Will, Leslie, McKenna, Calvin & Sophia

Sunday, April 5, 2009

5 posts in one night....whew

Yes I'm behind so I just did 5 posts tonight 6 if you count this one! :o)

JA BIZTOWN Fieldtrip...CEO of Wells Fargo Bank

JA BIZTOWN the coolest city in America with the youngest corporate tycoons on every channel!!!
Here's one now beautiful, smart and successful CEO of Wells Fargo Bank McKenna Wright!

Located in Tempe, Arizona is a city called JA Biztown the place where all 10-12 years olds want to be at least for a day that is. You see these amazing citizens are running a city for the day which took months of preparation. Every person applied, interviewed and trained for their positions today. They also began learning how to set up a checking account, write checks, make deposits and balance their checking account as well.

Mrs. Garoutte (telling me McKenna earned her CEO job & was the best candidate)and her class of 5th graders were totally excited for this wonderful opportunity. I had volunteered to accompany McKenna on this field trip a few months before it actually took place and I had a blast although I ended up doing payroll most of the day for the entire mall and utility companies within the city. :o) Funny how that worked out huh!

Anyways McKenna really wanted to be the mayor of the city but her class didn't draw that particular part of the city duties they however got a couple of very predominant businesses though such as Papa John's Pizza and Wells Fargo Bank. One day McKenna asked me, "Mom should I apply for the CEO job or waitress?" I said trying not to laugh...."which one do you want to do most?" She said, "well I really want to be the CEO of Wells Fargo Bank but a girl in my class (I forgot her name) who is really popular told me that I'd better not apply because it was her job." I said "if you want to apply for the CEO job then you shouldn't listen to her!" Kenna said "ya you are right and I'm better at math than she is so I think I'll get the job." I of course told her "right on you go after what you want and don't let anyone try and discourage you!!!" So she worked on her resume, application and letter of intent. She then interviewed the next day with her teacher and in front of her class. A day or two later she came home so excited because she got the CEO of Wells Fargo the most important job at the bank. She told me that she was going to make $9.00 an hour which was the most any of the children were earning that day but wanted to know how much real CEO's made and when I told her in the millions she decided that she in fact wants to become a real CEO!!! :o)
It was so cute to see her in action! This town had all sorts of businesses within it....utility companies, a TV station, a Radio Station, Best Buy & printing/copy store, Diamond Backs stadium, a health clinic, UPS Store, Attorney's office, Beach Store, Papa John's pizza, US Airlines with a real looking front of an airplane, a City Hall, I'm forgetting the rest but several neat little places that looked so real. They did live interviews all day...had a radio station with DJ's taking requests and jamming out the town all day!
All day the kids had to work as if they would in real life and on their breaks they had those handy dandy check books to buy things and deposit their paychecks they got paid twice that day and was able to take a lunch break and eat as well. Several CEO's, CFO's and Payroll Officers had to work through lunch to complete their tasks. The poor boy I was helping for the majority of the time was literally sweating as he paid bills, created deposits and did payroll for several of the businesses there. He told me that he didn't want to do payroll when he grew up and I told him that neither did I!!! ha ha He earned $8.00 per hour.

McKenna said she loved every bit of it except when the customers got upset waiting in line and yelled at her. I laughed and told her to get used to it. She put me to work a couple of times for her and I think really enjoyed bossing her staff and her Mother around!!! :o) At the end of the day she got to speak at City Hall and give out awards to her staff and to the CFO's of other businesses that balanced at the end of the day with the city's local bank Wells Fargo. Her staff one of which is her one of her best friends Kaylee said McKenna was a very nice boss.

And McKenna's favorite customer CFO of Papa John's Pizza another young, handsome finance tycoon....Conner Scoresby who was earning $8.50 per hour. (notice the smile is gone because the shy & awkward kicked in) :o)
It was an awesome field trip for the kids, staff and parents! She gets to go back in 6th grade to do JA Biztown 2 where they focus on more financial things that grown ups do. We can't wait to do it again!!!

So proud of this beautiful little CEO! Never give up on your dreams and shoot for the stars sweetie you will and can do amazing things!!!

1st Grader's Spring Concert 3/24/09

Calvin and the rest of the 1st Graders performed a variety of fun Spring time songs for us Tuesday, March 24th, 2009. It was cute and the last song they all did the chicken dance along with all of the teachers & principal and MES staff. According to Calvin's teacher Mrs. Jenkins, "Calvin's got perfect pitch and rhythm! And I know pitch and I surely know rhythm coming from a lady of color". Mrs. Jenkins also told me that Calvin and her always lead the class in song and dance and that we should seriously pursue this for him.
Here's Calvin on the front row on the end or lower left side. (he has a sweat shirt tied around his wast as he thought he might be cold I guess) :o) This was the day Will broke his wrist but he still came to the lovely performance.

McKenna we're so proud!!!

Still catching up....this too happened on Friday, March 20th, 2009. McKenna was awarded with Honor Roll (she had all A's and 1 one uno B) along with Perfect Attendance.




Her classmate and secret crush oh I mean friend Conner Scoresby received Principals Award (straight A's & 2nd Place for Academic Bowl). Here he is with his Mom & my friend Jenna. So cute!
Luckily I was able to take my lunch break during her ceremony.



























We are so proud of you sweet little healthy smarty pants Kenna Benna! :o) Love you too!

Our Birthday Boy - March 20th, 2009

Obviously I'm way behind in my posts because this is from 3/20 and it is now 4/5 but I'm trying to go in date order and catch up! :o)
Our baby turned 7 on March 20th, 2009 and we can hardly believe that 7 years have gone by so quickly. What a joy Calvin has been these past 7 years! Truly he is such a good boy...almost always happy, helpful and positive. He gives some of the best prayers I've ever heard. He always lends a helping hand and is a great little missionary too always going the extra mile.


Calvin finally got his DS that he has wanted for over a year! He was so disappointed when Santa Claus didn't deliver on his pinkie swear promise to get him one for Christmas....see the helper Santa at the Ward Christmas party didn't know what a DS was or how expensive they were and that the elves didn't make them in the North Pole. Anyways he got his BLUE DS and many other wonderful things for his birthday and had more than 20 kids over to celebrate it with him. We had pizza, cup cakes, cake and ice cream. He said it was the best day of his life and I believe him! He was smiling from ear to ear the entire night and for the next several days. Totally worth it!!!

We love you so much little buddy! Happy Birthday!!

Community Garden

So when my Mom & Sister were here visiting March 14th a farmer in our stake offered the stake to use 2 acres of his farm to plant a garden. The 2 acres were divided into even plots for each family that decided to participate. The rules are....you plant the items you want to grow and you come every Saturday morning to pull the weeds and harvest your crop as it is ready. If you don't weed then he will till it up and you will not have anything to harvest. The farmer irrigates it otherwise waters for us weekly. So we went out in full force on that Saturday as a family to plant our garden...Adia & Brandy joined us while Mom stayed home with Kyah and Chloe. Brandy actually did a story on it and took some pictures for her new TV show called The Mormon Factor, so she interviewed us, the kids and the generous farmer. The farmer has a huge section for charity of which it is a coalition of Christian Churches that will weed and harvest it to donate to local food banks. What an AWESOME and GENEROUS farmer Troy Skousen is!!



Because there were a couple of extra plots and we had some extra seeds & plants Will and a buddy Ryan Clouse decided to share another plot or two and went the next Saturday at 6am to plant them. These pictures are of them the following Saturday.