Piano Recital!

Today was Sydney's very first piano recital!  She has been practicing so hard, and all her hard work paid off today.  She did a fantastic job!! 

And, without further ado, her recital!!

Yay!  She did a fantastic job!  I am sooo proud of her, but more importantly, she is sooo proud of herself!

Sydney and her teacher, Mrs. Vojtech

P.S.  In case anyone is wondering, the shiny guys didn't show up with the cement truck today.  Poopers!  They better be here tomorrow!

Patio: Day Three....And Counting.

The shiny guys showed up again yesterday!  It looks like the patio is all set for concrete now.  Mike said they are a little behind, so they won't be pouring the concrete until Monday or Tuesday.  But, seeing how the patio looks right now, I think I'm going to really, really like it!!

Look what else I discovered while admiring my patio dirt.

My peonies are blooming!  They look really good right now.  I'm sure we'll get a good hard rain any time now and they'll all fall, so I have to enjoy them while they last!

Patio day two!

The patio is still going!  The shiny guys, as the girls call them (because they are so sweaty!) came out again yesterday.  It looks like they did some more digging.  They are supposed to be laying the concrete today, but I'm not sure how it will all pan out since it still needs to be leveled and formed. 

We'll see, I guess!   While the guys were here working, Briana got to go on a Girl Scouts overnight campout at the Wildlife Safari Park.  She had a blast!!  They got to have a fire and make smores and see all the animals.

She came home this morning, told me about her night, and promptly fell asleep. 

While she was at her campout, Mike, Sydney and I went to Harvey Oaks night at the Stormchasers game. 

We got to see lots of her friends and even though we weren't able to stay till the end and see the fireworks, it was still a really fun time. 

Happenings

My new patio is being dug!!!  I know it's boring, but I took pictures anyways (just following my father's instructions).

I have been trying to talk Mike into this project for YEARS and he finally decided to do it.  Hooray!  It's about halfway dug right now, and the guys are coming back tomorrow to finish digging.  I'll post pictures tomorrow too.  Yay!
More importantly, Briana had her spring strings and choir concert today!  It was so, so good.  That girl can really play the viola!  Here's a sample of what we got to hear today.

She's really good at choir too. 

And, Briana had dance pictures this week too!  I only got a chance to snap a picture of one of her costumes.  The other ones will be a surprise, I guess!

Sprained Ankle Number 2

A few years ago, we were on vacation in Texas, visiting some friend's of Mike's, who happened to have a trampoline in their back yard.  The mom of this family had just finished telling me how much she hated having that trampoline because she was always worrying that someone was going to get hurt on it.  Seeing my own kids jumping on it, I thought, nah, she's wrong.  Look how much fun the girls are having.  Until Sydney came down on her foot wrong and sprained her ankle.  It put a bit of a crimp on the rest of our vacation, since we had lots of activities planned that included a lot of walking.  But, she did recover eventually.  And, she hasn't been on a trampoline since.  Last weekend, we went to Lincoln to see the girl's cousins perform in a ballet.  Then we were going to have dinner at their house afterwards.  And guess what is the only play thing present in their backyard?  A trampoline.  Briana immediately started jumping on it.  She had a fantastic time.

She was jumping around, doing all kinds of tricks and she even leapt off the trampoline onto the ground at one point.  She was having a blast.  I got Sydney to sit on the trampoline, but that was it for her.  So she sat there and let Briana bounce her around for a little while.  Then, I talked Sydney into standing up and jumping a little bit herself.  So she did.  She was standing up and jumping around.  And, she was smiling and laughing and really starting to enjoy herself.
 

Then, just as the fun was beginning, she came down on her ankle wrong.  It was horrible.  I saw the whole thing happen.  Her ankle gave out beneath her, and she crumpled into the trampoline in pain.  "I sprained my ankle again!" she kept saying.  I felt horrible.  I made her sprain her ankle!  If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have even jumped on the trampoline!  I'm a bad mom!!! 
By the next day, her ankle had swelled way up, warranting a trip to the doctors office.  I was certain something was broken. (Bad Mom!)  But, as it turns out, it was just a sprain.   It looks pretty bad though. 

My poor baby!  It's still bothering her, but it's so much better than it was a couple days ago.  According to the doctor, it will be about two weeks before it's better.  The lesson I learned from all this:  No more trampolines for Sydney!  Ever!

The Really Good and The Really Bad

The Really Good:
Sydney was a top ten reader in second grade for the Read A Thon week!

She worked sooo hard all week long to be a top ten reader, and her hard work paid off!  She read about six chapter books and about a million picture books all in one week.  Go Sydney!  I'm soo proud of her!

The Really Bad:
Briana lost her ipod this week.  She left it in the dressing room at a store in the mall.  She remembered it about ten minutes later, but when we went back for it, it was gone.  I'm sure I'm overreacting about the whole thing, but every time I think about it I get a stomach ache.  She was devestated all weekend long.  But, we came up with a plan to get her a new ipod.  She's going to earn her own money and buy herself a new ipod.  A very hard lesson to learn. 
She started off on Saturday by cleaning out Mike's car for him.

We cleaned off her bookshelf and made a trip to Half Price Books, and today she started doing extra chores around the house to earn more. 

She even made herself a special jar to keep all her earnings.

She's doing a great job earning the money, and I'm really proud of her for that.  I know it is really hard for her though.  That ipod was her most prized possession.  Poor girl!

The Art of Play

The Art of Play, a Fourth Grade Presentation, by Briana (with a bit of dance mixed in, for fun)