The Royal Family in 2008

Back Into The Groove

School started back the day after Labor Day and two weeks later we're back into the swing of things.


The Queen has just 3 kids in her Pre-K class. All boys. Two of them are from our ward and the other one is our Padgett cousins. She can take three more kids, but I think she wouldn't mind if she didn't get any more. Also, she was released last week from her calling in the Relief Society presidency and called to be the Den Leader for the Cub Scouts ... I think she's really excited to be involved in the scouting program.


The Princess is in the 6th grade this year and is attending a charter school downtown. Somehow the paper work for her to ride the bus got messed up, so I have been taking and picking her up from school and will probably have to continue to do so for another week or so. I enjoy taking and picking her up ... I usually drive her crazy with my choice of music on the way to school and then I drive her crazy asking her questions about how her day was at school. She seems to really like the school, which is great because she was determined to not like it when she found out last May that she was going there.


Prince 1 is back at the school in the dale. He's a big bad 4th grader this year. We were happy that he got Dr. Smart, the homeroom teacher that we requested. We really like her as the Princess also had her for homeroom in the 4th grade. He now changes rooms for each of his subjects. He's trying to get used to it and the extra homework he has.

Prince 2 is a big bad kindergartner. He has a great teacher and she has high expectations of her students. He's not used to having to do homework, so he's been a bit of a whiny hiney when it comes to getting it done. He is doing good work in class and the teacher said that he has been able to go around and help some of the other kids with their work.


Last Saturday the Princess and P1 started back with the youth orchestra program. P1 is playing in the 2nd violin section of the Debut program. The Princess is 1st chair in the first violin section in the Lyric Strings 1 and in the first violin section of the Lyric Strings 2 ... I am probably the only one glad about where the Princess is sitting, and only because it's proof that she's getting something out of the lessons we're paying for. They are still taking their piano lessons and are getting pretty good at the piano, too.


I'm working a lot more from home these days and that is really helping with the auto fuel section of our budget. I was finally released from my calling as Gospel Doctrine teacher last week. I had accepted a calling to be the 1st counselor in the Elders Quorum presidency last month and have been doing double duty.

Fill in the Blank Part 2

Last Thursday P2's Pre-K class invited their Dad's to come in and make doughnuts and eat them. The were the Pillsbury biscuits and we made a hole in them and then the teacher fried them in grease and then we put them in a baggy filled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. They were pretty good and we had fun making them. For the special occasion the kids made place mats. On one side was a picture P2 had drawn of me and on the other side was a fill-in-the-blank letter to me like the one he had done for the Queen for Mothers Day. He was a little off on the age again, but according to him I'm younger than the Queen! And, I think his portrait of me is pretty good, so as my old friend Bucky would say, ENJOY!!!!

Class of 2021!

This is the youngest Prince with his teacher and they are showing off his certificate of completion of the Pre-K program at the school in the dale. We went to see him perform in his end of the year program this past evening. He did a great job of singing and performing.

For those of you who know the Prince, you will find what his teacher told the Queen after the program very interesting. She said that if she had a class full of kids like the Prince that it would be a boring class ... WHAT?! ... She explained that it's not that he's boring it's just that he is so well behaved, that he never gave her any trouble, whatever she asked him to do, he did ... WHAT?!!!!! ... I would like to live in that peaceful world for one minute! He sure keeps us on our toe here at home, so I do have to say that I am proud of him, and I guess I'm grateful that he saved all of his button pushing for home.

The Queen said that he came home from school today with as sticker on his shirt that read "Class of 2021." Talk about a mind blower! I'll be 57 when he graduates which means I will be marking the the 40th year of my graduation from High School ... Wow!

Here are some pictures from our evening.

It's a Small World!

This little girl has been "in love" with the Prince all year long ... Hopefully we wont have to worry about them getting hitched until 2025.

Here he is with the Teachers assistant. She was very nice and the Prince really liked her.

And, with the Principal.

Way to go Buddy! I love you!

Fill in the Blank

The youngest prince's filled in the blanks on this page from a book his Pre-K class made for their mothers. The Queen wasn't too discouraged by the third answer when she saw that another student had answered 93 for her mother!

"I'm tired!"

Last night It was getting late and I had to pry the youngest prince from the computer. He was not happy about not being able to finish his game on PBSkids.org (he says it just like that) and he wasn't happy that he had to get a bath. After much drama, he finally gets in the tub and then yells at me (we are the LOUD family), "I'm tired!" I say to him, "Well it's late and that's why we need to get you bathed so you can go to bed and get some sleep." He looks slowly up at me and says , "I'm not tired, I'm tired of you!" I couldn't help but bust out laughing which just made him more mad. He is now tired of me! Oh well, I think thats better than beign fired. About a year and a half ago he started telling me and the Queen "Your Fired!" when he wasn't getting his way with us. Then he progressed to telling us in those situations "You're off the planet!" Oooh, so far away! Then he started keeping it local by telling us "You're out of the family!" I wonder if I'm wearing him down, because "I'm tired of you" seems a little lame. I doubt it ... it's not in his make up. It won't be long before he cracks us up with another funny statement born out of his strong-willed nature!