Musical Petting Zoo

Our school district offers an excellent music program, with weekly music lessons in the primary grades,and all third graders learning the recorder. Upper graders may learn an orchestra instrument and/or participate in chorus, with two concert performances a year.

When we were in Arizona on Monday, Violet's class participated in the annual third grade Musical Petting Zoo, where the kids can try out different instruments to see if they want to take lessons in fourth grade.

When I learned that she'd be missing it, I arranged with the music teacher and her own teacher to take part in a nearby school's zoo.

Violet got to try so many cool instruments! Above, trombone, and here, a baritone.

Cora's not-so-stellar experience with the violin colored Violet's view of it, but she gave it a go anyway.

Violet entered the day thinking she'd love the flute, here, or the clarinet.

But, she found through the experience that both were difficult for her.

But the trumpet! Now that was another story. She loved it! Listen below to her first time. She's going to sign up to try it out next year.

Bearizona!

On our last day of our vacation, Grandma and Grandpa wanted us all to experience Bearizona, a drive-through wildlife park they'd visited with Melanie and Nick a few years ago.

You first drive through various areas, where the animals are separated by species. Here are some adorable bears.

The wolves were awesome to see.

Mountain goats!

You then park and enter the rest of the attraction, with smaller animals on display, a bird show, and a petting zoo. Violet took this photo of  Joe the turkey.

The youngest bears were in this area, too. Look high in the trees. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's.. a baby bear! This, despite the wraps around the trees at the bottom to try to prevent the bears from climbing them.

Cora bonded with this gorgeous jaguar.

We then started on our long drive home. The girls stayed busy watching movies on their personal DVD players we bought as a family Christmas gift. The sound of silence from the girls across the 430 miles was quite a gift to us! We were home before 9 p.m. - not too shabby.

Jerome Joys

 On Sunday morning, we packed up at Sara and Tony's and headed two hours northwest to the old copper mining town of Jerome.

We'd all been here as teenagers, but our kids haven't been. We checked out the old mining equipment but decided to ski the actual museum in favor of lunch and wandering.

We had lunch at the Mile High Grill behind us. Jerome is that high up, set in the hills with the red rocks of Sedona visible in the distance.

Shopping...

 The best shopping was at the old-fashioned candy store, of course.

 We bought a pack of candy cigarettes, and then did what you do when you have candy cigarettes.

 Especially when you're really a bunch of goody-two-shoes.

I can't look at this photo without laughing. I see Alli, and wonder how the heck this 9-year-old knows how to pose like this. Then I see the other three bigger girls, all pulling off smoking way too well.

And then I look at Violet. Mouth full. Crunching sugar. Like she just couldn't wait another few seconds for the photo to be taken.

After saying goodbye to our friends, we drove to our hotel in Flagstaff and headed to the Cornish Pasty Co., where we had dinner and played pool. We went here last year, too, so I think we can safely call it our local now.

Dodgers in Arizona

We made our now-annual trip to Arizona this past weekend, to see the Dodgers and spend time with our friends Sara and Tony.

This year, middle daughter Emily gave up her room for us and gave us a lovely welcome. (She and Cora shared the couches in their bonus room, while Violet shared Alli's room.)

We left home around 11:30 and got in around 8: 30, after stopping several times and dropping my parents off at their hotel. Siting down with chips, salsa and wine with our friends felt so good!

We were out for the Dodgers' final Spring Training game at Camelback Ranch on Saturday. 

The weather was beautiful - warm but not too hot, with a gentle breeze.

Emily is very close to 14 now, and she and Cora had fun together.

Hi, Megan!

We learned a good lesson - don't go to the Dodgers' final game at Camelback. Just two normal starters were in the lineup, while the rest were on their way back to Los Angeles for the start of the Freeway Series, the last few training games against the Angels.

Still, it was a pleasant afternoon, and the girls got an autograph from a minor leaguer.

After the game, we made our traditional stop at QuikTrip for cheap drinks and slushies.
Then, it was back to Sara and Tony's for dinner, pool and playtime.

Tidbits

 After Trivia Night, Cora went to Vivian's house for a birthday sleepover, while Stace went to play a late-night soccer game and Christina came over to chat and celebrate a successful event. On Saturday, we all were TIRED.

But, we had a Mom2Mom family meetup planned at Placerita Canyon, so off we went. It was a beautiful day, and there was lots of water in the stream.

 We got to hang out with some friends, including Colleen and Rigo.

We rested most of the rest of the day. On Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, we cleaned up the back yard a bit, and then had Kelly, Yass and the boys over for corned beef and cabbage.

At the PTSA meeting on Wednesday morning, Cora provided the "s," or "student," in PTSA. Because she is the Student Council president, she gave a brief report on what the council has been up to. Sitting next to Cora is Mrs. Dobry, another 6th grade teacher.

And speaking of Student Council, Cora presided over a meeting on Friday, when they were given their new council T-shirts. I stole this photo from the school's Facebook page.

Cora's Aerial Fun

 I had a great time at Miss Cheryl's house doing my aerial acrobatics. It was so fun to get back into it after a long time of not participating. I had to remember everything that I had been taught before, which was kind of difficult, but all in all I had a great time.

In this picture, I'm doing a move called Arrow Good Times. There are lots of different steps to this move, and many of them are difficult, but I've aced it so far.

 This move I'm doing is a bird, which is a double wrap flip-over, where you have to go upside down to get into the move. You have to have a lot of core strength, so Miss Cheryl sometimes has to boost me up.

 This is one of my favorite moves, because when you go upside down, you get to see the world from an entirely different perspective. This one is called "Peter Pan." Before positioning myself into the move, I have to tie a knot into the silk (behind my knees in the photo) and hoist myself up.

This is me and my wonderful teacher Miss Cheryl. I loved meeting up with her after a long break - thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for paying for me to have a lesson!

Trivia Night: Winner, Winner, Pasta Dinner

On Friday night, we had our annual dinner/family fun night at the school, the one I have organized the past three years.

This year, we couldn't play bingo, because the local PTA was informed about a law banning minors from being present with gambling. So, I switched gears and created a Trivia Night, using questions submitted by the teachers. That way,the students, including the younger ones, would have a shot at getting the answers.

We had teenaged helpers again, serving food from Presto Pasta.

Kelly and Yass were our MCs, and you can see all the prizes to the left. We raffled off more than two dozen prizes off at the end of the night, and people could either buy raffle tickets or win them by answering questions correctly.

Here's Jake, Shayan, Sophia, Trent and Cora - all their parents were very helpful with the event. 

It was so fun listening to the kids eagerly discuss different answer possibilities, and then celebrate when the correct answers were read out. There was a definite buzz in the room!

We had about 90 people attend.

The buzz continued when the prizes were raffled off. 

Christina won a family prize pack of free kids meals and pottery painting.

At the end of the night, Kelly pulled the winning ticket out for the grand prize, a $50 gift card to the mall. Lo and behold, Jake won it!

At the end of the night, Kelly pulled the winning ticket out for the grand prize, a $50 gift card to the mall. Lo and behold, Jake won it!

It was a fun evening, and of course, I was very glad when it was all over. It's fun helping put on an event, but I'm always glad to have them finished. This is probably my last school event like this, because I won't have Jen to help gather prizes next year. Trent will be in junior high.