To finish up April, I have some pictures about Aubrey. I went to a Fun Fit Friday and took pictures of Aubrey with her friends and classmates. They love getting their pictures taken and they especially love making funny faces. I started with a small group, but as soon as others saw a picture was being taken, more kids started rushing in to be in the picture. Our small group ended up being a very large group of 4th graders. Aubrey knows them all and loves being the center of attention.
Aubrey's been playing volleyball on a league team and Tyler and I still coach her team. It's hard to take pictures during her games since we coach, but after one of her games, she wanted me to record her because she had started getting her overhand serves over the net. We were so proud of her. She's a quick learner and loves to play. Serving overhand at her age is pretty rare, so we were super proud of her hard work and dedication. Aubrey has also been a part of the safety patrol at school this year. She gets to school early in the morning to monitor the hallways and playgrounds. I was at the school early one morning too and was able to get a picture of her as she did her job directing students (and parents) to the right hallways.
In April, the Mesa Ward was in charge of a tri-ward youth activity, and they planned a live version of Clue for the youth. I was able to play the part of Mrs. Peacock, the librarian. We had a script and dressed up for the part and the youth had to figure out who=dun-it. We had a fun time, and the kids loved it.
Tyler and Ammon were the butler and detective who did most of the talking to explain the rules of the game and to lead the discussion. We each had a different spot in the church where the youth came to find us to hear the clues. I was in the library with the poison. It was really fun to hear the youth talk it out. A lot of the groups figured out the right character, weapon, and room. They all said they had a great time.
At the end of April, I helped organize a multi-stake dance. The only problem was that the dance was the same weekend as one of Abby's out of town tournaments, so I wasn't even able to be there for the dance. I spent the weeks leading up to the dance planning and organizing meetings and we were there the day before decorating the entire gym in the Neverland theme that the youth had come up with. While Abby, Aubrey and I were in Albuquerque, Tyler stayed home and helped finish decorating the day of and chaperoned the dance that night. I was happy to get pictures from friends as the dance took place, and the leaders from our ward got a picture in front of the photo booth which was my main decorating contribution. They said it was a good turnout and all the youth had fun, so the hard work and time committed was well worth it. Abby and I were just sad that we missed out on the actual dance, but we were happy to hear that it was a success.
The Kasallis family and our family have been doing Sunday dinners for over six months now. We invite families from our ward and enjoy dinner and a spiritual message or activity together. We decided more recently to try and take pictures of all the groups that join us to remember the fun times. This was one of the group pictures we were able to get after one of those family dinners. It's been a lot of fun getting to know more people in our ward and to have that family time to look forward to.
The Hornedo Bands had their Spring concert in April. I was running between volleyball practices and concerts, so I was able to catch the last of Tessa's numbers while she played the timpani. My parents were able to take pictures of the front view while Tessa played the bells on one of the first numbers. She's the only girl in the percussion section this year, but she's one of the best. She enjoys playing, but usually ends up with the bell or timpani parts because they are the hardest even though she wishes she could play snare drum. I think once she realized how important those other parts are and that she's the only one playing them, she started to enjoy it even more. We love our budding little percussionist.
Another weekend while Abby and I were gone to a volleyball tournament, our stake had their girl's overnight hike. Tyler went as one of the leaders, and Tessa was able to go since all young women were invited. It was a 4-mile hike and the girls had to pack everything they needed in their backpacks. To prepare for the overnighter, our youth did a smaller hike for their Wednesday night activity. Here are all our youth that went on that hike with the rainbow behind them after they made it up the hill that they hiked. I love these youth. Tessa is with her friends right in the middle front, in green.
I'm so glad that friends take pictures to send me when I'm not able to be where my kids are for these fun activities. Tessa is the one posing in the middle of this picture with the awesome sunset behind them.
They left that Friday afternoon from the church. Audrey, as the stake camp director, was also at the hike. She grabbed a selfie with Tessa and Olivia before they started off. Tyler helped pack their backpacks to make sure they had everything and to make sure they weren't too heavy.
They used walking sticks and everything and had a good time hiking up the mountain and camping at their campsite. Tessa said it was a lot of fun and she really enjoyed the outdoors and the hike trails.
Here's Tessa and Audrey after they made it to the top.
There were plenty of dads who went on the hike to help and there were a lot of girls from the stake who went, many of them 11 and 12 year olds. But they said the girls did a great job with very little complaining.
Here are a couple more shots that people took for me as they hiked and camped. The girls all said it was a great experience and would be happy to go again sometime.
Easter came and Tyler and I decided to create a string maze for the girls to follow to find their Easter baskets. We stayed up late the night before and wrapped different colored yarn (one for each girl) around and under and through, all over the downstairs with one end connected to their basket, and the other starting out at the top of the stairs in our room. When they woke up, they had to follow their colored string and crawl under, over, and around the other strings to get to the end and to their baskets.
They thought it was the coolest thing ever even though they had just woken up. It was a crazy maze and it was very time-consuming, but I think it was worth it to see how much fun the girls had playing along. We used the entire downstairs so they went down the stairs and eventually through the living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, bathroom, and even laundry room. It was fun watching them as they realized how far they had to go in circles to make it to where their baskets were hidden.
They enjoyed all of their Easter basket treats and they didn't even mind helping roll up all the yarn to help clean up the maze mess. It was a great Easter spent in church and at home together as a family.
Before church I took pictures of the girls in their new Easter dresses. I love the portrait setting on my phone's camera so I can get these girls' beautiful faces. I love them so much!
Their beautiful smiles just make me smile. I love my girls and my family.
Here's one of all the girls and then we took a couple after church as well with the entire family.
We also couldn't pass up taking pictures with the Kasallis family. It's sort of become a tradition, so while waiting for the dads to finish their end of church meetings and responsibilities, I took pictures of each of the kids. Here's Teagan and Taryn and Sam and Aubrey.
Logan is always the joker but I did get a serious one of him and Tessa, but I had to use this one instead because it's just so hilarious, and so very much "Logan." AJ and Abby's picture also turned out very nice.
Here's one with all the kids and then one with Abby and her two closest friends from church, AJ and Braelinn.
Finally some full family pictures. The Kasallis's and Gibbons. We also took one with Grandma V, Audrey's mom, since she moved here and is part of the family too. What a good looking group.
And like last year, we had to take a funny picture. They are always the best. I kept wondering what Teagan was doing and thought he wasn't even going to be in the picture, but I guess he knew exactly what he was doing and it turned out to be the best silly picture ever.
We had a family get together that Easter Sunday evening to have desserts with friends. These ladies are my closest friends from church. We even have a group text called, "Ladies on the Hill" because we all live near each other. We have lots of fun together, hanging out, going to lunch, and getting together so our kids can play. From left to right, it's Damaris, Jessica, Niki, me, Audrey, and Kristina.
I was able to chaperone Taryn's field trip to the zoo in April. I included this first picture from one of the Fun Fit Fridays because Taryn had to show me how she can do monkey bars now. She spends all of her recess and PE time doing the monkey bars and has the calluses on her hands to prove it. She's so proud of herself, and I'm so proud of her too. I've helped out at the school enough that most of the kids recognize me as Taryn's mom, so they were fine letting me take pictures of them as they lined up to head out to the buses. They were very excited for their field trip to the zoo.
Here's Taryn with the group of girls that I was in charge of during the day. It's Taryn, Elene, Sydney, and Mikayla. Her class was green.
We hadn't been to the zoo in awhile, and they had added some new things like this huge turtle sculpture that surrounded the reptile house. I got this picture of the group we walked around with in the turtle's mouth. I also took this picture of Taryn, Elene, and Aiden on one of the turtle feet before a worker yelled at us to get down.
Taryn wanted this close up picture with a turtle to show to Tessa who loves turtles. And here's Taryn comparing herself to the arm span of an orangutan. We had fun all day watching the animals and playing. I was so happy that I was able to be there for their field trip.
Abby's honor band had their UIL competition across town and I was able to attend. It was Abby's final band concert since she had decided that she would not be doing band in high school. So I was a little emotional. Abby had a really hard time deciding her high school schedule too, but she's very committed to and focused on volleyball, and she decided it would be too hard to try and juggle band and sports for another year. But we support her decision and are happy that she's following her passions.
They sounded really good at their concert and her director, Mrs. Allen, sent me a picture of their entire group with their plaque that they earned. Abby stayed first chair all year even though they had a really good horn section this year and she had a lot of competition. It was fun to play with her over the weekends and to help her practice all of her music. She really did enjoy playing and being with her band friends, but volleyball is where her true love lies.
April was our church's annual Teacher Appreciation Night. It just so happened that every year that they honored elementary teachers, one of my kids had and nominated Ms. Moreira, so this was her third time to come to Appreciation night with one of my girls. So I had to take a picture with Ms. Moreira and all three of my girls who brought her when she was their first grade teacher.
They had a good speaker and musical numbers and then we got to take pictures as each student went up with their teacher and it was read off what the student had written about what they love about their teacher. Taryn's message about Ms. Moreira was really sweet, but poor Aubrey's information got misplaced, so she was skipped over. They finally let her go up to get a picture with Mr. Martinez, but she was crying and didn't get to say what she loved about him. We did get her to smile for the picture and Mr. Martinez kept reassuring her that he knew how much she liked him and that the paper didn't matter. It was really sweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment