Kate at the all-city 4th grade Hershey Track Meet:
Sabrina and I went and stayed through most of the meet. We saw Kate do all her events.
Sabrina slathered on a new layer of sun block every time she was feeling too hot (much of the time. It was a toasty sort of day). Kate had a groupie who followed her everywhere. Sabrina had fun rolling down the short hills with him while waiting for Kate to finish her standing long-jump.
Kate's long jump distance (which I don't recall right now) was longer than she is tall! I am particularly fond of this bizarre pose she flashed while setting off in the 100 meter semi-finals.
She came in 5th in her heat (of 6) but she had a great time. Can you see the grin on her face?!
Sabrina got to perform in kindergarten plays from her class. You may be able to tell she is a penguin. She was rather hyper and didn't focus like she usually does, but she loved doing it.
I absolutely love our "little" city library. It used to be little. Very little. But several months ago our new library opened (which I know i've mentioned here before) and we LOVE it! This was an activity I took the girls to. It was a class for children about reading music! See how BIG the room is? Before the move all activities were shoved into the little slip of breathing room in the children's book section, or in an under-construction classroom-type room in the city hall area of the old building. This new one has good spaces for all sorts of classes and activities without interrupting normal library-type quietude.
Recently the 4th grade classes at the elementary school put on their program. They were all supposed to dress as a pioneer, native american, or trapper (or a modern 4th grader ;)). It was a fun short program where each student had a speaking part (many of them in pairs) and they sang several songs.
Kate borrowed some costume pieces from Grandma Jensen, including an apron which Grandma's two grandma's made together for her not long before her wedding. (Did I remember that right, Mom?). So it was made by Kate's Great-Great-Grandmothers then. Wow!
One handy thing about Kate being so short is that she usually is placed at the front and/or side of a group so it's easy to find her.
After taking pictures / video I worked on untangling the pre-cambrian period and wrapping it around a soda bottle. (I'll explain later).
The elementary school choir (including Kate) performed the national anthem at a college basketball game. I managed to go as a chaperone. The kids sang wonderfully, the game was fun, the right team won, and I even managed to catch a ball for Kate. The game lasted this long:
At school they have a ukulele club that learns / plays together. This year they had a chance to play at a district board meeting (apparently our school gets a chance to perform once every 7 years, so this is a big deal). I went along as a parent helper.
Unfortunately the bus never came to pick us up!!! They finally got another bus in the area to come around, but had to wait 45 minutes, and were very late. Oops. The kids line up in height order for the performance. Naturally Kate is the line leader :)
The principal introduced the school and they played for the board members. They liked it so much they asked them to come back and play again facing the audience. First performance and they already got an encore!
Then the choir performed a couple of numbers and the ukulele kids squished around the door to listen.
I apologize for the poor quality of this video. I had my camera but forgot my memory card so I had to do this all on really low res. And I was at the back during this piece so I had to zoom way in. Just don't get sea-sick.
The board enjoyed the performance so much they asked the groups to come perform again at a luncheon for the grandparent volunteers for the district! My mom got to come along too as a helper at this one. I love how she and Kate ended up matching.
We had to wait... and wait... and wait... in an itty bitty room with a lot of hyper kids. It was quite something!
Then they finally got to go perform. It was adorable. And the folk songs they performed were favorites of the grandparents'!
I'm so glad Kate gets this chance to play something she enjoys for others. I love when she makes up her own songs and sings them for me too.
I love taking pictures. Don't think anyone here would doubt that. However, I often get somewhere and realize I don't have my nice camera. I guess the pictures / video on my cell phone are better than nothing, but so often I never even get them off the phone. As I was running out of space on my phone (heaven forbid I'd be forced to delete significant applications like "Solitaire"!) I finally went through all these forgotten moments. And here we have a catch up of low quality evidence of high quality memories.
Kate at Ukulele Club. She's in the middle of the front row with her pink ukulele.
Lizzie at Jump Club (jumproping). She's the shortie in the middle there.
Walking between two cars Sabrina was watching her feet and ran her forehead into a side-view mirror! Quite the painful goose-egg, poor girl.
Kate at the dentist office. She's got the "elephant nose" on (it's the laughing gas) and she and Sabrina are watching "The Emperor's New Groove" while they wait for her novacaine to kick in the rest of the way before having her pulpotomy done (root canal on a baby tooth).
Springville Museum of Art field trip with the 1st grade. Lizzie's in the front here of the group I was chaperoning. The large portrait they're standing in front of is a part of the All-State High School Exhibit. It's done in colored pencil by my cousin Kristen Brunson and earned the Education Director's Award!
As we continued through the museum we also found these two paintings by Lee Greene Richards, my great-great uncle!
At the end we walked through the sculpture garden. This was a favorite perch for all the kids.
Now for some old video clips:
Grandpa Southern reading to a whole scad of grandkids 1/2010
Lizzie (in the purple shirt) in her kindergarten production at the end of that school year. 5/2010
1st grade (Lizzie) production of "The Little Engine That Could" in choral recitation. Lizzie is one of the narrators at the top. No, you really can't see her, but I promise she's there! 2/2010
The next few are little videos of Kate playing with ukulele club. 3/2011
This first one I recorded particularly for the girls' cousin Eliza Jane:
Finally, here's a clip of Lizzie learning Double Dutch at Jump Club. 3/2011
Aside from cleaning out the storage on my cell phone, I've also done tons of work in the family room this last week. Here's the picture (taken by Lizzie) of our progress:
That was a BIG job! Book shelves, craft things, tv stuff, computer stuff... phew!!!
Finally I have finished putting together the pictures for our ode to the New Year. I currently involved in some knock-down-drag-out fight with a nasty cold, but here it is, finally:
We celebrated the New Year with my family, as usual. My sister and her family from Nebraska were able to be here which was very exciting. Sadly there were two or three people on antibiotics for strep and two more who missed out because they were sick. Some nasty bugs going around!
Here is the "upstairs" party which was pretty quiet and relaxed.
As opposed to the downstairs party which involved the Wii, a puzzle, and a fair amount of hilarity.
As the evening wore on we all gathered outside for The Burning of The Goat. I'll include the video also. If you listen through the video you'll hear the explanation of how the goat burning came to be an integral part of our New Years un-Resolutions.
Then Joe and Amy (who spearheaded this year's celebration) did a crash course on helicopter piloting. (Remember the lit-up plastic helicopter toys that the girls got from Grandma?). Only one toy was lost on the roof! And they were beautiful.
Finally the clock struck 12 and out came the bubbly. It had be set outside to keep cool, but as soon as it was opened it froze! As the carbon dioxide left the apple cider the freezing point of the juice rose so it started freezing (okay, I'm not smart enough to have through that all up, Dr. Matt explained it to us.) Freezing sparkling cider doesn't stay in the bottle, in case you were wondering.
Eliza's eyes began to droop and many others watched out the front window to see the occasional firework, and the new year was officially here.
Jens (bottom left) opened the back door to shout "Happy New Year, World!"
I hope you all have had a very merry Christmas. We certainly have! Naturally I have a great many pictures of the event. I have compiled them in several collages. You can click any one to see the itsy bitsy pictures better.
We begin with the countdown to Christmas: I let the candle burn all the way down.
Now we'll skip straight to the kids, cause let's face it: they're the cute ones. Of the presents they're holding, many are family gifts that the girls just opened. I particularly love Sabrina's pose with the "Polkatonics" CD. (That's the second one down on the right.). Sabrina was most excited about the puzzles and pattern games she got from Santa, as well as dress-ups for her Build-a-Bear she got for her birthday.
Lizzie got a scooter, a Build-a-Bear (to gradually collect clothing for), and a jewelry box from Santa. She also got a little bitty FurReal Friends puppy that wags his tail and moves his head when you pet him on the back. She really wanted the deluxe version (the Go-Go Puppy), but the puppy "will do".
Check out Kate's face in the middle here! She could not believe Santa had brought her a ukulele!!! She learned a little bit on the uke in school and loved it. Hers is a nice one and it's PINK! Pictures later of her first ukulele lesson and video of her first performance. She also got the most deluxe of all art sets (well, not literally), including pastels and paints, and all that good messy stuff.
Proof I was there too. I got to unwrap a bunch of great new kitchen things. A lot of these are things that have been "on the list" for some time now, and black Friday was an ideal time to buy them. I also got a cute pair of boots I'm excited about!
Michael got to open the Black Friday spoils from Home Depot -- some screwdrivers, measuring tapes, power tools, etc. I also got him a digital picture frame already loaded with hundreds of pictures that he can take to work. There are pictures from each of our childhoods (a few at least), one or two from when we were dating (the only ones we know of in existence), and some engagement / wedding ones and naturally plenty since then It was a fun (and time consuming!) job getting them all ready for the frame.
Michael would like me to point out that he actually got more pictures of me with my tongue sticking out than I got of him. Apparently when I feel silly as the center of attention (as in, opening presents in front of a camera) I tend to stick my tongue out. Good to know.
Here are group shots with the girls in The Line (you know there has to be a picture of The Line) and their awe inspired glee at the new television. They had SUCH a fun morning!
This evening we went to my mom's house for dinner (a nice drop-by-when-you-want-and-I'll-feed-you affair). My brother was there and gave Kate some tips on playing her new ukulele which of course she had taken with her. He taught her how to read chord charts and how to find the chords for a primary song (they're written in above every song). Then she came down and performed "Reverently, Quietly" with 4 whole chords in it!
Video of Kate:
Here are a few assorted pictures from the evening. Of course I have to take pictures of Sabrina with her favorite younger male cousin. He is so cute, and the two of them together have such a stark contrast. We need to throw cousin Abby in the mix with her red super curly hair just to show the full range the family covers! The picture of an envelope on the top left reminds me of a birthday card one of the girls got once. It was signed by a woman who had been married some 40 years and she signed it with her maiden name accidentally! I admit, I've done the same thing at random times, but I've only got 10 matrimonial years behind me so I'm totally off the hook, right? The Family Tree is really cool (and I thought it was really cool that I happened to have a perfect size frame in my closet!). It goes from my mom (top left) all the way to Adam (bottom right). That's the Adam and Eve fellow. You know, lived in a garden, ate forbidden fruit... that guy. My sister made these and had them printed for everyone in our family. It makes the years seem so short to see all those generations on one page! We have some awesome family names in there too including a man named Frodi. I guess that's why we tend towards hairy toes. The last picture is just one I snapped as we were leaving. Looking into the perfect postcard view of a happy home full of family and love.
At long last, here are our Halloween tidings. Well, pictures at least.
Carving pumpkins with friends:
Parading at the school and gathering treats at the trunk-or-treat
Three little witches. I considered putting a sign on each of their backs "Bubble, bubble", "Toil" and "Trouble". The girls wanted to be witches this year and I thought that was a really good idea. Three witch dresses were pretty quick and easy which was important this year.
We left the trunk-or-treat just as a few rain-drops came down. It had been raining all day and stopped just in time for the event. We stopped for a pizza on the way home and it REALLY started coming down. It even started hailing!
Check out the hail spread on the back porch when we got home.
What's Halloween without a potato-pig? (Uh... halloween. That's the answer. It was a pretty clever pig, though.)
I nabbed this video of the intensity of the storm -- and a pretty cool "rooster tail" on our way home.
