4th of July

Blueberry Buckle Dessert

Red, White, and Blue Pancakes

Ellie marched in the parade. We all watched.

Tons of fireworks visible from our house-love that.
Emma at EFY.
Rainy day that got super hot.
Grateful for our great country!

Chicago

While Emma was away at Youth Conference, the rest of us went to Chicago. Maddie decided to miss YC in order to visit her friends and tour Columbia College (her school of choice right now).

We stayed in a beautiful hotel downtown (Palmer House Hilton), ate at our favorite spots (Pizzanos mainly), toured Columbia (cool school, super pricey, yikes), Taste of Chicago, Millenium Park, shopping, etc. We had a great time. I love that city. We also caught a showing of Peter Pan. Waaaaaay better than I thought it would be. I'm so glad we did that. Truly enjoyable for kids and adults. Maddie was able to spend most of the time with her friends. Richard drove out in the morning and brought them back to the city so they could explore Chicago instead of Plainfield.

Chicago 2011

Emma Sings

I must have heard at least 20 times this past year, "I don't have any talent." "I'm the only one in the family who can't sing." "I'm terrible at singing. Everyone sings better than me." No amount of reassurance could convince her that she was just as capable and talented as anyone else. She's great. It came as no surprise to me when she had a few big wins in the singing dept. recently.
1) She got the Certificate of Special Recognition by her choir teacher, given to only one student per grade.
2) She got the Certificate of Excellence in choir which is a certificate given to only one student per grade and voted by peers as a person who the kids think was the best prepared, behaved, someone who attended all concerts, a good singer, and someone who could be looked up to.
3) She auditioned for and was accepted into the Rising Generation Choir, which is a highly competitive LDS youth choir in the area. There were only 3 female spots available and many girls auditioned. Big Win!

I hope she's getting the message loud and clear that she is, indeed, talented. Yay for Emma!

School Art

More cute art projects. Check out Ellie's 2nd grade art. There seems to be a theme and I can't help singing, "One of these girls is not like the others. . ." Can you see it? Yup, she's got a thing for blonde hair. I think the rainbow face girl went along with a story and she had to make it look like the girl in the book A Bad Case Of Stripes. Otherwise, she too would have blonde hair, no doubt.
Lauren's gangster turkey deserves mention too. They get this project every year: dress the turkey in disquise so it won't be eaten for Thanksgiving. Lauren thought up gangster turkey. How does she come up with this stuff?

Incognito

My kids went to school like this toward the end of the school year. Was it wacky hair day, you ask? Was it some kind of dress up day, you ask? NO, no, nothing like that. I just have wacky kids who like to dress up. Love it.

Sugar Crystal Candy

Emma, feeling bored for a project, decided one day to make sugar crystal candy. It was a fun little thing to do. Here's a link if you'd like to try this at home. It's easy. Emma did hers on a pipe cleaner instead of a stick which makes it less fun to eat, but she didn't want to eat it anyway. If you do want to eat yours, make it on a stick. :)