May Madness 2009

This month has been busy with orchestra and choir concerts for Major.  He has also been teaching himself to play the ukulele and can play lots of songs.  We think he is so talented!

The kids got to show me their classrooms and some of their work at Arts and Academic Night.  Major got 2nd place for his poem about Lewis and Clark.  The kids are doing well in school and we are very proud of them.  Juliette is quite the little artist and has been getting 100% on her phonogram tests!  Good job Juliette!

Carol has been going to all the award assemblies.  They sure have a lot!  She is smart and pretty and made Student Council and National Jr. Honor Society for next year.  Go Carol!

Lucy keeps busy with dance.  She had her end of the year recital and performed in 7 different numbers.  (Sarah Haslip danced in the clogging number and we were all so impressed!)  Lucy is so sweet and quite the little dancer and has improved so much this year.  Being in Company was a little much, so she decided not to do it next year.  She wants to try some new things.  

Dave Bryant closed in our loft for us (and did a fabulous job!) so now we have another bedroom.  Now all the children have their own.  I hope Lucy and Juliette can keep their room clean now.  No more blaming it on the other!  I've been painting and organizing and hope to get it done this week.  We have been living in chaos for too long!

April 2009

Carol was so excited to meet Brooke White at the benefit concert for Christian and Stephanie.  Brooke put on a great performance and was very kind to the kids back stage.  The concert was very professional and we enjoyed it very much!

Carol and Major got to eat candy for Easter.  (They are doing the "no candy for a year" thing and that was their freebee day that they chose.)  They were so sick of candy by the end of the day that they were glad to go back to not eating any.
I went with Major on his field trip to the National Guard.  It was really educational and fun.  We learned about the firemen and all their heavy clothing, went inside and learned about the airplanes that refuel the jets, and learned about and got to wear all the gear that the pilots wear.  The highlight was getting sprayed by the fire truck.  The kids were soaked! 
Carol was invited to Academic Night.  It was for students who had a 3.8 gpa or better.  It was a very nice program and they all got a medal.  She is now really motivated to keep her grades up.  She is also going to be in NJHS and is going to run for student council for next year.
Major had a choir concert.  They did a great job and sang some fun songs.
We had a birthday party for Juliette.  It was a carnival.  Carol did face painting.  Major, Cole, Collin and Molly helped us with the other games.  Juliette had such a good time!
Molly running the bowling game.

Major has been playing flag football.  Their team is doing good and really improving.
Juliette got a Suns gorilla hat at another benefit concert this weekend.  She was so proud of it!
Major was really happy when they gave him a basketball!
And here we are with the Gorilla.  Lucy's dance company performed at the concert.  She did a great job!

Talent Show

We had our annual ward Talent Show. Lucy's talent was dance, but she didn't have a solo so she made a poster instead. It showed their trip to Disneyland and lots of her dances. Juliette loves to draw and write stories so her poster showed some of her "books" and pictures that she has made. She wants to be an author and illustrator when she grows up. She has a wild imagination, so her books should be pretty interesting. Major played the piano for his talent. Everyone was very impressed! He is good! He also performed in "Hey Delilah" with some other boys. The song is by the group Plain White T-shirts or something like that. It's that song they always play at the movies before the movie starts. They loved practicing and having something to do. It was a primary talent show, so Carol didn't do anything. She would have done a poster with pictures of wrestling cheer or something like that. She is doing really well in school. She is getting an academic award and an application to apply to NJHS.

Sea World

We went to Sea World for Spring Break.  The weather was beautiful!

The kids really loved the string rays.  We went there many times.  Juliette really liked the sharks.  

The dolphin show and pet show were favorites!  The animals are awesome!  I enjoyed getting away from my allergies.  California is so beautiful!

Disneyland

This weekend I took Lucy and Juliette to Disneyland.  It was Juliette's first time. We went because Lucy's dance group had a workshop one day in Disneyland and a performance the next in California Adventure.  Lucy is in mid air. Lucy said they learned a lot at the workshop and they all improved their dancing!  It's amazing what they can do at Disneyland! ha ha! Juliette wanted to sit in every car we saw.  I never noticed before how many there were! They only got one autograph in their books.  It was just too crazy crowded!  I've had enough for about five years!

Brace Face

Major got phase two of his braces.  He has got quite a mouthful!

Sea World

We had been planning to go to Sea World on President's Day.  When we checked the weather, it said rainy and cold.  We decided to go anyway.  We prepared as best we could, but we still got really wet and cold.  
It stopped raining about 1:00, so the kids were able to go on the rides.  They loved going again and again since there was no line.  One good thing about going on a rainy day.
We went to a 4-D show to get out of the rain.  I told everyone to take off their shoes and socks and I rung the water out of their socks.  It helped, but not much.  We were sure wishing they had hand blowers in the bathroom instead of paper towels.  I've always cursed those blowers until this trip.  We visited the sharks twice for a long time because they were warm.  The penguins and polar bear were not our favorite this time around.
We still had a good time and are looking forward to going back when the weather is beautiful!