WOO-HOO Rachel!!!

Rachel had an exciting day at school today. Her 5th and 6th grade intramurals sports team won second place medals. They competed in basketball, volleyball, softball, and soccer from January through May.

She also took part in the dance club this year. She started in fourth grade and has been dancing ever since. They had a competition today with professional judges and the kids danced fox trot, waltz, tango, swing, two step, samba, cha cha, salsa, merengue, and rhumba.

Here she is with two of her partners.

Here she's waiting between dances for her turn to come up again. The competition was held in the cafeteria, which has etiquette instructions posted clearly.

We were there for 2 1/2 hours, which was no problem for Naomi as long as she had Gwen's lap to rest on.

Here is one of the waltzes where you can see some of her competition as well as one of the judges.

Rachel did really well! She and one of her partners won a finalist medal for the all around smooth dance competition. She also won first place ribbons for tango and two step. She won a second place ribbon for cha cha and was a finalist in waltz.

Here she is cha chaing.

Her fourth grade and since then dance teacher is wonderful!

Little Things

Ruby and Coral sent Rachel some ant candy. Rachel shared and each of us (except for two who will remain unnamed) tried a little bit. The ants I had were crunchy, tasted like minty white chocolate and were delicious.

I decided Naomi looked a little bit funny from behind. All her newborn hair had fallen out on top, plus she had a bald spot from sleeping and just a little hair left in back, so I shaved it off. Poor razor burned baby.

Like my mother always said to me as she put pin curls in my hair, "You have to suffer to be beautiful."

Two Cute Pictures

Here is a picture of Michael looking out the window of Summer's and Heather's bedroom into the back yard. When he saw me uploading it to the blog, he said, "That's me touching Heather's stuff," with no guilt whatsoever.

He is an idealistic boy. Lately this characteristic has expressed itself at mealtimes when I tell him to finish whatever he still needs to eat. He is very optimistic about his ability to pull the wool over my eyes. He says, "I ate it. It is all gone."

Rachel took this picture of Naomi and we thought it was pretty cute.

We think...

...Naomi looks kind of elfin with her pointy ears and pointy little chin.

Painting the Chicken Coop

Memorial Day, Stan and the kids painted the chicken coop white. It needed fixed up and we decided to go to town and spruce it up with some folk art. Each chicken owner painted a picture of her own chicken on the side of the coop closest to the house. Here are Kelly and Rachel beginning their masterpieces.

Heather worked the longest on painting Violet. She was still putting finishing touches on as it got dark. Gwen is inside the coop looking at the chickens.

They were ready to perch in a big chicken pile and go to sleep while we were still painting.

Daisy wondered who was intruding on their space and what they were doing.

Here is the finished product the next morning. Can you match each chicken to her portrait?