The end of another school year!

Diplomas, Certificates, all manner of representations have been dispersed to signify how much work has been accomplished this 2008-09 school year!

Ivy successfully finished Princess School,
















Eli graduated from Kindergarten,

















And Lizzie can successfully hang with anyone from the Third Grade.

We have been blessed with some phenomenol teachers this year - thank you Mrs. Kennedy, and Mr. Mares!

I Just Don't Think I Can Take That Kind of Rejection!

We had a "Back to the Future" movie night with the Andrews last weekend. We were all set.
We'd had a 'battle of the movie lines' over email,
I had drilled movie quotes into the kids' heads all day to prepare them,
and I had baked a special cake for the occasion. (the kids were peeking over my shoulder as I frosted asking 'Who is Uncle Joey?'!)


We were all settled in and Ward opened the Netflix package to find - GREAT SCOTT! - the movie had broken.
(The Netflix website had troubleshooting tips if your dvd is damaged: gently wipe with a soft cloth from the inside out - we tried, but it didn't help)
The Andrews, who are super tech savvy, have no need for a physical video store nearby, and thereby have no cards. There was no nearby Hollywood video, where the Stewart family has cards for. But there was a nearby Blockbuster store.

Luckily, Adam found his old Blockbuster card.

Surprisingly, they let him check out a movie with that old thing. ("Yes, you can trust me to take your dvds and return them in perfect condition, I promise!")

And all was restored to the time-space continuum.

CCC Rocks the House! (or cathedral in this case!)

Here are a couple of shots from the May 1st concert. Aimee and the kids did great!




















































Okay this isn't one of our kids but I had to include since it's so good!

I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair...

The final concert of the Phoenix Symphony season was "A Tribute to Rogers & Hammerstein" - what fun! They chose 8 men and 8 women from our big choir to sing some of the chorus parts from South Pacific and Sound of Music. We're all too old to be having this much fun!! Our music is memorized, and we, for once, get to stand in front of the orchestra! And, we didn't have to wear all black! This is as exciting as it gets for choir members! :) What HAMS we all turned out to be!
Here's one with Dr. Gentry and his wife Anna...

Lynn and I had a cameo during the men's number "There Ain't Nothin' Like a Dame." We strutted across the stage and blew kisses.

Hippy Day

We are having way too much fun with Spirit Week.

Wacky Hair Day!

The kids have been looking forward to this day all year!

But, alas, every Wacky Hair Day reminds us of the First Wacky Hair Day we had at this Elementary School...

...We had recently moved in, mid-year, and Lizzie was in 1st grade. We were so excited for Spirit Week. Lizzie and I concocted some seriously Wacky Hair. We put the "wacky" in Wacky Hair Day. Wires, feathers, orange hair dye, the Works! It was awesome....until...

I got a phone call from the school about an hour later. It was Lizzie.

"Wacky Hair Day is tomorrow."

People's "Who Wore it Better?"

I was so excited to wear my new dress to church today. It's so me. So unique; so original. LOVE the color.

Kim was excited to wear her new dress to church today too. It's so her. So unique; so original. LOVE the color.

Well, it was the curse of Fairview Street.

I admit, I was diggin' the shoes she paired with the dress. But did you notice my necklace??

And please, don't vote. If there's anyone I don't want to be in a fashion contest with, it's Kim! For heaven's sake, she could wear a couch slipcover and make it look fabulous!! I'm just flattered I bought the same dress as such a fashionista! :)

PS Kim, I claim every 3rd Sunday all summer long for this dress.

Eli's Exciting Weekend

Instructions for Eli's Exciting Weekend:

1. Get checked out of school early on a Friday afternoon. ("See ya later, Suckers!!")

2. Assemble only the most essential gear - compass, magnifying glass, binoculars, net, foam sword, remote control dragon fly, stopwatch, canteen, HP Bk 1, headlamp. Oh, and a toothbrush.

3. Put all essential gear on your person. Remember your favorite stuffed animal, Snakey!
4. Relax!!



Best Stories:
Eli wondering what would happen if he touched a burning stick from the campfire
to a tent. Not our tent, of course. Well, he found out. Kevin, we're Soooooooo sorry.

First time trying out .22 rifle in a creek bed shooting water bottles and clay pigeons off of a log. Eli went last of the group of men and boys. He shot 9 out of 10, best of all the boys, and most of the men. I'm pretty sure he gets his dead shot abilities from me. Wait...no...that would be Adam.

Eli was so excited, he just wanted to be in the tent. So, he just went in that tent. And he was just there. And he just loved it. :)

Thanks Adam, for taking him on the Fathers&Sons Ward Campout! (We don't know if Kevin thanks you for taking him though....)

Russian music. No, we did not accelerate.

At our Riznica concert tonight, a night full of Russian music. I crammed my brain full of "sriet shumnavah bawlaw" to sing my solos. Afterwards, we went with the Andrews to one of my favorite restaurants, Cibo's.

so silly.

A Must Read!!

One of the most interesting friends I have is Tamathy Christensen. I love her. We used to run together in the mornings when we both lived in Roanoke, Virginia. I didn't get up early for the exercise, I got up and jogged with her to hear her stories.

She has started blogging again, Hallelujah!! What a brilliant writer. I believe she is testing out chapters for her book "21." If you know what's good for you, you will click on this link and start letting the tears of laughter roll.

www.tamathy.blogspot.com

The previous post mentions her boys' violin teacher. It was me! I am practically famous.

A.I. Rock Night

For the first time in 2 years, I have decided to watch a full episode.

The reasons for my boycott of Idol are many and varied, but my curiosity won out tonight.

Bottom Line:
If they could combine Adam Lambert's voice with Kris's stage presence, we'd have a winner.

But my suspicions have been confirmed. The judges don't listen or watch the performances at all and try to sway the voters to their previously decided favorites. Their comments don't relate to what they just saw or heard at all. It's so annoying! This is one of the reasons I stopped watching this show.

But I will say...I love the duets. They should have added this feature years ago!

And this is the first time I've seen the show with instruments allowed. The guitar is a very great feature.

Play-by-play:

Adam's solo - I've never heard the song before, but his voice is truly amazing. He's just so difficult to watch.

Allison: She's so cute - what a face! Her voice was really good. It looks like the judges have been beating her down for a while, and it's giving her a complex. Again, I didn't know the song. But seriously, there were a total of 3 different notes. Bad choice choice vocally!

Kris & Danny Duet: Sucked. They only sounded good in their harmonies. Their solo parts were out of tune and yucky sounding. They don't look like they like each other either - it didn't look fun.

Kris: I liked it. It was a great performance. True, his voice isn't as powerful, but his mannerism and face were so charming, it was really fun to watch him.

Danny: Painful. And he looks just horrible on stage. No place, no right to be there. Why aren't they trying to oust him instead? He's terrible. I know this song, and I know it's supposed to be a big scream at the end, but that was the strangling-est chortled death screech I've ever heard. It actually physically hurt my voice just to listen to him.

Duet: Slow Ride. Know it thanks to Guitar Hero. This is great. Their voices match perfectly - great duet. Allison has a lot of sparkle on stage. I like her. And again, Adam's got the award for best vocal chops. He's gifted. But so creepy to watch. Is that really the image American Idol is going for? If so, he's the winner.

the aftermath

It's always interesting to come down after a tremendous project. Today is the beginning of the recovery.

First order of business: Fold a mountain of laundry. This will lessen the time spent digging in piles of clean clothes looking for matching socks. Hey, at least it's clean laundry we're digging through.

Secondly: Fingernails. When I'm distracted, this tend to get out of hand. (punny!haha.) I had some kids to declaw today.

Thirdly: Cooking. I should probably start again. But then I'd have to buy groceries. Gladly and gratefully, thanks to two A-Maz-ing visiting teachers, I don't need to cook dinner for a couple more days. I love you Jane and Xan! :)

Fourthly: Confirm Friends on Facebook. I'm all caught up there now. Whew!

Fifthly: Post a picture of my cute kids. Haven't done this for like an entire week!


Sixthly: Plan an elaborate Primary Music lesson for Sunday that involves art and posters and lamination. Ha! Tricked you! I never do that in the first place! We shoot from the hip in TO2.

Seventhly: Learn some Russian pronunciation. Stat. For two Russian solos next Saturday. Oi.

Eighthly: Piles of papers. Oi again.

Ninethly: Oh, this is a biggie - we've a Scottish wedding to prepare for, me laddies! Fetch me a kilt - lads' size 6! Fetch me a passport for me lass Ivy! And fetch me the Loch Ness monster while we're at it!

Tenthly: Attempt to express the depths of gratitute for dear friends and family, (and mostly my insanely supportive husband), that have helped me along this Children's Choir adventure for the last 12 months. If I haven't expressed it enough to you, it's because I am humbled and at a loss of words to tell you how much I am strengthened by you and inspired by you and bolstered by you! Thank you.

Concert Tonight!

I am so excited about our Children's Choir Concert tonight. The venue is perfect - a cathedral - so we will be able to avoid all those microphone and balance issues we had last time. whew! The kids are prepared. The flute soloist sounds amazing. And I absolutely love the music that I picked. ;) In fact, yesterday I was practicing my conducting in my living room (Ivy was singing for me to represent the choir), and I was getting all teary-eyed! Dude, What is wrong with me?! But it is so exciting to see it coming all together after so much work. I am really excited about tonight.