More Dance Festival

Here are some other blog posts about the dance festival, with Kristin's first (hi Kristin!) -

Mike & Kristin

day-207

what-weve-really-been-doing-all-summer

california-dreamin-2008


If any of you know of more, leave them in the comments, it would be fun to see them.

:)

Dance Festival

This past weekend, after months of practice on the part of the youth and two years of preparation on the part of their leaders, Summer, Rachel, and a few thousand other kids performed in -

California Dreamin'

A Stadium Spectacular

California Inland Empire Dance Festival 2008

It was fun! The best part was seeing our kids out on the field in such a huge production (and the fireworks).

Summer and the other kids her age danced the cha-cha to
"Oye Como Va".



Summer and her partner were couple #1 in square #1, so she is the outermost girl in the video.





Rachel and all the other Beehives did different dance moves from the past few decades to "Come So Far" from Hairspray.



Rachel is smack dab in the middle, the farthest to the left in her square, in a blue dress, in the last row facing the camera.





The teenagers weren't the only ones dancing.

There was an opening dance with all the youth, and for the closing, here they are in the process of making a gigantic human American flag.

Funny Things the Kids Have Been Saying #2

The other day, we were out somewhere and someone was asking Michael about his siblings. He was being a little hesitant answering, so I prompted him, "How many sisters do you have?" Now this was a question he knew the answer to.

He promptly said, "Three and a half."

This next comment you may not find that funny; you may think to yourself, "Summer is right and Amy is completely in denial." I still think it is just silly, but, anyway, I needed a break the other evening. This happens every so often and Stan is kind enough to keep things going at home while I go off and do whatever. My cure for stress relief this time was shoe shopping - what better way to recalibrate my equilibrium? I was happy to get a great deal at Payless - some nifty brown sneakers for only $5! Definitely cheaper than psychotherapy :)

I came home recharged and happy with my new purchase. Summer is our resident, self-appointed, fashion cop, so I showed her my new footwear and asked what she thought. She considered them for a moment and said, "They're too young for you."

What ?!?

Odds and Ends

I came home yesterday from visit teaching and found this giant heart made out of tomatoes. Then, when I was uploading pictures this morning, I found a picture of it on the camera. I am glad they got a photo of their creation because it is gone, gone, gone and we now have Salsa by Stan in the freezer (yum!).

and...

What a funny kid.

Keep looking...

...for someone familiar in a green shirt.

here

Stiches

I guess Michael wanted to follow in Kelly's foot(mis)steps.

Just like she did last April, he fell off a bench and landed face first.

I'm tempted to ban benches and make everyone sit on the floor.

Dinner

Last night for dinner, Michael had a peanut butter, watermelon rind preserve, cheddar cheese and dill pickle sandwich.

Yum!!!

Bracelet

Last night, I went to Home, Family and Personal Enrichment Meeting. It was "Camp Relief Society" and we each had a Pine Cone Pal (Secret Buddy) whom we gave a final gift to. The sister I had likes to wear pink and frequently wears pale, warm pink fingernail polish, so I made her a pink bracelet (she said, "You got my colors!").

It is always fun to get out my beads and mess around and while I was figuring out what to make for Clara Ann, I was inspired by some others beads I've had a while. I think the round enamel ones came from my mom (?) and I bought myself the fish in Chinatown who know how many years ago...

Bathtub pictures...

...are always fun!

Late Breaking News!!!

Swimming lessons start tomorrow and his sisters finally convinced Michael to let me buzz his hair.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

4th of July Weekend

Belated Happy 4th of July!

We have almost had too much fun this weekend (and I have the laundry to prove it!). Friday, we went to our ward 's 4th of July breakfast. It was fun as always. I love seeing the scouts perform the flag raising and then saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I was so happy, we actually made it on time this year and were there for the whole thing.

After the breakfast, some of the kids and I headed to Kmart to buy a frisbee while Stan and the others made a pit stop at home, then we met on the way to the movie theater. Wait, did you read that right? Did we go to the movies? Yep, for only the second time in memory, we took all the kids to the movies. It was fun! We'd probably do it more often if it didn't involve taking out a home equity loan (just kidding) and if we weren't so picky about what we'll go see. We had the whole theater experience because I found only slightly expired coupons on the internet for a free small (a quart, at least!) soda and popcorn. Which meant three kids had to visit the restroom during the movie, Naomi leaked on my lap because her diaper got too full of processed fruit punch, and three more kids had to rush to the bathroom before the credits were done. All in all, we had a great time. We saw WALL-E and all enjoyed it.

After lunch, Stan watched some kids and I took some others to JoAnn's with me and bored them out of their skulls while I pattern and fabric shopped. Now I have more projects and plans to sew with no time to do it. Let's just call it my ongoing brush with a fantasy - me with time to sew!

Later that afternoon, we packed for the beach. We figured a holiday weekend would be a good time to get there early and leave early (we were right!) and I made muffins so that we could take our breakfast with us. In addition to our new frisbee, we loaded two cars with -

Towels

Swimming suits

Toy shovels & buckets

Boogie boards - 4

Sunscreen - 2

Baby powder – for getting the sand off

Blanket

Umbrella

Chair

Water

Cashews

Milk

Camera

Big shovel

Hats

Apples

Muffins

Sandwiches

Napkins

&

Nine People

Then, we headed off to see the fireworks. They set off about three or four, there was a fire, then we waited for about half an hour and we left. As we were driving off, the fireworks finally started up again, so we turned around, parked and watched the rest. I love fireworks :)


Saturday morning, we got up before seven and started getting our swim suits on. The beach was already filling up when we got there before nine. We ate our muffins, played in the sand...

...explored the tide pools, did lots of boogie boarding and had an all around good time.

Summer found a crab crawling on her after she got out of the water!

We were all exhausted when we got home. I told Michael to wait for me in the laundry room while I got him something to wear so that when I took his swimsuit off, sand wouldn't get all over his bedroom (we were procrastinating his bath until after he played outside in the back yard a while) and I guess I took too long...

Stan's Family Reunion

At the end of June, we went camping with Stan's family. They are so much fun. One of the many things I love about them is how nice they are. There isn't a rotten apple in the bushel - and it's a big one :)

We had a blast.

One of the things we did was all pile in the back of George's pickup so that Daphne could drive us to the swimming hole.

Well, okay, some of us climbed in the back, others of us had it easier.

Kelly was brave to put her feet and ankles in the water...

...because it was COLD!!!

We warmed up that evening around the fire while the family showcased their talents and performed skits. Here is Uncle Will and various grandchildren passing along the bad news of "Uncle Jed" dying with a sty in his eye, his face all awry and his leg way up high.

Stan was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down his cheeks. Some of the next generation has acting ability.

Summer and Niquelle were happy to get home and showered (and made up, bejeweled and primped) so that they could go dancing. What cuties!

Body Parts

I've been tagged, again.

Here is the first one, for you curious types who missed it last fall.

And, here is what Claire had to say about it this time when she was tagged. "So, my dear friend Peggy hates me so she tagged me." and "Since I had to suffer through this, I'm spreading the joy." So, thanks to Claire and her positive attitude, here we go.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago, I was probably procrastinating packing. That would have been right before we moved away from Virginia at the end of Stan's postdoc. Heather had just been born two months ago, Rachel was 2 1/2 and Summer was almost 5. It was also the time I was a ward librarian. I only had the calling for a few weeks, but I really enjoyed it...maybe someday I'll get to do it again.

2. What are five things on my to-do list today?

1. laundry
   
2. clean up after breakfast
   
3. laundry
   
4. fix Summer's swimsuit
   
5. laundry
   

3. What are some snacks that I enjoy?

Almost every day, especially school days, the kids and I have shake and popcorn for our afternoon snack. My favorite kind of shake is mint chocolate chip, but I also like peanut butter banana, chocolate hazelnut, pina colada, black cherry and licorice chocolate chip.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.

• Have a swimming pool put in the back yard
  
• Have a helicopter pad put in the back-back yard
  
• Get my helicopter pilot's license
  
• Buy a helicopter that will simultaneously hold every member of our immediate family and enough luggage for two weeks

5. Places I've lived.

• Colorado
• New York
• Connecticut
• New Hampshire
• Utah
• California
• Virginia
  

Procrastination

I gave Rachel three choices this morning - shower, practice the piano, or put pictures on the blog. You can tell which she decided to do and which two she is procrastinating until I bug her again.

We went to Heather's dance assembly last Friday. Here she is with her partner. They danced the Samba and the Foxtrot.

These are two of the Michaels in the audience.

My mom washed 30 pairs of jeans on Saturday.

Fun in the backyard.

Naomi also said her first pair of words - "baby kiss." Here she is kissing her baby doll.

Happy Birthday Kelly

Kelly turned six this past week. We are all happy for her and happy she is our girl. She was so excited to gain her freedom from the car seat :)

We saved her birthday for a day so that she could share it with her cousins. Cynthia, Niquelle, Nikki, Andrea, and Tristan went to the beach with us (Will was at a training) and then we came home, cleaned up, did some last minute birthday shopping and had a party. Grandma sent some light sticks for the party and I bought these funky plastic, probably toxic, "candles" at the dollar store that burned with different colored flames. It was fun, fun , fun all around.

Mother's Day Adventures

Maybe I was thinking more in depth about my responsibility to train my children to behave well than I do on other Sundays.

Maybe it was that we sat up closer to the front of the chapel than we have been for the last few months (we've been ending up in the back row a lot lately) and I was worried about bothering the people sitting behind us as well as the people in front of us.

Maybe it was because Stan made a breakfast (in bed for me) of eggs and toast instead of my usual cold-cereal-on-Sunday fare and the kids had more energy to burn off.

Whatever it was, Michael and Naomi were in true Mother's Day form (as in, "I think I'll just show everyone how imperfect you are, Mommy") and did the following during Sacrament Mtg.

Naomi -

said, "more" about two dozen times after the bread left our row,

stood on the pew, yelled at the top of her lungs and waved her arms, frantically trying to get the Aaronic priesthood to bring the water to her before the bishop,

pulverized a fish cracker into 227 crumbs that needed to be picked up individually,

pushed Michael off my lap at least five times,

played, "I want Daddy, no, I want Mommy, no, Daddy..." for two minutes,

and threw a major tantrum when Rachel left for Sunday school.

Michael -

needed to be reminded (threatened) on a continual basis to sit down instead of lean on the pew in front of us,

made a loud raspberry sound with his mouth (we hope) on the pew in front of us during one of the times he was ignoring the threats and during the quietest part of the meeting,

crawled under the pew to retrieve something from under the feet in front of us,

pushed Naomi off my lap at least six times and stepped on her at least twice,

tried to eat the fish crackers as fast as possible so that he could get as many as possible before Naomi got some more,

wrote on his tie,

and tickled (while yelling, "aarghhh" each time he reached for her) one of the the pretty girls in front of us.

All of which caused me to get the giggles and contribute to the general commotion, right when someone was talking about the nobility of mothers.

Ah, well, you all know I wouldn't trade it for the world. Isn't life great? Here's to all you mothers -

Happy Mother's Day :)

Piano Recital

Heather, Rachel and Summer had their piano recital today. Since all of our extended family live too far away to come listen, we're sharing excerpts from the two pieces each pianist played.

Animal Sounds

Tidbits From the Weekend

Yesterday, Summer and I took part in our stake's Tin Man Triathlon. We both have red dots on our bibs because we were only taking place in the run/walk, not the swim or bike race. Summer ran three miles in just over 31 minutes and I racewalked it in 35 minutes, 20 seconds. My goal was to make it in under 40, so I was happy :)



This morning, while we were getting ready for church, I was wetting Michael's hair and getting ready to comb it down. He looked at the shelves next to the mirror and politely asked, "Can you put jello in my hair?"

How could I say no?