Ballet Recital

Here are some pictures from the end-of-year dance recital.

I have mentioned it before but we are SO lucky to have a fantastic dance studio just a few miles from our house--living in the country, this is amazing!  "Teacher Jill" runs the studio and teaches ballet and lyrical classes.  We all love her because of her kind, patient teaching style and also because she is an accomplished ballerina herself, so she can teach up through the highest levels.  We're not there (yet) so we appreciate that she can also teach the lowest levels :o) and does so with grace and love.

This year's theme was "Cinderella."
James was a jester, and the girls were ladies at the ball.

I was surprised to see that the Jester had a very prominent role!
James is the only older boy, so he gets a LOT of responsibility
placed on him.  :o)

Additional boys (for the recital only) were other dancers' brothers.

Bunny and Mariposa are both in Ballet III.
Bunny will go on pointe this coming year!

Gemma is in Ballet I and will move on to Ballet II in the fall.

The stepsisters were so funny!!
Jill choreographed the whole 40-minute-long ballet, and
once again she included ALL the ballet classes in one performance.

Mariposa accidentally had a solo when her dance partner
forgot to go onstage.  :o)   She performed like a pro!

We were lucky to have a REAL male ballet dancer help us
with the role of the Prince.

My dancers!!!

summer is here!

Summertime is always full of adventures in our home.

Wait...EVERY season is full of adventures for us!  I guess we just like having fun!

Here are some pics from early summer 2017:

Our Sprinkler Guy (aka Marcus) working hard

Waiting for Sedric's bus on his last class day
of the year (he was taking a once-a-week speech
class through the local school district)

Field trip to the zoo
(We like to go before group-school gets out for the summer!)

a load of compost for the garden

Saturday Market!
We try to go every week, if we can.

Marcus and I continue to enjoy our date nights.
This pic is from Yellow Llama in Forest Grove.
(Peruvian food)

I love going to Walmart on date nights!  :o)

We had some HOT days.

Hooray!  Decadent Creations opened in Hillsboro!

D.C. has become a weekly after-Mass treat.

Some adventures are unplanned.

Migrant Ministry...year #15? for us

ok, so we were REALLY active this spring....

Yikes!  Even MORE springtime fun!!  Each one of these has a story behind it, but if I tried to chronicle off of it, I'd be here forever!!  So let's play the "Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" game....

date nights--this one at Decarli's in Beaverton

Outdoor play

We have a chicken who lays a daily egg in our planter box.

horse lessons continue--now I get to ride, too!

Bunny and friend Tess ~tried~ to go to a church dance...
but it was really lame so they texted me to come get them,
and we spent the evening at Insomnia instead.  :o)

annual trip to Astoria--this time, with some cousins!

Easter fun

my 3 altar-servers

field trip to Portland French Bakery

finding--and playing with--critters all the time

St. Matthew Track Attack!

all packed and ready to go to...
Scotland!!