This Week

My twice-yearly piano recital was on Tuesday night. It was the best yet! Well, it would have been better if ALL of my students had been there (one was out of town, one was sick, and one was at play practice). But everyone did a fantastic job on their pieces; they were memorized and polished and I was so proud.

I had planned to upload videos of each my own children playing their pieces, but the videos were shot in HD and the files seem to be too big to upload. Dang! So, just the group picture above will have to do.

I also had my birthday, on Wednesday. Having the major event of the piano recital behind me, I was able to relax on my birthday and not do much of anything. My friend Leigh called in the morning and we talked for a while, I read Pride & Prejudice while outside enjoying the sun, I ate leftover cupcakes, I enjoyed reading a zillion happy birthday wishes on facebook, I didn't do much housework, I got nice cards and flowers and things, and I went out to Mexican food for dinner with my whole family (parents, siblings, nieces & nephews & etc -- only my brother was missing because he was sick). All in all, a great day.

Then on Thursday was the kids' last day of school! We celebrated by going out to eat at Jason's Deli right after school (they had a half day, so it was lunch time). The girls had swim parties to go to in the afternoon. Each of the kids' report cards were just amazing; straight A's across the board... we're so proud of them. Now we're looking forward to a fun & busy summer!

Some pictures

One night last month, we visited the Temple for a Family Home Evening activity. It was a lovely evening. I should've snapped a picture of Lucy doing yoga poses when she thought nobody was watching; it was pretty cute.

A few weeks ago our ward Young Women went to the Special Olympics to cheer on the athletes. Aaron went as a volunteer. I brought our kids along too, to help cheer. It was a good experience. (The stands weren't as empty as it appears; we were just sitting above the other fans.)

One day, the girls apparently got ahold of a camera and some ballet clothes....

dramatic!

Just when you thought Lucy was only going to be the cameraman...

There she is! It's nice that their room was cleaned up for the sake of the photos :)

Ready for Summer?

We have had the nicest May ever. I think it may even set some records for the coolest May in Phoenix history, or something, but whether or not it does, it has been just delightful for those of us here in the Valley of the Sun. According to weather.com, this month we have had 13 days with observed or forecast highs in the 70's and 80's... the normal high's being in the high 90's. Yesterday I drove to Flagstaff for the day with some friends, where it was in the 30's and snowing! In late May! But at our house, it's been beautiful. I've been taking Juno on lots of walks and jogs, and running on the canal, and sitting outside to read, leaving the windows and doors open, and having much lower-than-normal electric bills. Lovely!

Maybe it's because the weather has been playing wonderful tricks on us lately, or maybe it's because time is going by way too fast, but I am having a hard time believing that the kids only have one week left of school! That being said, we have made some summer plans and it looks like we'll keep fairly busy once school is out.

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  All four kids are signed up for city league Swim Team. We had a lot of fun with Noah & Molly on swim team last summer, and this year it'll be even better with the addition of Zoe & Lucy. It'll get us up early every morning (the older kids have to be at practice at 7am), of course good exercise for the kids, and family fun at their weekly meets.
  


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  Noah will have his last year at Cub Scout Day Camp, in June.
  


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  We have a few little trips planned. After last year's success, we'll be again sending the boys off to camp in Colorado while the girls and I go to the beach! When discussing this plan several weeks ago, Noah clearly defined the reason behind this: "The girls would rather sit around on the beach and be lazy. Dad and I would rather be mountain men." Sounds about right by me! We're taking another short trip to San Diego, too, with the whole family... we'll force some of that beach laziness on the boys whether they like it or not!
  


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  Now that I'm serving in Young Women, I get to go to Girls Camp! My kids will get to spend a couple nights at my parents' house; which they're super excited about.
  


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  My long-time friend Leigh and her family are coming to visit! Her sister is getting married down here in July and they'll be staying with us. It will be so much fun to see them.
  


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  We will return to Lake Powell!! We go every summer with Aaron's family; well, *almost* every year. We missed '03 and '04 due to pregnancy with twins and then infant twins, and then we missed the past couple of years since Aaron's parents were on a mission in Brazil. Oh yeah, we *did* go last year to Lake Powell... but that didn't really count :) So we are super excited for this year, returning to one of our favorite places, seeing most of Aaron's family, and even meeting a new nephew!
  
  I have additional grand schemes while we're in town that involve weekly trips to our local library, printing out math worksheets to keep the kids' brains in gear, and of course plenty of piano lessons. I don't think we'll get bored this summer!

Only about two weeks after Lake Powell, school starts back up... and the kids will be in 6th, 4th, and 2nd grade. One year left til Junior High! Ack!

What are your plans this summer?

End-of-School Stuff

We've been busy lately with all of the usual end-of-the-school-year events. Zoe and Lucy's first grade program was back in April; it was nearly identical to Noah's & Molly's first grade programs but I still think it's adorable and very enjoyable! The kids were allowed to dress up as a "storybook character" -- these may be stretch but Lucy is Super Girl and Zoe is dressed Cinderella-ish. Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Speer, who Noah and Molly also had as their first grade teacher.

Last week, the night after Pinewood Derby was Molly's 3rd grade program. The theme being "It's a Small World," the kids could dress up in International costumes if they wished, and Hawaiian was closest to "international" that we had on hand. So here's Hawaiian Molly, and of course, Lucy and Zoe are never known to pass up an opportunity to pose for the camera too. The kids played their recorders on a couple of songs, in addition to all the singing.
The night after that was Noah & Molly's cello concert. This year since Molly's in Beginning Orchestra and Noah's in Intermediate, they sit on complete opposite sides during concerts. For the Christmas concert we sat near Molly, so for this one we sat near Noah. Here he is in action: And, both Noah and Molly with their orchestra teacher Ms. Smith, who does a terrific job: They played some really fun songs at the concert and it was another good night.

The last big event of this type will be our piano recital; stay tuned for a report next week!

Pinewood Derby

We had a fun time at Noah's LAST cub scout Pinewood Derby this year! His car looked really cool, and it was super fast. He didn't place, because there were a lot of other super fast cars this year, too! A bunch of the dads know the same tricks :) But, of course it was still a fun evening.

Zoe & Molly
Lucy along with her friend Reagan. Reagan's mom & I were talking about how funny it was that these girls were so excited to hang out that night, but then all they wanted to do was play games on their dads' phones the whole time!

Here's a video of one of the races Noah won; if you blink you'll miss it!

It's hard to believe that our years in cubs are nearly over; it's been a fun time.

Happy Mother's Day!

Look at this gorgeous lady. My momma. This was taken when she was about 9 months pregnant with me. So pretty!

And look at this group of lovely ladies. I'm the baby, being held by my Grandma, with my pretty Mom looking on, and my bespectacled Great-Grandma... we'd all gone to Texas to visit my Great-Great-Grandma for her 90th birthday (she's the one in the rocking chair). Five generations! I absolutely adore this picture and I keep it framed in my house. And I tell just about everyone who comes over all about it.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful women out there.

Golden Boy

In our school district, 4th-6th graders who receive no more than one "B" (and the rest A's) during the school year are dubbed "Golden Scholars." They are invited to Academic Night where they receive a certificate and a pin. This year (and last year too) Noah was a Golden Scholar; here are a few pics from Academic Night last week.

Getting his certificate... And looking mighty sharp heading off the stage.

They had a slideshow of all the kids which they played for the audience before the program began, and Noah had this nice big closeup.

Here are the kids & I afterwards, just before we went out to Wendy's to celebrate with Frosties. Congrats Noah!

Quotable

Aaron: Hey Noah, did I tell you that I'm going to hike Mt. Whitney this fall?

Noah: You mean the Mt. Whitney that's 14,494 feet in elevation?

(Um, yeah, that's the one! This was with no prior discussion; Noah just had that number already, you know, in his brain.)