Yearning

Odd Squad: The Movie came out today. For those unfamiliar with Odd Squad, let's just say it's the best show ever in the history of children's television. Even I like to watch it. It's brilliant!

Anyway, it finally came out (on PBS kids) and I turned it on for Willa. She was so excited she told me, "I have been yearning to see this!!! That's fancy for really, really wanting something."

So this post is dedicated to Odd Squad and Fancy Nancy for fun shows and fancy words.

4th of July and more

We just got home yesterday after two weeks in Utah. The first week we were up at cabin and the Thalmans joined us so it was extra fun. The second week, I commuted back and forth each day from Centerville to Logan for Suzuki Institute. It was EXHAUSTING! I was doing Book 3 teacher training for me and was having Willa start harp as a pre-twinkler. It was way more intense having both my stuff and her stuff and the driving just added to the stress. Ideally, I should have just stayed up there in the dorms like most everyone else, but I wanted to save money and didn't want to not see June that long. Anyway, we got home last night and I went to bed at 8:45. I think I could finally relax and let go for a bit.

Of course, we did the Centerville 4th of July parade. Since Ryan couldn't make it, I decided not to run the 5k this year either. It was nice to have extra time to get ready in the morning and not be rushed. Two of my very best friends growing up - our two back door neighbors made it this year. Stephenie lives in Phoenix and was visiting with her three big kids. Alyson came and her twins had their first parade experience. We used to all watch the parade together as little kids growing up.

More candy!

My mom got their skirts from Costco. Aren't they adorable?!!

Willa has a piano recital and earns a trophy

We got news that Willa had passed the LVMTA musicianship exam a week before her piano recital. Normally, The teacher would have passed out the trophies at the recital, but this year there wasn't enough time between the two events. I tried to warn Willa that the trophy might not be there yet. The trophy was the sine qua non of the musicianship exam. She has been dreaming and talking and salivating about having her own trophy since she saw other kids get them at the piano recital last year. The idea of earning her very own was extremely motivating.

For this year's recital she played Pumpkin Boogie and was very sweet. Here is the video.

After the recital the teacher had her own awards to give out to students who had volunteered with their talent and played in church or somewhere else like that. But she called Willa up very first and had ordered this large trophy with a pink base just for her. She gave Willa an award for practicing so well. Willa does practice really well and has progressed a lot because of it, but I'm not sure if it was trophy material. Still, it was really sweet of her teacher to do it and Willa was over the moon. Her trophy was bigger than the others and pink and she whispered to me that she had been looking at it the whole recital (all the awards were set up on a little table on the side) and hoping it was for her.

Getting the award.

Sister Thornton has been an amazing teacher. I've learned so much from her just sitting in on lessons. Here's a fun fact, her husband (who passed away) did all the murals for the Salt Lake temple during the last remodel in the 60's or 70's. The Church brought her up a few months ago with his journals to meet with a church historian.

Rebecca got her a Jasmine lego set as a gift for the recital. Legos are almost as exciting as trophies, Willa loved it and has repeatedly put it together all by herself and keeps saying how much she loves it and that she is so glad Aunt Rebecca got it for her.

A few weeks later, the LVTMA trophies were ready. They also had her written exams, so I could look at how she did. She made a bunch of mistakes during the listening portion, which were really easy, so her teacher thinks she just didn't understand the questions and what to do at that point. My favorite is that she phonetically spelled her last name on the paper. It just illustrates where we are in life right now.

The real trophy.

California Friends Visit

I have no pictures to document it, but the Fjeldsteds, our best friends from USC, came about two months ago. Actually, just Courtney and their two cute kids but I was lucky enough to see them twice! On their drive through up to Idaho, their car broke down and we rescued them from the slums of Las Vegas for a few hours while it was being fixed. Then, a few weeks later on their return trip we met them at the children's museum and spent a few hours to break up their long drive. It was so nice to see them and my eyes got a little misty wishing they would just buy a house on the same street as us instead of living far away in San Diego. The best was that the kids got along so well together. Willa and Parker hit it off right away, despite it being nearly two years since they had last seen each other. When they left she asked if Parker was her best friend :).

Then last month, the Rudds came to visit. He was the bishop at USC and Ryan was his counselor and I was the Relief Society president. We have such good memories of that ward. It was kind of like playing at being a grown-up ward because we had young marrieds, little kids, and then brand new college freshman all together. He's stake president now and still up to his old shenanigans of setting the clocks in the chapel back so that any visiting authorities might not realize how late the meeting was actually starting.

They were coming to Vegas for a few days, so on a Monday I brought the girls to their hotel and we swam. Tuesday, we spent the morning at the children's museum, did the High Roller, and then they came over to our house that night for dinner. I thought about cooking, but since we were gone all day the better alternative seemed to be ordering take out from Grimaldi's, and that pizza is an experience in and of itself. It was great to see them. We miss them and all our friends a lot and we love living in Las Vegas where everyone is bound to visit once and a while.

Kate is just four or five months older than Willa. It's always fun when you and your friends have kids who can be friends.

Not a great picture, but it had Evan and Jen in it.

June gets invited to a tea party

Wouldn't you know, June is getting all grow'd up and has started having her own little social calendar. This girl is SOCIAL and when she got a real, live, paper invitation in an ENVELOPE she was beside herself with excitement and couldn't stop talking about it.

Annie, a little friend from church was turning three and having a tea party at this cute place called Rock the Tea. A princess dress, tiara, necklace, bracelet, purse, and fancy shoes were provided!

June chose to be Snow White. She was the perfect Snow White (and it's not just me - the Bishop said it too - it was his daughter's party).

They got their hair done.

They had manicures and June will tell you that she got purple nail polish with sparkles, squeal!

And they got REAL make-up.

All dolled up, look at her little hand.

BFF Lyla

Could this girl's dream party get any better? Wait for it.... Cinderella came!!! June was the only girl who had a sister just older so she knew who Cinderella was and everything about princesses. Lots of the other girls were the only girls in their family or there was a large age gap between the older sister so they hadn't been as indoctrinated as June had. June gave Cinderella the sweetest hug ever and she was beaming the entire time just looking at Cinderella and smiling.

Sweetest hug.

Cinderella didn't stop there, she painted a butterfly on June's cheek.

She helped each girl do a little fashion show with a curtsy, twirl, and blowing a kiss at the end.

Isn't this the most precious picture? Look at June's face!

Finally, there was a fancy tea party lunch of pink lemonade, pizza, and cupcakes. June's been smiling so much that it's starting to look Iike a grimace - but she was soooo happy.

They got to pick a little purse with real lip gloss and a bubble necklace for a party favor. She passed out fairly quickly. Best. Day. Ever.

Willa Graduates Preschool

Back in May, we had preschool graduation. The preschool did a lot of prep, which I'm torn about. I just want things to be simple, on the other hand, what's wrong with having fun and getting fancy?

The kids had learned songs for a little program that were cute, and they also had full a full graduation equipage of gown, cap, and tassel. There is a photo of my preschool graduation and I was wearing a cute little paper handmade cap. These days and times are no place for such simplicity and the full get-up it was.

Wills looked cute, but was not happy to be wearing any of it. It was one of the first hot days of the season, which was a bummer since was outside, but we stood in the shade and survived.

With her best little preschool friend, Rheyanna.

Timidly (and seriously) doing actions to the songs.

Graduate!

Her teacher Mrs. Scott

Family Photo! Rebecca came along and snapped a pic for us.

It was a good year of preschool and Willa enjoyed it a lot. People raved about this community center and for me it was just meh. The price was the absolute best thing about it. It was also very organized and Willa did love it. But for me, it was kind of a drive and I missed the personable aspect of a preschool run out of a home. I'm not sure I would do it again unless I lived REALLY close. But it was fun and almost every day after school we would stay after and play at the playground with other kids from her class, so I was sad to say good-bye to those moms. I hope we can get together a couple of times this summer.

Sorry, no time for blogging - busy napping.

About a year ago I started meditating daily. I bought an app that offered tons of different meditations for dozens of different lengths, depending on what you felt like that day. Some of them have mantras to repeat in your mind, others have you pay attention to sounds, there are body scans and meditations to have a restful night's sleep. The most convenient time for me to do this with no interruptions is during quiet time each afternoon. I normally do a 10 minute meditation and after a month or two, instead of "sitting in a comfortable position" I decided that laying on my bed in a comfortable position might even be better. Now I like to think of my meditation time as a little snooze-fest. I start the meditation and sometimes I finish it, but more often then not, I hazily drift in and out of consciousness until I'm aware that my phone has turned off and the meditation ended who-knows how long ago. Then, after I regain consciousness, it might take additional time before I feel the need to exit the luxury of my bed and get down to business. The whole process takes 10-20+ minutes, which isn't long, but it's quite a large percentage time of my precious 1 hr and 20 minutes of quiet time. The rest of the time is often spent cleaning up the kitchen, prepping dinner, or equally interesting household chores rather than blogging.

Then, about a month ago, a friend said that she cleaned her house top to bottom every Monday and Thursday and she had been doing it since she and her husband were first married (they now have four kids). I've been wanting to have a cleaning routine for a while now, but they all seemed dull or complicated, or I just didn't want to think about it. But, twice a week, clean everything? The simplicity! She said it takes her about an hour (which I'm not sure I believe), but I decided to give it a try. I've been doing it about a month and really like it. I give myself an hour each day, but if I feel like doing more I do it - I just want to be sure to get an hour done. I decided to start with bathrooms, they get the most disgusting and need the most constant maintenance. The bathrooms are my home base. Every Monday and Thursday I clean out all the bathrooms. Yes, I'm wiping down the bathrooms twice a week, but it's actually pretty quick and I love that they never really get that dirty anymore. Then I get a microfiber cloth and wipe down the dust on all the surfaces. Las Vegas is really dusty and it gathers quickly. There is usually dust to be wiped down twice a week (though, sometimes I do this only once a week - more on that later). I clean all the glass and mirrored surfaces. I try to vacuum and clean the tiled floor in the front entryway (the kitchen floor gets cleaned multiple times a week so I don't worry about it on my cleaning days, the bathroom floors get cleaned during the bathroom wipe-downs). Cleaning the floor brings me to the baseboards, which brings me to the doorjambs and doors, and then I will spot check any areas that I've noticed earlier in the week need some help.

Usually, that's my Monday routine and it takes a full hour or more to do that much. I'm not necessarily doing it all, though. Maybe I've noticed that the doors by the kitchen and pantry are all really grimy, so I might focus on them after doing the basics of the bathrooms and dusting. I also noticed that some of the cleaning didn't need to be done on Monday AND Thursday. I mean, it could be done, but it wasn't the best use of my time since it hadn't really gotten THAT dirty in three days. So, I bumped those areas down to once a week and I'm in the process of making Thursday a special location or sort-and-organize day (after the main areas get done). Last Thursday, my goal was the to do the fridge. This Thursday it will be the freezer. Before that, I went through our books - sorting, getting a pile to donate, cleaning the bookshelves, and reshelving. Sometimes I focus on vacuuming out and cleaning the couch or wiping down the blinds. You get the idea. Monday - do everything. Thursday - do the basics and then a special project. Well, I'm very pleased by the results, except for the fact that it seems to be making me a little neurotic. Before, I could look at a pile of dust on the piano and kind of shrug it off. Now, it's a little disturbing to me and I might run to wipe it down even if it's not a cleaning day, gasp. I try to do the cleaning in the morning, but it usually stretches a little throughout the day. I do most of it during quiet time after my meditation/nap, which cuts even more into possible blogging time. The more I clean, the more I'm in the mood to keep going and notice what needs to be done. But that's the glory of doing it just twice a week. I don't have to feel guilty the other five days. Before, I'd look at the bathrooms and know that I ought to clean them, that they really needed to be cleaned, but.... maybe later. Now, I just clean them right away twice a week. The other days I don't have to think about it. If I notice something really needs work, I plan to do it on Monday or Thursday if I can help it. Of course, I've only been doing this a month. I hope I can always keep it up, but I've been around enough to know that some habits come and go.

On another afternoon during quiet time, I skype a harp lesson with one of my students from Houston. The point of all this is that I love this blog and I'm going to keep plugging away, I just don't have as much free time anymore.

Here's a recap. Ryan turned 35 in March. Hooray! Rebecca brought In-n-Out for dinner, I made the special chocolate (which has finally been perfected!), and then she babysat while Ryan and I went to see Ka. Ka is a Cirque show and it was pretty good. I don't think anything can compare to Le Reve, but Ka was definitely cool because the stage is on a giant pivot/piston thing and can move all around and even go vertical. It also had the most comprehensible story line because it was focused on a battle. Most of the time, I wish those shows wouldn't try to follow a plot. They never really work for me.

We had Easter.

June looks fancy in her Cinderella jewelry.

Willa studied hard for a music theory test at UNLV put on by the Las Vegas Music Teacher's Association. For the level 1 test, they have to be able to draw a grand staff, identify key signatures for C, F, and G major, write pentascales in those three keys, do note identification, answer questions on vocabulary, name intervals, and a few other things. We studied with her and had her work on some practice tests from her teacher (she loved doing these and called them her homework). I thought it would be one-on-one with a proctor, but it was a large classroom and they wouldn't let me go in with her to help her get seated. The proctor had to read all the questions and instructions for her (and almost had to write her last name because we hadn't practiced writing her last name), but she passed! It was amazing and I'm really proud of her. It was a little intimidating, but she didn't really know to expect differently. I was talking with another mom waiting, her two kids taking the same exam were in 1st and 3rd grade, and there were kids older than that in there. Obviously, for an older kid, some of the stuff would not be difficult, but for Willa, she's still learning how to write so even drawing the grand staff with the clefs took practice. Her teacher said that when they were grading the exams, the president of the association (who happens to be my harp friend's husband) was entering in the scores and when he got Willa's paper he said, "Who is this? Look how cute!!" You can just imagine her name written largely across the top, and sometimes she'll write mirror images of the letters like E. After the exam, I took her to the Disney store and bought her a Barbie because an effort like that deserved a prize. Now she's prepping for the playing part of the exam, which will be in another week. She has to play four pieces and one technical study, and then a couple of arpeggios in the same three different keys. The main reason she is so excited about this is that she gets a TROPHY if she passes. Her teacher passed the trophies out at the piano recital last year and she's been very interested in them ever since. It's funny how motivating the idea of earning her very own trophy is, definitely more motivating than the Barbie! She's just so little and cute doing these things. It's fun and challenging for her and has been a good thing for us this year while we wait for kindergarten.