Outstanding Citizens

Both girls were honored for good citizenship at school for the month of March! 

Way to go girls!!!!

Kids are all asked to stand in their spots when their name is read....

(I didn't have the best picture taking spot!)

Well....even though I couldn't get a good picture....we are so proud of our girls.

They work hard at school and it feels really good having that work noticed!

Avery also got recognized for her participation in choir....

Keep up the good, hard work girls!

Morning Choir

Avery was super excited about being a part of Skyline's Choir this year.

They met each Tuesday morning at 8:30 for about 2 months practicing songs for the 

San Juan Music Educator's Elementary Choir Festival.  

The festival was a day-long event at Sehome High School in Bellingham.  

Schools from around the county brought their choirs....totaling around 400 students! 

They had been rehearsing 5 songs as individual choirs, 

then spent the first part of the day rehearsing as a whole group.

Parents and families were invited in the late afternoon to see the final performance!

It was pretty cool!!!  They sounded amazing!!!

(We also realized that our camping friend Aidan was there with his school choir from Mt. Baker!)

We could spot the Skyline choir right away....Mark and his students volunteered their time to make t-shirts for the group!  The kids picked a great color....LOVE the turquoise!!!

These video clips are short...but it will at least give you an idea of what they sounded like! :)

It was a great experience for Avery!  She really had a fun time!

Alice's Birthday

Avery's friend Alice had a super cool birthday party.

There's this new place in Bellingham called "Date and Paint".  

I've seen them popping up all around, but this was our first experience with it.

A group of people go in and select a painting, then they have an artist give them step-by-step instructions.  The end product is a super cool original canvas painting!

Alice chose to have the girls paint "SUNSET".

And each girl added their own little touches.

The birthday girl....

Avery's Masterpiece....

Everyone's was a little different.....

What a super fun place!!!

Happy Birthday Alice!

Surprise Spokane Trip

We've been saying it for a while now, but we feel so far away from Spokane.

And when our parents' health is questionable, the distance feels even greater.

It's not always easy to make the time to get to Spokane for just a quick weekend visit with our schedules....activities, birthday parties, sleepovers, etc.  

BUT....I've been a little concerned about my Mom and I always feel better when 

I can actually SEE how she's doing.  

So as a belated birthday gift, I decided to SURPRISE her and go to Spokane by myself.

I am sooooooo glad I went.  

She was VERY surprised and it did my heart good to see and have time with my Mom and Dad.  

Just the three of us.....we had lots of time to hang out and have conversations with no little distractions. The weekend went fast, but we had a lovely visit.

We'll have to do it again soon.

XOXOXOXO

And the girls....well....they were spoiled by their Daddy while I was gone....swimming, time to do nails, movies and treats.  They had a great weekend, too! :)

Purple Belt Ceremony

After passing her belt test, Avery was ready for the ceremony to receive her purple belt and second trophy! Auntie Robin and Uncle Geoff even came up to help celebrate!!!

Nice job Avery!

This is a picture of everyone in her dojang surrounding her instructor Mr. Ross.

Avery loves these two...Miss Taylor and Miss Juno.  They are black belts who help with each class.

We are so happy that Avery has found something that she really loves!

We had some time to play with Geoff and Robin before Avery left to go to a birthday party.  

We decided to play a little game of Apples to Apples.  That's always good for a few laughs!

Annalise needed a little help reading the cards, so she and Auntie Robin were a team!

And then Geoff and Annalise had a party in the backseat on the way to dinner!

We had the best day! :)