The beginning of March included dress up days for school. Dr. Seuss's birthday is March 2nd, so that's always a dress up day at school. Taryn's friend, Malerie's mom, made shirts for the kids to dress up as Things. They looked so cute. She takes them to school every morning so she made sure to take a picture of them together before heading to school. Malerie is Thing 2 and her little brother, Maverick, is Thing 1. Taryn got to be Thing 3 and Teagan is Thing 4.
Another dress up day we had at school was Wacky Wednesday and you were supposed to dress up with mixed-matched clothes. I thought it was the best day ever. I went all out. I threatened to walk my kids into school and they were scared. They did not want to be seen with me. Taryn did stop by the office with her friends to "show me off" and I made her take a picture with me. I always say this is why I love working at an elementary school because you get to do crazy things at work that just wouldn't ever happen at any other workplace. Taryn, Aubrey, and I had a play date with Leeno and some of his siblings. We went back to the house where he was born and let the puppies play together. They were very excited to play and loved running around the backyard. These were the two puppies that the Bowden's kept from the litter and their names are cinnamon and sugar. They ganged up on Leeno a little bit, but by the end of the playdate, Leeno was holding his own and they chased each other all around the yard.
Aubrey's dance team, Vortex, had their official dance competition in March. They were at the school all day. They performed two of their routines, ones they had been working on all year. There was also a portion for solos and a couple of the team's captains performed a solo too. I only took videos of their actual performances so I didn't have pictures, but it was kind of interesting because during their main lyrical dance routine, they started out by lining up incorrectly so half way through the number they were all backwards on their positions, so the announcer stopped the music, announced that they were having technical difficulties, and they let them start the song over. It was crazy, but it looked so much better when they got to perform it a second time. They also performed their hip hop routine and that one was a crowd pleaser like usual ,so they had a lot of cheering and audience participation during that one as they performed. After all of the younger groups were finished, they had the awards ceremony. The girls all lined up together and the captains took turns going up to receive their awards. They got trophies for their routines and even the soloists were in the top three of their categories. They got so many trophies! Here's Aubrey with one of the captains, Clare.
I was there for most of the morning. Abby and Taryn were with me at the beginning while Tessa was at a cross country practice. In between Aubrey's performances and the awards, we left to meet up with Tyler and Tessa for lunch at Jason's Deli. From there, Abby and Taryn left with Tyler to do what they needed to do and Tessa came back with me to wait for the awards and see more dancing. It was fun to watch all of the routines even though they got behind schedule and the performances seemed to be going on forever.
They finally did the awards and like I mentioned, our girls came out on top. They earned so many trophies for their performances. We were so proud of them. One of the moms got the girls together with their trophy collection so we could have a team picture. Aubrey has really loved dance and has picked it up so quickly. She looks beautiful out there and you can tell how much she loves it whenever you see her perform.
Tessa had a couple track meets in March. They were both held at Eastwood High School. She started placing first in front of her teammate, Isa, on the 400M and 800M. She always looks like she's in pain as she comes down the final stretch to the finish line, but she says she feels fine when she's running even though she's going all out and pushing herself to her limit. I'm so proud of her hard work and determination to do her best and to show her coach that she can excel even though she's doing track and band. I took some pictures as she waited to start the relay as well. She's the second leg and waits just after the starting line for Isa to get around first and bring her the baton.
I was waiting by the start/finish line while they raced the relay so I was able to take some pictures while they had their handoffs. Isa gives the baton to Tessa and then Tessa hands off to Izaiddi. And then she waits and cheers them on as the final two racers run their laps. There aren't a lot of schools that have freshmen relay runners in the 4x400, so they usually end up first easily. They are usually only competing against two or three other teams during that race.
The next week, they had another track meet. Tessa ran the 800M with the freshmen and JV girls combined. There were a lot more girls on the track, but Tessa still did great. She got first place in the freshmen girls and only one JV girl was ahead of her. She beat her PR by 5 seconds! I think it helped that she had a JV girl ahead of her, so she pushed herself to stay up with that girl as much as possible. I took a picture of the results board to see her time of 2:30. The top time was the JV girl whose name wasn't displayed, but I was so proud of how well she did. She ran the 400M next and did well there too. She came from behind to win that one too. She passed this Americas girl on the final stretch and Isa, her teammate, came from behind to pass the Americas girl too, but Tessa ended up first.
The girls ran their relay and also did well. They were even pictured and posted on the Instagram page of the company that sponsored the race. I thought it was a really cute post and picture. Here's Tessa with her relay teammates: Izaiddi, Tessa, Isa, and Elise.
Tessa got medals after each of her races so when she stopped by the stands where I was watching from, I took some pictures. Here she is with her two gold medals from her solo races. And then I took a picture of her with Isa too and their medals. They are good friend and running mates. They help each other push along and improve as they train and race together.
Tessa asked to host friends at our house for her birthday, so in preparation, we cleaned up our backyard. Tyler and I pulled all the weeds and dead branches and twigs from around the backyard and decided to burn it on our now dirt only backyard instead of bagging it all up. We worked on it through the day, but had more to burn that evening. The kids came out to check out the fire and they had fun manning the fire and trying to burn sticks so they could have torches. We cleared our entire backyard, so once we were able to burn everything that we wanted to get rid of, the backyard looked so good! Tyler set up some bricks for the firepit so it would be ready for Tessa's friends for her birthday party.
Aubrey cut her bangs in March. She's really into Kpop these days and she chose a hairstyle that one of the singers from a Kpop group has. Bangs with layered bangs on the sides. She let me cut her hair and it turned out really cute. She does her own hair and she loves spending time in the morning getting ready, so she was ready for the extra work that having bangs take. She got so many compliments on her new hairstyle and it looks really good on her. On Sunday, I took a picture of all of the girls before heading to church. I love my beauties.
During March, one of the youth activities was a talent show. Abby and Tessa had been working on a number for the weeks leading up to that night. Abby sang the Adele song, Someone Like You, and Tessa played the piano for her. Everyone said they did so well and that they loved it so much. I had rehearsal that night, so I didn't get to see them in person, but I saw videos and heard everyone's compliments. I was so proud of Tessa learning a song on the piano and for Abby getting up in front of everyone by herself. People were even talking about it the next day because they were so impressed. We even had an encore of their performance at one of our Kasibbons dinners because the families had heard about the talent show and wanted to hear them perform it themselves. Aubrey also participated in the talent show although I don't have any pictures. She played a duet with her friend Rianne. Aubrey played the flute and Rianne played the cello and they played a Pirates of the Caribbean song together. I heard them practice that one too and everyone said they did really well. I wanted Aubrey to dance, but she didn't want to perform by herself, so I was just happy that she participated by doing something in the talent show.
Tessa performed with the symphony orchestra at her school and they had a concert before they went to contest. The percussion played in three songs, although Tessa only played in two of them. Only four percussion players were needed so it was Tessa, Steven, Fred, and JD. Tessa played the base drum in one and the triangle in another one. It's always fun to go to those concerts because she barely plays at all, but when she does, she does her best and looks good doing it. I loved this picture of Tessa with Steven and Fred because they're both seniors, and Tessa's really sad about them leaving after this year. She's gotten really close with all of the percussionists in band, and she's made some great friends.
The percussion plays throughout the year, and I love seeing pictures pop up on our Band app when they do. They play at any function where they want to bring school spirit or help encourage the younger students to be in band or come to Franklin. Here's the percussion section when they played at a function at one of the middle schools. It's a great group of kids.
Tessa's birthday was on March 24th. She turned 15! She went straight to school from early morning seminary that day and she had her friends help her curl her hair before the school day started. I had her send me some pictures after they were done since I didn't see her until after school that day. They only took silly pictures with silly poses, but I still liked this one of her being cheeky. She's a gorgeous girl and I love her so much. She's really blossomed this year in high school and has come out of her shell even more. She's still a little shy when it comes to talking to people she doesn't know, but she's made so many friends and she really excels in the areas where she's comfortable. She has great groups of friends: ones from band, ones from track, and ones from church. Everyone calls Tessa a friend and she says she's a therapist to most of them because she's a good listener and they all know they can come to her if they need to talk. We just love her.
Tessa had her party at our house a couple days after her birthday. She invited all of her church friends. We did a Bunco party and then they hung out, ate dinner, and did the fire pit in the backyard. They even played hide and seek around the neighborhood. Her friends are from all the wards in the stake and they get together a lot. I'm so glad so many of her friends were able to attend. They had a fun time and Tessa got a lot of cute things from them for her birthday. Besides gift cards and money, she also got a hoodie sweatshirt, a t-shirt, a journal/planner, and lots of candy with thoughtful messages. She had a great birthday!
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