Ballet week - Fine'

Thursday's performance was attended by Dad, Mom, Brandon, G & G Arvy and Grandma Gib. Gpa Gib was in San Fran. The girls did a beautiful job again. This recital was really great! I especially love that they get to dance to live music. Afterward, Mike wasn't feeling well, so he took Brandon home to go to bed. Mike's parents were ready to go home, so that left the girls, me and Grandma Gib. We headed to Iggy's in Ogden and enjoyed a fun night together!

Locks of Love

Sydney wanted a haircut for summer. I told her to wait until after the ballet recital. So, just before I left for girls camp, Nicole chopped it off! It's so cute! She cut off 10 inches! I love how our girls chop their hair and then immediately start growing it out again....I think it's the shock of going from super long to super short.....but I'm glad they embrace change.

I'm also proud of them for donating their hair to Locks of Love. They have great hair and I'm sure it makes great wigs!

Pretty Ballerinas

Where has June gone? I really feel like I need a week off to breathe! But, since that never happens, let's review ballet week! Luckily, both girls were in the same recital this year. Clytie has added one more performance per cast because they have so many students. Parents weren't able to get tickets to see their own children perform! I liked it because it gave the girls another opportunity to perform. Sydney is in the middle. Monday, we had staging rehearsal. This means full make-up and costume and come at your assigned time to block your dance on stage. Then, a couple of run throughs with recorded music and then you are done! Sydney was first. Her dance was cute and true to form, Sydney knew her dance backwards and forwards. She's such a cute little dancer. Sydney and her dance partner

The final pose. Sydney is on the back row on the left with her arm raised. We are allowed to take pictures without flash at this rehearsal. It's pretty strict!Out in the hall, a little closer view. Sydney is back row second from the left. Her bff, Abby, is on front row, third from left. Other girls in our neighborhood include Lucy K, middle row right-behind girl standing. Hannah B front left. Maddy W to the right of Abby behind Gracie-front. Cute girls!

Beautiful Amanda!

We had a couple of hours to kill until Amanda's rehearsal, so we headed to Aaron and Michelle Flowers new cupcake shop in Ogden - Vintage Cupcake. It's so darling! We sat and ate cupcakes and chatted with Aaron and Michelle. It was fun for me and the girls.....Brando was sick of sitting around by then and couldn't wait to leave!

Amanda in the middle

So, back to Amanda's rehearsal. Halfway through, Holly H took Brando and her daughter, Ruby Jane, to her Mom's (who lives in Ogden). These two were born a month apart and love to hang out together. When we went to pick them up, we couldn't get them to leave!

Amanda also took a jazz class with Clytie this year. They did a dance to the Beattle's Help. Cute costumes that I'm hoping she'll wear for Halloween this year! She's upfront....fifth from the left.

Here's a picture of the girls before they went to the second night...dress rehearsal. Only the dancers go to dress rehearsal-meaning the parents cannot come watch. I'm telling you...pretty strict. It makes for a long week, but it's a lot of fun, too.

Wednesday night was the first performance and I just went solo. I ended up stitting next to Alan and Taya Johnson from our ward. Their daughter, Zoe, is one of my new Beehives and she is a beautiful dancer. It was fun to chat with them, watch the show and congratulate each other on such beautiful daughters ;) I also sat next to a man that as we chatted, we found out he is the assistant coach on Amanda's new comp soccer team. Small world.

Watch for another post!

Brandon's tooth!!!

Brandon's not too sure about this....

I'm very far behind on blogging, but also very tired as I just returned from girl's camp. Since I can't quite update the last 2 weeks right now, I thought I would post about Brandon and losing his first tooth! I cried a little.

It started to get loose about a month ago and I told him not to wiggle it ( I don't want him to start losing those cute baby teeth!). Then, his friend, Spencer told him not to wiggle it. So, I guess I decided I should tell him that it's ok to wiggle it and it will be great when it falls out (was that a clear sentence?). Soon, it was super loose. So much so that he couldn't talk!

When Mikey got home from work, he pulled it out! Brandon was really excited and he looks so old now!

Week in Review

I am going to try to sum up our summer by weeks. Sometimes the everyday stuff gets forgotten and since this is my journal-I wanted to add a few of the mundane!

Our first week out of school was filled with job lists, piano lessons, swim lessons, Amanda babysitting for neighbors and friends! Sydney took a week of swimming lessons with her friend, Abby. She had a great time, even though I had told her she didn't have to take lessons anymore. These were one-on-one lessons, so Sydney's teacher and Abby's teacher had the girls race across the pool using different strokes. Sydney did awesome! She could beat Abby in everything, except the breast stroke. She had great form! Well done, Syd!

We visited Krispy Kreme for free donuts for grades! Always a favorite!

Sydney and Abby had a lemonade sale! I love how they do this any chance they get. They are very creative with their marketing. They grabbed the ward phone list and told whomever would answer to come by for some lemonade and also asked them to leave a tip! Who's kids are these? (They didn't make this much money.

I found out a few days later that they raided my change jar).

There were many 'late nights' that resulted in Amanda having a nap a couple of times this week! Maybe she's having a growth spurt!

Brandon dragged out a bunch of his Star Wars toys and has been playing with them for hours! Hooray for no schedules!!!

I taught piano 2 days this week. I had to call many of my students to remind them of the new summer times. Like I said before, no schedules! :) But it's so nice to be teaching for only 2 days during the week.

We visited the orthodontist to get Sydney's retainer adjusted. I took Amanda to the dentist where she had NO cavities! Oh, that reminds me that I owe her $10. We pay the kids if they have no cavities because it's cheaper than having to pay to get cavities filled.

Any incentive to motivate good oral health!

We worked in the garden and cut some of our beautiful peonies to bring some color into the house! Who are those cute kids?!?!

And, I finally cleaned my wood floors!!! YEA!

Week one is in the books...This next week is filled with ballet recital, etc.,

so I'll post some fun pictures soon!

Go Amanda Go!

Amanda just made it onto a competition soccer team! She will play for Shock in Wasatch Soccer Club. She knows 3 of the girl already and is really excited! We are proud of you, Amanda!

End of the school year

We had to work on Amanda's science fair project while on vacation because it was due on June 1st! A lot of parents had problems with that fact. I got to talk to the teacher who is the parent/teacher liason and let her know we didn't like parent projects that close to the end of school (this was in addition to their 'invention convention' and 'autobiography' Anyway, here is the finished project! She did a great job!

On the 2nd, Amanda had an autobiography presentation that Mike attended while I went with Sydney's class to the zoo! Here is Sydney's group, Addi and Kennady with Sydney in front of the tiger. Then we stopped and I bought them ice cream sandwiches (which made me a cool mom) where we met up with Kennady's mom, Terra. It was a fun day and I enjoyed spending the time with Sydney. We ended our zoo time with a visit to the current exhibit-nightmare creatures. We saw spiders, snakes and bats-which by the way were not in a cage!!! Bleh!

I took Sydney home and didn't send her on the bus or back to school. We picked up Brandon from my Mom's house (thanks for tending Mom!) and stopped for a treat at Cold Stone. Bring on summer!!

The last day of school Amanda was attending one party and I went to pick her up for another party. As I was driving along an empty country rode, I guess I got going pretty fast and sadly, a police officer was also driving on that same street! He followed for awhile, I'm sure to make me nervous and then pulled me over! Amanda got so nervous! I told him that I was sorry I was going fast and that I'd never had a ticket in my life! He said, "Let me see your registration." When he came back, he said that I hadn't signed my registration and that it's required by law to sign it. I thought he was going to ding me for that and speeding, but he told me that he would cite me for failure to sign and that way he's done his job, but he can give me a break, too! No speeding ticket! Bless him! It made a memorable afternoon!