End-of-Year Dance Recital

This past school year, Bunny, James, and Mariposa took a Ballet II class and Gemma took a Creative Movement class with the local dance hall.  Laurel Valley School of Dance Arts is an AWESOME non-profit studio for local kids in rural Washington County, and I've said it before: We are so lucky to have an amazing dance studio just a short distance from our country home!

The director, Jill, put together an amazing ballet using ALL the students from the whole school, from 4-year-olds in Creative Movement to 60+-year-olds in adult tap.  The ballet was set to "Appalachian Spring" which is a famous ballet on its own, but Jill re-did all the choreography to fit the different ages and disciplines.  That creation took up the first half of the recital.  The second half was individual and small-group performances, like this one I found on YouTube of a Pointe ballet student (Amy).  (Maybe someday I will post something on YouTube….)  The result was a recital that was simply fantastic!!!

Of course…when you have an all-classes ballet, that requires a lot of practice.  A lot of EXTRA practice.  So the 2nd week of June brought extra rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday nights along with the normal class on Tuesday night and photos on Thursday night.  Yes, four straight evenings of dance.  With 6 kids to wrangle.  Did I mention that Marcus was on a business trip the WHOLE week????  :oP

But we made it through, with help of course.  And simple meals like crock-pot casseroles and pizzas.  And in the end, it was all worth it.  Here are some pictures from photo day:

The actual recital day was Saturday, with practice in the morning and the performance in the evening.  Here are pictures from the practice:

Creative Movement (Gemma 2nd from left)

Ballet II (others were on stage as well)
Bunny is in the middle of the right group, and Mariposa is
in the left group.  I think James is on the right as well, but
I can't enlarge the photo while I'm in Editor mode so I'm
really just guessing.

Here's James.  Yup, looks like he was on the right.

Posa is a natural.

The theme of the ballet was "goodbye to Alyssa."
Alyssa has been a student and a helper for years, but her
family (my good friend Rosina!!!) moved to Vancouver
which is too far to commute.  :o(  We'll miss you Alyssa!!

first trip out to the Migrant camp (this year)

This is at LEAST my 10th year going out to the Migrant camp for St. Matthew's Migrant Ministry.  I'm trying to think if I came earlier than that (you know, eons ago, before children).  Maybe.  The residents all get a kick out of seeing me in various stages of pregnancy and baby-holding each year.  ;o)

This particular evening, Marcus was gone again.  Another trip, boo.  I promised myself that I would NOT go to meetings (including Migrant Ministry) when Marcus was gone, because it is just too hard for me to deal with dinner/kids/bedtime etc.  But I couldn't help it.  So off we went:

Bunny and her friend Caitlin helping with the fresh-food
"marketplace" that St. Vincent de Paul started this year.

Jizette was there!  (in plaid).  I've known Jizette for years
and I can't believe she will be a senior at HilHi!!

You can imagine that Celeste was a big hit.

Seddy got right to work making friends.
(Actually he just wanted to draw, and he didn't
like that this girl was right next to him.  Oh well.)

We usually have a craft to do with the residents.

Sedric liked to paint his pet rock.
Celeste is in the background, still with her
new friend.

Big Sis of the Year award.

Jizette and happy Celeste

 The Migrant camp is made up of about a dozen small apartments, some of which house permanent residents (like Jizette and her family).  Then there is an open-air "barn" of sorts that has bunk rooms for the workers that migrate from state to state in the summer. I think there's about 20-30 rooms.  They're set up with 2 twin beds (bunked) and not much more.  This year there were a LOT of families with small children and I was surprised to see that many of them were in the bunk rooms.  On the one hand…it's so different from the way we live.  On the other hand…we have a lot of similarities as well.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset upon returning home that evening.  I like to think that it was God's way of saying "thank you" to His humble servant for going to Migrant Ministry that evening.  He didn't have to do that; the rewards already came earlier that evening at the camp.  :o)  (But the sunset was a nice touch!)

Fun at the Zoo

Another trip to the zoo--I like to beat the rush and go before group school gets out.  :o)  We also go early in the morning to get a good (shady) spot and arrive before all the field-trippers come.  This past trip, we accomplished our mission!

This time we skipped Pacific Northwest and Family Farm and instead went to Africa.

Seddy's favorite part, of course.  Unfortunately
the train didn't run until noon this day, which
was way too late for us.  Seddy understood. :o)

By 11am the zoo was packed!  I later heard that there were a few thousand kids on field trips.  There was no place at the tables for us to sit for lunch!  But it wasn't a problem; we just found a short wall and set up camp there:

On our way out through the underwater exhibit we saw some
very strange zoo creatures:  divers!  That was cool!

end-of-year music recital

Another year of music lessons comes to a close!  (We actually are continuing on through July…but the recital seemed like the end of the year since they had been working hard on their performance pieces.)

Once again the recital was at the beautiful St. Juan Diego parish where our teacher is a parishioner.  We had a small reception afterwards (the kids' favorite part, of course!).

Mariposa is amazing after only 2 years of lessons.
She diligently practices on her own each day,
and her hard work really showed at the recital!

James, like Bunny, likes to "doodle" on the guitar a lot.
He'll pick it up any time of day, and just strum something he is
working on.  He makes up his own songs and memorizes his
lesson pieces, so he always has something to play!

Bunny--WOW.  She plays intricate classical
pieces for lessons but also fun strumming songs
at home.  She can play "Classical Gas" and is
currently working on "Blackbird" (Beatles).

Good Job, kids!!  I am so proud of you!

Next year, be looking for GEMMA as well!

May--fun with Grandma

We had lots of fun when grandma came to visit for Mariposa's First Communion!

typical sight: grandma with kids, either reading or playing
on an iDevice

Altar Society potluck

Lukie's 10th birthday party

pretty little girl getting her official 1st Communion photo

Bunny had an awards ceremony for Franciscan
Girls Club--she got her sash!

TRADITION--going to Dancing Dragon after 1st Communion
(just like Marcus did when he was a kid!)

Grandma got these matching shirts for
Mariposa and Saige.

BunBun needed a haircut (Gemma is watching)

Trip to Smith Berry Barn

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO VISIT US, GRANDMA!

June (a fun month!)

Summer reading program at the library

Little Flowers party at our house!
(look at Gemma and her good friend Irena at the far end
of the table--so cute!)

relay races at the party

Little Flowers lesson (my friend Fanny has led the Little Flowers
at St. Matthew for a few years now)

trip to the zoo (before group schools got out)

St. Matthew School event: wax museum ;o)

a late 6-month well-baby checkup

dance recital (with Lukie and Sophs)

normal