Dancing and A Bit of Piano - June 5th-7th

One of the highlights of the year for Lauren is her dance recital. This year was no exception. She got the full round of makeup which she always enjoys! She did three routines this year...

Her hip hop routine was called "Like I Love You" (music by Justin Timberlake). She has just loved her hip hop class this year! It's been fun for her to get to do some dancing that's not as rigorous as ballet.

Here is a low quality video of her hip hop routine at the dress rehearsal. Lauren is the second one from the left. Her sweatshirt was big! You will see her try to keep scrunching it up which was super cute. But, she left it alone during the recital. ☺

Lauren with one of her dance buddies in their costumes for the musical theater routine. Her class did "It's a Hard Knock Life" from the musical Annie. It was my favorite! I wish I had a video of it to share here! We do have it on DVD though (so mom you can see it when you come again!)

Her final dance number was from her Ballet 1 class. It was called "Galop from Sylvia".

The day of the show was a little crazy! The boys had a baseball game that ended a little after the show started. So, they came in their baseball clothes but we made them change out of their baseball cleats. They were able to see two of Lauren's dances. Then, they had to leave early to change for their piano recital. When Lauren finished her final dance, she put her piano recital clothes on. Sadly, she had to skip the dance recital finale where she would have taken her final bow.

On the way out the door, I gave her flowers which cheered her up about that! She was so excited! You'd think I'd given her the best gift ever.

Lauren played two songs for the piano recital - "Merry March" by Cornelius Gurlitt and "Ode to Joy" by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Parker did a great job with his two piano pieces- "The Noble Duke of York" and "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" by Harold Arlen.

Lowden played two variations on the guitar. One from "Little Brown Jug" and the other from "Jimmy Crack Corn".

Then, Lowden played two pieces on the piano- "Snowflake Rag" by Nancy Faber and "The Pink Panther" by Henry Mancini.

They all did so well! We were so very proud of them!!!

Otter Rock - June 5th

We woke up early on June 5th to catch the minus 3.0 low tide at our favorite tidepool spot on the Oregon coast, Otter Rock. The peak was at 8:17am so we made sure to get there early.

Normally, where the kids and Greg are standing is completely under water.

Lowden was super excited!

Upon arrival at the beach, we saw a bald eagle nearby. The kids say they've never seen one before. I swear they did when they were little. But, they have no memory of it. So, that San Diego Zoo admission when Lowden was five may have been better saved for gas money.

Parker and Lauren found a purple ochre sea star, even the sea star was a good sport for a blog picture!

We did have a new discovery...a rockweed isopod! Bennett is holding it here.

Apparently, the isopod is related to the land-dwelling pill bug. The rockweed isopod eats algae and, when threatened, can curl up into a ball.

Within 20 minutes of getting to the beach, it started to sprinkle. Turns out Bennett is a fair-weather fan of tidepools. Although, he tried to put on a happy face.

My other three kids know better than to give up that easy! They are ready for more.

Ready Set ...Look!

The drops of water did make it harder to see in the tidepools, but we didn't give up our search for marine life.

We walked over the slippery algae, sea grasses, and kelp to see each pool we could.

The kids found a small sea cave to explore which was the highlight for Bennett. He ran in and out of it for quite awhile.

I am totally in my element and loving every minute! I always was a marine biologist at heart.

We walked into an old sea lion cave called Devil's Punchbowl. The roof of the cave fell in many years ago. When the tide is high, the waves crash all though it sending water every which way. But, at low tide you can walk inside.

Parker inside Devil's Punchbowl putting on a brave face after slipping on the rocks a few minutes before.

Parker with our final discovery...a shore crab. It took us at least 6 pictures to get this picture of it, because it kept running off Parker's hand.

Parker's commentary on the crab. Sorry for the shaky camera but I think it's so fun to hear him describe the crab himself.

We didn't see any of my favorite tidepool organisms...nudibranchs. But, there is always next time!

All in all, it was a very successful day together! ♥

Afterwards, we stopped by Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. It was great because we were able to see some things in their tidepools that we didn't see that morning. (Including sea cucumbers, caprellids, abalones, bat stars, leather stars, pink sea stars, skates, an octopus, and lots of other marine life.)

Quick Trip to The Coast- June 4th

I'm still catching up on blogging. This is from a month ago.

Being the good parents that we are, we pulled all the kids out of school to visit the minus 3.0 low tide on June 5th. Truly, we HAD to go since it was the lowest it had been in eight years!

Lauren was so excited the night of June 3rd. She had her field trip to The Enchanted Forest the next day. And, she knew that when she got back, we were leaving for this overnight trip to the coast. She had this to say about that, "Wednesday will be the happiest day of my life. Actually, the third happiest. First, was the day I was born. Second will be the day I get married."

We had dinner at Mo's in Newport! One of our favorite places to stop for a bite to eat.



We enjoyed some family bonding moments...

Bennett was excited about the pirate that came with his meal.

Lowden enjoyed mocking it!

Next stop, one of our favorite camping spots on the beach.

We love these big trees with the gnarled roots!





For Lowden's Outdoorsman requirement, he needed to help pitch a tent. He did a very good job with that.


As you can see, some kids were more helpful than others...

After the tent was pitched there was much rejoicing...

Lowden's method.

Parker, Lauren and Bennett's method.

Thankfully, we didn't have any neighbors around us.

It's clear to me that Parker's personality is rubbing off on Bennett. Maybe we will start calling him, Parker II.

Lauren's working more toward a Charlie's Angels persona...

Lowden also needed to work on his fire building skills. Greg was more than happy to teach him. Lowden was a little nervous about the whole thing.

He may need to work on it some more before trying out for Survivor.

Success!

We enjoyed yummy smores and then fit all 6 of us in that big ol' tent . We slept fairly well, considering.

More to come about the low tide soon...

Catching Up - End of May Summary

I am still trying to catch up on my blogging. Here is the last week of May's recap.

More baseball games were watched and enjoyed. The boys are both improving so much. Lowden has become very good at bunting and stealing bases. The coach likes him to be the lead-off batter because of this. Parker has quite an arm and enjoys playing catch. My arm is always very sore afterwards. I love to see the progress they are both making and the self esteem that grows as they do better and better.

You can tell that I have boys who love to slide into bases because at this point in the season both of their pants have holes in the knees. Sometimes they slide when they don't need to and the coach has to remind them to stay up.

Here are the boys baseball pictures. Parker saw this and said " I look like I am about to hit the ball far!"

Lowden saw his and said "I look nice and gentle!" They have two VERY different personalities...can you tell?!

Bennett enjoyed some time communing with nature at said games... You can take the kid out of Eugene, but you can't take Eugene out of the kid.

Lauren received a lifeskill award for "Responsibility and Integrity". We were all very proud and she was SO excited! ♥ She is always volunteering to help the teacher....take kids to the nurse, take kids to lost and found, take kids to the office. She loves it! Often when I go to get her from school, she is late coming out, but it's usually because she helping another student.

Bennett finished his first year of preschool! I can't believe how much he has grown in one year! He really has learned so much at school. He can spell his name (all 7 letters), trace letters in the sky, count to 20, and, much to his teacher's delight, can sit down during circle time.

Here he is, the life of the party, with his friends from school and church- Whitney & Emily!

More to come soon...

While the Parents Were Away, Grandma Came to Stay

My mom is so wonderful!!! She is the reason Greg and I were able to take our trip to Europe recently. The memories we had together I will cherish forever.

Grandma Lynda was busy making memories of her own with the kids while we were gone.

They had a homemade pizza making contest!

She introduced Lauren to karaoke on the Wii and somehow convinced the boys to play too!

She attended their jog-a-thon and cheered them on!

She attended some very hot baseball games!

She used this chart to help motivate the kids to be on their best behavior:

And she seemed to enjoy bedtime as much as I do!

We are all SO lucky to have her in our life! ♥♥♥ Love you MOM! ♥♥♥

Back in May...Kricket Came to Town

I've been meaning to post this picture for awhile. It makes me happy! Kricket came back to Eugene right before I left for Europe. If only we could of got her to stay here in Eugene! I miss her company at scrapbook nights! She has an uncanny ability to finish my stories before I tell them. Sure love you Kricket!