Wheeler Farm

During the past couple of summers we have tried to do a fun field trip or activity for each week of the summer. Today was our first summer outing of the year to Wheeler Farm. As usual we went with our good friends, the Kaminsky family. 

Our visit consisted of petting the farm animals, milking a cow, feeding the ducks and playing in the water and the trees.

The little girls loved it, while the teens were slightly bored, but happy to be bored together.

 Zoe milking a cow.

 Claire milking the cow.

The Box Elder tree made a good photo location. I think the photos turned out pretty well considering they were taken on my phone.

What I Love About Recital

After the Starz Unlimited dance recital on Wednesday my sister asked me what I liked best about the recital. I was stumped because I couldn’t think of any one thing that would answer that question. I said I liked it all. But now I can explain my answer. 

What I love best about the recital is seeing it all come together. When you get to the night of the recital, it isn’t just another performance. It is so much more. When I am at the recital, this is what I see and feel-

I see nine months of preparation by the dancers as they learn technique and choreography through hard work and dedication.

I am inspired by how far each dancer has come during the year.

I see dancers developing self-confidence by going on stage and performing.

I admire and am grateful for the talents of the instructors who teach each student and choreograph each dance.

I witness the friendships that develop throughout the year and see the dancers cheer for one another, help one another and work together.

I feel the excitement of family and friends in the audience who are so proud of their dancers.

I recognize the many people behind the scenes who worked to make everything come together.

Seeing the dancers, music, costumes and choreography all come together make a magical evening that I am always excited to be a part of. While preparing for recital can be a lot of work, the outcome is always worth it.

Crazy, Busy May

I just realized it has been nearly a month since I posted anything on my blog. Let's just say that May has been a crazy, busy month. I still don't really have time for a nice long post, but I'm going to give a run down of my month so someday when I look back on here I will be able to feel some sense of accomplishment.

Weekdays were busy with dance classes and helping my mom get to appointments and errands. On various weekends we had dance pictures, competition at Lagoon, and preparing for the studio yard sale. Oh and an extra dance performance in there somewhere. In between these activities lots of hours went into studio planning and writing  notes and announcements for all of the above mentioned studio activities, and planning for recital. (I will save recital planning details for another post). In between all of that I tried to play catch up on taking care of the house. Oh, and caring for my kids too. And maybe seeing Mike once a week. (The poor guy has been such a good sport and my kids are lucky to eat because of him).

May has also been exceptionally rainy. The weatherman announced with excitement today that we had broken the record for the rainiest spring ever (or at least since 1860) in SLC. Between my schedule and the rain I still haven't planted any of my flowers that I excitedly purchased the first week of May and then plopped in the flower beds where they are still sitting in their containers.

We will race through this week with more preparing for recital, dress rehearsal, and the recital itself on Wed. And then throw in a few more doctor appointments and errands for mom, and shopping for and helping Zach get ready to leave for scout camp next Sunday. Oh yeah. I think I also have a daughter with a birthday in a week. I might need to do something about that too. And I might just get those darn flowers planted at weeks end if the weather cooperates and I am awake enough to do it. 

One more week and then I plan to take my foot off the accelerator and creep down to a nice, slow 5mph for a few days and get wrapped up in my family and reading some good books. I can't wait!

 

 

Emma's 4!

Emma turned 4 on April 28th!