TaVaci

Just a few quick catch up posts. Teagan and Brilee participated in an awesome spring TaVaci concert that was full of wonderful music. They sang their little hearts out.

This number below was really cool. There was no "music" or vocals, they made their own rhythms with all kinds of things. You can even see the plastic bag sticking out of Teagan's pocket (she's dead center with the white hat).
This one was my very favorite. Teagan came home with the assignment to find some "ugly clothes". We were visiting Bruce's parents and I was planning to hit the D.I. when Grandma pulled out an old jumper that used to belong to Aunt Janet. We won't say how old she is now. Grandma must have been hanging onto it just for Teagan, ha ha. The girl on the far right is holding a J.C. Penney catalog. They were swearing on a J.C. Penney catalog that they would NEVER let their mother's go shopping alone. They sang and danced to a cute song about mom's coming home with some, uh, interesting, okay "ugly" clothes and accessories when they go shopping for their daughter's alone.
It was really funny. Teagan is on the far right in their beginning pose.
I took all these pics with my old camera. At the end I was busy clapping and cheering loudly when my camera rolled off my lap and slammed onto the cement floor. I thought, 'No worries, I've dropped this old camera dozens of times.' However, this time it was crunched. So I mourned it's loss and got a new one for my birthday. Hopefully I'll be figuring it out soon. But speaking of birthdays, 40 is the new 30. That's all I have to say about that!

Reflections 2010

Congrats to Teagan who learned she got an Award of Merit at the state level in the PTA sponsored Reflections program again this year. An Award of Merit is basically an honorable mention. Here she is holding her trophy with her picture on the shelf above her. The theme was "Beauty is..." Teagan titled her picture "Friendship is Beautiful". There was a 'Required Artist Statement' in the paperwork where she had to explain how her work related to the theme. For that she wrote, "Do you have friends? Do you like them? Friends help you endure hardships. They help you fix mistakes. Friendship is beautiful." Her picture has friends doing all kinds of things like playing basketball, soccer, red rover, having a picnic, walking a dog, jumping on a trampoline, taking pictures and watching ducks in a pool. Way to go Teagan girl!

Pool Swept Away

I can't sleep. Yes, it is like 4 a.m. I get insomnia at odd hours. So figured I'd get up and tell you what happened yesterday afternoon. Well, it actually started a few days ago. It is finally warm here (at long last) and the kids have been dying, begging for Bruce to put up their swimming pool. We picked it up late last fall when the stores were slashing prices to get rid of them. We had one when we lived down South and it was fabulous. This one is much bigger - 24' around and framed. Anyway Monday he and the kids worked on leveling the spot, raking it out and wetting the ground down to compact the dirt. Yesterday morning Bruce worked on it some more but then had to get in to work and the kids were so determined (and impatient) that they figured they could assemble it themselves. I took Benjamin to a birthday party at 1:00 and Trent, Teagan, and Brilee were hard at work outside with Teagan reading the instructions and Trent leading the assembling. When I returned around 3:30 I was shocked to pull in the driveway and see the entire thing put together! It was a lot bigger than I realized it would be. The kids began begging to fill it up with water. Bruce had said it would take a day to fill. I was reluctant and wanted him to check it and make sure they had gotten everything right and tight so we wouldn't have any problems down the road. I know if it wasn't perfectly level the sides would bulge.

Brilee kept calling Bruce at work to find out when he was going to come home and check it. She was beyond ready to swim! I began folding clothes and finishing laundry. A while later Brilee came in to tell me the wind was blowing the pool away! I looked out the window - aaahhhhhh!!! 'This can't be happening!' I thought. Sure enough this fierce gust of wind was mangling the pool! It had been calm all day and the wind was suddenly turning on us. I panicked. What do I always do when I panic? I call Bruce! He said, 'Tell all the kids to go climb in it and I'll be right home!' It would have made a great blog picture but I certainly wasn't thinking about grabbing my camera, I was thinking, 'HOLY CRAP, this can NOT be happening!!!' I mean what a day for a huge gust of wind!!! I also said a few words (which we shall not print here) that I heard my sweet little Benjamin repeat, huh huh. Three of our neighbors working nearby came running over to help us hold it down. I jumped inside and they got all the poles out so it would lay flat. Boxes and other stuff were blowing across the street. Finally the wind calmed and I mean calmed. It was as if Mother Nature wanted that pool down and then she moved on to other parts. Sigh. What do ya do? Some of the poles got bent so now it must be fixed before we can put it up. Sad kiddos... I wonder if it even had a little water in the bottom if it would have stayed put? Or would that have been a bigger mess? Or would it have depended on how much water was in it?

Anyhooooo, Grandpa can we have a ride in your boat this weekend? Maybe we will enjoy some other bodies of water...

More Dance Pics

Dance Weekend

We just wrapped up an entire weekend of dance. Teagan had great fun this year. I'll post more pictures later. We're leaving today for a vacation back East and have oodles to do before we can get on our way...

Closet Clubhouse

A while back I came into the girls' bedroom to find this...
Yes, that is five pairs of little girl feet! Teagan, Brilee and their neighbor friends discovered a great place for a "secret club" - the top of their closet. Since I took these pictures they have completely decorated the place with everything from Harry Potter posters to American Girl doll cut outs to valentines from school. It's all decked out now. They have a secret club name, a secret stash of goodies, and lots of secret plans for the summer.
What really cracks me up is remembering Bruce's reaction to this very closet after our finisher had built it. He took one look and said, "What a big waste of space." It's really high since this room has a ten foot ceiling. Leave it to five cute little girls to put that problem to good use!