Off to a Good Start

I went to Topher's 1st grade open house this week. His teacher seems very sweet and is excited to teach the kids. Her classroom theme is frogs, she has frog pictures and frog stuffed animals all over the place. This sample of Topher's work was in the hall outside his room.

Fourteen!

Phoebe is fourteen! Cooper helped me put up decorations the night before her birthday.

Her birthday celebration lasted for three days this year. Her actual birthday started with doughnuts for breakfast.

She opened presents,

ate some yummy pizza for lunch,

and had a birthday visit/dance from one of her Young Women leaders. This was seriously amazing.

Then she and Cooper spent the evening at a multi-ward (including our old ward and new ward) youth activity. The fun included singing happy birthday to her and eating cupcakes.

Because of the youth activity (which they both agreed was so fun), Phoebe opted to have her birthday dinner the next night. Sophie helped me make the birthday cake.

Sadly, I only sprayed the pans, I didn't butter and flour them as the directions indicated. It fell apart coming out of the pans. Cooper tried valiantly to mash it back together. He was ultimately unsuccessful. I said I'd try again the next day.

Thankfully, the crepes she requested for her dinner turned out much better.

Sophie set a place at the table for Peter and Cooper used his phone to display this picture while we ate. We texted Peter that we had included him in the birthday dinner. His response: "Awww."

The next day came and I got swept up in other projects, so I didn't make another cake. Bryan ended up taking her to Costco to pick out her own birthday cake. Would she have preferred a homemade cake? Yes. But would I have made the scrumptious Orange Dreamsicle Cheesecake that she selected? Probably not.

Happy birthday, Phoebe!!! We love you!!!

Just a Little Off the Ends

Sophie, Topher, and Cooper got haircuts this week. Sophie opted for a more grown-up look and the hairdresser curled Sophie's new curtain bangs to show her how to do it.

After hearing Sophie's hair request, Topher kept insisting that he wanted curtain bangs too. It took quite a bit of convincing before he realized that he had gotten a regular haircut and that he didn't have long enough hair for curtains bangs.

The Magic of Childhood

Our third full season of Valley Children's Voices started rehearsals in June. We practiced nearly every Monday all summer, which was tricky because the other director and I both had to travel, so some duty juggling was involved. All that work culminated in our concert Friday night.

A few moms came early on Friday morning and helped us set up. It usually takes us hours to do this, but with two extra sets of hands the work was done in just over an hour.

Call time was 5:30 for the 7:00 show. As soon as everyone was there we gathered for a picture in our brand new, much nicer (thanks to a choir mom who offered to use her Cricut to make our logo look awesome) shirts. One of our newest singers has terrible stage fright and only stayed in front of the audience for the first minute or so of the concert. I'm extra thankful for this picture that shows everyone, whether they sang or not.

Our theme was The Magic of Childhood. We picked the big choir numbers and the kids picked their own solos and small group numbers. This was our set:

“Everything Is Awesome” - full choir

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” - solo, ukulele accompaniment by me

“Good Day” - solo

“Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?” - younger choir

“Do Re Mi” - cello and two violins

“What a Wonderful World” - full choir, ukulele accompaniment by Sophie and me

“The Girl I Mean to Be” - Phoebe's solo!

“I’ll Make a Man Out of You” - small group

“Wake Me Up” - full choir

“For a Moment” - duet

“Naughty” - Sophie's solo!

“Pure Imagination” - older choir

“On the Steps of the Palace” - solo

“A-B-See-Ya Later” - solo

Folk Tunes Medley - full choir

I directed "Everything Is Awesome" and "Oh, What Do You Do In the Summertime?" "Everything Is Awesome" felt like a run-away train during many of our rehearsals. It finally came together and the performance at the concert was the best they'd ever done it. "Summertime" was fun and sweet and the littlest members of our choir (the five to seven year-olds) did a great job.

I had taught "What a Wonderful World" to the kids and planned to direct it for the concert. But the young singer that was going to join Sophie on the ukulele ran out of time to prepare. (She played the violin for two of the songs, so she was busy preparing, there just wasn't enough time for this song too.) A week before the concert I handed directorial duties over to my co-director and switched to the ukulele instead. I think it turned out well.

Phoebe both really wanted to do a solo and really didn't want to do a solo. She stressed and was super anxious and wasn't sure she would actually do it right up until the moment she started singing. She did a great job! This took so much courage and when she sang you couldn't tell that the lead up had been so traumatic.

Sophie took a lot more initiative in preparing for this solo than she has in the past. She rehearsed beforehand and made sure she was ready, which I very much appreciated. She also did a great job!

In addition to directing two numbers and accompanying two numbers, I was in charge of pushing play on the accompaniment tracks for seven other songs. I'm so thankful to Bryan for gathering all those tracks and putting them into a single file. This helped the whole evening run more smoothly. Directing, accompanying, and stage managing all in one concert is maybe too much for one person. I'm glad he helped lift that load. He was also our videographer for the evening.

The kids were wonderful! They've improved since we started last summer and have gained confidence. Two of the kids who were too shy to do more than sing with the group said they were ready for more this time. One of them was part of a small group number and the other sang a solo in one of the choir songs! It makes me so happy to see them grow and improve.

And now we need to figure out what we're doing for Christmas.

Go Cougars

Peter sent me a first day of school picture! Was it actually taken on the first day of school? No. But it was taken at the end of the first week of school, and I'm just happy to get a picture.

In the Spotlight

We had our third kid choir concert tonight.

It went well.

We're really tired.

That's all for now.

Play Ball

Fresh From the Tree

On the day that we arrived in Utah, after we had slept in until the middle of the morning, we walked to church with Bryan's parents. Living close enough to the church to walk on a regular basis would be really nice. My sister-in-law Falisha went to church with us. She also joined us for Sunday dinner at Bryan's grandma's house. I was originally supposed to drive her the rest of the way home to Idaho Falls on Sunday, but we were so exhausted by the long haul from California that she agreed to hang out and rest an extra day. I was thankful.

I drove her home on Monday morning. I loved getting to talk with her for the drive up. When I got back to Bryan's parents' house at lunch time I saw that the kids had helped Papa Ron harvest the peaches from their tree. We enjoyed the fruits of their labors during the remainder of our stay. Thanks to Phoebe for the picture of the peaches.

Apparently I took very few pictures during those first few days. We had a great visit though, even without photographic proof. Topher and Sophie pulled out all the toys and claimed the basement as their domain. We ate good food and got to see Uncle Dallin and cousins Harmony and Liam. We also tried to buy supplies for Peter's apartment. It turns out he had very few opinions about what bedding and dishes to buy. We ended up ordering a lot of stuff online.

Our Own Zoo, Almost

This picture doesn't do justice to how huge this bird is. We watched him chill for a while on the wire across the street behind our house. Based on our quick Google search, we think it's an osprey. It's amazing to me how much wildlife we've seen from our own backyard.

Quick, Let's Take a Picture on Our Anniversary

Bryan and I celebrated our twenty-third wedding anniversary while we were in Utah. He's wonderful, I'm so glad I picked him.