That Time of Year

It's that time of year when the dance studios have their photo sessions. As usual, I don't see the need to buy pictures of my girls, even though I would love to cover my house with pictures of them everywhere, I have to draw a line somewhere! I always use the time to make sure their costumes are ready for dress rehearsal and to take my own, far from professional, photos.

Victoria is still with Dancing Feet and has come a long way with her tapping. Her ballet has improved greatly too, mostly due to the Cecchetti ballet she is required to take (really strict, traditional ballet where they are tested at the end of the year). She wasn't sure she wanted to do the Cecchetti. It is in addition to their regular ballet class, but I think she can feel the difference in her dancing because of the discipline it requires.

All the years we have been going, this is the first year they let me watch and I snapped this pic of her with her classmates. She's standing in the middle.

The theme of the recital this year is holidays and seasons. They got Halloween and Christmas. 

Her classes are at the Summit, where they have a beautiful banquet room that we always snap our own pictures in afterwards. 

This year, Karissa went with a different dance company. Last year was gymnastics for her with some dance classes there, which they don't offer anymore. So, we thought we'd try dancing through the school district. It's less money, less intense, a little more relaxed, and still great and lots of fun! Personally, I don't think the dancers are as good as they are at Dancing Feet, but I haven't been to the recital yet. I base that on the fact that Karissa's class is 8-10 year-olds, and they aren't half as good as the 10-year-olds in Victoria's class. But, it's perfect for Karissa and she really does like it there, so I do too! I don't care how good it is, as long as they enjoy it. One thing she realized, though, when she put on her costume for pictures, was that it is still itchy! One of the main reasons she decided not to stay with Dancing Feet is because the costumes are too itchy! I told her that will never change no matter where she goes!

The middle school where her dance is at doesn't have a beautiful room with great lighting and it was too cold outside, but she still looks lovely!

Relaxing before the group shot is taken. 

Finally, we had a ward talent show last weekend. I thought I would try to get some dancers to show off their dancing talents, without trying to choreograph something for them this time. There are too many levels and it was hard to put them together. Instead, I emailed everyone to see which kids were interested. Besides my three (yes, Austin included), only one other person was. I had Austin lip-syncing to the Happy Song and doing his thing and the dancers come in at separate times to do parts of their recital dances. It turned out great! Unfortunately, Erik wanted to help video tape, but I couldn't let him since I had to hold the camera up really high to avoid the big speaker in the way. If you want to take a peek and risk getting dizzy by all the movement, here's the link: http://youtu.be/YhidL3FZY-8. Jason makes a surprise entrance at the end!

School Happenings

 We've had lots of fun, different-from-our-normal-routine, school activities over the past month or so. First, our school held it's first "Word Parade". The students chose a favorite word and had to display it in some way and dress or wear a prop to represent that word. At school, they held a parade so that everyone could see the different words. Since it was the first year this was done, parents weren't invited, but here are my kids before school that morning.

Austin chose the word globe.

Karissa chose the word flash.

Victoria chose the word entrepreneur.

 A few weeks ago, Karissa's class went on a field trip to Geer School. It's a one-room schoolhouse with all the old-fashioned school ways to go with it. They just basically dressed for the time (she even wore her old glasses that weren't so "modern-day") and held class in this schoolhouse that morning. They played games from that era and brought lunches as if they lived in the late 1800s. I was able to stop in for lunch and snap some photos.

Homemade bread, an apple, and a mint for her lunch. I did include a bottled water... 

Her teacher is Mr. Anderson.

 Victoria was able to complete the reading challenge of reading from certain selected chapter books in a specific time frame. She reluctantly, at first, put down Harry Potter, then found she enjoyed the other books. She was able to attend a special pizza party as a reward. She also entered the science fair again this year. After our flu in February, we decided she should do a project on killing germs. She got a little Glo Germ kit and tested whether hand sanitizer or soap and water are best for getting rid of germs. All my kids wash their hands better now!

My little scientists!

This Saturday we will be going to the district art fair again. I haven't seen her piece yet, but Victoria has one that will be displayed. I love all these opportunities for my kids to learn and grow!

Spring Break

Ready or not, spring break came, and went. It seems we were just off for mid-winter break not long ago! I guess we were somewhat ready since we planned and carried out our quick trip to Ohio. Here's a look at what we did after our beautiful Easter Conference Sunday.

Made it to the park after spring cleaning the first day. It was a good thing because it rained most of the week!

In between rains on Tuesday, we got over to the Botanical Gardens- one of our favorite places to visit!

Hiking around the gardens on the trails.

It still looked like winter last week, but a lot has changed since then!

Bowling with friends- Lewie and Austin.

Erik has had these nice shoes and refuses to wear them. I brought them bowling and told him they were his bowling shoes. He wore them and I think he liked them too, but I'm sure he won't wear them again. He's a "Crocs" boy. 

Because of the rain and extreme winds we couldn't go to the zoo, so we went to the science center in Ann Arbor. Erik is "driving" an ambulance here. 

Fireman Austin climbed up to the top. 

We supported the scouts at their pancake dinner fundraiser. Karissa bid on this very expensive ($50) chocolate cake, which our friend egged her on to bid on. I only allowed her to keep bidding when he said it would be his contribution because he didn't want anything anyhow. She was very excited! (Notice her glasses she got over the break too.)

We had some other play dates and Victoria did some babysitting so I could get a few things done. Other than that, it was pretty low-key. Erik is glad to have everyone back in school though. He enjoys his time with Mommy alone!

Kirtland and Cleveland

We went off on a short vacation for Good Friday and the weekend. We're only about 3 hours from Kirtland, Ohio. We wanted to go again (last time we went Victoria was only 1!) so the kids could learn some church history. We went to Palmyra 2 years ago and plan on seeing Nauvoo and Missouri this summer, so we had to get this trip in to make our church history tour complete, once we complete it.

We left Thursday evening and got in later than we planned. The good thing was that Erik was really tired the next day for the tours, so he was quiet and cuddly, trying to fall asleep instead of bored and crazy, though it could have easily backfired into tired with tantrums!

  First, we toured the Newel K. Whitney store and home. Many amazing revelations were given in the  rooms above the store. I know the kids felt the Spirit and seemed to listen pretty well. They especially enjoyed seeing the old-fashioned way of life. Erik took a snooze on the picnic table while we had lunch (good thing the rain cleared up by then!). We toured the Community of Christ church afterwards. They have a little museum in their church building full of church history, then they showed us a video about the Kirtland temple before giving us a tour of it. They currently own the Kirtland Temple. It was very informative and the kids enjoyed being inside a real temple! The best part, for me, was singing The Spirit of God at the end, since that was the song the Saints sang at the dedication of the Kirtland temple.

Saw Mill and Ashery

Erik's lunchtime snooze

River where many Saints were baptized.

Kirtland Temple

We went to the Johnson home/farm last and again felt the Spirit as we learned about all the revelations given there. The boys were laying on the ground by the end, but they were quiet, at least! We got to bare our testimonies on the step where Joseph Smith often preached from.

Steps where Joseph Smith preached from. Erik kept hiding from the sister missionary trying to take our picture- stinker!

After a better night's sleep, we spent the next day at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. Driving through Cleveland, it looks like a great place! There's lots to see, so we'll have to go there again sometime. The kids, who are all very much into experiments, loved the museum and the shows we saw! It had been a long time since we had been to a Science Center.

View of the lake behind the museum.

Karissa is flying a plane!

Astronaut

On Mars

On Mars

Austin is taking of in a rocket ship.

Kid's play area.

Before going home, we had to eat at the authentic Puerto Rican restaurant there. Wow, way good! We'll need to go back just for that!

Mofongo- a popular Puerto Rican dish made of mashed plantain and cooked in a broth. This one is covered with shrimp. There are other varieties too. This was the best we've ever had!

Rincon Criollo