Awards and Piano Recital

Ryker and Avynlea had their end of year piano recital recently. This was a tough one because it is the end of year and the kids are so done with practicing, especially Ryker. It really started to get to be a fight every day to get the kid to practice his song. Needless to say all of the half practicing and fighting paid off and Ryker did not do the best job. It was obvious that he hadn't practiced as much as he could have. Hopefully lesson learned and he can use the summer off to recuperate and get ready for the fall. 

Ryker played "Ode to Joy"

Avynlea did a really good job with her song and it showed that she practiced more then her brother.

Avynlea played "The Rainbow Connection"

Happy 37th Birthday Kefford!

Funnies

I was in the bathroom Sunday morning getting ready for church when Avynlea and Rylee popped in after their bath. They were so proud of themselves for wrapping their hair in a towel and they both did a funny tada type of pose. I laughed and laughed and then made them recreate it downstairs so that I could get a picture.

Then here is a picture I took of me and Kefford right before I went on a morning run. If I would have done an after shot of me after I ran I would have looked like death because that is pretty much how I felt. Trying to get back into running after taking a nine month hiatus is not the funnest thing ever.

Hairspray!

Kenedy had her last Choir Concert of the year and it was a good one. This was the Pops concert and the girls all sang songs from the musical Hairspray. Mrs. Star told the girls to come dressed the part of the era and so Kenedy really wanted to try. She told me that I needed to get her a new dress but I did not want to spend the money on a new dress, plus the headache of trying to find the perfect dress without spending a lot of money... no thank you. I told her she could make do with what she already had. Turns out the day before the concert we went to DI to find a shirt for her for trek and she found a really cute dress. Happy days for Kenedy? It was a tad big in the bust area but not really noticeable, she loved it and it looked really cute. The day of the concert Kenedy had her friend come home with her to get ready for the concert. They both wanted me to tease their hair and give them the best 60"s do. I was stressed while doing it because I am not much of a teaser, but thanks to lots of bobby pins and hairspray their hair turned out how they wanted it. Phew.

Grandma Alison came to support Kenedy.

Side shot of her hair.

It was a fun concert, Kenedy looked amazingly beautiful and all the kids sounded great. Kenedy has really loved choir and I am glad she has had a fun experience with it. Now on to 8th grade choir. :O)

Pioneer Sewing

This year instead of doing Girls Camp for the Young Women and High Adventure for the boys our Ward decided that the youth are going to do a Trek. Part of the preparation for Trek was making pioneer clothing. I am going on this pioneer Trek as a photographer and so I needed clothing in addition to Kenedy so off we went to JoAnn's. I felt it was important for Kenedy to do some of her own sewing so she made her Bonnets and so far I sewed one of her skirts. I did her skirt because of course the Bonnets were done way in advance but I put off the skirts because I did not want to deal with them. So the day that we had to have at least one outfit due I was busy sewing Kenedys skirt. My skirt and bonnet were done way in advance I might add. :o) But I got her skirt done and we both looked pretty cute. We were supposed to have aprons done but I didn't care enough to get those done, I will do it later. 

Zoo Field Trip With Rylee

I volunteered to go on the Field Trip to the zoo with Rylees class. Because we had so many parents volunteer each parent only had to be in charge of their child plus one extra. I call that good luck! So I got Rylee and Tevin. Tevin is a boy who lives around the corner from us and I drive him home every day so it was kind of expected for him to be with me. I was only able to get a few pictures but that is OK. It was a short field trip, we only had about an hour in the zoo, which was the perfect length of time for me. Rylee was smart and brought along a baggie with crackers for a snack and once Tevin saw her food he could not stop talking about how hungry he was. We shared her crackers but the kid was on an "I'm hungry" roll, he seriously would not quit. So when we were done touring the Zoo I went ahead and bought them each an ice cream. Quite nice and generous of me I am sure. Wouldn't you know after they ate their delicious ice cream they spotted some other kids eating popcorn and started moaning about how they wished they had popcorn to eat. Too bad some mean lady bought them ice cream instead of popcorn, whatever. ;o)

Oh and as you can see Rylees tie dye shirt turned out awesome!!

Yes I also bought the two stinkers food to feed the goats. 

Dance Recitals

I found Avynlea practicing her piano one day with a little company from a friend. I thought it was pretty cute!

We had Dance recitals and these are only a couple behind the scenes pictures. I had planned on doing Avy's hair like I did it for pictures but she came home from school with a different idea. I was irritated at first because I don't like it when I plan things out in my head and they get changed but I jumped on board and thought it turned out adorable!

Rylee was excited all day long and kept asking if it was time to leave. When we finally got there she had a hard time waiting for her performance to start and was very jumpy and hyper.

Our dance recital was on thursday and all of my girls did amazing. They had a lot of fun and it is always so exciting to see them onstage enjoying what they are doing!

On Friday and Saturday I had recital for the girls I teach at The Dance Connection. This was super nerve wracking for me because I wanted them to perform well. Once I realized that no matter what they do they will be cute on stage I calmed down a little. I was able to get pictures of most of my dancers after their performances. I wasn't able to do that last year so I am happy I remembered and did it this year. I am missing a couple of girls who left before final bows but that is ok. Our theme this year was "Favorite Things" and each class danced to songs that represent some of their favorite things. Because we have so many classes and students our recitals are broken up to 5 recitals, 1 on Friday and 4 on Saturday. I had three classes in the 9:30 recital and one class in the 12:00 recital which is why two different classes dance to the same music. makes it a whole lot easier to have 10-11 dances we use throughout the recitals rather then choreographing 40 different dances. I teach five classes and had two smaller classes combined so thats why there are only four groups.

Noora, Taylor, Baby Taylor, Isabella, Bella, Emma, Peri and Emma  (Premier class dancing to Friendship Boogie and Friendship Grows like a flower)

Arabella, Sadie, Addison, Deanna, Carly, Finley and Arika not pictured are Tinsley and Halia (Bright Beginnings Class Dancing to Happy Birthday and Birthday Wish)

Alysha, Sessily, Lucy, Alyssa, Maya, Mikayla, and Aislin, not pictured are Aaliyah and Mckinnley (Healthy Beginnings class dancing to I put the zing in spring and Springtime)

Danika, Taylor, Madelyn, Sarah, Addy May, Rylee, Brooklyn, Olive and Addison (New Horizon Meridian class and Bearly Grown class dancing to Friendship grows like a flower and Friendship Boogie)

 I had a lot of fun teaching and dancing this year but now that our week of recitals are over I am ready for my summer break! I love teaching dance and I love that it gives me something to do with my time. Now that I will have all four kids in school all day long I definitely need something to fill up a little bit of time an this has been perfect for that. Plus it is fun to earn a little bit of money, that is always nice!