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?

Another Toe Post

Naomi has discovered her toes. She likes to keep a hold of them to be sure thay don't get away.

Pedicure

The YW president took the Laurel class out for pedicures last night. It was the first time I'd ever had one. I decided I should pick a color of polish that I don't have at home (between the girls and I we have 37 colors) hence the orange.

The pedicurist asked, "Would you like flowers?" I hesitated, so she said, "Why not? For the holiday!"

They aren't really Memorial Day colors - orange white and black :) , but I'm glad I got them - pretty, hmm?

No Use Crying Over Spilt Kool-Aid

Kelly got a package of Kool-Aid for her birthday from the Primary presidency today, so I mixed it up for lunch. Michael decided to pour himself some while I wasn't looking. Everyone was very helpful in cleaning it up for me.

Happy Birthday Kelly and (sort of) Naomi

Happy 5th Birthday Kelly!!!

This past week, Kelly turned five. She wanted party hats and Rachel, Heather and Gwen volunteered to make them.

She also wanted everyone to have their own mini cake with their own choice of icing color. Everyone went to town with the food coloring.

Kelly decided her icing looked to good to waste on a cake, so she ate it sans cake after she blew out her candles, then she ate the cake.

Naomi also hit a milestone last week. She is three months old now.

The Piano Recital

Here are clips from each of our three pianists at their recital on Saturday.

Heather




Rachel



Summer




Sixteen students played two pieces each and it was a little bit long for Kelly.

Haircut

I had about five inches cut off my hair Saturday afternoon. Here is a before and after.

They say you can tell when a woman graduated from high school by her haircut, or in other words, she gets stuck in a hair rut and never strays too far from her style at age 18. Here is my senior picture and it looks like proof positive to me :)

Snacktime!

Pictures of the Kids and the Chickens

The kids' blond aunt suggested I have not been posting frequently enough (see, my redheaded sister, you're not the only one who gets nagged). She told me to just put pictures of the kids up, since that is what everyone wanted to see, so here they are. Rachel took the one of Kelly. While I was busy taking the others, Michael was busy mixing the bread flour and sugar with hot chocolate mix, hence the guilty look on his face when I put him on the counter next to the sink to try and contain the mess.

The chickens are getting big...

...and so is Naomi!

Kelly and Gwen were playing dress up.

Summer was reading and listening to The All-American Rejects and did not appreciate having me come after her with the camera.

Naomi Talking

Naomi is growing up. She weighs twelve pounds (more than 1 and1/2 times her birthweight) and she loves to talk. Smile and croon to her and she will smile and coo right back. Watch for the dimples :)

Muddy Fun

Stan dumped a barrel of water out in the backyard.
The kids had fun, fun, fun!

Our Chickens

We are enjoying having chickens. The picture above was taken right when we got the first ones and the three oldest were about two weeks old. Now they are about six weeks old and our youngest one is about two weeks. The picture below shows how big they've grown.


From left to right they are -

Rachel's Ameraucana named Lily - 6 weeks old

Kelly's Rhode Island Red named Rose - 4 weeks old

Amy's (used to be Summer's, but she gave her to me) Plymouth Barred Rock named Buttercup (Summer also has a hamster named Westley - get it?) - 6 weeks old

Gwen's Jersey Black Giant named Daisy - 2 weeks old

Heather's Ameraucana named Violet - 6 weeks old

If you want to know more about the breeds, check out this chicken chart - Backyard Chicken Breeds

I bought them some meals worms at Petco last Thursday for a treat to eat out of our hands and they LOVED them. It makes me feel a kinship with the chickens after eating one of the meal worms that Ruby sent to Rachel. The ones I bought are all for the chickens, though. They are much more alive than the fried ones Rachel shared with us.

Pictures at the Park

During spring break, we had a picnic in the park. Summer was bored with the idea of swings and slides, so I let her take pictures with the camera. These are some of my favorites.

Michael was fascinated with other families. I was too busy with everything else to really stay on top of him, so he spent a lot of time wandering into other people's space while Summer wandered around after him trying to get a good picture. He listened intently while a mother lectured her daughter about their rules for using the equipment, he stood on another mother's blanket and watched her (with an open mouth) feed her baby and later, tried to go home with this mother and child. I don't know if he was more interested in the little girl or her riding toy.

Happy Belated Birthday Heather!

Heather turned NINE a couple weeks ago. Here she is with her birthday apple pie.

Happy Birthday Heather!!!

Naomi in the Swing of Things

Warning - unless you are almost as fascinated with Naomi as we are, you may find this video mind numbingly boring.

Why is this here?