Mother's Day and The Missionary
Mother's Day is always a great day because my husband usually brings me beakfast in bed and makes Sunday dinner -- and of course the kids will usually make my bed, tidy up a bit and try not to fight too much....however, this Mother's Day was particularly fun because we got a long phone call from our missionary son in Texas! Loren called in the afternoon after we were back from church and when Alan's parents could be here to "listen in." We did the conference call thing, so that we could all sit around and hear what he had to tell us. He sounded great and seems to be doing well. It was definately the highlight of the day.
Chorale Concert
This spring, Alan and I were asked to join a Chorale. We decided it would be a really fun thing for us to do together, as we would be committing to a practice every Thursday night for 3 months. Well, it was really fun. We started looking forward to Thursday evenings and being able to sing for 2 hours. The hard part was memorizing all the music and words to 15 songs that we performed on 2 separate evenings near the end of May. It was more of a challenge for me than for Alan, but they gave us practice CDs which helped a lot. We will take a break this summer and then start up again in the Fall to get ready for a Christmas concert.
Always at the end of the year the kids are in their final concerts at Waterford. Elliot's concert was particularly fun because the percussion teacher pulled together a percussion group and they all performed on water bottles, buckets and metal garbage cans. It was very fun to watch and I did take some video of it, but no still photos.
Madeleine was in the final strings concert and Tess was in the final choral concert. They both had a great time preparing and performing. The Waterford Singers had a great time performing a Disney medely with a few fun dance steps. If you can't tell, our family has really enjoyed the music program at Waterford -- they have some great teachers!
There was also a lot of piano practicing going on here at home as Tess prepared for her Senior Piano recital. She performed with another senior girl who also studies with her teacher. Aside from not being able to get into the building upon arrival, the recital was really nice. Tess did really well, and as her family, we were all proud of her efforts of only 4 months to prepare several wonderful numbers. It takes an extra steely set of nerves to be willing to come back to the piano again and again in front of the same (definately loving, but probably scary looking) audience! By the way, Phillip designed the invitation.
So, I would say it had to have been the coldest Memorial Day weekend on record! The high on Saturday and Sunday was 50 degress! So, you will see in our pictures at the cemetery that we had on extra layers. I know the kids don't love it, but I enjoy the Sunday drive to different cemeteries to clean up the headstones and place flowers on them. This year we listened to some of Grandpa Breinholt's Sanpete stories that my parents had him tell years ago. It was extra fun of course to hear their voices too -- who would have guessed they would be gone so soon. It has been 9 years since my Momdied and 16 years for my Dad. My advice for the month....enjoy your parents while you have them!
Phillip, Loren and Tess's Birthdays
Of course we sent off a birthday package to Loren with weird stuff a missionary maybe could use -- it was a bit challenging to think of things. We thought Phillip might enjoy a birthday all to himself this year. Well, he said he didn't know how to have his own birthday and that he would rather celebrate his with Tess, so we picked Memorial Day since everyone had it off from work and we did the birthday thing. It was a gorgeous day with the rain stopping and the temperatures rising a bit. We had their little birthday "party" on the deck which is a fun extra room of our house that we really enjoy all summer.
Officially, I should save the graduation stuff to put in the June update, but it has felt like a culmination to the month and so I will tell about it here. On Friday June 2nd, Tess graduated from Waterford School at Abravanel Hall. Of course it was exciting and fun with Tess having mixed emotions -- happy and sad at the same time. Waterford always does a nice program and it was great holding it in a place with comfortable seating and plenty of space for everyone -- I kind of hate crowded events...They had a nice reception back at the school and then we came home for a bit of gift giving. Between her birthday and graduation, Tess has done quite well on the gift front! We gave her a digital camera so that she can grow up and take photos just like her Mom -- ha ha! Ok, maybe not so many....
That night, the entire Senior class took an all night "Mystery Tour" where they all climbed on a bus at the school and were taken from activity to activity all over the valley (well chaperoned of course) and then brought back to the school at 8:30 the next morning. Tess came home, told us how much fun she had, showed us the pictures she took on her new camera, and the went to bed and slept until I woke her up around 4:00 in the afternoon. Kind of crazy, but fun...
Seminary Graduation
And now Tess is graduated from Seminary. It was held at the Stake Center for all the kids in our Stake and since Tess was a Seminary Council President, she was asked to conduct the meeting. I thought she did a great job -- didn't look too nervous. The kids who spoke made seminary look like the greatest class in the world -- I hope my younger boys are looking forward to it -- we haven't always had the most inspiring teachers, unfortunately -- and that can make all the difference.
We thought it would be fun to show you Phillip's portfolio that he worked on at BYU and then submitted in April, earning a future spot in the Graphic Design BFA Program. I usually try to just report the goings on at our house and try not to brag too much, but this month I'm sorry to say is just going to have to be a Mom's braggy month -- I guess I'm just proud of everyone's efforts to excel and achieve.