Our Talented Kiddos and other goings-on

These posts are all out of order now but oh well. At least they're posted, right? So waaaaay back in May Ryley had a PTA performance and Maddie performed in the school talent show. I took some videos and pictures (of course!) so I could share them here.

First up, Space Worms!

Ryley PTA 1 from Jeni Hopewell on Vimeo.

Yet another from the PTA performance - check out his headband! He's got some rhythm too.

Ryley PTA 2 from Jeni Hopewell on Vimeo.

And one last one that shows his dramatic and extremely expressive side. Watch out for the old guy off balance!

Untitled from Jeni Hopewell on Vimeo.

And last, but certainly not least is Maddie's performance in the school talent show. She and her BFF worked hard on memorizing all the lyrics and making up actions to do while they were singing. They didn't miss any of the words but most of the actions got left out due to their nervousness. I was so worried that Maddie would just get up there and cry (wonder where she would get that from?) but she did MARVELOUS. I went up to meet her as she came off the stage and she was so pumped up on adrenaline and she just yelled at me, "That was SOOOOO fun!" That made me laugh because I know she was nervous and worried about it - there were some tears the night before. I'm so proud of her though. She did great! And you'll pretty much just have to take my word for it because after I uploaded this video I found that after about 30 seconds Josh decided to change his hand position and ended up placing one of his GIANT fingers over the microphone. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. So most of the video you can barely hear anything but I wanted to post it anyway because there is a little tiny bit that you can hear.

Untitled from Jeni Hopewell on Vimeo.

I really enjoy how Josh took his finger off of the microphone just in time for us to hear that last chord. That's totally my favorite part of the song and definitely the part I wanted preserved for future generations. :eyeroll:

Needless to say Josh will not be taking any more videos until we can have a training session. Too bad I don't have two more hands so I could do the videoing and the photographing at the same time. Oh well. Speaking of what I was doing during the performance besides choking back the tears (I am SUCH a baby!) here are some pics:

Right before the performance - beautiful girl.

During her tiny little solo at the end.

Proof that she enjoyed her time up in the spotlight! Well done sweetheart.

In other news, school gets out tomorrow. What in the world am I going to do?! I've been trying to come up with a daily schedule to help us ward off the boredom. I'm definitely going to make them do some schoolwork of some sort. And there will be some quiet time and outside time. I really need to find some activities that we can make a day out of that don't include going outside in the stupid Texas heat. We're going to have a library day and do the summer reading program and probably a friend playdate day. Any other suggestions? Don't say the pool because that's just not going to happen. Me, alone with three kids who don't swim, at the pool, in a bathing suit that I don't even fit into. NOT PRETTY and NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Along those lines I've been trying to lose some weight and get healthier lately. I decided to start the Couch to 5K program a few weeks ago and I'm very surprised at how much I am enjoying it! I'm just finishing up week 3. My goal is to be able to run the 5K in Manassa this year at the celebration. We'll see. I'm just doing everything on the treadmill right now and for some reason the thought of running outside has me a little freaked out. Weird, I know. I also tried going on a diet when I first started this 3 weeks ago but I don't think that's helped much. I have cut WAY back on the soda and I'm drinking lots of water. I've pretty much eliminated candy and treats as well, but that marathon weekend of cakes and birthday parties didn't really help me much! I did also start drinking a SlimFast shake for breakfast, which I have continued to do. I've been adding spinach to them too just to get in some extra veggies. I got a new blender that is really powerful and just pulverizes the spinach so you don't even know it's there. That's my kind of spinach! I should probably get rid of the carbs for a couple of weeks but I just can't bring myself to do that. The thought of that makes me want to cry. We have also seriously cut down on the eating out as a family too (maybe 2-3 times a month now, if that.) So, all in all I think that's a pretty good start, yet I still haven't lost much. I'm gonna keep at it though. It has to show some results sometime, right? Just the fact that I'm enjoying these workouts is enough for me right now!

Well, that's about it. I think I'm almost totally caught up on what's been going on around here. I never did post an Easter pics and to be honest, that's probably not going to happen. I'm hoping to go out to California for little Mason's baby blessing in about a week so hopefully I'll have lots of pictures of that to share. Ryley also had his Kindergarten awards yesterday and he has his end of the season soccer party coming up. I guess I'll never be caught up will I? That's life. I've been really good about scrapping some events that I haven't blogged about though. You can check out the little sideshow over on the right there to see my pages but here a few I've done lately too.

These first three are pages I've done for a book I'm going to make all about me. Sort of like a personal history.

This is a picture I took at Austin's farewell party - he's joined the Army Reserves!

These are some pictures I took last summer in Galveston of sweet little Noah. Yum. (Diane - let me know if you want a full sized version of this page and I'll send you one or print it out for you.)

Some pictures from 2 years ago. Everybody loves Uncle Dave!

More from Galveston - using Brianne's kit!

Here's my latest project. I made these end of the year teacher's gifts out of Sonic drink holders. I attached little tags to a bunch of random things like a water bottle with a tag that says, "Water we going to do without you?" and a little package of goldfish with a tag that says, "You are o'fish'ally the best teacher!" Cheesy, yes, but very fun to make! Here is a huge list of things cheesy little sayings. I used some of them and made up some of my own.

OK, I think that's it! Have a great weekend!