3rd grade music concert

Each year each grade level at our school does one spring concert. I have had mixed feelings about them. I loved his kindergarten one, hated his first grade one, and thought his second grade one was pretty good - 3 concerts from 3 different music teachers. This year third grade was back to having the same music teacher as the bad first grade concert, so I was a bit nervous. But when Brandon told me they were singing all 50's music, I thought it had the potential to be really cute, and it did not disappoint! Of course, as the kids get older they become more embarrassed and guarded about performances, but they seemed to have fun and it showed.

There are 138 third graders at our school (5 classes of about 28 kids each). It makes for a lot of noise and space. I tried my best to get them all in the photo, but I couldn't. Brandon is on the front row, 4th from the left.
Even though they were required to all wear white (boring and hard to find your child), the sunglasses and scarves and poodles on the girls added some fun & color to it. I sat on the ground in front of the first row. Brandon looked slightly uncomfortable with me that close, but that was the only option if I wanted any decent photos or video! I am grateful that Brandon is one of the shortest kids in his class because he gets to be on the front row where we can see him best!


Brandon with his awesome teacher Mrs. Moreno.
These are Brandon's good friends from his class: (L to R: Brandon P., Matthew, Ben, and Brandon W.)
Brandon & Joaquin. Even though they have been in different classes 2 of their 4 years, they have remained best friends.
I only uploaded video of one of the songs "Yakety Yak!", but it was the favorite one. Apparently their music teacher told them to pretend they were saying to their parents to "don't talk back!" and you could tell the kids enjoyed themselves!

family update

I realized the other day I haven't posted anything on here for awhile. Yes, we are still alive. No good excuses, just living life! Here's a quick update on everyone:

KEVIN:
Work is busy & frustrating. I won't elaborate much, but he has some real employee challenges there. He's realizing being a manager of 17 people is not all it's cracked up to be! At church, he stays busy as Elders Quorum President with meetings and visits. In his very little free time, he tries to get to the gym as often as he can, and of course the endless yardwork. He has also been helping Brandon build his pinewood derby car and teaching Brandon how to ride his bike.

DANIKA:
Not sure where all my time goes, but here's what I've been up to recently: coordinating 2 school fundraisers in the past month (and that doesn't include my regular monthly volunteering in the classroom or chaperoning field trips), preparing weekly primary lessons, planning Tyler's birthday party, chauffeuring kids, helping with homework & piano practice, planning our spring break family vacation, visiting teaching, facebook, email, and occasionally blogging. I was also going to the gym pretty regularly for the past month, but then they lied to me and I was forced to cancel my membership.

BRANDON:
For those who read THIS POST about Brandon's school struggles last quarter can rest assured we are back on track. He has done amazingly well this quarter. He continues to improve at piano (he's now into Level 3 books) and has a natural talent and coordination for it. He has done running club (more on that in a future post) and is almost 3/4 done with his Wolf in cub scouts. And let's not forget swim lessons and building a pinewood derby car! This fall & winter he has been working hard to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels and he is almost there (he can do it all except starting on his own)! Some people wonder why he's not playing any sports, but with a busy schedule like he has, there's just no time. He rarely even has time to play the Wii.

TYLER:
Tyler is one smart kid. He started kindergarten not reading at all and barely being able write letters. He has scored 100% on all his spelling tests and is in the highest reading group in his class. He continues to surprise me with what he can read! He has also done running club this year. He was recently sick with the flu and an ear infection, but was a tough, calm kid through it like he always is. He has continued swim lessons through the fall & winter and is now finally considered "water safe" in my opinion. He continues to make us laugh every day and I cannot believe he turns 6 next week!

NATALIE:
Where to start with this girl? She is generally a joy and a light in our lives, but can also turn on the 3-year old girl drama when things don't go her way. She has become very proficient at pouting and temper tantrums. She is spunky and cute and gets compliments in every store we enter. She still loves preschool and dance is currently obsessed with coloring, drawing, and learning to write her letters. She is improving in swimming and loves to be in the water. She enjoys being a Sunbeam in primary and sings at the top of her lungs, even if she doesn't know the words! Her world would be perfect if she could dance and sing all day long!

happy valentine's day!

We had a pretty low-key valentine's day, but I'm totally okay with that. I'm not one for big flashy holiday celebrations. But I think this cute boy might have been the highlight. They came out of kindergarten wearing these giant valentines:
Here is what they say:

SPECIAL DELIVERY
There's a valentine standing at your door.
I'm one of a kind, you can't buy me at the store.
I have something for you, you won't want to miss,
So pucker up and give me a great big KISS!

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We love and appreciate you in our lives!

funny, funny, funny!

It's time for another edition of amusing things the Park kids have said or done!
This photo is what happens when Brandon is desperate for someone to play with and agrees to play "whatever Natalie wants!" (I am saving this photo for teenage bribery material!)

All three kids were playing together nicely one afternoon. When I asked them what they were playing they said, "We're pretending we have to move out of our house and meet with our lawyer!"

Brandon had a school assignment to bring in a favorite family recipe. When I asked him what his favorite recipe was, he said "Orange Chicken!" I then told him the recipe: "Drive to Costco, buy box of frozen Orange Chicken, and heat it up!" He looked a little confused and disappointed. I said, "What's your second favorite recipe?" His answer: "Grilled cheese!"

Brandon was listening to Christmas music on the radio and said, "Are they singing about missing toes? That's gross!" I then proceeded to explain what MISTLETOE was. His reply: "That's gross too!"

Tyler asked what we were having for dinner one night. He wasn't listening carefully when I told him we were having grilled cheese and he asked, "We're have GIRL cheese? What's that?"

During one Family Home Evening lesson in December, we asked the kids what the real meaning of Christmas was and Tyler replied, "Christmas is when Jesus was BORED!"

Brandon was sick last month. When I was quizzing him about how he felt sick, he said, "My bum keeps throwing up!" It took us a few minutes to figure out he meant diarrhea.

Our Aunt Sonja joined us over the holidays. One day she & Tyler were coloring. She asked Tyler what color she should color something. Tyler responded, "You can color it whatever color you want as long as it's the RIGHT color!"

At school, Brandon's class was discussing New Year's resolutions. When I asked Brandon what his resolution was: "To watch more football!"

Both of the boys are very interested in reading (and reporting) the nutrition facts for everything. Brandon learned about calories in PE and is very concerned and asks many questions about them. Kevin tried to simplify it for it by telling him, "If you eat too many calories you'll get fat." Brandon said, "You mean like you dad?"

Tyler was asking Natalie what she wants to be when she grows up. Natalie said she didn't know so Tyler started suggesting things. His idea: "You can be like mommy and stay home and do nothing!"

Brandon was telling me that the book he was reading won an award. When I asked him what award it won, he said "It was an award for making sense!"

I was making dinner to take to a family in our ward whose baby passed away. I told the kids I would be busy working on that and asked them to not bother me. A few minutes later Tyler needed something and I reminded him I was busy & couldn't help him right then. He said, "Oh yeah, you're making dinner for the sad people!"

I recently joined the gym & Natalie loves going to the kids play area there. The first time the boys were in the car after we had been there, Natalie informed them where the "gym that mommy works out at" was as we drove by. Brandon said, "You work out at Circle K, mom?"

fun family saturday: indoor amusement park

We had another Fun Family Saturday! I had 3 passes (leftover from last summer) to the indoor amusement park so the kids got to have fun riding unlimited rides for a few hours. It was nice that the kids are all big enough now that we don't have to ride with them every time. Kevin & I had an enjoyable time people-watching and observing bad parenting skills by others. We ended the fun with dinner out at a restaurant, which is a rare treat for our kids.

under construction

Most of you probably read blogs in a feed, but for those who actually click over here, don't be alarmed or confused! I am working on a new design, header, and colors for my blog, so it will be a work in progress for awhile. What I anticipated to be a simple one-night quick, easy project like it has been in past years has now turned into a huge time-consuming adventure thanks to Blogger. They changed all their design and template stuff recently. And we all know how well I deal with change! Plus I didn't realize some of it had changed until I was halfway through things so now it looks strange temporarily. I am having to learn some basic HTML code because I'm too scared to transfer over to their new system and templates. Of course now those of you who read this in a feed are going to click over and see what a mess it is!

got citrus?

Our citrus trees were extremely bountiful this year. But they were exactly opposite from previous years. The past few years we have had many grapefruit, and only a few oranges and lemons. This year we had hundreds of lemons and hundreds of oranges and gave them away by the bagful. I juiced & grated rinds until my arms hurt. We only had about 15 grapefruit, but the few that we had were ENORMOUS! This is one of our grapefruit. Next to it is NOT an orange, that is actually another grapefruit that I got from my produce co-op! We are very blessed.

articles of faith

While we're writing about how awesome Brandon is...

Each year our Stake does a recognition for all the Primary children who have memorized all of their Articles of Faith. Each year when it is announced Brandon tells us he wanted to do it, but by that time it is too late! So a year ago Kevin & I decided that since it was his baptism year we would challenge him to learn them in 2010. The first few were easy of course! The longer ones were harder, but he did it!
This past Sunday evening was the Stake recognition event. Brandon was rewarded with a certificate, candy, and our whole family got ice cream sundaes. But of course the real reward is the knowledge he gained and the satisfaction he received by accomplishing his goal and completing our challenge.

Brandon was the youngest one in our Primary to memorize them. We are so proud of him! I was really impressed with some of the other wards who had dozens of kids, some of which were as young as 4 years old! We challenged Tyler to do it this year and we will work on it together as a family.