Allie's a good sport

...and indulged me in a quick photo shoot to test out the light today.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was quite fun.  The kids tried to keep me in bed while they decorated the kitchen and family room and made breakfast.  There were signs on my bedroom door that said "DO NOT COME DOWNSTAIRS TIL AFTER 7 A.M" and "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY".  All handwritten in cursive by Collin.
So when 7 a.m. came, I went downstairs and found pink balloons everywhere and a banner that said "I HEART U MOM" and the table was set.  Pretty creative.  Except they were bummed the pancakes didn't turn out quite right.  So I helped them fix it.  I had flowers and cards from Kevin and more cute handmade cards from the kids.

I love how Collin is just laying on the floor - they blew up all the balloons!  And heart attacked the kitchen with hearts that said I love you because... So sweet!

Allie made this on Photoshop

We enjoyed a wonderful relaxing day at church, and once again, Kevin took care of Zane the whole three hours of church, taking him out of class when he fussed and was loud.  I realized while sitting in Sacrament meeting (after one speaker mentioned helping his wife get the kids dressed that morning for mother's day), that Kevin gives me the luxury of Mother's Day every Sunday, not just on Mother's Day.  I felt grateful, and feel blessed that he has the time to do what he does for me.

One thing that's become a tradition is taking a photo of me and the kids on Mother's Day.  It is one of the few times I am actually in the same photo with all the kids.  I love to see how much they've grown.

 I love being a mom and feel blessed to teach and raise them.  What a challenge and what a blessing.

Kevin of course was not getting out of a photo-op on Mother's Day. 

After church,  we skyped my Mom in the Bahamas, then went to Kevin's parents house for dinner - it was yummy and fun to celebrate Mother's Day with the family.  I am grateful for my mother and mother-in-law and for the righteous influences that they are.

Bob C. by Collin (Let's Play Music Composition)

Almost two weeks ago marked the end of 3 years of Let's Play Music for Collin!  Now he is ready to start private piano lessons with Bob, Allie's piano teacher.  Collin learned so much music theory without even realizing it - the songs are fun and the weekly classes with Ros, who is a great teacher were entertaining as well.

To cap their third year, all students were required to compose an original piece using their knowledge of chords and patterns.  I was amazed at what Collin came up with.  I coached him thru the "pre-making" of the song - I thought he was gonna come up with some kind of story with Lego people involved, but I was wrong.  First, he had to make up a story that will become the theme of the song.  Then he chose the melody, playing it over and over, piece by piece until it matched the story line he made up.  I wrote it down on paper so I wouldn't forget.  After the melody was done, he added the left hand chords - I was impressed with how he was able to do that all on his own!  Then he had two private piano lessons with Ros to polish the piece, who then transposed the song and printed it on beautiful paper and made it look official.  On May 12th, he played the song at his recital. It is called Bob C (for Bob the Clock).

Collin and his teacher, Ros Ellsworth

Collin and his class: Carter, Cajsa, and Josh and Jesse Williams with Ros.

Here is a video we took of the piece:  The story goes like this - Bob is a clock hanging up on a store wall.  He gets bought and is taken down (listen for the hammer), and then taken home.  He is hung up on the wall once again (listen for that hammer), and stays on the wall, happily tick-tocking til the day is done.  This piece has a section A, section B, a bridge, and a coda - which apparently I was not aware of until Collin pointed it out to me.  His composition was entered in a valley-wide Let's Play Music Competition for his age group.

Moms, Muffins, Lunch Date

Once every month or so, I take the kids out from school to eat lunch with them - just one on one with me.  It is a great tradition that I love to do. This month I took Collin out on a little lunch date - he chose to eat Someburros (as usual).  It was fun to chat with this boy - he is always so sweet and very kind.  He loves riding his bike around the neighborhood or to scouts with his friends, and helpful at home too - he washes dishes three times a week, irons his own clothes, and goes grocery shopping with his Dad early on Saturday mornings.  Like I said, he is kind.

He loves to play with his younger siblings, always giving them rides out back.  check out what he did so he could give both Maddie and Zane rides at the same time:

 Then the next week was the week of Mother's Day, and Collin's class invited all the moms to come to Moms and Muffins.  They sang a cute and silly Mother's Day song and gave us cards they had made - with funny answers to questions like "My mom says ____ a lot" "Mom cries when _______", or "Mom pretends to be ______" , etc.  (to those 3 Collin answered, "do your chores", "she watches movies", and "mean").  He was pretty right on with all of them.  They had muffins and fruit for all of us to enjoy after.

Hope he continues to be just as sweet when he grows up!

Student Lighthouse Team Secretary!

Allie currently serves as 6th grade representative on her school's student council and decided to run as secretary for next year.  She made up her own posters, campaigned and gave her speech at their middle school assembly on Thursday, May 10th.  I hurried and got me and the littles to school to watch her give her speech to  a bunch of middle schoolers.  She did such a great job and is developing some good public speaking skills being part of such a team.  Since ALA became a Covey Lighthouse school in February, the student council is now dubbed "Student Lighthouse Team" or SLT, instead of StuGo.  She spent the week before helping make ballot boxes for the elections, and has enjoyed doing service for the school.  It has certainly been a good experience for her and I have seen her grow and become more responsible and more confident in her abilities.  She found out early the next morning (Friday) that she won (there were 2 others running for the same position)!  Way to go, Allie! I think she will make a great secretary!

Speaking with fellow 6th grade candidates (2 of them are currently on the SLT)

Allie and a few candidates during a speech, role-playing a student government situation.

Allie and her friend Julianna, who also will serve on the SLT as representative next year. Posted on Instagram:

Right after the speeches and before the elections

I took my two littles who were still in their pajamas! :) 

Spring Dance Recital

May is here!  It is the last month of school, last month of me teaching preschool, and the month for recitals!

Preschool's still going strong...I love this of them during music class.  I love preschool, though I can definitely breathe easier without it on my schedule.

Miss Maddie liked going to dance every week this season.  She is so funny and loves her modest clothes.  She is constantly trying to get her 3T dresses on and wearing them as blouses. And always, always, asks for a small jacket/sweater when she finds ones without sleeves.  "To cover my armpits", she says.  She was fine wearing a swimsuit to dance recital (the only thing that she wears comfortably without sleeves, since she knows swimsuits just don't have sleeves), but she told me that she wished her grass skirt was "thicker" ?! 

Maddie couldn't see her teacher coaching them in the front so she kept looking at her friend next to her to make sure she was doing it right.

Maddie wouldn't really move her little hips to dance the hula.  Pretty funny!

Grandma came to watch and hurried to leave to fly to UT to be with Megan who was going to have a baby any minute.

It was a cute day - and we went to Dairy Queen after to celebrate her dancing. 

The Rest of April

Whew!  April was just chock-full of memories.  So here they are in photos:

Both Allie and Collin were on the honor roll (they always are), and I (so lamely) forgot to come to their awards assembly.  Allie posed with her certificate for me, and I didn't get one of Collin.  I am glad they work hard all year to maintain those straight A's. 

I came home one day to find our courtyard full of neighbor kids waiting for me to unlock the front door.  These kids are always up and down the street - and knock on our door to pick up my kids.  

We usually skype Kevin when he is out of town (which happens a lot these days).  This one particular night, he proudly showed us what he got for lunch and dinner that day.  The kids acted all surprised and said, "But dad, we can't eat at those places, remember?"  Ha ha.  We made a resolution not to eat fast food at the start of the new year -- which obviously is forgotten when you're in New Mexico! :)

Another night when Kevin was out of town, Allie and her friend Nikki decided to buy those magic animals that grow when you put in water. 

  Allie and Nikki decided to do a chocolate bake sale one weekend.  I took them to Walmart and subsidized their capital to buy all the ingredients.  They were pretty excited until the day of, when they found that it was too hot outside - and it started to melt all the chocolate!  Anyway...it was still fun, even in the heat. They got $36 to split between them two.  Their little brothers were so nice and went up and down the street to "advertise" their bake sale.  People from around the corner came because of their advertising.

Don't you just love the high prices of the items?

The lizard in the cup grew into this.

Maddie and Zane riding the itty bitty tricycle out back.  Funny!

And of course...Zane can always be found doing something out of the ordinary.  This is Zane's ordinary: climbing out of his crib, hanging on the window pane, getting in the bath with church clothes on. He is fast!

And lastly...I almost forgot...

I celebrated my 34th birthday.  It was fun to celebrate with my friends at lunch three times that week, and with family at Joe's Farm Grill! 

(Brio's with Danette and Alisyn, thanks girls!)