Emily's middle school celebrated spring with the Black & White Ball... the first dance of the year AND the first dance for Emily!
With her 6th grade classmates: Caryn, Joedi, Natalie, Adrianne, Crystal, Hannah, and Jaanvi
She did not know what to expect but decided to attend anyway. I'm glad she's not the type that says, "I'll go if you go" to her friends and waits for someone to go with her. The majority of these girls she's been friends with since Kindergarten.
Emily with her 'twin' Caryn. Funny... Emily's dress on her upper left shoulder is a pink rose on the strap which is covered by her sweater which matched Caryn's colors perfectly!
Emily & Caryn first day of school in 2nd grade
Emily with Jaanvi
Emily with her homeroom/Math/Science teacher, Mrs. Scott
Emily with her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Choy
Emily (in 1st grade) was so much shorter than Mrs. Choy.. she had to always lean in to take a picture!
She really didn't know what to expect and at times felt tired standing the whole time (there was really no place to sit because it was a dance!) and she was not familiar with the songs that were played. My Emily is not a party girl and doesn't keep up with the latest musical tunes and groups. But if you asked her about birds, she can tell you a lot!
On the other hand, my Other daughter can sing you songs that I never heard of. She is the Party girl!
Our good friends, Patrick and Christina and their kids, Nathan and Amanda came up to visit during Spring Break. Patrick and Matthew go way back like when they were little kids.
See blog post: Are Yew a TWiT?
Patrick was our Best Man in our wedding.
And I, in turn, helped out in his wedding to Christina.
They are faithful readers of this blog and when asked 'What do you want to do when you get here?" Christina replied, 'How about checking out your fields trips like to a Mission (since Nathan will be studying them next year) and see some of Emily's birds?"
What a conscientious reader! Someone actually remembered what I wrote about! I was thrilled!
So we went to visit Mission San Jose which was a few miles away from us.
It's a tiny mission compared to the other ones. You can check out my post here: Mission San Jose
The door ways were way too low or the kids are getting too tall.
Nathan, Amanda, Emily & Hannah
Then we proceeded to check out Coyote Hills Regional Park. The kids wanted to climb up this super high hill. And boy was it steep.. for me! My thighs were so sore the next morning.
That's how high up we were.. at least the kids were. I tried to stay on lower ground.
Nathan proceeded to venture further to climb onto a higher rock. His father said he would never try it because he was afraid of heights.
But lo and behold, there he was... we saw a little red shirted person standing on top of this very high rocky hill from afar.
No fear has he! BOYS!
After climbing down from a mountain, they proceeded to climb up a tree!
KIDS!
Patrick & Christina, Hope you all had a great time! Thanks so much for visiting!
The Band Awards & Concert celebrated all who had been a part of the Band this year.
The entire KHA Band: Beginning, Intermediate & Advance Bands
All of these students went to practice three times a week, every week, throughout the school year. (Advance Band had practice at 7:30am!) The culmination of their hard work was displayed at this Concert which showcased all that they had learned and practiced.
Advance Band performing
Along with performing, each musician was individually honored by our Music and Band Director, Tony Bolivar.
Emily receiving her certificate and trophy.
Emily and Shawna, the only two sixth graders, in Band!
I was even acknowledged by receiving a trophy of my own as a Band Mom! It was such an honor!
This is the FIRST trophy I have ever received in my whole entire life! Thank you Tony!
This is also my 250th post! It's been almost two years since I started this blog!
Thank you Thank you Thank you for you faithful readers and commenters. I would just be writing to myself without you all!
To celebrate, I'm giving an iTunes gift card to the first person who can tell me the titles and composers of the following three songs that Emily and the Advanced Band played that evening:
Here they are:
Band Song #1:
Band Song #2:
Band Song #3:
Email (not Comment) me your answers. Check back on my post in the comments to see if you got them right! (Note: Those who attended this event are not eligible to participate!) All three must be correct in order to be eligible for the prize! I'll post the winner in my comments. Good Luck!
AND HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you Moms out there!!
If you didn't know by now, I am not on Facebook. But my husband is and I stalk his account all the time.
On it I came across this incredible video "Evolution of Music" by an acapella group called Pentatonix.
Oh my goodness, they are incredible. I googled Pentatonix and watched all their videos on YouTube. Unbeknownst by me, Pentatonix were the winners of Season 3 NBC's The Sing-Off. They are purely an acapella group that do not use any instruments or equipment to accompany nor enhance their songs.
You can really hear each of their voices in this piece, "Carol of the Bells"
They sound like a huge band! And they are only using their voices.
They reminded me of my boys.. a trio who performed in the then-CCS 2010 Talent Show. They were such a hit that they performed again on the last day of school in my class.. of course since they were my third graders!
Here are Ben, Josh and Tredan performing "I'm Yours":
I am so proud of these fine young men, they were only 9 years old then. Now they are in 6th grade soon to head off to junior high next year. Josh moved away but Ben and Tre are still here in town attending their neighborhood schools. Emily will reunite with her former classmates when they attend the same high school in two years.
I had always wanted a pet when I was growing up. We had fish (boring) and parakeets (a little less boring). Five parakeets actually. One after the other. When one died, my dad would get another one. They were kept in our living room and when they got too messy (or we were too lazy to clean out it's cage and area) we moved it into the garage. We were not a very pet-loving-family. I really wanted to have it sit on my finger and pet it etc.. so I'd always try to let it out of the cage (which I was not supposed to do.) It would fly around and always fly into our huge glass windows thinking it was a way of escape but it would just hit the window and fall onto the ground. Most of the time they would be okay but sometimes they would not. Then it was time to get another one.
We could not increase our pet variety because my mom was very anal about cleanliness. Especially regarding her home. She can be a bit OCD in regards to how she wants the house kept up. She was also very sensitive to smells. She's like a hound dog. We were also allergic to cats. So fish and birds were it.
Pretty depressing childhood huh?
So when I grew up and got my own place I told myself that I would get a dog! A dog shows unconditional love and affection, is fun to play with, and is man's best friend!
But when I got married and got our own home, I realized that it was hard enough to take care of a husband and a house. Matthew was a cat-person. He had three when he was growing up. He did not like how dogs smelled and shed. I did not like cats (allergic remember?). So no pets for us. Instead we had two girls.
The girls wanted a pet, especially Hannah. But my practical daughter, Emily, told her sister that she couldn't even take care of herself much less a pet. So Hannah became a stuffed animal owner. Lots and lots of stuffed animals ...dogs, bunnies, bears, giraffes, seals, horses..but no cats. Emily collects stuffed birdies! (surprising huh?)
These are just Hannah's Build-A-Bear animals.
So when we were asked by our good friends if we could take care of their bunny during Spring Break while their family goes to Rome to visit their daughter who's studying there, the girls jumped at the chance to have a real pet! FINALLY!
Now I was hesitant since we had never taken care of a pet before. (I mean we had a tiny turtle named Tuck that my mother-in-law got the girls a few years back in Chinatown but it died after a few days.) Our house is not as spacious as theirs so BunnYee (her name) could not hop around as freely as she did in her own home outside. Our backyard is filled with seeds.. and more seeds.. (due to Emily's multiple bird feeders). And I read that bunnies cannot eat nuts.. and seeds are a form of nut, I think. So we couldn't put her outside. Thus we needed to keep her indoors. But Angela assured me that she would be easy and non demanding.
Once Angela and Rachel came over with BunnYee's 'luggage', I realized I needed a much bigger space for her then just a 'corner' so she literally took over our living room.
Hannah playing on her computer AND keeping BunnYee company at the same time!
BunnYee loved hopping in and out of her little shelters.
I must say that BunnYee is THE most adorable bunny we have taken care of. (Of course she is the only bunny we have taken care of.) She is not aggressive (like some bunnies can be.. at least that's what I read). She just eats and poops all day long.
She is a Norwegian dwarf bunny around 3-4 years of age.
She is very very soft to pet and is as quiet as a mouse (minus the nocturnal running around sounds mice make when they are wake). Really... she doesn't make a sound (unless she's stomping her legs because she's mad).
The only real sound she makes is when she eats. Check out the video clip below. (Make sure you turn up the volume to hear her!)
Praying for her snack!
She just hops around and lounges around her caged area. The girls take turns lying with her on the blankets and she hops around them.
I was quite amazed with the sense of responsibility the girls had when given the opportunity to take care of BunnYee. Rachel (her owner) gave them specific instructions on how to care for BunnYee.
At 8:00am every morning she is to be given her pellets and to be let out of her cage. No later or she'll start stomping. Now this was Spring Break! Please... 8am to wake up? You're lucky the girls wake up at 10:00am on a Saturday! But lo and behold, Hannah woke up at 8am everyday without fail and without help from me to feed BunnYee. At 3:00pm, she had to be fed her romaine lettuce so we would always need to rush back home (if we were out) to feed her her afternoon snack. Her water had to be changed at that time and her hay pile had to be kept filled continuously. Her 'toilet' box needed to be changed and cleaned every other day. And the girls did it all on their own without my help nor reminder!
Below is a video Emily made in honor of BunnYee for Rachel while she was gone...
Now it looks like we are ready to get our own Bunny right? Nooooo... with our luck we would get an aggressive one that bites all the time and ruins my furniture. (I was told BunnYee likes to chew up electrical wires and towels.)
I'm good at us just being the official BunnYee sitter!
