Dance Recital Week!

Anyone reading these posts probably feels exhausted just thinking about all the activities I'm blogging about. Even though it has been a busy couple of weeks, in reality it's been more spread out than the blog makes it seem. I'm just doing tons of catch-up!

The girls have their annual dance recital every June. That usually means a week full of......well, hairspray! We had pictures, dress-rehearsal and then the recital all within one week. By last night (the recital) I was not feeling like the nicest mommy while fixing their hair and asking them to "stand like a statue", or "please hold still or you'll get burned", or "What? You have to go potty AGAIN after putting on your costume??".

Really, the fun memories are what lasts and the stressful parts fade. Which is why we've done it for five years now! This was Jordyn's 5th recital and Lexi's 4th. It was extra fun to put them in the same class this year (along with cousin Lyric), so they all wore matching costumes and practiced together each week!

This year the girls all had a nervous excitement. Lexi has to pee a million times and won't eat beforehand, but no one freaked out or cried or said they didn't want to do it (as has happened in years past). In fact, they kept telling me they wished they could dance on the big stage every day!

So here are some pics from the week:

Lindy fixing Lyric's hair for dance pictures

Me and Lexi

The pretty dancers, all ready for the photos!

Me and my three girls

Lindy and Lyric

Paxton and Peyton are very wild any time they are together. This pic shows how they were the entire time at the dance studio during pics!

This one too....

Another shot of the three girls by some pretty green grape vines...

Walking like pretty little ladies to their dress-rehearsal

Performance time!

The night of the recital, Grandma and Grandpa came to cheer on their little dancers!
Grandma!


Grandpa!

Spring Piano Recital

Jordyn and Lexi have two piano recitals per year (Spring and Christmas - whew!). This year, Grandma, Grandpa and Lyric were able to join us for the event. They were brave and did a great job! Jordyn has been doing piano for nearly three years, and Lexi nearly two years. They really love the Yamaha music program, Mr. John is a really fun teacher and the curriculum is extremely effective! So the effort of getting them to piano feels worth the rewards.

Cousins!

(Jordyn with Nolan, he is in her class and they are "friends". I can see why she thinks he's so fun to hang out with ;-)

Grandma and Grandpa are celebreties to these girls. Having them walk in was like Christmas!

Cute Lexi.

Lexi with her class: Andrea, Lexi, Sarah and Logan

Cute Jordyn

Jordyn with her class: Kalvin, Stephanie, Jordyn, Tommy and Nolan

Me and my cute parents

Way to go girls!!!

Swim Meet Fun

Well, we survived our first week of swim meets! MWF are swim practice, and T/TH are meets. Practice isn't bad, since it's only an hour. But meets are about five hours long. The swim meets are chaotic and fun.....with the exception of chasing a two year old around the entire time! She has to go potty 100 times too.

This week has been strangely in the 80's, so the evenings have actually felt cold for swimming. Jordyn and Lexi have been troopers. They have a lot of nerves the day of the meet and claim to not want to do it anymore. And I'm not the type of mom to force them to do things just because I want them to, but I feel like we committed to this and have told them that they need to complete one season of swim....and if they don't want to do it next year, that's fine. So Lexi (who has the hardest time with competition and her lip quietly quivers on the verge of silent tears each time her coach comes to get her) ran up to us after her first 25meter freestyle swim and proclaimed "I LOVE swim team again!!". Cute girl.

I can't believe the nerves I feel as the mother to see my little girl(s) up on the block waiting for the loud horn to signal them to dive (or jump)! They just seem so little to swim in that huge pool! But they are so determined to do well and feel so proud of themselves after they finish a race.

Swimming sisters, team photos

Lexi's team, 6 & under

Jordyn's team, 7/8 year olds

Lexi, waiting for her turn. (All the kids blend together in their swim caps!)

Lexi's up! She does freestyle and backstroke.


High Five! Just after she proclaimed her renewed love for swim team!

Jordyn's turn! She swims freestyle and butterfly the most


Jordyn - on her mark!


Jordyn's freestyle

Our little camp-out with our friends the Haroldsens and Lorangs

My Sweet Grandma

My sweet little Grandma is 80 and lives alone. She is pre-Alzheimer's and is not doing so well taking care of herself these days. I was able to go down to her house in Anaheim last weekend and took Jordyn with me. She was excited to have a little one-on-one trip with me, and I was excited for her to help me love and serve her Great-Grandma.

We had the best time with her. Any time she would start to get into a zoned-out mode or too forgetful, all she would have to do is look at Jordyn and she would light up 100%. They played and teased and Grandma kept saying how she couldn't believe how big Jordyn was and how much she looked like me. She even remembered her name most the time, which was a big deal.

When we got there, we hung out with her for a bit and I massaged her feet with lotion and cut her toenails. She really liked that. Then we went to eat at Carrows, which is one of her favorite placed (like Denny's). My cousin Michael came to hang with me around 10:00, after Jordyn and Grandma went to bed. We talked until after 2:00 am! Which I thought would be fine because Grandma usually sleeps in, but the next morning she came in where i was sleeping all dressed for the day saying "I can't believe you're really here!!!" (over and over and over).

Then we spent a full day together! We took her to church, ate at Marie Callendars, and even took her to the movies!! We saw "Up", which was an interesting choice since it was all about an elderly man who lost his wife. She really had fun being out. She walks really slow and I hold her arm the whole time. She gets confused easily, but she also loves being on the go. I always play "her" music for her and she remembers nearly every word of songs from the 40's. Between the music, the food and Jordyn, she stayed very happy and in the moment most the trip. I loved every second of it and am SOOOO glad Jordyn came with me. She didn't want to go home. I'm so glad she made memories at Grandma's house the way I have them from when I was a kid. Next time it will be Lexi's turn!

A pedicure!

Eating at Carrow's!

A manicure!

She just loved Jordyn!

Jordyn took this pic of the front of Grandma's big yard

Jordyn took lots of pics of herself....she was the photographer all weekend!

Before church! It was strange, once we got to church I became "Pam" (my mom) to Grandma and she introduced me as her daughter Pam. She only did that at church, and then went back to Jamie.

At Marie Callendars. Such a cute picture!

A kiss for Grandma!

This is a pic of them being really goofy together!

Just a beautiful tree we loved by Marie Callendars. I love palm trees.

On the way to Gma's church, there is this tree with the most ridiculously HUGE roots coming really high off the ground. Here is Jordyn standing by the roots!

Then finally the movie theatre! Grandma hadn't been in who-knows-how-long and she really liked it!

Sweet, priceless memories. This is the stuff that life's all about.

Last Day of School!

Last week the girls finished kindergarten and first grade! I was lucky to finish teaching the day before they got out, so I spent the last day between both their classes. It's always a bittersweet feeling at the end of a school year. I remember feeling emotional as a young girl....and those same feelings surfaced as I saw my kids say goodbye to their teachers.

Lexi with Mrs. Donabedian

Jordyn with Mrs. Kandarian

QUESTIONNAIRE:

What was the best thing about this year?
Jordyn: Having Mrs. Kandarian as my teacher, learning about frogs and playing with my friends.

Lexi: Recess, my teacher Mrs. Donabedian and playing with my friends.

What was the worst thing about this year?
Jordyn: When my friends would fight with me and be rude.

Lexi: when Michael pushed me down when we were going to the library. I was in front of him and he pushed me down and I started crying. Michael had to go to the office and he didn’t get to see the library. Mrs. Donabedian gave me a hug.

What was your favorite field trip?
Jordyn: Farm Day, I got to pretend to milk a cow.

Lexi: The zoo.

What was your favorite subject to learn about?
Jordyn: Math

Lexi: spelling and animals

Who did you play with this year?
Jordyn: Maddy, Marissa, Michale, Taylor R., Caitlin

Lexi: Sarah N., Avneet, Daniel

What were you most proud of this year?
Jordyn: I got a 100% every time on my spelling test

Lexi: making projects for open house, making gingerbread houses and learning songs to sing for parents’ day.

What did you like to eat for lunch?
Jordyn: if I had hot lunch, then the mashed potatoes and gravy.

Lexi: chips snd peanut butter & honey sandwich

How did you get to school most days?
Jordyn: in my mom or dad’s car

Lexi: in daddy’s car or in his bike trailer

How did you feel at school?
Jordyn: sad when my friends were mean. Happy when my friends played with me and gave me stuff.

Lexi: happy, especially when my teacher read to us.

How do you feel about starting second/first grade?
Jordyn: I feel kind of sad to leave Mrs. Kandarian, but happy to see my new teacher.

Lexi: I’m sad to leave kindergarten and shy to start 1st grade.

On Endurance

Sometimes I wait to blog until I have formed some sort of concise subject matter....or maybe an "event" with photos to boot. But most of the time, my mind is an ocean of thoughts that are so random and constant....I can't tell where one ends and another begins! So don't be fooled by the conciseness of my blog! It is a very edited snapshot of my brain/life! ha ha

I'm having the hardest time believing that I've got three days left until I'm a certified teacher. When I started this process 20 months ago, I had no idea what it really took to get credentialed in California. It's pretty intense and there have been several times I've thought there was "no way" I could really complete it. Yet here I am! It is incredible, really. And it's a true example of how we can do anything we put our mind to.

There have been so many times in life when I have felt similar feelings of "can I actually endure this?". Like.......high school.............and then many MANY times during college when it was midnight before a 15 page paper was due and I was just starting it................ and undoubtedly during my three pregnancies.................. or during the very most challenging of life's trials........... and now during my student teaching. Times where it is an absolute spiritual/mental/emotional growing pain. Where I can tangibly feel the choice between personal growth or personal break-down. And it really is a choice. Tiny, tiny baby steps of choice. It really is the old addage "how do you eat an elephant?", one bite at a time of course.

That is how I've made it through. One bite at a time. And lots of support from my family. The people around me have made me feel like I can do it. So even when I've felt like I can't....knowing they know I can makes me press forward.

So in three days, summer vacation will begin. It will be filled with dance recitals, swim meets, Watch Me Draw classes, trip to UT, lots of swimming at my mom and dad's, and hopefully some sleep! I will get to wake up and not have to say good-bye to my kids right away. I'll get to be around them so much again that I'm sure I'll even need a break here and there! No school for all of us will surely change the dynamic of our days! I'm so thankful to have the challenge and blessing of being the mommy to these three girls. On a daily basis, I feel overwhelmed at the responsibility of taking GOOD care of them both now and the future. But.........I'm still thankful and completely in love with them.

Life is GOOD! And if I've learned anything so far in my 32 years, it's this: good does not equal easy!

Millerton Lake

On Memorial Day, we decided we should do something outside the 20 mile radius we usually stay within. So we took a surprisingly short drive up to Millerton Lake (about 50 minutes) and hung out for a few hours. We ate a picnic did a simple 2 mile hike on a path along the lake. It was actually really fun and the girls liked it a lot.....with the exception of Peyton who made me hold her most of the time. She thought the boats were "gonna get her". (I had some fun messing around with Photoshop for these pics).