My friend commented on how May is so busy every year, but that at least it's all fun stuff. She's totally right! Victoria's dance recital wasn't the last big thing.
Karissa has been taking an art class after school on Mondays, which happens to be at her school and is more convenient that way. Austin has been taking a tennis class at his school on Tuesdays. They have enjoyed these extra classes, even though they add more things on our plate.
Some of her art samples.
Beethoven
They were supposed to make an angry Potato Head, but she wanted to make a sad one.
Victoria had her last orchestra concert at the very beginning of May and finally had her last choir concert last week. The timing worked out well that my dad and Mary Lou were here to enjoy that concert. They also got to see the boys play football.
For some reason, she was on the back row. Every person in front of her is taller than her on the ground, but at least I had a good seat to see her!
Her good friend Hannah, who is moving :(
This was Bethany's last year at middle school.
Fun to have them here!
Austin got a medal for "drive" at this game.
Our new deck table.
The traditional position with Grandpa.
Before football, Austin had a scout activity. He made a bird house.
And explored the water from the river we were supposed to clean, but they were behind schedule, so we had to leave to go to football. It turned out, the cub scouts were too young to do the cleaning project.
Since our month of spring was a very wet one (summer is here now with 90 degree weather!), we didn't get anything up outside, like our trampoline, gazebo canvas, or our deck table and chairs. It was nice to have some extra hands from my dad and Mary Lou to help put those up and help try to manage our jungle of lawn and weeds.
Austin has decided he wants to help mow!
After they left, Victoria had her Cecchetti ballet exam, which she passed with flying colors! This was level 3, which takes two hard years to work toward. It's a very big accomplishment!
Remember when I said times we're going to get crazy busy soon? Well, they have, but we're enjoying all these opportunities while we can.
Here are some of my favorite pics of Victoria from her dance photo session. (These were actually from a few weeks ago, but I wanted to save them for when it was her recital weekend.)
Her favorite costume was this blue one for lyrical.
She didn't like this orange tap costume, but I think it does look pretty with her white skin.
She now does her own her for any event and it's flawless!
Here's her recital dances. She was amazing and the owner of the studio told me she is very pleased with how much Victoria has improved this year. Her cecchetti ballet teacher said she was her most improved student this year! As in years past, these are just at the dress rehearsals, so the background is not up and at one point a girl with a different costume pops in for part of the dance. I'm not sure what that was all about! It didn't happen at the recital.
In addition, she had her first track meet, which she participated in the 400 meter run in. She did well for her first time. It was fun to watch.
She's in the gray shirt.
Meanwhile... Karissa had her 5th grade talent show. She and Olivia choreographed a short cheer dance for it. They did a good job for how little they practiced! We enjoyed being at the talent show.
The best part of all these activities, was that my mom was here to enjoy the experiences as well! She followed me and my busy schedule around and we enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day together!
The day my mom left was Jason's birthday. We squeezed in a quick celebratory dinner of pizza and lemon poppy seed cake. Tuesdays are extremely busy with 3 piano lessons, tennis class for Austin right now, and picking up Victoria from track. Add to that Karissa's 5th grade music concert on Jason's birthday, and you have a real mix! Luckily, I was able to take Jason out to some good Lebanese food on Friday while my mom stayed with the kids. We enjoyed Karissa's concert, though, and made everyone go as a family outing.
