What A Tripp!

band concerts

We made it to May and had 2 separate band concerts. The first one included all of the band kids from the entire school district. There was a combined beginning band (Zeph played the baritone), a combined advanced band (Caemlyn played the flute), the middle school band and the high school band. Each group played a few songs and then they all played the last one together. The only practice they all had together was during the 1/2 hour or so before the concert started. Still sounds impressive to have that many kids playing together, especially knowing the largest number of them had only been playing for a year or 2.
[video http://www.megadaisy.org/video/2011/district_band.flv nolink]

After this concert they had another at the school, combined with the orchestra groups. More of the same, but I was most impressed by the advanced orchestra. Even though neither of the kids plan on staying with band in middle school, I’m still very proud of them for spending the time and learning a bit. Way to go Caemlyn and Zephram!

Between the band concerts, I also got to go to Kezia’s class to listen to them read their Eric Carle style stories. The 3rd graders spent a lot of time in class and in art making these wonderful books.
[video http://www.megadaisy.org/video/2011/scrawny_sloth.flv nolink]
Good job, Kezia!

Masters Nationals

The last month has been so incredibly busy – I’m going to do my best to get the blog back up to date with all that has been going on.  Hopefully there will be several new posts over the next few days, and I can get caught up before we hit the next wave of stuff to blog about.

At the end of April, we had the opportunity to go to Arizona for a few days so Justin could swim in the Masters Nationals swim meet. Justin did great in his “main” event, earning an 8th place finish in the 500 free. Swimming pictures never show much of the individual, but I love the look of the splashing water.

Lucky for us, the swim meet was in Mesa and we got to spend a few days with my brother, Micah and his wonderful family. We are so thankful for their hospitality and the fun we got to have with them. The kids swam a bit in their cold pool, but we also took them to a neighborhood pool with waterslides, lazy river and all sorts of fun water toys.

The next morning, we took all of the kids to an indoor bounce house place. So much fun! We just don’t have stuff like that around here.

We had pizza night, went out to dinner and got to see all the kids coming in dressed up for prom, and Sarah and I even got to do a bit of shopping. Thanks for having us, and even coming to watch Justin swim. You guys rock!

Happy Easter

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, sewing up all sorts of darling clothes for my kids. Unfortunately, my sewing machine ended up in the shop, likely due to being overworked. Thank goodness Caemlyn has a sewing machine, and all of my fancy presser feet fit! I’m quite pleased with how everything turned out, and with the new skills I gained along the way. Totally loving my blind hem foot. lol And who knew melting fabric could be so fun, and turn into such cute flowers. (I know all this information can only be appreciated by a few of you – oh well. )

I even managed to squeeze in making a cute skirt for my friend’s little girl/Ada’s friend. Looks even cuter on her.

alternative fuel

Last weekend was a busy one for our family.  Caemlyn and Zephram both participated in a hydrogen fuel cell car challenge for middle schoolers in Albuquerque.  Caemlyn was a last minute substitute, but Zephram had spent several weeks working on their team car, researching alternative fuels and writing a paper.  Their car ended up not being very good, but the kids had a good time anyway.  Zephram’s knowledge and communication skills were good enough to get him on the nightly news. (follow the link and watch the video)

While the older kids were playing with cars, Justin and I took the little ones to the Albuquerque Temple. We entertained over 30 children from our Primary (a very small subset) while their parents were inside. A big thanks to others in my presidency and their husbands for helping pull this activity together. I’m glad that our family was able to go down to Abq the night before so that Justin and I could attend the temple as well.

The weekend prior to this, Ada got to attend a birthday party for 2 of her friends. They had a library theme, so we made them some awesome pillows to keep a book in. I love that my kids let me make things like this – and think they are great!

Spring Break – cousins

At the end of spring break, Justin’s sister Mary brought her 4 kids down for a fun visit. I took the kids and met them at the Aquarium & Botanic Gardens in Abq on Friday. After our picnic lunch, the kids wandered through the cool fantasy garden.

inside the giant pumpkin

in the over-sized veggie garden

The rest of the gardens are just starting to come to life.

Then we wandered through the Aquarium.

Since it was General Conference weekend, we spent a lot of time hanging out at home. However, we did take the kids hiking at Bandelier between the Saturday sessions.

LOTS of playing occurred, and I was amazed at how well the kids got along. We’d love to have them come visit again anytime!

Spring Break – Denver

For the first part of Spring Break, we headed up to Denver for the Colorado Masters Championship swim meet. We played at parks…

We drove around downtown…and saw a big, blue bear…

And paid *way* too much to go to the downtown aquarium…

At least the older kids and I got to pet some stingrays. Zeph even got to feed one.

Oh, and we watched lots of swimming. Way to go Justin!

Not a super exciting vacation, but I think everyone had fun.

service

Last month I came across this blog post of a woman trying to gather blankets to send to Japan, and was inspired to help out. I have a good size stash of fabric, and had several yards of a few different flannels. A friend came over one morning and helped out a bit, and another friend brought over a blanket she made.

When I was ready to box them up, I ended up with 11 blankets to send, including a couple I already had on hand. Not bad considering my only expense was the $13 it cost to ship them.

Caemlyn also got some crafting in and we worked together to make some cute gifts for her cousin’s birthday.

Tyghe even got to craft at a friend’s house. He goes every Monday for a bit of preschool, and one week they made these cool dinosaur feet.

Last Run

This past week, Zephram participated in his last pinewood derby.

He made a good showing with is hot pink car, but only came away with silver…again.
At least he got one of the super cool trophies that his mom made for the event.

Zephram also participated in the library’s annual Battle of the Books. He had to read at least 10 books from a chosen list of 20, then the students competed on randomly selected teams and answer all sorts of random questions from the books. Not only did they have to know which book, but they had to know all of the authors as well. Zeph’s team didn’t win, but they did quite well, and I was rather impressed at how much the kids knew, and how serious they got when answering the questions.

Ada started taking gymnastics last month, and is loving it. I don’t usually take my camera to regular practices, but this time turned out to be an excellent opportunity to document some of what she is doing.


Learning the basics of a cartwheel.

Tyghe gets to go to his very first friend birthday party tomorrow. I’m so used to making gifts for my girls’ friends, that putting something together for a little boy was a bit different. I’m learning what I need to add to my “stash” for such times. I’m quite pleased with what I whipped up this afternoon though.

Tyghe wants one, so I think it was a success.

“Fat”ening Tuesday

Mardi Gras food is totally fattening, but oh so yummy. Along with our traditional King Cake

I also made beignets this year. This was the first time I’d ever made them, so thankfully they turned out beautifully. Yum!

The kids also made some pretty cool masks. Too bad they didn’t have a parade or party to wear them to.

Maybe next year we’ll plan ahead and invite friends over to share our jambalaya.

Vegas, baby!

We took a quick overnight trip to Las Vegas (New Mexico) Friday and Saturday for the Regional Science Fair. Caemlyn didn’t win any awards, but we are very proud of her and all of her hard work.

While Caemlyn spent her time in the gym at NMHU, the rest of us did a bit of sight-seeing. Unfortunately, Las Vegas is old and quite small. We took the brief drive out to Montezuma to see the castle there. You can’t get very close, so the kids didn’t even get out of the car. Justin and I only got out long enough to take a few pictures.

We walked around most of the campus and the historic downtown. The highlight for the kids being the nachos they got at the old drugstore.

We found the patches of astroturf around campus a bit amusing…well, Justin and I did. By this time, the kids didn’t care about much but getting back to the car and out of the cold.

At least the hotel had a decent pool and the kids all got to spend a long time swimming and playing (with many others from LA) on Friday evening.