More recital memories

Well, I think I have everything now. I may have duplicates, but I can't be sure.

This is Amber's lyrical dance called Talking to the Moon. Her teacher was Karen Basket. There were four girls in this piece and they were fantastic on performance days. This is the dress rehearsal. Their dance number brought tears to our eyes. On show night, Jen Scott, who is in charge of Performance Team, specifically came out to watch these four girls, as they all had auditioned for the team and she had heard so many good things about the dance number. We found out yesterday that Amber and her friend (left in this photo) Sarah both made team! They are very excited. We haven't heard about the other two girls yet.

The piece was very emotion driven and you could really see it on their faces. Their choreography had been done for quite a while and they had many weeks to perfect their dance.

Amber's final pose with her friend Maggie.

This is near the end of Ethan and Amber's ballroom number, Better Now. It was a cha-cha. They really like their ballroom teacher, Christine Luder. Amber's friend (and our neighbor) Ellie is on the left, Amber is next to her. Ethan, of course, is on right.

Cha-Cha! Twist!

Christine asked Ellie, Ethan, and Amber if they would also learn the teen number, which was a swing dance to Crazy Little Thing Called Love. You can also see Ian in the back with his partner (on the right) Brittany. Ellie made her skirt. Her favorite animal is pandas, can you tell?

This was dress rehearsal, but on performance nights all the jumpers were up and in their splits. Look at Amber's! Even she was amazed when I showed her the photo!

Here we have our Grim Grinning Ghosts. This is Ian and Evyn's Tap 8 class. Ian really should be in a higher level class, but they didn't have one at the beginning of the year. He is more advanced than most of these girls and really needs to be challenged next year. Their number was done in black light and their gloves, shoes, and ghost faces glowed.

What's a tap number without some good cane work?

Evyn and Ian ... puppet ghosts.

One of their last final moves was a kick line. Most of them are at the same height ... unless that person was a bit shorter than the others.

Final ghostly pose. Ian and Evyn are in the middle with their arms up.

Of course, I've already posted some about this number, Time Warp. This was their musical theatre performance taught to them by the absolutely amazing Stephanie Brush. She outdoes herself every year! Evyn forgot to put on his black shirt for this photo.

"Let's do the Time Warp again!"

"Bring your knees in tight!"

The intermediate class now does their part. Did I mention Stephanie taught this as three different classes and they all came together to perform as one number? There were the tiny kids (beginners) then the "tweens" in the intermediate class (Amber left on second box from right and Ethan left on first box from right), and then the advanced class (Ian and Evyn).

"Just a jump to the left" and the boys perform a barrel jump. Each has his own technique, but they all went up and came down at the same time. The smoke machine really added to the effects in this number. Evyn is on the left, Ian is on the right.

Final Time Warp pose. Amber is in the back in black gloves on Ian's shoulder, arms in the air. Evyn is left of center about to pick up his little kid (white shirt). Ethan's hidden in the middle somewhere.

Ian and Evyn's hip hop/jazz class. I was less enthused about this number. I felt they had a better teacher last year and learned a whole lot more. However, our boys gave it their all and put as much energy into as possible. The number ended up being called Show Goes On.

Ian (left), Evyn, and the rest of their hip hop/jazz class.

Amber likes to be Tanya's (owner of studio) teacher assistant and this year helped with the 3-year olds and the 4-5 year olds. This is the 3-year old class. They weren't quite ready to go on by themselves yet. Their number was Mr. Golden Sun. Amber, of course, is on the left. She's dressed ready for her tap number. We were glad her costume went with the little girls'.

This piece segued into I'm Walking On Sunshine. The little girls were concentrating very hard on getting THEIR little wand. It was quite comical when they didn't get "their" wands ... but it all worked out in the end.

Ethan (right) and Amber (center left) did their tap number to On The Sunny Side of the Street. Jessica Howell taught their class, and the ghost class, and mine.

Final pose ... and Amber's balancing on her toes the entire time! (Ethan did not wear white socks on performance days!)

And, for a laugh, this is my class. We did a piece set to three songs: themes from X-Files, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, and The Jetsons. We were so glad Jessica danced with us. She is on the left. This was the last show. One of the tech crew took this photo for me. We had two people join us on our final dance, our MC, Mark, and Lori (far right) who has been stage manager for several years and is leaving to spend the senior year with her daughter. (Oh, and in case you can't figure out which one is me, I'm next to Lori.)

Intergalactic Tech Rehearsal

Another dance year comes to an end. A culmination of all the kids' efforts will be displayed this coming weekend throughout matinee and evening performances in two different shows.

All the kids have excelled in Stephanie Brush's acting classes. It started as Acting for Dancers and has blossomed into a wonderful acting class. This year they perform an except from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

Here Evyn, as Mr. Willie Wonka, announces, "Fumbo feezy bungo bunny, youbelooney, webewise, and youbecookoo, katikati moon and stars, fanevesha venus mars! Anapolinta zoonk zoonk!"

The astronauts spot something odd in space! It's a Great Glass Elevator, with a bed, and elderly people in their nightshirts, and an odd man in a great purple cape.

The President and his advisers are quite worried. The Chief Interpreter (left) has been called in to make sense of what Wonka is saying. The President's vice president and former nanny (Amber) and Chief Military Advisor help her to make decisions on what is to be done about the situation.

This is Evyn and Ian's Tap 8 class. They are doing their number partially in black light. I have some photos, but they did not come out clearly for obvious reasons. I may insert one anyway. They are doing their piece to Disney's Grim Grinning Ghosts.

The Grim Grinning Ghosts perform their kick line.

Stephanie Brush also does the musical theatre class. It's a phenomenal jazz number to Time Warp. She taught three different classes with three different age/dance skill levels and brought them together into one number. This is the advanced class with Ian and Evyn.

Again, the advanced class doing Time Warp.

Evyn really gets into the acting and musical theatre numbers.

Time Warp ... "Bring your knees in tight!"

This is the intermediate class with Amber and Ethan. (Amber is second from left, to the right of their friend Ely Dawson, and Ethan is center in white shirt.) This is a giant V formation.

The intermediate class brings their "knees in tight" during Time Warp.

Jonathan (Ian and Evyn's friend) and Ian come out for "just a jump to the right" during Time Warp.

Time Warp ends with all three classes coming together in the end and then ...

their final pose! It's FANTASTIC!

La Petite Chausette Poisson d'Avril

As you may recall I have one small indulgence for myself and it is a subscription to the Wee Tiny Sock Club, or Brave Little Knitters. Meg Bakewell is a wonderful designer and I love making these socks. Once a month we get a pattern with all the goodies (yarn, beads, a special stitch marker, treats), and a sock blocker.

The past few months she has been doing her dissertation and getting her PhD, so our socks have been on hold and the back burner until she completed all the elements of her PhD, including defending her dissertation. (Much of this is foreign to me, so I'm not quite sure of the process, but she made it and now she's a full-fledged PhD. She is now known to us as Dr. Meggles!)

At any rate, we are now getting our spring collection. Here is the Wee Tiny Fish Sock for April.
I had to put the fishy in the proper element. It's not easy taking a focused photo through a fishbowl!
And a bit of a wee close up from above.

Father's Day

While Daryn had been gone for two weeks for work in Hawai'i, the kids planned what to do for him for Father's Day. They made some cards, and then had a difficult time deciding what to do for a gift. We put our heads together and decided we'd give him the gift of golfing. He really enjoys golfing, but since coming here and because of work, has not had the chance to go out and golf in a couple years. Although not a quite game with his friends, it was an afternoon spent as a family.
We blindfolded him so he couldn't see where we were going, and he even wore his headphones and listened to music so the kids wouldn't give the secret away. However, he's too smart for us! He knew where we were before he took the blindfold off. I should have taken the time to twist and turn and take a while to get there, but I didn't ... we live and learn.


All set to start out. We did 9 holes instead of 18. Daryn, Ian, Ethan, and Amber golfed. Evyn caddied for Daryn and I took pictures.
Daryn gives Amber a lesson on how to hit the ball.
Ethan applies the knowledge he learned a couple weekends ago on his Arrow Patrol outing. (He and his fellow patrol members went out and earned their golfing merit badge.)
Ian tried to strong-arm his hits. The afternoon was a lesson on how to let the club do the job.
Daryn's out of golfing shape. He started to get the strokes down as we neared the 9th hole.
A little lesson on the putting green for the kids.
Back at home, Amber designed a cake just for the occasion. For her AHG Cake Decorating badge she had to cut a cake into a shape and use a tip for icing. So, we did a deep round pan, she made a chocolate cake and then cut it into a square. We used a glass to make the hole, and then she started putting on the green stars for the golfing green.
Nice and even, no straight lines. However, our frosting consistency wasn't the greatest. But, it hardened well and was tasty.
The finished cake, complete with a dark chocolate molded golf ball from our favorite candy store.
Happy Father's Day!

Summer at Hogwarts - Herbology Class

How do you get four kids motivated throughout the summer? Find something they really like and combine it with every day activities and you get a summer of fun!

We all very much enjoy J.K. Rowling's series about Harry Potter and all his adventures at Hogwarts. We can't afford to send the kids away to someone else's Hogwarts Summer Camp ... so we are making our own!

We came up with the first class fairly easily ... Herbology. It was time to get the garden in. Each child has their own raised bed with their choices of veggies to be planted. Some have more than one, some share one with another. They will be responsible for their bin or bins. They will earn house points for the work they do on their bins, and other bins if they desire.

June 6 started Herbology class. Summer Camp doesn't really start until June 13.

The beds have been prepped, and planting commenced.

Evyn adds the finishing touch on his bin ... a lone marigold. His raised bed has lettuce and spinach. He'll do a second planting in a couple weeks.

Amber was very meticulous with her carrot seeds. She didn't want to waste any by having to pull them up when thinning, so she planted individual seeds and "pre-thinned." Her carrots of choice? Multi-colored! (Since the planting, Dad has asked for a bin of straight orange carrots. They will be planted shortly.)

Ian planted a variety of peppers and a couple cucumbers, along with some pollinators ... marigolds. Here he is watering the herb bed. He added in some mint.

Ethan planted pumpkin seeds, and a cantaloupe. We aren't sure we'll get much from this lone plant, as it's not the best environment like it was in Nevada.

Ian and Evyn work together to replant parsley. So far it remains quite wilted looking. We aren't sure it will come back. It's visiting with the potatoes this year.

First day's planting completed. (What you don't see is the next day's planting of corn.)

Happy Herbology Students!