the piano listening to the kids play.  No matter where she is, inside or outside, once she hears the first notes of a song, she runs to the piano for some music appreciation.

Procrasti-Jarin

We have all been there.  As a kid I remember staying up way late with my dad finishing up a big school project or math assignment.  Thank you Lico!   Now it's my turn.

How do you spell procrastination?

P:  Play a little more.
R:  Read a book not related to your research subject.
O:  Obviously forget.
C:  Call a friend to hang out with.
R:  Run outside with friends.
A:  Avoid school work after school
S:  Stay up late the night before to get it done.
T:  Think about it later.
I:   Insist that you have it all worked out.
N:  Navigate towards the TV
A:  Ask for help at the last minute.
T:  Tell mom that you won't put it off this late again.
I:   Invent an excuse to do it later.
O:  Opps!  My assignment is due tomorrow!
N:  Never-ending cycle.

Jarin is the one who gets his stuff done in a timely manner - cough cough.

1.  Egypt Project - he had to write a report and present two items to go with his project.  Report done but no visual aides.

We made this canopic jar full of healthy internal organs the morning of his due date.  The Barbie head is compliments of an early morning phone call to a neighbor.  Canopic Jars were used by the ancient Egyptian during the rituals of mummification processes.

Yucky!

Thankfully Trevor offered to build a pyramid for his second visual aide.

All done!

Jarin was grounded for 1 week.

2.  Roman Project:  write a report and make armor for a battle to happen at the Roman Feast.  Learning his lesson with the Egyptian project, Jarin told me about his armor project a week in advance and did nothing until I threatened him two days before.  We pulled off an impressive suit of armor from recycled cardboard and duct tape.

 

Details finished the morning of the Roman Feast.

Jarin got a sound warning

3.  Solar System Project:  Jarin actually thought about this project all week.  The solar system had to be unique.  Look how unique the play-dough planets turned out?   Yeah, it's wasn't going to work.  At 7:00 the night before Jarin recruited the whole family to brain storm and assist him in his dire state.

With Makayla as manager we came up with a splendid solar system made out of paper plates.

It was a good night!

Jarin got a pat on the back!

I now save all projects and posters under the guest bed for future uses, all except the organ jar. :)

Bike Fisher

The boys were complaining that their bikes needed some TLC.  They assumed that they could bring their bikes to dad and he would fix them while they hung out and played.  One great thing about dad (there are so many) is that he won't fix anything without an apprentice, young or old.  He believes in the old Chinese Proverb:  Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.   Today he taught the boys bike maintenance.  I, on the other hand, rode my bike to him and skipped away to make dinner, do laundry, take a nap and/or read a good book.  We wives/mothers have special privileges that include starving when the fisherman is gone.

Oh, oh.  Three Jensen heads together!  

The possiblities!

Jazz Band

Do you know what is amazing about my lovely daughter?  She can do anything!  She and I are a lot alike.  We have the same demeanor, the same looks (she's cuter - thank goodness) and the same strength.  Even so, she has more courage in her youth than I have ever had.  She is not afraid to try and fail and succeed.  Her friends persuaded her to go out on a limb and try-out for the jazz band pianist her freshman year in Jr. high.  She auditioned even though her friends are in high school.  Makayla took a chance by herself and didn't look back.  Jazz band took her skills to a whole different level.  Thank you friends!  

Reality vs/ Fantasy

 My kids think one of two things...
1.  Dobby the Elf is real and lives in our home.
2.  Dobby the Elf secretly serves the Jensen home.

We have proof.... before and after shots.  Note the slobbery mouth guard - gross!

I don't have the heart to tell them that Hogwarts is just a fantasy.

I really want a cleaning elf wand!