Lemonade Stand

Emily and a neighbor friend did a lemonade stand on Saturday. They had been planning it for weeks and were so excited about it. The neighbor kids all joined in and they actually made a lot of money. The cookies disappeared fast. I think Angela spent all her money buying cookies and contributed to the earnings.

Rose Garden

We made a little trip up to the Rose Gardens last weekend.There's something fun about running around on a cement stage.

Gymnastics in the grass.

Sliding down the stairs.

Emily's favorite rose.Smelling the roses.

Dance Recital Video

These clips are from the dress rehearsal and the lighting isn't great, but it gives the idea.

The Last Week of School Started Out

. . . with an unexpected and scary goodbye to our van. Why is it when you know you have an extra busy week in front of you, that something always seems to happen to make it even more stressful? I'm not going to go into details of how it happened, but I got into an accident as I was leaving church 2 weeks ago. Angela and Nicole were not feeling well, so I was taking them home early. Fortunately we are all okay, the girls were completely fine. Those car seats worked well. I had a little bump on my head, a bruise on my hip, and woke up with a sore shoulder 3 days later. But I am pretty much completely healed now. I didn't want to go to the hospital, but Matthew insisted we have the baby checked out. So we headed off to the hospital and they monitored the baby for 2 hours and ran some tests. Everything is just fine. One advantage to getting in an accident right in front of the church is that there was lots of help right away. I don't remember everyone who came out to help, so thank you to the people who went and found Matthew, helped with my kids, took pictures, brought out a padded chair for me to sit on, lent us a car to take home, filled in for the lesson Matthew was supposed to give in Elder's Quorum, offered comfort and support, etc.
I really liked our van, so I was sad to hear it was was totaled. I'm sorry to say, I just don't get why some people give up their minivans for an SUV. We rented a sedan and then borrowed my parents suburban until we found a new van, and I was so glad to have a minivan again. Everyone was happier in it! No more "she's hitting me!" Here's a picture of our new van. And since it is a lot newer than our old one, there are some nice features I am enjoying.

Last Week of School: Piano Recital

I started teaching again last fall and I've really enjoyed it. I had a piano recital for my students at my house which was a first for me. They all played great and I even played one of my old pieces and it went pretty well. Later in the week, I accompanied 5 High School students at a flute recital. It was a lot of work to get all those pieces ready, but it keeps me playing!

Last Week of School: Kindergarten Graduation

Angela had a great Kindergarten experience this year. Her teacher, Mrs. Brackett, is so amazing. She is the most kind, dedicated, thoughtful teacher ever. Her class was small and very well behaved. They had a little program for the parents where they sang many of the songs they learned this year. They are such cute songs, it's one thing I love about Kindergarten.

Angela's teacher, Mrs. Brackett

Angela and Mrs. Lumen, the teacher's aide, who is also our crossing guard and makes the morning walk to school very fun. She hands out tic-tacs on Tuesdays for Tic-tac Tuesday.After the program we went to get Emily and had to take a peek at the baby ducks that their class hatched from an incubator.
Emily also had a wonderful teacher this year, Mrs. Beach. I can't believe she's going to be in 3rd grade next year!

Last Week of School: Field Day

Emily was so excited about Field Day this year. She came in my room at 7am, dressed, hair done and ready to go. I normally wake her up about 7:15 and she is usually pretty hard to wake up. When I came out to the kitchen she was actually making her lunch (she has never made her lunch before). I saw this list on the counter and thought it was so funny, I had to share. They had been sending notices home from school reminding parents to make sure the kids had enough rest the night before and dressed for the weather, etc, so you can tell they were drilling that into them at school too.

This is a list Emily gave me of things she wants for her birthday coming up. Notice that it is organized by category. Um, I think she got some of that organization from me, but at 7 years old, it's almost wierd. Quite a list too, I had to explain to her that she would probably only get a couple of these things.

Last Week of School: Dance Recital

Emily and Angela both took dance this school year from a really sweet teacher, Miss Kim. It has been such a positive experience for both of them. Emily was in jazz, Angela in ballet. The recital was really fun. There was a dress rehearsal the day before and they had so much fun getting their hair done and dressed up 2 days in a row.

I was very proud of myself for getting Angela's short hair in a bun.

Nicole wanted to be a part of all the pictures too. I had a hard time getting pictures of the girls alone.

The recital theme was "Movie Night" so Angela's dance was to "Reflection" from Mulan. They had the cutest pink parasols at the beginning of their dance. I will hopefully get a little video clip of it on here soon.

Emily's dance was to "Miracles Happen" from Princess Diaries.

Angela's Training Wheels Come Off

A few months ago, Angela started learning how to ride her bike without training wheels. She's doing really great now, she can start and stop on her own. These are old pictures from when she was learning, I meant to post them a long time ago. We're so proud of her!

Great Pictures

My sister Melissa took these pictures a few weeks ago when she was watching the girls. We are really enjoying having Melissa in town for a little while!

Isn't this a great picture?