Back to School/ Summer Piano Recital

This kids started school on the 15th of August.  Nate is in 7th grade at Sunrise Mountain High School/ University High.  He is in a program that helps kids earn their high school diploma by the end of 10th grade with the possibility of a Bachelors degree by the end of 12th grade.

Bonnie is in 6th grade at Copperwood Elementary.  Her teacher is Mr. Fishencord, everyone calls him Mr. Fish.  He is a fantastic teacher and she is loving his class

Jared is in 3rd grade at Copperwood.  His teacher is Mrs. Drennan.  She told all the kids that they can eat all the raw fruits and veggies they want and have them at their desk all day so I am inclined to really like her.  So far she has been great.

Gwen is in 2nd grade at Copperwood.  Her teacher is Ms. Conrad, who is a great teacher, and she has math with Jared in Mrs. Drennan's class. 

Shortly after school started we had a summer piano recital.  We had the recital in a back yard  and after we each performed our piece we did a cannonball into the pool.  Since I am the only adult student this meant that I not only got to play my piece with several children 12 and under but I also got to do it in my swim suit and then do a cannonball.  It was actually my favorite of the 2 recitals I have performed at because it was so relaxed.

Me doing my cannonball

Bonnie's cannonball

Either Jared or Gwen.  We have two pictures that look like this.

Nate doing more of a spread eagle than a cannonball.

Saguaro Lake

This summer Ben's brother Jake and his wife Tiffany were kind enough to take us boating with their family at Saguaro Lake.  Nate was on a campout and was very sad that he had to miss it.  The rest of us, however, had so much fun (and got REALLY sunburned). 

Gwen, Bonnie, Brooklyn, Gwen, Cameron, and Hallie

Bonnie, Me, Jared

Bonnie, Me, Jared, Hallie, Tiffany, Cameron, and Gwen

Ben, Cameron, Jared, and Jake

It has been a long time since I have been boating and I forgot how much fun it can be.  The kids loved it and even enjoyed when they got knocked of the tubes and had to wait for the boat to come back around to get them.  Thank you so much Jake and Tiff for a wonderful day with your family!!

July Birthdays

In July we had two fun birthdays.  Bonnie turned 11 and Gwen turned 7.  Since we only do friend parties every other year, and that happens to be on their even birthdays, we only had family parties this year.

Bonnie's birthday was the 16th. She is becoming such a beautiful young lady.  She is very kind and caring and loves to help around the house.  We are so grateful that she is a part of our family.

As you can see, we spend hours making sure our wrapping jobs are perfect... or we stick with traditional family wrapping of whatever you can find that will cover your present, in this case it was wrapped in Jared's blanket.

We also give both traditional and non-traditional presents.

Nate playing a song for Bonnie on the piano

 

Gwen's birthday was on the 20th. She is a beautiful and kind little girl.  She is such a sweetheart and we love her fun personality.  She is always making us smile.  

On her birthday her friend Katie was able to come over and play.

We let the kids pick what they want for dinner on their birthdays and Gwen chose to have mac and cheese with hot dogs and chocolate pudding with gummy worms and crushed Oreos on top.

 

Lots of fun presents.

 

Grapes

A couple of years ago we planted six grape vines in our back yard.  They have been growing great and this summer we finally got some grapes on them.

Grape plants in the spring

Little green grapes starting to grow

Lots and lots more little green grapes

Yummy, super sweet, ripe purple grapes. 

The grapes were so yummy and sweet and we thoroughly enjoyed them.  What the birds, the kids, the neighbors, Ben and I, didn't eat we were able to freeze and save and the kids are still enjoying them.  I can hardly wait for more next summer.  Of course we are going to have to do something about the lousy birds.

New Mexico

 In June we went to New Mexico as a family to visit Jess and Spencer.  We had so much fun with them.  They were so kind and such gracious hosts to us.

On the way to Mexico we stopped at the Petrified National Forest.  It was kind of cool to see once.  Not a need-to-revisit-again type of destination though.

 

While we were in Farmington we went and played at the park.

We also went shooting with Uncle Spencer directing and making sure everyone was safe.

Bonnie

Nate

Gwen

Jared

Nate with the shotgun

Kylie hanging out on our shooting expedition.  She was such a good baby the whole weekend.

Me

Ben

Ben and Spencer

Me and Jess

We also went to the Aztec Ruins National Monument that was about 15 minutes from Jess and Spencer's house.  It was really cool to visit and definitely a place I would go see again.

 

We also played games, watched movies, ate lots of yummy food, and talked, and talked and talked. Overall we had such a great weekend with them and hope to be able to go visit again soon, or have them come to AZ to visit us.

End of School Activities

  Now that school is about to start again I figured I better post some pictures from the end of last school year.

 

Bonnie and Jared at their orchestra concert.  Their teacher was so pleased with both of them and how well they did that she let them bring their school-issued instruments home for the summer so they could continue to practice.

 Nate preparing to play with the advanced band.  His band teacher would let younger students play with the more advanced band if they came in after school and passed of several pieces.  Nate loved band and his teacher was fantastic.  He recommended Nate for the District Honor Jazz Band.  Nate tried out and made it into the band.  The Jazz Band consists of 17 junior-high-age students in the district.  Way to go Nate!

 Bonnie played flute in Band this year.  She did a great job.  Again, their band teacher, Mr. Ormsbee, has been phenomenal.  We are glad he is going to be there again this next year.

 Jared's class took a two-week "cruise" around the world.  The learned about several different countries along with their food, customs, and clothing.  This was when he returned to port on the last day of the cruise.

 

 Bonnie's class had a cake making contest.  Bonnie's team chose to make an island with a volcano.  Since Bonnie was chosen as team captain I was the lucky mom who got to bake the cake and design the volcano.  Thankfully I had a good suggestion to make the volcano out of chocolate rice krispy treats.  It worked out great for them.  They did a really good job.

 

 Right towards the end of the school year we had a piano recital.  The kids all did a great job.  I didn't do too bad either, but due to sick kids, Ben being in India, and me being extremely nervous, after the recital when our teacher told me I did good I broke down in tears.  Not my finest moment, but I recovered, all except for the red nose and eyes in this pictures. :)

The kids elementary school every day on the last day has a "Mock Rock". It's an activity where individuals, small groups, or whole classes participate in a lip sync.  Bonnie's class did "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride".  This is Bonnie with her best friend Hana dressed up to be hula girls.

We had a very fun and very busy end of the school year.  While all this was going on, I went a little crazy in the head and decided to clean out, paint, and rearrange our three upstairs bedrooms.  I thought it would be fun to surprise Ben when he got home from his trip, and it was, but amidst sick kids and end of school activities this may not have been the best timing. It's done now though and I am thrilled with the results.  Here are the before and after pictures.

This is the guest room in the middle of cleaning it out.  I forgot to take a before picture, but just trust that it was much messier.  The guest room became....

The boys room, complete with a chalkboard wall

The boys old room

 Which again I forgot a complete before picture so you will just have to imagine that there were two more piles of junk about this size and a bunk bed.  How do boys get so messy?  Was turned into...

 

The girls bedroom, again with a chalkboard wall.

 Bonnie's desk that she found at a yard sale and decided was perfect to do homework on.

 And the girls bedroom...

Became the new guest room. 

 Whew!  That concludes our end-of-school-year fun!  Next post, on to summer!