Choir and pink eye

Lindsey and Lauren did choir for the whole year as 3rd graders.  They had practice every Monday and Wednesday for about an hour.  They had a winter concert where they did mostly Christmas or holiday songs and then a spring concert that they did patriotic songs if I remember right. 

By about April, Lindsey was so done with choir.  I hated to see her quit, but it was such a HUGE commitment to go every week for two days.  I think if Lauren wasn't going too then I would have just let her quit.  I had to fight her each week and persuade her to go.  Lauren on the other hand, she loved going and you could see her smile and have a great time singing at the concerts. 

Unfortunately my pictures aren't great, I was too far back.  Lauren the day of the spring choir (I found out later) had complained to her teacher right before they were coming home of her eye hurting.  Then she came home, said nothing to me of it, and then went to a friends house.  She told me later that she had to keep wiping her eye at her friends house becuase it was all wet and goopy. 

She went to the performance with a friend, and I saw her on the stage.  I guess the choir teacher asked if she had allergies, Lauren told her not that she knew of.  After the performance, Robert saw Lauren and immediately sent her to the bathroom where I was at with the little ones.  I took one look at her, and knew she had pink eye.  She told me she didn't want to say anything because she was afraid I wouldn't have let her still be in the concert.  Which she was right! 

These were at about day 4 and 5 after drops.  Lauren's eyes got so red and blood shot.  They looked really gross!

Everyone one else got pink eye too.  Except for Robert and I.  Lauren and Emily's eyes got super swollen, and so we took Lauren into after hours clinic and she missed a soccer game because of it.  I felt like we were giving drops all day long.  We had 3 different RX's from different times I had called our doctor, or called after hours and then when Lauren went in.  It was hard to keep them all straight.  At one point I thought I had gotten it, but it turned out to be just my normal allergies and went away without drops. 

And poor Samantha, she got it and it started going away and then it came back so we ended up at the doctor for well care check ups and he gave her some different drops.  It did finally clear up, right about the time Amber got her pink eye.  Then she gave it to her cousin who we were watching. 

Did I also mention we had pink eye just back in Feburary? 

Soccer

This year we had almost all of the girls in soccer.  Emily, Lindsey, Lauren, and Amber were in soccer.  It made it kind of hectic with 3 soccer practices on top of everything else going on.  Then at least 3 games a week too.  Usually Emily's and Amber's games overlapped in some way.  Here are some pics from one of the games.  I kept forgetting to bring my camera. 

Emily~ she played mid most all games, she ran ALOT!

Emily's team was called the Ladybugs, they won all games but one.  They were a fun group of girls.  They decided to paint their faces too. 

Lindsey & Lauren ~

They both played fwd, mid, defense, and Lauren did awesome as goalie too!

Lauren is in yellow shorts, Lindsey is in greenish/blue shorts

The twins were on the Cougar team, and I think they won all their games and tied one maybe.  I really liked their coach, she was GREAT!

Amber~She is wearing pink tall socks

Amber's team was the Mickey's and I am not sure they ever won.  They looked like they had fun though.  Amber loved playing soccer for the first time.  She was so so so sad when the season ended.  She will be ready in the fall when it starts again. 

Amber's team was really fun, most the kids on her team were right here from our neighborhood and her coach was too.  The other girls' teams weren't that way.  All the girls had a great time playing.  Poor Sam was a little left out of it, but she will play next spring.  Rob is pretty proud of his soccer playing girls!  Emily at one of her games scored a GOAL, and Robert was so bummed when he heard, he was at Amber's game.  His parents were at Emily's game, so they go to see it.  Robert was really mad he wasn't there.

So until fall, I guess we will be putting our soccer gear away. 

Wax Museum

Emily's class, well the whole 5th grade did a wax museum.  They had to chose someone from history that has already passed on (I believe) to do their report about.  She had to write a report and then also dress up as this person.  She thought about doing Laura Ingles Willder but wasn't sure. She finally settled on Elizabeth Griscom (aka Betsy Ross). 

She did some reading and research about Elisabeth.  Then she was trying to figure out how to dress like here.  I was searching on-line and all I found was flag looking clothes.  I laughed and told Emily, apparently she was more like Capt. Moroni, where she rent her coat and put it on a pole as a flag.  I was so frustrated because I was getting NO IDEAS at all on what clothes or era really, I mean other than 1776 right? 

We went to a second hand store to look for costumes or clothes we could convert into something.  We even saw a girl from Emily's class doing the same thing there.  This was like on Tuesday I think.  Emily finds a flower girl type dress that is a little too small for her but it had a zipper in it so we kind of slipped it on her arms and all and it looked like it would be okay.  I thought it would be a done deal with the exception of her flag material. 

Wednesday night she tells me that her dress doesn't fit.  It was one of those bedtime "oh by the way" kind of things.  Now I am really frustrated!  She needed it for Friday morning. 

Of course then I go shopping on Thursday for material, a pattern (after searching for a free pattern on line) and all the notions for it too.  This was our whole reason for doing this earlier so we or should I say I wouldn't have to stay up all night to do this. 

I finally got started with the dress about 2pm I think I started cutting out the pattern.  I knew I had some material at home for the hat and those things.  Emily was specific on what she wanted.  She really wanted a pink dress but I couldn't find pink material in the price I wanted to buy. 

I bought a big fountain drink of diet Dr. Pepper and I started in on it.  I can't remember what Robert was doing, it seems like he was working late or had soccer or something, I'm not sure.  I also had to run Emily to her soccer practice during this time. 

I think I finally went to bed at 3am.  My alarm was set for 6:45 to get the girls up for the bus.  Ugh!  I was so tired and I was so frustrated that I was doing this last minute when I shouldn't have been doing it last minute.  Emily in my oppinion was being way too demanding... as I put her to bed, she said, "oh and mom, can you sew my flag too?"  SERIOUSLY?  I told her I would do the best I can, and we will see in the morning.  She was to be at school with all her stuff the next morning at 8 I think. 

 After she saw her dress, and I could tell she totally approved of it, then it made those lost hours of sleep a little bit better. 

 She was suppose to bring all our props and her costume for the wax musuem which they were suppose to be there for I think like 2 or 3 hours.  The girls and I planned on going to see her.  Below is her "please mom will you go buy me that book at the book fair before it closes" look.  I was thinking, really?  Yes, I still probably really owe you don't I?  Although I did still go and get her the 2 books she wanted.  I think her smile and the way she kept talking about how much she liked her dress and how people were asking her "where did you get that costume" made me kind of soft.

Another thing that shows she approved and liked the dress/costume, is that she wore it the rest of the day minus the hat and shall.  Yeah, it made it seem worth those hours lost in sleep.  I also had never sewn darts or zippers, but it all seemed to turn out okay.  Her dress came together for the most part.

Children's garden

Since we have a pass to Thanksgiving Point, we decided to check out the Children's garden.  That was so much fun!  I only had Samantha and Amber with me, but they so very much LOVED it.  They keep asking me when we can go back.

I must say, those are some cute girls!  I liked how the pictures turned out.  Cute, cute girls!

If you haven't gone there, you should.  They have lots of little activities for the girls to do like checkers with sticks and stones and other little activities using nature.  We have got to go back soon!

Hope of America

The fifth graders are able to participate in a performance that (as I understand) is sent to those serving in the millitary.  That is kind of all I know about it. 

Emily's class worked on the songs for days.  Some days they mostly just sang all day.  They had a demo type DVD that had the songs and actions that they were suppose to do for each song.  Each of the kids got an audio CD as well so they could practice at home. 

It was a pretty neat performance.  I guess they have 2 different nights that they do it.  Each night they have kids from different schools do it. 

The kids are given a specific colored shirt, and those colors then make up the flag.  Emily was afraid it wouldn't really look like a flag.  I guess they have been doing this long enough to know it will work out and look like a flag. 

Emily is the middle section, the second white stripe from the top, and on the right side.  This picture came from KBYU facebook page I think, or Hope of America Facebook page.

Once I got there, it was already pretty packed.  I was all by myself, but still finding just one seat was hard, it seemed like EVERYONE was saving seats.  I finally found a seat, and then I was trying to find where Emily was.  I had my camcorder, so I started using the zoom on it to find her.  She told me a little where they were, and I knew she was white.  Once I found her, I got a kick out of what I saw so I had to record it a bit. 

Then the two songs that Emily liked best are these two. 

On the last video I was looking around for some kids from the other school.  Guess I should have done that later.  Emily was asking me what I was doing, then she said, "well that is just great mom!"  As if that has ruined her whole life now. 

The Hope of America will be broadcast on KBYU July 3rd at 12:00 pm  and July 4th at 6:00 PM.  BYUTV will show the program July 22 at 11:00 AM and July 23 at 11:00 PM