Weekly Instagrams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.they are getting longerrrr 2.lunch date with a sick kid 3.checking out baldwin hills for a potential middle school site 4.art volunteer time 5.2nd grade math 6.nightly ritual 7.looking svelte 8.walking to school 9.solo lunch date with my pellegrino 10.ballet 11.torture 12.quinoa and a green smoothie 13.1/4 of the day’s laundry load 14.comic book store 15.fraction machine 16.hawaii blurb book arrived 17.writing 18.working 19.field trip to louise’s 20.delish 21.school pickup 22.new uniforms 23.dinner 24.got my burn on 25.kids scored in clothes 26.lunch date with This American Life 27.friday cubby clean out yielded 5 water bottles and 2 sweaters 28.chillin in his cousin’s carseat 29.park time 30.swinging 31.modeling her new clothes 32.gorgeous mid century 33.view 34.she keeps me humble 35.new cut 36.trumpet practice 37.how we roll on a saturday night 38.10pm snack 39.flea market find

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy friday

This week has been spent spoiling my girl and doing special things with her. I am trying to prepare myself mentally for the start of Kindergarten in a week and a half, but not too sure how well that’s going.

I thought I could kick off your weekend with a smile. Check out Sawyer and Greta’s dance moves in this video. Sawyer definitely chose hip hop with some running man, robot and snake, while Greta I believe was channeling some interpretive dance. Enjoy.

Greta’s Tap Recital

Greta lives for this ONE day, really 2 days all. year. long. It’s two days because there is a dress rehearsal and then the actual show. It is as if she has died and gone to heaven. It cracks me up because I was not this type of girl growing up, however I love watching her. She lives to wear the blush, lipstick, and mascara. If she were allowed I believe she would be one of those girls on Toddlers and Tiaras.

Her little recital outfit was perfect. Both years we have been very fortunate to get really sweet, and pink outfits. So it pleases me and her. We made sure to get front row seats this year since last year I wasn’t completely convinced she was going to go through with the whole thing. She did, and so this year I had no doubt we wanted her to be able to see us when she was up there. Hold on people, there’s a lot of photos ahead. At the end, I posted a link with the video. For some reason I thought I had posted the video from last years, but realized it was one of those things that slipped the cracks. So instead, I did one video with last year’s and this year’s recitals on it. The first half is when she had just turned 4, and the last half is from a few weeks ago, days after turning 5. Looking so grown up. sniff sniff. If you read this on a feed, like usual, to see the video you probably have to click on the post itself.

Her brothers were honestly champs. They really enjoying watching her and all the performances. I think they were paying her back for all the years she has sat through their spring and winter concert performances at school.

And the whole family. Romeo loved it too. Couldn’t keep his eyes off the stage. I have a cute iphone photo I will have to post one day of him during the show.

Nanni was a very proud grandma. Here she is giving Greta a charm bracelet after the performance.

After the show showing off her bracelet.

With her biggest fan. We went out to a great restaurant to celebrate Greta’s special day. Pasta, bread, gelato. What more could she ask for!

And just in case you didn’t get enough and want to watch the video. Here are the last two recital performances for my sweet girl.

Recital Time

It was that time of year again. A few weeks ago was Gunnar’s 2nd trumpet recital. I am so proud of that boy and how dedicated he is to his music. I am also looking forward to what instrument Sawyer will go with in the fall. He had guitar lessons a year ago, and this year he passed on the first grade choices of instruments. Recorder or violin. Yeah, no. They learn to play the recorder in third grade and we aren’t a big violin loving family, so I was fine when he decided to pass until 2nd grade where he will have his choice of a dozen instruments. AND it saved me $400 in lessons PLUS the cost of the instrument which isn’t cheap.

Gunnar played with his intermediate class this time, he being the youngest of the group, and he even played a few songs with the orchestra. I’m so glad Gunnar decided to go with the trumpet and he was certain he would stick with this choice because by the time he gets to 5th grade he will be in the advanced group and in the honor orchestra. And that all looks really good on his middle school admission papers.

Proud mama and daddy

My family wouldn’t miss this for the world.

Foster the People

At the moment this family is obsessed with this song. I love to hear Greta sing it because instead of saying kicks, she believes they say kiss. Listen to it all the way through, wait for the chorus and you’ll know why we love it. Very catchy. Very fun.

This weekend was way too quick. Beautiful weather. I got a lot of gardening done, planted some seeds to replace some lettuce plants that have bolted. New vocabulary word for me. It means that they got too much sun. My spinach is flowering so I’m going to wait and see if it will reseed itself. Yesterday we were going to have people over but then my dad called and moved it up to my parents house so the kiddies could swim. And that they did. For hours and hours and hours. They are fish and I feel like summer is coming a little early with the weather we have been having.

I made my 30 hour goal for April, in fact I made 31 hours! Just for good measure in case I added my hours wrong. This morning is going to be spent working on inventory for the spa, and one final teacher conference. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like with all 3 of the kids at the same school next year where conferences all fall on the same week. Fortunately Gunnar’s math and language arts teacher moved hers to this week so we can catch up from conference week last week. So far the boys’ conferences have been awesome. Their assessments are all 100% and they are solid 4 students. 4 in elementary school is basically an A. No complaints, but we’ll see what Gunnar’s last teacher has to say today. He warned me that he has been a little chatty in school. What’s new. Sawyer has matured a ton this year and he’s known among his classmates as the exemplar reader. Whenever they are learning about pausing or intonation or reading with feeling they turn to Sawyer to do a sample reading to show them how it should sound. So proud of that boy.

Gunnar has his trumpet recital tomorrow night. I can tell he’s a little nervous because for the first time he will be playing a few songs with the advanced students. This is only his second year and the advanced kids are all in 5th grade, so he feels a little pressure. But I know the excitement will definitely outweigh the jitters.

Hope you all are enjoying the sun and had a good weekend!

Congregation Party & Talent Show

I was about to post more photos from spring break and then I loaded an older memory card and found all the photos from our congregation party and talent show from a few weeks back. I can’t believe I forgot to load them! It was so much fun, and I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

There were wonderful details everywhere. Every table was set with beautiful flower arrangements.

They had a bubble machine going that the kids were crazy about and then they had individual bubbles for the kids to use outside.

One of the really sweet touches is seen in the photo above. They laid out a box for each brother on the servant body and had little papers and pens on a table when you walked in. It was everyone’s chance to write a little something sweet. We haven’t gotten Aaron’s box yet but I can’t wait for him to read what’s inside. He is a very modest and humble person and he is very appreciated and loved in our congregation. I can’t wait for him to realize that and read what everyone had to say.

Then came dinner which was a delicious feast of Mexican food, followed by a slide show and then the Talent Show portion of the night. Here’s Gunnar playing the trumpet.

There were skits and bands who played and delicious dessert. And Bob Eubanks(below) hosting the Oldieweds game, which closed out the night.

And my parents, Couple # 1, who came in second place. Losing only to the longest married couple. They were such good sports. It was hilarious. Imagine couples being married over 30-35 years and the husbands being asked “What shampoo does your wife use?” Or the wives who were asked “How many girls would your husband say he dated before you?” Yeah, there were some pretty hilarious answers.

Open House- Sawyer’s Turn

Oh this boy melts my heart. Especially when it comes to performances. He takes that real seriously. Sawyer’s teacher has an open house performance every year, and since she was some of the kids’ kinder teacher last year she was in a panic trying to figure out how to change up the songs a little bit. Honestly, we wouldn’t know the difference if they sang the exact same songs, but she wanted it to be special and different. They did a great job. I couldn’t decide on one or two photos, so here you go, there’s a bunch. There was also a slide show of all the kids, I’ll tack that one on the end too.

first musical

We planned it quite strategically to go see Beauty and the Beast on a day where my kids’ had a half day of school. We pulled them out just a tad early and met my parents for lunch at long time eatery Musso & Frank. Then we headed to the Pantages for the show. My mom was on top of it when it came to seats. She made sure the kids were the first row of the balcony so no one was in their way. I also recommend grabbing the booster seats when you walk in to give the kids added height. When the lights went down the kids were silent, backs ram rod straight and eyes glued to the stage. The first half is about an hour and half long and by the last 15 minutes you can tell they were moving in their seats a little and repositioning their legs. Greta, in awe. She wouldn’t take her eyes off Belle or the Beast. And the boys thought Gaston and his little friend were hilarious. It’s a fantastic show. We saw quite a few 3 year olds in the audience. We thought we were pushing it with Greta who is almost 5, but once I looked around and saw how little some of the kids were, I knew we’d be fine. Tati was pretty bummed to miss this one, but pumping at intermission just wasn’t the ideal thing to do. So we promise next time Romeo will be old enough to join us. If not, we’ll get him a babysitter.

My dad took this one before the show, thus he isn’t in it.

And after the show.

winter breaking

The kids last week of school was last week, and now they have THREE weeks off. It makes no sense. We have one week at spring break, which isn’t enough, and three weeks during winter break, which is too many. The weather looks like it’s not going to cooperate very well this week. We’ve had rain since last Wednesday or Thursday. I mean pouring torrential rain. But we still plan on doing some fun things with our time, Some of those on our agenda include: Natural History Museum (buying a membership was THE best purchase for us), making homemade peppermint bark, my sister’s pregnancy photo shoot, a few movie theatre trips, lots of reading from our humongous stack of library books, some one on one time with Greta while the boys go to one week of winter camp, and then when Greta returns to school (her break is only two weeks) some fun one on two time with my boys, lots of egg nog and hot chocolate, lots of sitting by the fire, planning out our garden planter boxes for springtime, and catching up on housework because after the weekend we had it looks like a tornado blew through here. I did promise these kids a trip to a toy store one time on their break for one item each and they’re already scheming what they’ll get. No doubt it will be somewhere along the lines of a Wii game, some princess paraphernalia, and Legos.

Aaron couldn’t get the time off work for a trip to Mammoth so we’ll be doing that later in the ski season in February and once my nephew makes his debut. But I do look forward to Aaron having 2 3-day weekends in a row. He does have to work the day after Christmas but hopefully we’ll get to keep him home and he won’t be busy.

The boys had their Winter Concert this last week, and I am just so proud of these guys. They really are such good boys. I love to watch them. You can guess that Gunnar’s songs were about peace and happiness based on all the tie dye shirts.

Oh Soso. Steals the show every time with his shoulder shaking and moves.

Two days later was Sawyer’s class’ Winter Party. They decorated gingerbread houses, heard winter themed stories, drank hot chocolate and other delicious foods.

Happy Winter Break for all of you with school aged kids!

Girls Night

Sorry to skip out on Wordless Wednesday today. But I got nothing. My camera has been in the shop. Don’t. Ask. I don’t know what’s wrong and I don’t know what it’s going to cost. So I’d rather not talk about it. And not to mention I am exhausted. I really can’t keep the bedtime of an 18 year old and the wake up time of a 4 year old. It’s just not working. But Uncle Zeb leaves tomorrow night. Yeah, he was supposed to leave last night but he changed his flight. I think we are making it way too fun here. I need to give him more chores maybe.

This night was payback for Aaron and Zeb living it up at the Portugal the Man concert the previous week, not to mention multiple USC games they went to. So it was my turn. Last week I went with two girlfriends (thanks girls!) to one of my most favorite female artist’s (she is tied with Regina Spektor for sure) concert at The Music Box, Ingrid Michaelson. I have never been to this venue in Hollywood but it was awesome. It has been so long since I’ve been to a smaller, more intimate concert, and I forgot how awesome they are. She was amazing. And hilarious. I have never laughed so much at a concert. But she had the best stories and little tidbits to share in between songs. It was overall fantastic.

We started the night for dinner at Susan Feniger’s Street on Highland. Awesome. It was delicious. And then headed over to the concert. I wish I could see her again actually, it was that good. I took this with my iphone, wish I had one of the 3 of us though. The girls were dressed pretty adorable if you ask me.

In case you haven’t heard of her, why not?! She’s so talented and well you HAVE heard of her because she is the music to most of my videos, like the one of Greta I just posted. And the camping video I did awhile back. Don’t worry Jane I have a disc all ready to go with new music for you to listen to.

Here’s her music video to Greta’s favorite song by her. And I have to agree, it’s pretty awesome and we listen to it everyday.

This next one gets a lot less play it’s probably my favorite, so beautiful.