Eshelle End of the Year Review

Pizazz was invited to dance in the end of the year review for the Snow Canyon Eshelle's.  Courtney was excited because they always have the Junior Eshelle camp beforehand and then the Junior Eshelle's get to dance in the review.  She couldn't wait.

She had Junior Eshelle practices all week long for an hour.  She loves the Eshelle's because her old Pizazz coach is the coach of the Eshelle's and we have a neighbor who is on the team.  So Courtney loves hanging out with the girls.

On the night of the review the gym was packed!  We ended up sitting on one side while Courtney did her Pizazz dance.  We had some neighbors at the review to watch their son dance with one of the Eshelle's in their partner dance.  She took some photos of Courtney and emailed them to me.

Then I helped her put on her Junior Eshelle shirt and she went to sit with the other girls.  When it was time for their dance, a lot of the parents of other dance teams had left so we could have moved, but we didn't.  It was okay.

Here is the video of her dance:

We waited to watch the "Papa Eshelle's" do their dance (the dads of the member of the dance team).  It was hilarious and they did a great job!  Then Ethan and Bryan took off for home but Courtney wanted to wait until the end.  So we stayed.  It was a long night but it was a Friday so it wasn't too bad!

Choir Concert Videos

Here are the videos from the choir concert last week.  Courtney is on the front row to the conductor's right.  There are quite a few songs.  There were also songs by the drum corp and the 4th grade recorder players. It was a good concert.

A Joyful Song:

Round and Round

Circle Round the Moon

If I were a Fifer (Courtney is in the small group that sings the extra part)

Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet

Joy In My Heart

'Cross the Wide Missouri

We Will (this is my favorite song they sing)

Choir concert

Last Thursday, Courtney had her last choir concert of the year. Her choir teacher is actually going to quit teaching after this school year so it was their grand finale! They did a great job.

I will post video in a bit.

Substituting

The librarian at the elementary school has been in Salt Lake City with her husband. He needed a kidney transplant and their daughter was going to be the donor. Last October the principal asked if I would be willing to substitute for the librarian for a few weeks while she took care of her husband. Bryan and I talked about it and we decided we could make it work. 

The doctor had to give them a surgery date and they kept waiting and waiting. Finally they were told the surgery could happen in March. So I went to the school and was trained by the librarian.

It's a pretty fun job. I read a story to each class when they come to the library. I check books in and out. I clean and shelve books (or Ethan does when he comes after school to help). And I look things up on the computer.

It can get boring though. But that's ok. I don't like not having my one as my own. Last week I had 2 food orders I do and I didn't have a time during the day when I was available. So I ended up having to so them really early in the morning. It also seems like these few weeks when I will be working that Courtney has a lot of field trips where they need chaperones. And I can't go and help. So that's really been frustrating.

When I agreed to help I was told it would be for 2 weeks but the librarian said tht it could be up to 6 weeks. I have already been here 1 1/2 weeks and she sent me a text saying it will be another 10 days probably. Oh well. I'm glad I am able to help her out!!

The library:

General Women's BBQ and Broadcast

I was so excited when the RS Broadcast was changed to an all women's broadcast. Courtney was old enough to go! 

Our Stake RS Presidency usually has a dinner for the women before the broadcast but due to the extra women invited, they decided not to do anything. I wanted to make a big deal out of the meeting so our ward had a BBQ before the broadcast. The priesthood leadership grilled for us and we had a potluck if salads and desserts. We had about 85 women/young women/girls show up and it was fantastic!! 

We began at 4:30 so we would have plenty of time but women were still hating at 5:55. My mom waited for us at the Stake Center and saved us seats. 

I loved the broadcast but Courtney got a little bored. But I was glad they changed the age so it includes all women 8 years of age and older!

Run for a Reason Fun Run

The fun run and 5K to raise money for sun shades was last Saturday. I was in the committee to plan the run and it was the first time we have had a run. There were 5 moms on the committee and we worked hard to get it going.

We met on Friday to finalize what we needed to do on Saturday and make assignments for the run day.

We met at 6:30 am on Saturday to get things ready for a 9 am race time. Two moms went out to mark the course with flour. Two moms went out to get the aid stations set up and to put signs up. I stayed at the school and used caution tape and traffic cones to lock off the parking lot, take care of the final packet pick up, an show the guy from Findlay where to set up the start and finish line blow up thing.

When we finished all that stuff, out volunteer showed up from the middle school and two moms shuttles them to the aid stations. I showed a few of them how we wanted the fruit cut up and then got another volunteer dressed as Charlie Cougar.

The runners began showing up at about 8:45 and we were almost ready to go. At 9 am the 5k run started. This included Bryan, Don and Kathy.

About 5 minutes later we started the principals walk and this included Courtney, Ethan and my dad. 

Then we waited. Courtney came in first in the walk, dragging her reading buddy who she tutors behind her. She was so excited!!

The others started trickling across. Don came next:

Then Bryan:

Then Kathy:

Then Ethan, who had decided at the turn around of the one mile walk that he could do a 5k so he kept going:

They all did a great job. Kevin, Jeanette and their kids were there to cheer them on.

We had to wait until the final runner came across te finish line before we could do the prize drawing. I got to draw the names while another mom gave the envelope with the gift cards to our mc. Then the other three moms gave out the prizes.

Here's the family waiting for the drawing:

We won some books! The kids were happy. All the kids were given a free kids meal coupon to Carls Jr and a free pizza coupon to Papa Johns pizza. The adults were all given a 2-for-1 coupon to Artic Circle. And everyone was given a coupon for a free ice cream.

It was a great day and everyone had a lot of fun. We had almost 200 people run and we made $3,725 in cash between sponsor donations and entry fees. Then we had another $3,500 worth of prizes donated. So I think it was a very successful first year for our run!!

Stake Court of Honor

We had the Stake Court of Honor last week. I hadn't been to one before so it was a new experience for me. Ethan was awarded his computer merit badge and his citizenship in the world merit badge. Then he was awarded his tenderfoot rank. He was the first scout awarded a rank advancement and Bryan told him to give me a kids but Ethan was too embarrassed. He went bright red. It was pretty funny.

Here is the troop:

Our cute scout: