HOPE OF AMERICA

This is Evey's second year performing in this awesome show!
Last year I had just had Winter and decided I wouldn't chaperon,
but I got to this year and it was so fun!!

Hope of America is just a part in the huge effort that is
America's Freedom Festival here in Utah, that ends
with the Stadium of Fire. It was so awesome to be a part
in something so patriotic. I was telling Jon that, at the
rehearsal I would just cry through most of the songs,
mostly in the ones about our service men and women

and the military and they always have incredible videos
playing on the huge screens in the arena. Trying not to cry
as I write this!! I did okay in the actual performance though!!
Other songs were about MLK I Have a Dream, Declaration
 of Independence, Bill of Rights , Constitution, VOTE, and
Utah. It is just awesome how it's such a learning experience
for the kids too. They know all these lyrics and so can recite
portions of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence
and Bill of Rights.  It's amazing too, how much knowledge is
retained learning things through song!



Off on a little tangent My kids love to watch School House Rocks.

Old and silly I know, but they really do learn stuff, like, even Lex
knows some multiplication facts, or they know what adverbs are
silly stuff like that, but that comes in handy in school. The kids
can also tell you all of the States in alphabetical order, because of
a song Jon taught them. Anyway, hurray for learning through music!!

So back to Hope of America, since I was in the flag with Evey,

Jon had the other 3 on his onsies.  Apparently they were awesome,
except on the last song, Winter got mad so that is why it is cut off,
but only seconds. The video is just 3 songs including the Star
Spangled Banner. We performed in in sign language, but I failed
to mention that to Jon and so he didn't zoom at all. But oh well it is
just so amazing anyway. If you are in the Utah county area, I would
suggest going next year. It's free and just too fun. They have a little
pre show and a few acts in between songs and the cutie Old lady line
dancers!!

Okay another tangent these ladies are sooo cute! Jean's Golden Girls
are all between the ages of 50 and 94 and they dance so amazing!!
There are about 50-75 women in this group and they boast in their
introduction  that between them all they have something like 500
children, 1500 grand children and at least 200 great grand children!!
The founder of the group, Jean, is 94 and is as limber as any dancer
I've ever seen. She always does a little solo where she does amazing
high kicks and splits. It's so fun to watch! She has even been on
The Tonight Show. Okay here's a video of them, this isn't at the
Hope of America, obviously, but this is the routine they did.
The kids were really into it singing along with the music...
You have to watch this!!

If you watch some of the other videos that it shows after this video, 

there are a few others of Jean's golden Girls, 

but if you click on the "92 year old dancer!" 

one it also shows more Hope of America, 

and the WAVE that the whole arena does. 

I forgot to have Jon tape that one, it's pretty fun!

Okay really this time, here's a few songs from Hope of America!

Easter

We had to decorate eggs on Thursday after soccer games,
it was the only time for us to do it all together.
Evey had even agreed to babysit for a neighbor,
but I had to cancel for her, so we could make pretty eggs.
Sorry Tara!!!

Jon made 4 1/2 dozen eggs!!

Winter just wanted to put the eggs in the dye.

Lovin' the team work!

She ended up liking coloring paper when
I wouldn't let her stick any more eggs in the dye

Friday I actually got my bootie in gear and
made the girls dresses. While I was sewing
the kids decided to do a science experiment,
which ended in them making ice cream in
    plastic baggies. They had a ton of fun dancing
to shake the ice cream.

Saturday We had soccer games in the morning then
Jon and I ran some errands together. It's so nice
having a built in babysitter. Although I feel her pain,
I was one too!!

There was a neighborhood egg hunt planned and
we were supposed to drop of a dozen eggs for
each of our kids to hunt. So I got the eggs over there.
But when the time for the hunt and pot luck rolled
around it was raining.  We were running a little late
and when we got there the kids were almost done
hunting. They were hurrying because it was raining.
I don't blame them!!! But when they saw us they
each threw out enough eggs for my kids to hunt and
some parents hid some to make it fun. Such sweet
kids and neighbors we have! No one stayed for the
pot luck, it was no fun in the rain! Oh well, I think
the kids had fun anyway!

Sunday we had to be at church extra early 8:15 (actually 8:30, but I had to give a little leeway!!) so I could practice with the choir and the kids were singing prelude, so that meant waking up super early to hunt baskets. The Easter Bunny left everyone a personalized hunt as always.

Everyone finding their first clue.

Winter was not happy to be up so early...

Until she realized what she was supposed to do.
She had a deflated balloon, and had to search the house
for the inflated matching one,
pop it and inside was another deflated balloon of another color,
The last balloon held a clue to where her basket was.

Lex Had a map of the house with a bunch
of numbers on it, And a math equation.
He had to solve the equation and
find the corresponding number on the map
for the next problem.

The last number had his basket.

Paris was given a rhyme and the missing word was where the next clue was.

What the heck!! Evey's clue was a long strip of paper
with a little drawing of an object and a  bunch of letters.
She had a hard time figuring out what she was supposed to do.
She finally realized she needed to find whatever the object was.
Then it took her a bit longer to figure out she had
to wrap the paper around the object for the next clue.

Her clues weren't totally obvious either. Well to me at least, she seemed to find them pretty quick!
For example, WAKE was the clue to an alarm clock, so she found her next clue there.

Each basket had a little letter so once
everyone's letter was found,
they had to make a word with the 6 letters to reveal a final surprise.

As per Easter Bunny tradition, he brought some fun outdoor games and toys.

Since it was a huge rush to get to church early,
we didn't have time for pictures,
and then after no one wanted to cooperate, As ALWAYS!!!
But they were kind enough to pose for a few
and I discovered that my new camera does not have a self timer,
for a family shot,sad, but I guess I'll live :)

The Easter bunny usually leaves an egg hunt for the kids,
but he knew we needed to get to church,
so he left a monstrous bowl full of eggs
and a note that we were to have a hunt outside after church.
Which turned out well, we waited until our guests got
here and included them in the fun.

One of the outdoor toys was a helicopter  shooter thing ??
I don't know, anyway, its little propeller things shot
 really high and we had to send Evey on the roof to get it.

We try really hard to make sure the kids know what
Easter is really about, and what is most important.
And they all know, they really do, but it bothers me
especially this Easter because we woke up to do the
basket hunt early so we could get to church early.

I heard a couple of friends say this year, that the bunny
visits their houses on Saturday morning, so that all of
Sunday can be focused on Jesus and the Atonement.
I really , really love this idea and think I will have the
kids sit down with me and write a letter to the Bunny
next year telling him we would like to do our basket
hunt on Saturday too. I think he won't mind too much :)

I am so bad at expressing my feelings and bearing my
testimony anyway, but am even worse on a medium like this,
online! I have written a few paragraphs only to erase them.
But I want you all to know how truly grateful I am for our
Savior and His Atonement.

I am so moved by music. I am the ward choir director and
picked two songs that held so much meaning for me and I
can't tell you how grateful I am for everyone who sang on
Sunday! The choir was so big and beautiful and so full of
the spirit! I even heard comments that we sounded like the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Such a complement!
Here is a link to one of the songs we sang,
however it is not the choir arrangement we sang,
but the words are what I want to share.
Gethsemane

 And I couldn't find a link to just the music of this song so here's a video.
Also not a choir arrangement.



 And while I'm at sharing videos here is an Easter message.





He is Risen!

Monster Concert

Evey had a District Orchestra concert in March.
It was a crazy ordeal. Mostly because I wasn't
informed of the details until the day before and so Jon wasn't
able to arrange getting the night off to help me.

You see,
Evey had dance from 4:15 to 6:15, Paris had a soccer
game at 5:30 and Evey was supposed to be at the
concert at 5:45. Yikes! Most of Paris' games have been
during Evey's dance, so we drop her off ,in Springville
(only a 15 minute drive on the freeway, but I like to complain)
then drive back to Provo for Paris' game then go back
to Springville to get Evey. Why didn't Evey just skip
dance this day you ask. Well, This class on Tuesday
is JDC, the company in which she has a contract with
and is required to be at. But the class after is just a jazz
class so she did miss that.

So, here's how it went...
We drove to Springville and Evey went to JDC while
we grabbed fast food dinner. Then Evey skipped her
second class and we took Paris to her game, dropped
her off with her friends and then headed across town
to get Evey to Timpview High School for the concert.
Normally getting across the city isn't that big of a deal,
even with the massive amount of construction that is
going on right now. But, on this particular day when I
needed to get across town and back quickly, they had
shut down a major artery, so we had to take an extra
long round about way, and for some reason there were
A MILLION people out. Okay it was rush hour!
Anyway, I got Evey to the school, ran in with her and
the 2 other kids to save a seat, and then got back on the
van to get Paris from her game. It took me the whole
hour of her game to get across town and back, so I
missed seeing her play and her sweet friends mom had
to wait a few minutes after the game for me. Then it
was back across town to the concert. But by this time
the home bound rushers were mostly off the road, so
we made it before 7, happened to find a decent parking
spot (there were 12 elementary schools, 2 middle
schools and 2 high schools orchestras worth of parents
and cars)and went in to our pre saved seat
(oh so glad I did that!!) and sat down right as the lights
went down. Whew!! So after all of that here is all of the
  elementary's orchestras together.

After their songs they got off stage and the middle
schools went up and played a few and then switched
again with the high schools who were amazing!!
They played an awesome arrangement of the
Pirates of the Caribbean. I recorded it for Jon
and Evey but won't post it here.

* Why don't I make it easier on myself and car pool??!!
Paris' friend at soccer, even has an older sister who is in
orchestra with Evey, and believe me I did try to make
an arrangement, but they had 2 parents and one other
kid in something else, and so it didn't work this time.
But I tried, I tried! And, I have to give my lovlies Paris
and Lex and Winter some credit because they are always
so good and let me record the concerts with little
interruption!! Love my babies!!