Last Day of School

Today is Laurel and Lindsay's last day of school. I am happy to announce that they both passed and will be promoted to the next grade. They work really hard at school and we are proud of them. Laurel brought home a folder/portfolio of her work since the beginning of second grade. I was reading some of her assignments and was amazed to find one about me as a medical transcriptionist. It was done in the first, second, third, etc., format. She started with, "First, she had worked for a company for a long time and then she got fired." (Not true, I left because they did away with independent contractors and wanted a lot more hours than I could do)

Her next point was, "Second, she got a new job but she quit because she could not understand." (I actually resigned because I had to work a set schedule of at least 4 hours straight and this did not work well with my 4 kids. However, I had often complained about how hard it was to understand the dictators who had thick accents.)

Her next two sentences are, "Third she has gotten a better job. Fourth, now she is happy with her job because she can understand better." (Of course she meant that I can understand the dictators I have now better because they all speak English without an accent).

I have to wonder now if her teacher thinks I am not very bright and do a crummy job as a transcriptionist. Oh well, the school year is over today and I cannot do any explaining to redeem myself! I can't complain because Laurel does a really good job with writing and she told the truth as she understood it.

More Clogging Videos

Here's the mamma with the two dancing girls. They worked super hard to get ready for this competition. Their teacher told me on Thursday that they are doing really well. I am just glad they enjoy it and are getting some good exercise. I love my little girls. They are the bestest (as Jonathan says).
Here are the boys doing their favorite activity, waiting. Really, they hate the waiting, but they are pretty good sports, and we try to bring enough snacks to keep them happy.

The day of the girls clogging competition was also our 11 year wedding anniversary. Don't we look like the happiest married couple you have ever met? Sorry about the sarcasm it is just that kind of morning. I thought our anniversary would be just a regular day of attending a competition and then coming home to all be together. Michael made reservations at a nice restaurant where I really wanted to go. The food was delicious and we had a great time talking without any interruptions from little ones.

Finally, just two more videos from the clogging competition. The second video is a little shaky, but Evan was on Michael's lap and trying to grab the camera.

Clogging Competition Freestyling

The girls had another competition last weekend at Taylorsville High School near Salt Lake. This time they tried something new. The did freestyling. This requires the dancer to put together clogging steps and perform them for a few minutes alone. They stand in a line and are called up one by one to perform their dance. Until now we had avoided this one because it was terrifying to the girls. When they first started clogging a year ago, they could maybe do one step or two and run back. As you can see from the videos they did very well. Some kids just froze, but they both dance the whole time. They each earned a first placed for their freestyle dance. I will do another post later with some of their solo dances. I am amazed at their coordination. I am not sure my coordination has even been this good.