Lia's End of School Year Choir Concert

After watching Logan run all three races in his track meet up in Edgewood, we raced home in rush hour traffic in time to throw some food on the table for Lia who was leaving a few minutes later for her end of the school year choir concert.  Luckily, Lia told me right before she left that her choir group would be singing last.  Since my back is still not as well as it was before my third accident the end of April, I decided to arrive about an hour late to the concert and just stand in the back of the theater.  This plan worked out perfectly and I was able to stand for the second hour of the concert while the third and fourth choir groups sang and while the choir director recognized each senior, one at at time.  Lia's Concert Choir did a beautiful job, singing four songs including "Ner Ner," "North," "Grace Before Sleep," and "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down."  It was a lovely way to end a busy day.

Lia singing one of her four songs with the rest of her Alto section.

Lia and Suzette, her friend from church, after the concert was over.

Logan's Final Junior High Track Meet

I drove up to Edgemont Junior High School this afternoon to watch Logan run in his last track meet of his 7th grade year with his Kalles team.  Since the meet was running ahead of schedule, I got to the track right as Logan was running his second lap of the mile.  I was able to cheer him on for the remaining laps of the mile before watching him run in the 800 meters and the 4x4 relay.  Although it was a really hot afternoon, Logan did a great job pushing hard through all of his races.  Although we were not able to get his times from the coaches or athletic.net, I know that Logan gave each race his best.  I have truly enjoyed watching Logan run long-distance events this year and am grateful for the positive experience he had running with his junior high school track team for the first time.

Logan running in the mile.

Logan pushing hard on the final stretch of the mile.

And crossing the finish line.

Logan (back, left corner) coming around the bend at the beginning of the 800 meters.

Logan at the back of the picture.

Logan finishing off his 800 meter race.

Logan running at the beginning of his leg of the 4x400 meter relay.

Logan passing off the baton to the next runner in the relay.

Celebrating Lisa's Birthday & Mother's Day

Due to how busy our family is on Thursdays right now (two play practices for Lia, school track meets for Logan and track practices with their running club for both boys, and Ella's gymnastics practice), we decided a few weeks ago to celebrate my birthday on Sunday, May 4th.  However, my back was in such bad shape from my car accident on April 29th, that I told Ron that I was not in the mood, both physically and emotionally, to celebrate my birthday that day and so we postponed it.  As a result, we celebrated my birthday and Mother's Day over a 10 day period this month.  Here is a quick rundown of our celebrations...

May 8th:

Ron picked up dinner for us at the Greek restaurant and a cupcake for me from the bakery downtown so that I didn't have to cook on my birthday.  We were able to sit down and eat a quick dinner between Lia's two play practices and Logan's track meet and the boys' club track practice.  Although Ella missed it due to being at gymnastics, the rest of the family was able to eat our Greek dinner together before Ron, the boys, and Lia all left for the evening.

May 9th:

My mom drove down from Issaquah to spend a few hours with me today.  As per tradition, we checked the elementary school kiddos out of school to join my mom and me for picnic lunch in a park.  We missed Logan as this is his first year that he no longer could join us.

The kids had more fun playing on the exercise equipment than the playground.  Here is Emmett working out.

Ella balancing and stretching at the same time.  She is something.

May 12th:

After church on Sunday, we gathered in the living room to open gifts for Mother's Day.  We are finally getting rid of our hodgepodge of children's cups, plates, bowls, and silverware for a matching set.  Here I am opening up one of the boxes of plates with Ella and Emmett at my side.

Posing with all four of my kiddos after reading their Mother's Day card.

After a well-needed nap, we drove up to Issaquah to spend the evening with my parents and Eric's family.  Here are Ella, Emmett, and Lia watching their grandma read our card before opening her gift.

The five of us posing with our beloved mom and grandma.

May 18th:

As strange as it seemed to celebrate my birthday 10 days later, it was necessary since my back was in so much pain two weeks earlier when we had originally planned on celebrating.  Ron and the kids made me a delicious steak dinner with all of the fixings.

Opening up a few more gifts including two new dresses for church.

Ron picked up a delicious white chocolate raspberry cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  We finished off the evening by enjoying this delicious cake with ice cream.  And that's a wrap on all of our May celebrations!  Here's to one more year in my 40s before I am officially over the hill!

Lia Performs in the One-Acts

After trying out for her high school's one-act plays right before Spring Break, Lia found out that she had been cast in the play titled, "It's Not You, It's Me."  Of the four plays, this was the one-act that Lia wanted to be cast in, so she was super excited.  For the next five weeks, Lia rehearsed daily after school while also juggling 42nd Street rehearsals at NWTL three days a week.  I went to her first show alone on Friday night to watch all four one-acts, and then Ron and the kids joined me tonight to see the second show.  Lia's show was by the far the most entertaining and funniest to watch.  It centered around multiple couples breaking up with one of the people in each couple saying, "It's not you, it's me."  Lia ended her second scene by getting in such a bad fight with her partner while eating dinner at a restaurant, that they both threw water on each other at the end.  It sure surprised the audience and was a dramatic way to end their break up scene.

Lia playing the role of Ellie and arguing with her partner in her first break up scene.

An annoyed Lia sitting at the table.

Lia performing as Jenny in her second break up.

Lia getting ready to stand up and throw water on her partner.

Lia bowing with the rest of her one-acts cast at the end of the show.

All six of us standing in the theater after her second show was over.  Well done, Lia!

Emmett's Kindergarten Concert

Emmett was able to participate in the Kindergarten and 3rd Grade choir concert that was held this evening at his school.  All of the four Kindergarten classes sang two songs together, "Five Green and Speckled Frogs," and "This Little Light of Mine."  Ron was able to race over after a work meeting to join me right before the concert started.  As expected, this concert was a hilarious mix of cuteness and chaos.  Emmett did a great job singing very seriously while the boy to his right played with the stage curtain the entire time.  Regardless, we loved cheering on our darling boy who seems to enjoy everything that he gets the chance to do.  He is so enthusiastic and all-in with everything in his life right now!

Emmett singing from the right corner of the stage.

A close-up of Emmett with his friend, Raylan, after they finished singing.

Logan's 1st Junior High Track Meet

I joined Ron at Kalles today to watch Logan compete in his first junior high school track meet of his career.  It was a nice, cool, and cloudy day without rain which is the best kind of weather for track meets.  Since Logan is a long-distance runner, he was assigned to run the 800 and the mile (just like Lia always did).  However, his coaches also signed him up to run in the 400 which was a first for him.  He ran the 400 in 1:10, the mile in 6:04, and the 800 in 2:51 which was the first place time for all three races for Junior Varsity.  Although he had just ran the mile at the Mercer Mile meet with his running club a week earlier in 5:57, he was still pleased with his times.  Since Lia is no longer running, it has been so fun to cheer on Logan this school year with both XC and now track.  He has shown that he is a solid, long-distance runner and I can't wait to cheer him on at meets this season.  Good job, Logan.  Keep up the good work!

Logan pushing it really hard as he approaches the finish line of the 400.

Trying to pass another runner right as he runs past me.

Fighting it out with the other runner with the finish line a few feet away.

The pack of runners taking off at the beginning of the mile.

Logan running past me during his second time around the track.

Crossing the finish line at the end of the mile.

Logan running by me during his second lap of the 800.

Racing towards the finish line for the third time that afternoon.

Lia's Weekend of Proms

Lia just wrapped up a busy weekend of attending two different proms with her boyfriend, Jared.  She attended her high school prom on Friday night and then the tri-stake Mormon Prom (aka Mo Pro) on Saturday night.  This was a total coincidence that both proms fell on the same weekend as all high schools in the area have their prom on a different weekend night through the months of May and June.  I'm not sure if Lia and Jared liked having these dances back to back, but they made the most of it and had a good time both nights.

Since their school's prom was held at the historic, Foss Waterway building right on Commencement Bay in Tacoma, they had their pictures taken first by Lia's friend, Alyssa, on the Spanish Steps located a few minutes away.  Jared's parents then paid for them to eat dinner at a fancy, Hibachi style restaurant in Tacoma after the pictures.  They then drove to the venue to enjoy the dance for an hour or two before going back to Jared's house to watch a movie.  On Saturday night, we paid for them to eat dinner at a nice, Italian restaurant in Puyallup called Mama Stortini's before driving to the Stake Center to attend the Mo Pro dance.  Once again, they returned to Jared's house afterwards to finish watching the movie that they had started the night before.  Lia came home by midnight both evenings and was a bit exhausted the next day, but I'm glad that they were able to attend both of these memorable dances together.

April 30th:

Although Jared and Lia had been planning on going to prom together for months, Jared showed up at our house this past Wednesday night to officially ask her to prom (which apparently now called a "promposal").  He wore a frog onesie and showed up with a darling poster that said, "Every Frog Needs a Princess.  Will you be mine at prom?"  Since he knows how much Lia has always loved Disney princesses, he cut out pictures from Disney's The Princess and the Frog movie, except he cut out a picture of Belle instead of Tiana since Belle is Lia's all-time, favorite Disney princess.  He also scattered plastic frogs and lily flowers all over the front porch.  It was such a darling "promposal."

When Lia opened the door, she immediately laughed.  It was so cute.  He then presented her with her own frog onesie to wear.  Here is the picture I took of the two of them after she put it on.

May 2nd:

Lia coming down the stairs for her high school prom wearing her beautiful, pale yellow dress that was inspired by Belle's dress.  She is still a little girl at heart.

Jared putting on the beautiful corsage that his mother made for her.

Lia and Jared in our backyard.

The cute pose that I always get Lia to do.

In the car and ready to go to Tacoma.

May 3rd:

The three kids pose with Lia and Jared before they head off to Mo Pro.

Lia and Jared in the front yard.

Heading out to a dance for their second night out.

Mercer Mile Track Meet

I signed up Logan with the South Hill Running Club last spring since his elementary school track team was only practicing once a week for most of the short season.  He then continued to run with this club in the fall for XC since our school district does not let boys participate in this sport for 7th and 8th grade.  However, since he would be able to run five days a week and compete in several track meets with his junior high school this spring, I didn't see the point in signing him up with his running club again this spring.  However, I ended up changing my mind when I realized that Emmett's once a week swim lesson would not be enough exercise and activity this spring for this very athletic boy of mine.  As a result, I got permission to register Emmett for the running club (although he is a year too young) from one of the head coaches and signed up both boys back in March.  This has turned out to be such a good decision as Emmett absolutely loves running with this club three times a week.  He looks forward to it all the time and constantly asks me if it is a track day when he wakes in the morning.  It really is the cutest thing.  And it has been so fun for these brothers who are seven years a part to share something together.  It reminds me of when Lia and Ella got to perform in Matilda together almost two years ago. 

After practicing three times a week since the second week in March, the boys finally participated in their first club track meet tonight on Mercer Island in Bellevue.  Since I just got injured from my car accident four days earlier, I stayed home and took some pictures of Lia and Jared before they left for prom while Ron attended the meet.  Unlike other track meets, this meet just held 16 heats of the mile and the boys were assigned to race in the heat that was closest to their projected running time instead of their age group.  Emmett ran first and did an amazing job for a little, 6-year who has never even ran the mile before.  He ran it in 7:32 which is a great time for kids running the mile in junior high school!  Logan also did a great job and broke through the 6-minute wall for the first time as he ran it in 5:57 which was super exciting.  Overall, it was a great first meet of the season and I am so proud of how well both of my boys did.

Cute Emmett flexing his muscles for Ron before running his race.

Emmett smiling at Ron while waiting at the starting line.

Emmett getting ready to go.

Emmett racing past Ron.

Logan waving to Ron as he headed out to the track to line up for his mile race.

Getting ready to go.

A blur of Logan racing past Ron.