Dance Recital II

Sorry to those of you grandparents and cousin who have been waiting all day for me to post this video:) I have been trying, but it was too big. I never could get it to upload to the blog, and I don't have any video editing software on my computer that I could find to make it smaller. Instead, you get a link to Anna's dance, Twilight Hush. I ended up posting it on YouTube. I'm definitely not a professional videographer, but it turned out all right for me. There's a bit of dark at the beginning before they turn the stage lights on and the dance starts, but I didn't want to miss the beginning so I had already started taping, and, like I said, I don't have any video editing capabilities, so you get to watch that, too. Anna is the first one out on stage, leading the class. She was so excited about the whole thing, not a bit nervous even in front of all those people. It was so fun to watch our little girl up there, self-confident and enjoying herself. We were very proud of you, Anna Clement!

I took this picture is in the dressing room right before the show. Standing with her classmates ready to go out on stage:

Vacation is Over

And summer has begun.

At least it feels that way to me.

Which is better? Vacation or summer? I love them both. They seem mostly synonymous this time of year. Vacation, in this family, meant Mitch not working or schooling (and me not blogging). Summer means sunshine. I like it best when they both go together.

For those of you who have wondered where we have been and what we have been spending our time doing:

We have been doing

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Well, that's not really true. It can't be true in a house where three active little ones live. But we haven't gone anywhere and haven't done a lot of things that we normally count as normal in the daily rhythm of our hectic 'dad's in school' lives.
We HAVE been on lots of bike rides, spent lots of time in the garden now that we're finally past our frost date and can plant all the warmer weather crops!, gone to bed at a decent hour and gotten up at a decent hour, felt well rested!, played, laughed together all through our dinner meal, sat in the sunshine together, had a few normal bumps in the road that go with being in a time of transition between a crazy schedule and a normal, healthy, daily rhythm, had lots of family around, celebrated a graduation, said good-bye to a good friend who graduated and left the area, started a new summer job, enjoyed our morning coffee sitting on the couch together with both of us fully awake!, finished a ballet class...
And basically have fully embraced and enjoyed switching to a healthier rhythm of life for our family.

Congratulations, Mitch, on graduating with honors!

Hooray for Daddy'O!

Mitch with his brothers Chad and Jeb:

(Thanks for the pictures, Chad!)

Meeting my niece, little Maia Sage, for the first time:Windy bike rides with Jeanette, Michael, and Maia:

(Thanks for those pictures, Jeanette!)

See, we are still alive and quite well! Enjoying our days, laughing lots. Hooray for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

A Few Snapshots

Family photo from another banquet. Mitch recieved the Ketchum Award for being the top civil engineering student:

Coloring:

Ballet shows in the livingroom:








Anna's fancy hair, rag curlers:


Water play:

Naps by Daddy. Does that look relaxing to you?

Enjoy your own moments today.

Anna Ballerina

Today was the last day of Anna's ballet class, which means the parents got to attend class for a 'show' to see what their little ballerina's have been learning. This little girl loves ballet. She puts on her leotard and teaches Josie the things she is learning in her class almost every day. She's been telling us she wants to keep going to ballet class so she can learn how to do 'real ballet', by which I think she means that some of the things she does in her class, although fun, don't qualify in her mind as 'real' ballet (but are good dance skills none the less).

First position:

Demi-plie:

Dancing:

One thing they learned in their class was the difference between leaping, jumping and hopping.

Here's a video of hopping:

Jumping:

And leaping:

A video of the dance that they made up to show the parents. Some of the time they were supposed to dance all over the place with their whole body and then they change it up and are supposed to just dance on a spot and keep their whole body dancing.