Mass Boltons

Here is what is going on in our family:

Mikaela is doing well in First Grade. Her teachers, Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. Kilkenny, love Mikaela. She has really excelled in her reading and writing and not a day goes by when she hasn't read her Mom several stories and written some of her own. She is currently collecting princess stories. Her new favorites are: Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? and Falling for Rapunzel. Auntie Kirsten and Whitney recommended the Falling for Rapunzel and Mikaela bought the book (she loved it so much), took it to school to share with her friends and school teachers, then was surprised to find it selling at the Scholastic Book Fair! She also loves outdoor recess. There are two PE teachers that have taken it upon themselves to teach gymnastics during recess. Mikaela goes to school with her hair in piggy tails or pony tails now that the weather is nice, so that she can do exercises on the outdoor balance beam. She will be turning eight this fall and she is so excited to be in Achievement Night for girls. She all ready goes most Tuesday nights because of her Mom's calling and can't wait to go because it is her turn for Activity Nights. She can be found outside after school, shooting hoops and playing tennis against the garage doors. She loves to be with people and is sad that most of her friends can't play after school.

Benjamin is turning twelve on the 25th of April. He will be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood on the 1st of May. Hopefully this will all occur in our new Stake Center/Ward Building. We are only a month behind occupying this new building. Ben has completed all his requirements to become a Tenderfoot and is almost done with the requirements for Second Class. He has earned his purple belt inKarate and loves to practice is boj forms. (This is a long stick that they do defense with.) He also loves to sparring. He and Braden can be found wearing their sparring gear and practicing their forms. Ben is currently in the sixth grade and he plays the saxophone. He doesn't like to practice the saxophone. He wants to start a lacrosse league in Milford and is currently looking to petition the town's selectmen to see if this would be possible. He is finding out the current costs of running a lacrosse league and is putting together the information for the town's selectmen.

Braden has just completed his time as a Town's Person, in the Disney version of Cinderella. He was a

little disappointed that he couldn't be the King, but the eighth grader they chose for King, has a lot of

humor and portrayed the King very well. It was a fun musical condensed from the movie version, just for

Junior High Schools. Braden has completed several merit badges. Two of which he really enjoyed doing: skiing and house painting. He helped his Scoutmaster paint his newly renovated basement and learned how to ski at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, with his Dad and troop. He loved the way that skiing felt that day, but was surprised at how sore his thighs were for the two days following the ski trip. Braden is on the honor roll in all his subjects, and he likes to test the teachers on their knowledge of random subjects. He has also earned his purple belt in Karate and can be found practicing with Ben (at Ben's insistence). Braden will be going on a field trip to Washington, D.C., in May with the eighth grade. He will be gone for a week. He is also going to be doing EFY at BYU in July. He was hoping that he would be able to stay with Siovhan, but she has decided to come home for the summer. (There are apartments that families can rent for the summer, across from where Siovhan currently lives.)

Siovhan is currently finishing finals at BYU. She has learned a lot about herself and others while she has lived away from home. She has extended her twilight savings time to include some daylight hours (those are when she must be in class). Her parents are worried that she will never be in bed during normal sleeping hours--her current sleeping schedule is like Ben's was when he was eight months old: not much

sleep at night, more sleep during the day. She has a car that she doesn't want to part with, and it will be

parked for several months at Grandma's and Grandpa's house. It is like leaving her baby with someone else for a long time. She will be coming home at the end of April and staying in Massachusetts until August. Her parents have promised that they will leave her with her siblings while they take a long weekend away from them all, and she can feel more like an adult. She says that she doesn't need that kind of test, she is perfectly happy to have them stay with the kids all summer long. We can't wait to have her home again.

Melanie is still acting as Young Women President. The current crisis is trying to get all the stuff together for the Young Women/Young Men Annual Garage Sale. We usually make around $1700 for all the youth to use in the camp programs. That is a good size amount of money to put toward camp. Our Bishop loves it, because it helps families to clean out their houses and also to support the youth. There

are currently thirty young women on the rolls in the Franklin Ward. This is the largest amount of Young

Women in the Hingham Stake. Melanie enjoys being with the Young Women. She hates having to remind them of their commitment to uphold the Standards of the Church. She loves working with her counselors. When she is not busy with family or ward responsibilities, she can be found running the hills in her neighborhood, doing yard work or spending time with some of her visiting teaching women. She loves to read and has several favorite books that she has completed this year. She reads about a book a week.

Howard has been in the country for past three months, an unusual thing for him. He is so busy with his current project, that he hasn't had time to travel. He is in the process of hiring an employee to help him with all of his work load. He and his boss have narrowed down to who they want to hire, but there are visa issues that they need to work out. His new employee will be taking some of the traveling work load from Howard, which will free him up to work from Massachusetts on some of his other projects. This saddens him, as he loves to travel and enjoys the frequent flier miles, but he realizes that a man can only do so much and be in so many places at one time. He has started the Tyco Golf League again and has enjoyed two wonderful golf games. He says that he was so happy to start that he couldn't keep his ball on the greens last week. He was overshooting the,holes. This week he was getting them to the right places on the greens, but couldn't sink the putts (usually his area of expertise). It will all work out fine—he just needs more green time. He has a wonderful new bike. He is wanting to get out on it and ride. He currently rides around fourteen miles per trip, but when Melanie was trying to help him inflate his tires, she didn't realize that they required a special pump and gage, and she deflated the tires. He had to go out and buy a new pump and tire gage. He currently has them set to the required 126 pounds psi/tire. He doesn't let Melanie help him anymore. Some wives don't know when too much help isn't a good thing.