Music Recitals

The end of April marked the end of music classes for the year and that means multiple music recitals for everyone.  Colby was the first one to have his music recital.  He had two of them.  The first one was at the Terrance Grove Assisted Living Center.

Teacher Natalie's grandparents are in this home so she thought it would be a great way to serve the elderly as well as practice performing in front of an audience before the actual recital.  Colby was kind of nervous but he performed his two songs really well.

The next recital was his actual recital at the Red Balloon.

He did really well on his two songs again despite being really nervous.  He performed "Song of Joy" an arrangement on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," and Colby also performed the song he wrote himself called, "Monsters and Lego's."  

This was Colby's third and final year in the Let's Play Music program.  He has enjoyed learning all he could from Teacher Natalie and he has really progressed from the time he started until now.  He has learned a lot about music and piano but he was grateful to be able to take a break as you can tell from this video:

Now he will start private piano lessons with Emily's piano teacher in August.

The next recital we were able to attend was for Logan's Let's Play Music class.

Logan is in the first year of Let's Play Music and he loves every minute of it.  He is learning about music, playing the bells, and auto harp.  The best thing is that it is all done while playing.   During the recital, Logan played "How to Skip" on the bells and "Old Paint" on the auto harp. He also played "DO, RE, MI" and some other songs together with the other kids in the class.

Logan has also met some new friends in class.  They are all pretty crazy kids but they have fun and Miss Ashley is a great teacher. 

Logan received his certificate of completion from the first year of Let's Play Music and he was so proud of himself!  Second year will start in August.

Now on to Emily's recitals and concerts.  Her first concert was with the school choir.

This year they have been learning songs about history especially the history of Utah.  They sang a lot of the Utah Centennial songs I learned when I was in 5th grade! That was kind of cool because I still remembered the words to all of the songs and was singing along in my head.  They also learned "50 Nifty United States" in school and both Emily and Colby have been singing that song all the time.  The choir did a great job and it was a fun concert.

Next was Emily's AIM piano recital.

Emily has been working really hard on the second level of AIM and she was able to pass all of her tests with 90% and above and pass this level this year.  

Her favorite part of the testing is the performance part which is memorizing and playing two songs.  There is also ear training, sight reading, and theory tests.  At the recital, she played one of her two songs and did an awesome job.

Now we get to take a break from music for the summer and the kids are so happy for that.  I am kind of glad too because that means I don't have to take them to all of their lessons for awhile.  They still have to practice but there is not as much pressure.  Good job kids! You are learning so many good things!!

Mother & Son Super Hero Training

The school PTA put on a great Mother & Son activity the other night.  It was a superhero training camp and I had a blast with my boys.  

Emily was willing to babysit Charlotte for an hour while we went.  I was a little nervous about this but she did great and even got Charlotte in her pajamas and ready for bed.  

The first thing we did at the superhero training, was design our masks and capes:

We looked so awesome in our disguises.  Logan even won a prize for the best mask.

Next was the obstacle course to test our strength and ability.

We even had to sneak through the laser field without touching the lasers.

Then it was on to target practice to test our aim.

We had to practice shooting the villains with Nerf guns and knocking them over with bean bags.  The boys were great aims and knocked them all over.

The photo booths were fun too.  We had a great time at this activity and the boys loved every minute.  Logan's favorite part was the obstacle course and Colby's favorite part was climbing through the lasers and the target practice. My favorite part was spending time with the boys.

Another thing we did this week was watch Emily sing with her choir at the Night of Arts celebration.

They did a great job singing a couple of the songs they have been practising this year including, "The Bear Lake Monster," "My Lovely Canyon Home," and "Iron Wheels."

Spring Break Adventures

What a fun week full of fun memories. The kids had spring break and we decided to get out of the cold and head to the warmth. I took work off until Wednesday, so we hung out in St. George for a few days. We left on Saturday when I got home from work. Before we left the Easter Bunny came early because we were not going to be home on Sunday. The Easter Bunny brought some fun outdoor toys. Pogo sticks for everyone, and of course candy. The kids did not want to leave them of course. When we got to St. George we had fun with Tiffany's family at the park playing with cousins and softball. I was also able to go to the Priesthood session with my Dad and Tyler. We had a good and there was some amazing talks given. The kids could not wait to get to Grandma's house to try their Pogo sticks. Once they got there, they got them out and off they went. I'll tell you what, they had fun with them. Emily was fun to watch. At first she was not able to jump very many times, but before we left she was setting records everyday. On Monday she was able to get up to 309 jumps. Her face was red and sweaty and she was tired. 

I was pretty amazed that they caught on to Pogo so well. At first they were only able to jump a few times but after about 10 minutes of practicing, Colby, Logan, and Emily got the hang of it and could jump quite a few times. They loved it. Even Charlotte got in on the action and bounced a few times as I held the Pogo stick. They had a blast.

One if the days we were in St. George, we decided do check out the new Vernon Worthen park. The city totally revamped the park and put in all new play equipment and a walking trail around the park. The kids loved playing.

Colby liked climbing the trees until the mulberry pollen got to him. Then we headed to the playground. All the kids loved the zip lines. Emily went down multiple times and even went down with Charlotte a few times too. Colby and Logan went down a few times too but they spent most of the time riding their bikes around the walking path.

Charlotte thought she was so big because she was able to go down the slide by herself.  Colby and Logan liked climbing on the ropes and getting as high as they could.

The highlight was this swing. We had to wait in line for a while before we got a turn on this hammock swing. The kids loved it and they didn't want to get off.  Another fun thing was the merry-go-round swings. We waited in line for this as well and then another kid or a parent ran around pulling the swing while three kids rode like the yo-yo ride at the fair.

Another fun thing we did while in St. George this week was hike to Elephant Arch.

Elephant arch is in Washington but even after living there my whole life, I had never even heard of it until a few months ago. So we decided to go see it. It was pretty warm hiking and it was kind of hard hiking through the sand dunes.  Originally we thought the hike was only about a half mile but it turned out to be closer to three miles round trip. The kids did great though and only complained a few times.

Along the way we found some cool caves. We called them bat caves or bear caves. So we decided to climb in them.

We also saw these cool rock formations in the sandstone. The boys thought they were pretty awesome and climbed up to explore.

After what seemed like a long time and we thought we were lost, we made it to the Arch.

The Elephant Arch was pretty cool. We were able to scale up the rocks to get right under the arch. The kids were great rock climbers and Russell was a pro even with Charlotte on his back in the backpack.

The view above the arch was pretty good too. I loved seeing all of the red rocks I have missed since moving up north. It was kind of nerve racking watching the kids climb around the rocks because I kept thinking they were going to fall off the cliffs. Thankfully though we were all safe and headed back down the trail to the truck. The hike back seemed much shorter.  To keep the kids motivated, we had them race and Logan basically ran the whole way back! I was impressed because it was hot and sandy.

After hiking Elephant Arch, we headed home to Hyrum. It had been a fun trip but now it was time to head home.

It was still spring break though so we still had fun at home.  Our moms' playgroup got together at the Cache Valley Fun Park one afternoon and we were able to go have fun rollerblading with all of the kids' friends.

This was the first time Colby and Logan have tried out their new Rollerblades they got for their birthday.  They were slow going but were getting the hang of it. Emily was an old pro and was having races with all of her friends around the rink.  Charlotte hung out with me and climbed on everything.  She really wanted to go in the skating rink but I wouldn't let her.  She did like climbing up to look over the wall at all of the skaters.

Another fun thing that happened this week was Russell's cousin, Jaycee, got married.  I was not feeling good with a sore throat and no voice so Russell took the kids while I stayed home.  They had a good time.  

The kids had fun playing with their cousins, dancing and playing all night.  Jaycee's husband, Curtis Carter, seems like a really nice guy and you can tell that they love each other.

One thing Emily was really excited about was catching the bouquet.  She was happy that she was the one that will be getting married next.  Ok maybe in like at least 12 years...

I don't really know what is going on in this picture but it was something to do with a prank Jaycee was playing on Tyler.  They made Tyler think he was the one that had to get the garter off of this girl but when they covered his eyes, Curtis came in and had the garter on his leg.  I guess it was all pretty funny and it just showed the funny teasing relationship Jaycee and Tyler have with each other as cousins.

The best part of the wedding for the kids though was all the ice cream they got to eat at the reception.  Jaycee and Curtis had an ice cream bar with all the fixings and the kids just went to town eating all they could.  They loved it.  Congratulations Jaycee and Curtis and good luck

One not so fun thing that happened though was some one backed into the back of the van while I was at Walmart. 

They totally broke the bumper... thankfully though the lady waited for me to come out if the store and told me what happened. She felt really bad and was really nice and paid for all the repairs.  She told us to get a quote on the repairs and then she paid us cash rather than having to fight with insurances. We were able to fix the bumper and it looks better than ever!

We had a great spring break and it was nice to relax as have fun. Now it is back to school...