15 Reasons Not to Be in a Play

Kaitlin's play was this week. It was very cute and just right for the age group. Kaitlin did a great job, but felt a little frustrated that the performance for parents did not go as well as the ones for their peers during school. Kaitlin thinks it's because the kids were nervous to perform in front of their families. Kaitlin did a great old lady voice in one part of the play. Many of her friends have been asking her to speak in that voice for them since. I'm including a clip that you have to hurry up and watch before Kaitlin discovers that it is here and forces me to take it down.





Culture Fair

Kaitlin also had a culture fair this week. Her country was Mexico and she worked really hard on her display and project. She is so glad to be finishing up geography this year. Her teacher has had them hand draw large maps of every continent of the world (except for Australia and Antartica, which they didn't get to). Kaitlin's artwork on these maps is beautiful, and she has spent hours and hours doing them.



For the Birds

I don't know if it's because of the cold, wet spring, but we have had many birds in our yard lately. In addition to our normal flocks of finches and sparrows, we have two pairs of nesting robins and a humming bird who has taken a permanent perch right outside my kitchen door. We have named the humming bird "Zippy". Zippy does not like any other humming bird to go anywhere near "his" feeder. He has spent many afternoons driving off other birds who dare to come into his territory. This week we've also had and oriel visiting us. Zippy doesn't bother him when he drinks from the feeder, but the nesting robin hates him and runs him off at every opportunity. The robins nesting in the back yard have built in the rain gutter, so after every rain we run out there to see if they have been washed away. Yes, it's a bit like One Birdie Life to Live, or As the Birdfeeder Turns in our backyard right now.


Just a Few Days Left

Chaz has only a few days left of school. They are filled with such intellectually harrowing tasks as "Year book Signing" and "Graduation Practice". He'll be graduating on Wednesday at 6pm and then afterwords has an all night lock-in at the local rec center.

In the Paper

I posted about attending Women's Conference at the end of April. Well, my friend Amy posted a picture from the newspaper. We are sitting at the table in the lower right hand corner. I am in blue facing the camera, my friend Lisa is to the left and then you can see the back of Amy's head. One of the nights of the conference is spent doing service. Thousands of women work on thousands of projects for different shelters, orphanages and agencies. This is one of my favorite parts of the conference.


Joseph Auditions

I sat in on auditions for our city's summer production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. I've learned more from watching auditions than I ever had auditioning. Last year I wrote a note of advice that I would give anyone auditioning for a musical (if your not my facebook friend you can also read it here). I'd just like to say Amen to what I wrote and emphasize that song choice was the #1 problem we saw with auditioners. The only note I'd add is to be sure to dress nicely.


Graduation Coming

Both Kaitlin and Chaz are in the thick of end of the year projects and events. I finally got Chaz's announcements out, but if you haven't gotten yours yet, Chaz will be graduating on June 1st. I blog more about what the teens have been up to in my next entry.

Happy Birthday Me!

After a little math and calculating I figured out that I turned 38 today. Chaz told me: "Today I realized that you don't look as old as you are." I took it as a compliment. I've had a wonderful day full of decorations, gifts, well-wishes and family fun. My big gift was a new cell phone. My new phone isn't a fancy or anything, but it is fancy for me (it has a camera and can hold music). And for all you iPhone (etc...) users, I'm still paying around $5 a month. So there! Tonight we are having my favorite Papa Murphy's Vegetarian Pizza and the kids have made me some cherry cheesecake bars.


San Jose

Chuck spent this week in San Jose for work. While there, he was able to visit San Francisco and Santa Cruz beach and have some good food. Most nights we were able to chat with him on Skype, and he even joined us for Family Home Evening. Speaking of Chuck, he's been very much enjoying the warmer weather on his motorcycle and has even taken a few little road trips.


Soccer in Swing

Jared is in middle of his soccer season. He's announced that this will be his last season of soccer, and of any sport for that matter, because he'd like to devote his whole time to math, science and the piano. Last week after soccer we took Jared over to our city's Peddalpalloza, where Jared got a new bike helmet.


New Guitar

My old Yamaha needs some work so after some research I picked up a new guitar this week out of the want adds. The new guitar is a Seagull with solid cedar front and cherry sides. I've never owned a cedar guitar before; it has a warm, broad sound. The best part is that I got it for about 35% of what it would have cost new. I bought another guitar off eBay as well, a Washburn, it should be coming this week.


Wrapping up School

The kids are all counting down school, but no one more than Chaz who will graduate high school in two weeks! On Friday Chaz went to Lagoon for his Physics class, and had a good time other than an unfortunate incident on one of the roller coasters (you'll have to ask him). Kaitlin has been practicing her end of the year play, 15 Reasons Not to Be In a Play (she is reason #14). Chaz's graduation is on June 1st, Kaitlin's play will be May 26th.

Happy Mother's Day

I woke up to decorations, gifts and smiling greetings. After a rocky Mother's Day last year, this year Chuck has the day planned, assignments given and each child has a type written agenda. So far I've been treated to lunch and one of my favorite snacks. I can't wait for dinner. Dinner is always better when I don't cook it myself.

I've been thinking about my mother today and how she would have been my age now when she was pregnant with me. How she kept up with a precocious curly headed trouble maker like me while dealing with the terrible 40's and a household full of children, I'll never know. I have learned so much from her and am grateful for her. I'm also so thankful for my mother-in-law who raised the nicest son and best husband ever.



George Ferris

This week Jared participated in the 2nd grade "Wax Museum", where students dressed up as a character and memorized a short biographical speech. Jared did his report on George Ferris, the steel tycoon and inventor of the 1st Ferris Wheel at the end of the 19th Century. Jared loved dressing up and he was adorable! Jared was one of the most popular "exhibits". I think it was because he was one of the few that most people were not familiar with. He also had a large Ferris Wheel made out of Knex that was popular with the boy students.

Around 70 students participated, including (as I already shared on Facebook) 3 Taylor Swifts, a Justin Bieber, 2 Selena Gomez, 2 Hanna Montanas, Carry Underwood, 2 Jimmers, handfuls of basketball/baseball/extrem sports stars, a Harry Potter, and then a smattering of the traditionals (George Washington, Cleopatra, etc). While I'm sure the teacher was just trying to teach the concept of biography, I was surprised that so many mothers would not steer their children to more educational choices.



Teacher Appreciation

I was busy this week with my room parent duties for Ruth's class' teacher appreciation week. I collected money and class gifts, made a slide show and door decoration. Here is a photo of the door decoration I made. I had each child decorate their own Toy Story alien for the door. I gave Ruth's teacher a sheriff's hat to wear throughout the week. It turned out well, but I'm glad it's over.



I Want to Do Something with You

On Saturday I asked Kaitlin if she was going to go hang out with her friends. She said, "No, I see my friends all the time at school." "So you want to hang out with me?" I asked. She smiled at me. "I don't know, are you doing something fun?" Oh the pressure! My kid wants to hang out with me more than her friends, but she wants to do something fun. What to do? Make a music video of course! Chaz was on a date and Ruth was playing with friends so Kaitlin, Jared and I made this music video. It's a big file so I posted it on YouTube rather than directly on the blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Poetry Reading

On Wednesday Kaitlin, Ruth and I went to the county poetry reading, where I was able to read my poem to the small handful of other winners and a few random elderly people. In addition to having my poem published on the website, I got a library tote, a candy bar, a certificate and my pick of a free used book. We also found Ruth a new copy of The Lightning Thief for only 50 cents, so overall a good haul ;o) We lost our latest batch of photos, so I created this lifelike recreation of the event (right).


Planetarium Trip

Chuck went with Jared on a class field trip to the planetarium. There were so many parent helpers that there was only one other boy in Jared's group. They saw a show in the dome and looked at the exhibits. They also got to tour the local basketball stadium. It was set up for indoor football and Jared got to run around out on the turf. Chuck said the turf was very rough like a scrubby pad.




Women's Conference

I had a great time this weekend at Women's Conference. This is the seventh year that my friends and I have attended this wonderful conference. We went to classes all day on Thursday, and then in the evening worked on a service project, sewing tote bags for displaced children. We had classes again on Friday, and then in the evening went to an exhibit of Carl Bock paintings and then out to dinner. Highlights for me were Julie B. Beck's address, working on the service projects (I made a yarn ball as big as my head), running around the basement of the art building in an interactive light exhibit and spending time with dear friends (often eating good food).