Three Piggy Opera

 Baila was very excited to be chosen
as one of the 4 narrators

for the school Kindergarten musical

"The Three Piggy Opera."

Luke and Lainey were wowed when she announced
her part in the show:

"Mom, did you hear that Baila gets
to be a narrator?!"

"Baila nobody in our
family has ever been that before!
Do you know how hard it is
to get that part?"


Baila was grinning from
ear to ear.  She loves
making a name for herself
in the family.

Baila was our kid who knew all the

 alphabet letters and sounds at age 2, 

and was sounding out words by age 3. 

We felt bad for Luke when she entered school

and was helping him if he was 

stuck on a word. 

I think it drove him to start 

devoting more time to books. ;)

Unlike her very shy mother,

Baila wasn't a bit nervous to 

be on stage.  She has 

been very comfortable at school

making friends, and performing .

All day long she kept telling

me how excited she was 

for the show to start!

The complete opposite of me.

I almost pass out if I have

to say a simple prayer in public.
She had every role and
song memorized,
and was ready to step in
if anyone broke a leg.  ;)

Baila was beaming on stage, and kept

 shooting me the cutest 

smiles, knowing how

proud we were of her.

Here's a video clip of her part.
The show consisted
of all 48 Kindergartners.

Isabelle kept asking me

through the show

"Mommy, where's the big bad wolf?"

in anticipation of his scary entrance.

Right toward the end of 

this clip she says:

"that big bad wolf is 

gonna eat me."

These little piggies are so stinkin cute!

Isabelle decided to cop a squat next

to all the big kids.

  

 

 

 

friend Angelina

Baila age 5

 

Bravo Baila!

California Snow

The other day when I was teaching Spanish at my kids school,  

there was a warm blustery wind blowing 

all the white blossoms

off of the flowering pear trees.  It appeared as if

snow was falling everywhere, and looked

like something out of a fairy tale
or fantasy film.

Of course I didn't have my camera with me

to film this magical sight.  :(  

That's my kind of snow-
76 degrees outside, with
beautiful white petals
swirling all around
my body.

There is only one impediment:

We do get snow in California, but not

the area where I live.

I do volunteer work with Lainey's church

group and our activity this same day was on

respecting the earth.

I've taught my kids to use
their sand buckets to
pick up litter, and
we try to leave
the park cleaner
than how we found it.

When we arrived at the park to do 

clean up, there wasn't any trash! haha

So much for our activity plan. 

But there were piles of white

blossoms all over the ground
from the earlier wind
that morning.  

The girls had a blast filling up

their sand buckets and letting

the wind blow the fallen blossoms 

away.   I had my camera 

this time:

The girls shouted out "It's a wedding!"

from left to right:  Kyla, Beth, Kaylee, Sydney, 

Lainey, Jessica, Anna, and Emily

 

Spring Fever

Spring is my favorite time of year,  

notwithstanding seasonal allergies. 

Everything seems to come alive,

including myself.  I love the new

energy I feel when the warm

sun shines on my skin. 

At last I feel the drive to exercise

and do some spring

cleaning. 

I can't wait to get out

in the garden!  :D

Travis and I both had no

idea about the time change last 

Sunday and showed up

to church an hour late. 

(we have 8:30am service

so you won't hear

us complain ;)

The kids in nursery

that morning were so grumpy

having missed that hour of sleep.

One boy stood in the corner

for the entire 2 hours like a kid 

on time out, with his head 

down the entire time. 

We tried songs, toys, and

everything we could to

coax him away.

He even

threw the cookies we

offered on the ground, and

refused to budge from

his corner.

It made me think of this

cute vintage picture from a book

we own called My First Prayers 

by Bessie Pease Gutmann

 

Another boy in nursery had a 

major meltdown and

told us we were

all stupid and he

didn't like any of us! haha

After he tried kicking

the nursery leader several

times, they realized how

critical that extra hour

of sleep is for kids.

The flowering plum and pear trees have 

been in full bloom since February

here in California 

and look like puffs of

cotton candy

all over the trees.

These pictures are from 2008 that I never got around to posting during Spring.

Isabelle is only 6 months old here.  

Baila almost 4, Luke almost 6, and Lainey age 7.

 

 

 

 

sweets

This video clip was taken after the kids had eaten all the

green desserts I made for St. Patrick's Day,

and the excitement was
quickly dying out.

Lainey couldn't eat the jello jigglers 

she cut in shapes

 and said:

"I'm just candied out." 

She looked a little queasy.  

My favorite part

of this clip is Luke's face when he

realized the camera was on him:

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Baila's Kindergarten class

(she's on the bottom row, 3rd from the left)

Baila had to make a leprechaun trap 

for school.  This will be the

4th trap we've made, and I think
I'm finally getting the hang
of this.

(for the first time I looked outside
my head for ideas and found some
inspiration from a Disney site)

I love how Kindergartners spell.  So cute!

 There's something about St. Patrick's Day 

that brings out the Martha Stewart inside of me.

 I went a little crazy turning our house
and foods green.
On a related note, the kids let
me know something
else turned up green today. ;)

St. Patrick Punch (lime sherbert with 7-up)

I made the traditional potato and cabbage crock pot dinner but it

was sooooo spicy this year.  (I used the 

Whole Foods spice kit and may

have added too much-dynamite!) I'm eating

the left overs while I post this and 

my mouth is on fire.

 Lainey age 9

 pistachio pudding

Isabelle was the only kid

who liked the flavor.

 

I made jello jigglers for dessert

 

 

Lainey thought it was funny to see the

foam in her St. Patrick drink

take the shape of a shamrock.

St. Patrick and shamrock history from the Wiki:

Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God' (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick's time).^[when?]

 

I love how the congruous heart shape of the leaf

echos St. Patrick's metaphorical teaching

on the Trinity.