We started this week with Mariah’s Brookside Elementary School Choir concert.

She rocked out to “Rockin’ Robin” and sang a great song with lots of actions and hilarious facial expressions called “I Lost My Homework!” and sang a lovely, haunting song called “Listen to the Rain.”  It was fabulous.  I love to watch Mariah sing because she puts her whole self into it.  She’s got passion for music!

We had a nice day this week and I did some yard work.  Yay me!  I also cleaned our fountain and got it working again.  I don’t know what I was thinking.

Is it possible to keep a one-year-old out of a fountain of water?  If it is, I have yet to figure it out!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had more softball games.  Also on Wednesday, Savannah and Sarah got to go to Lagoon with the junior high.  What a fun day for all those hard-working kids!  Megan got to go swimming at the Springville Pool with the 6th graders and Cali, Chey, and Mariah had Field Day at the elementary school.

Thursday was the last day of school!  I was going to get a picture of everyone looking really tired, but I guess by the time everyone was home from school, I forgot!  Plus, everyone was already a hundred different directions, as usual . . .

It was Megan’s last day as an elementary school student, so that meant we got to attend the 6th Grade Celebration!!

They sang “I Can Go the Distance,” which always gives me chills.  And then they rocked out to “Dynamite” and they put their hands up in the air and sang “Waay oh!”

It looks like a happy and confident group of 6th graders doesn’t it?  What more could you ask from a school?  (Alright, alright, as long as they’ve got good test scores, too – and they do!)  We got to watch a slide show after that.  Then Megan stayed and had fun with her friends for the rest of the (half) day of school!

So ends Megan’s elementary school career.  It’s been fun!  Now!  Onward and Upward to Bigger Things!  We love you, Megan Rose!

So, Friday was the first official day of summer vacation.  The night before, our very excited Calianne, FINALLY lost one of her front teeth!

Which meant that the tooth fairy came and gave her a whole dollar to spend.  Which meant that she begged and pleaded and begged some more to go to the dollar store from the moment she woke up.  So . . . we went!  Yay!  I bought everybody some sidewalk chalk while we were there, so we managed to fill up our first day of summer vacation.  See Ben over there hard at work with his own piece of chalk?  So cute!

Cheyenne was actually sick for most of her last week of school.  She managed to go to school Wednesday for field day, but that was it.  She seems to be better now.  On Friday, Sarah went down with it and she has yet to come back up.  That’s not a fun way to start summer vacation is it?  And yet, we are happy that we had a comparatively healthy school year.  Why not lay around now?  :)

On Saturday, Savannah performed in her first voice recital.  She sounded so lovely.  She hated every minute of it, but the rest of us really liked it!

Would you like to hear her?  I thought you would . . .

Then Saturday night, Savannah performed in a piano recital.  Sarah would have performed, as well, but she was down for the count (still sick)!  We missed hearing Sarah perform, but it was fun to hear Savannah anyway.  She sounded lovely but is sure that she did not.  Silly child.  We think she is cool!

On Sunday, Megan and I played a violin duet in sacrament meeting for church.  It was “Love at Home.”  Megan played really well!  We sounded lovely, too.  :)

Softball games started this week!  In the rain.  Yes, indeed.  Tuesday was our first day of softball games.  Megan had a game at 5:00, Mariah had a game at 6:00, and Sarah had a game at 7:00.  Isn’t that nice how they stacked up like that?  So, apparently, for softball, they will cancel if it has been raining all day and the fields are full of mud, but if it is raining during the game and the field is okay, then they will keep on playing!  Such was the case Tuesday.  I think I need to buy an umbrella.  We all huddled under the overhang by the bathrooms while Bethany cheerily went running from puddle to puddle getting thoroughly drenched.  It was a great excursion for a two year-old.  Our softball players had fun, too.  They probably would have opted for a clear, warm day, but were happy they could play at all and that games weren’t cancelled.  Now that’s love of the game!  Megan did great stealing lots of bases after they walked her to first.  Mariah started out pitching and threw lots of strikes, then went to bat and hit a line drive to the outfield.  It was impressive.  Sarah got to play first base in the major leagues (that’s what I call it since it is the highest league before they kick you out!)  She did great catching everything that came at her (except for one ball that was miles above her head) and getting lots of outs.  Man!  It makes you want to come out here and watch them play even if you have to sit in the rain, doesn’t it?  We were supposed to have games on Wednesday and Thursday, too, but on those days it rained all day and was clear in the evenings.  You know what that means . . . Games cancelled.  That’s okay.  They’ll get to play them again later in the season.

On Friday, Mariah got to play in her first piano recital! She knew her piece so well, she’d been playing it by heart for a couple of weeks!  The recital, organized by her teacher, was held in the primary room at church and was open to other children learning piano in the ward.  It was a great way for the kids to show their talents.  Sarah and Savannah even played in it as their teacher caught wind of the event and “encouraged” them to use the chance to play in front of others.  They didn’t much care for the church piano, but they did well, anyway!

Poor Calianne was sick most of the week.  She didn’t feel well Monday night and then didn’t go to school Tuesday.  Wednesday she went back to school because the first grade was going on a field trip to the Bean Museum and then bowling!  Cheyenne and Calianne were both so excited for it for weeks.  When she got back from school that day, though, she sat down in a chair and fell sound asleep.  Poor girl.  She was not well.  She didn’t really start feeling better until Sunday.  Now, today, Monday, she is back at school, and Cheyenne is home with what looks like the same thing:  low-grade fever, head congestion, headache, extreme lethargy, and occasional stomach pain.  Yuck, yuck, yuck!

I spent most of Saturday taking Megan to different stores to find a dress she likes for church.  She finally found one she liked.  Yay!  But I, who was also looking, did not!  So, how can I blame her for taking so long to decide?  I’m glad she found something!  We women are hard to please when it comes to dresses.

On Sunday, I spoke in church.  I think it went well.  I’m glad that my kids could hear how very much I believe in the power of the gospel in our lives and how very much Christ loves each of us.  It can be a blessing to speak in church!  Even though it can be kind of scary.  :)

Well, I am pleased as punch!  I have had it in the back of my mind to redecorate the upstairs, hall bathroom for awhile now.  In fact, when school started, I thought that could be the project I worked on with all the extra time I’d have once the kids were in school.  Smirk.  You can see how well that worked out.  Nonetheless, with the end of the school year quickly approaching, I decided I wanted to get it done before summer vacation.  I also decided I could.  I prepped during the week, wonderful Grandma Gazdik watched my children on Friday, and look what I did!  It’s amazing what paint can do.

I should have taken a “before” picture.  (It was white with light blue accents – very blah!)  I love it.  The biggest thrill for me, though, was getting a new mirror.  The old mirror started about halfway up the wall and had a sliding medicine cabinet along the bottom.  My children have never been able to see themselves in the mirror without a stool until they were about age ten.  How awful is that?  One of the older girls asked me, “Why didn’t you change this for us?”  I don’t know.  I think because it took me awhile to realize that I could.  Funny how that is, isn’t it?

 

This was the week of our crazy concert night.  JUST LIKE LAST YEAR, the junior high choir concert was the same night as the Let’s Play Music year-end piano recital.  Unlike last year, we had two singers at the junior high singing at the beginning and end, and two graduating students at Let’s Play Music, so they played at the very end of their recital.  There was no way for everyone to see everything this year.  It was very sad!  Anyway, we were smart enough to leave the two babies home with a great babysitter.  Then Dad and Megan went to the junior high where Sarah and Savannah were performing and Mom and Mariah went to the piano recital where Calianne and Cheyenne were performing.  Cali and Cheyenne got to wear their new skirts, shirts, and headbands!

But their sweet personalities outshone even their clothes.  Their teacher had them introduce their songs themselves and I was so impressed with their clear, confident little voices.  I’m telling you, they were heart-melters!  Then, they played their pieces so well, too!  As the culminating feat of this three year music program, they work on composing their own song.  Their teacher helps them to get it written up “for real” and they perform it at the year-end recital.  If you are interested, here are videos of our two composer/musicians!

We accidentally deleted the video of Cheyenne introducing her piece.  She said, “The name of my piece is ‘Kitty, Dog, and Dragon.’  If you listen carefully, there is an A section and a B section.  In the B section, a dog is chasing a kitty and a dragon comes to save her.”

They both played their pieces even better at the performance.  I was so happy for them!  They were the most excited, though, over getting trophies for graduation.  There is nothing better than a trophy when you are six years old!

We high-tailed it over to the junior high as soon as the recital was over and burst through the doors just as Savannah’s group began their song and dance medley of songs from Guys and Dolls.  Yay!  I really did not want to miss that!  She did great, too.  She told me she needed a dress from the 80s for this medley.  I told her Guys and Dolls was set in the 50s!  She said, “Whatever.”  Funny how that seems like a big difference to me since I grew up in the 80s and Guys and Dolls was set in old times, wasn’t it?  Heh, heh.  Anyway, she danced and sang beautifully as always.  I missed all of Sarah’s songs, but Dad and Megan said she did fantastic.  Savannah was most jealous that she got to stand in the back row and Savannah has never gotten that opportunity.  No fair!  Either way, they are both my favorite members of the junior high choirs.  (Notice the choir shirts.  They say, “Master Singers,” and “Apprentice Singers.”)

On other fronts, we have accepted the primary’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon this year.  Bethany goes through varying stages of disruptiveness as we continue to give it a go.  She didn’t bother us at all one night this week.  This is what we came out of the room to discover she had been doing:

I think she may be starting to enjoy family scripture reading time.

This was also the week of Megan’s Hershey Track Meet.  Go Megan!

That fast blur is, in fact, Megan.  Though, you’ll probably have to take my word for it.  She ran the 200 meter and did great!  She is a fast kid!  We love her!

On Saturday, Mariah and I had an Activity Days Mother-Daughter Spring Picnic.  It was so much fun!  Mariah made me lunch (she makes fantastic turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches!), we made a flower pen craft, got our picture taken, and even got to play water balloon volleyball.  Mariah is very good at that, too!  Afterwards we had ice cream sundaes.  It was fabulous and it didn’t even rain on us!  I love that girl and I’m glad she and I could spend some time together.

What a week!

I love dandelions.  So does Savannah.  She took ten pictures of this one that she found.  It takes a real connoisseur to recognize the subtle differences in each dandelion and recognize the truly great ones.  Seriously!  Free yellow flowers everywhere!  God is so awesome.  :)

Bethany has a new favorite thing to do around our house.  Her very most favorite thing is still to watch Dora.  Specifically, Dora Saves the Snow Princess.  Although, she might prefer Dora Saves the Mermaids.  She did have an impressive tantrum when I couldn’t turn it on for her because I had deleted it accidentally.  I digress.

Dad has bought us an iPad!  Actually, Dad bought himself an iPad and everyone in the house uses it.  Since Bethany doesn’t have the computer/mouse combination  figured out, this iPad is really her first foray into computer games.  Oh!  She loves it!  I love that she can be entertained by something other than the TV!  Hopefully, she is learning something along the way, too!  Hopefully, she will also learn to share!  Lol!

It did come in handy this week, though, as I was finishing a project that has been a lot of fun for me for almost two months now . . .

SKIRTS!!  They’re for Cali and Cheyenne’s piano recital next week.  I know that two skirts should not take two months to finish, but when you have a life like mine, you just have to be flexible, start WAY in advance, and enjoy the little blocks of time you may or may not get here and there to work on it.  Anyway, my cousin, Wendy, designed this pattern and she makes the cutest clothes for her girls to wear and I’ve just been so excited to try for my own girls.  It’s been so fun and I’m so pleased with how they turned out!

This weekend was the annual Utah Coalition Against Pornography conference in Salt Lake City.  Kevin had a booth! (Like he has every year for the past seven years . . .)

And since there is only one of him and many people interested in what he has to offer, I went with him to help talk to people.  We were there from about 7:30 to about 2:00 in the afternoon.  We talked to a lot of people!   It’s good to see how many people really want to help.  I am proud of Kevin and all that he has done to help people reclaim lives they thought they had lost for good.  It was easy for me to be sincere with people who wanted to know about Kevin’s products!

In order to be at the conference, of course, we left all eight of our children home without us.  Yikes!  That is what I thought initially, but it turns out that they don’t even need me around here!  They took care of the babies, did all their Saturday jobs, kept track of one another, and even attended the ward party on their own!  Holy Cow, right?  AND when I walked in the door, they gathered around and shouted, “Happy Mother’s Day!”  because it turns out they not only did their Saturday chores, but cleaned the entire house as well.  What great kids!  I also found out on Sunday that they also took some time to make me a video for Mother’s Day where they recorded for all time that they like me!  I like them, too.  I am so blessed to have them and can not imagine my life without them.  On Mother’s Day they thank me for being their mother and all I can think is how much I want to thank them for making me one.

THERE IS NOTHING IN ALL THE WORLD BETTER THAN BEING A MOTHER!!!

This week was the week of Mariah’s Hershey Track Meet.  She ran in the 400 meter and the 200 meter.  She did really well in the 200 and won in her heat, but not overall.  In the 400, though, she came in third in the city.  Way to go Mariah!  That is one fast little girl!

She started out pushed to the very back of the pack.  Kevin and I watched as she passed EVERYBODY one by one except for first place girl.  Second place girl passed her just inches from the finish line.  It was an exciting race. 

 

This weekend was fun for us, too!  My sister, Maggie, and her family came and stayed with us for a few days!

Third daughter, Elizabeth, there is holding a trophy.  The reason for the trip was because Elizabeth was performing in a dance competition in Provo.  Her team did great and placed in every category they entered.  I watched her.  She was beautiful!

Also on Saturday, we got to squeeze in a trip to the BYU Museum of Art to see the Carl Bloch exhibit.

What a beautiful spirit we felt there!  What a contribution he made to all the world in helping us to see events from the Savior’s life where we could not be to see in person.  I am so grateful for all people of any faith who hold such deep devotion for Christ and all He did for the world.  We all can strengthen each other!

I should also mention that we all went to Brick Oven together on Saturday, too!  We love the Brick Oven!!!

The rest of the week went on in its normal way.  Softball practices have started.  You knew it was coming, didn’t you?  It is just warm weather that hasn’t come!  So, about half the practices have been rained out.  We don’t mind too much, though.  It’s good to ease into these things!

Music lessons and practicing, homework, friends.  The Young Women went to the temple this week and it was Megan’s first time getting the chance to go!  That was pretty special.

Mariah and I went to Activity Days together.

Benjamin’s personality is starting to emerge more and more.  He is a very focused and determined child.  For instance, if a door is shut in our home, Bethany would have just continued on to find something else to do.  If Benjamin finds a door shut and there is something he wants behind it, he will bang on the door, push the door, and holler and holler!  If we pick him up and take him clear across the house to interest him in something else, he will turn around and head RIGHT BACK.  It is impressive.  It’s not just shut doors, either.  He is that way about everything he wants!  I think this will translate into a terrific trait as he grows into a man.  I am not so sure that it will be very fun while he is a toddler!  In fact, it makes me a wee bit apprehensive!  He walks everywhere now and jabbers in imitation of speech.  AND, he still dances by shaking his head every time he hears us sing or if the girls start to dance around him.  He is a music man!