These pictures are a photo journal of most activities we did in March 2022
Workouts in the canyon behind our house
Visiting Dallin's classroom (3rd grade with Ms Chavira) for one of his publishing parties.
Dallin reading his story on zoom to all the parents who are tuned into the publishing party in Ms Chavira's class (3rd grade). Due to Covid restrictions, parents weren't allowed on campus. I was really lucky to be teaching at the school during this time because I got to see my kids in action all the time. I even got to help sub on ocassion!
Money that Jeremy found in the road on the way home from work.
Bumble Bee stickers
Typical dinner time
Music maps that the students made in my 1st and 2nd grade music classes. They have to follow the lines they create with their voices. This helps them get more familiar with their voices, locate and distinguish between their head and chest registers, and represent sound with symbols.
Beautiful rainy day at school with a rainbow!
Out to eat with the family at a new restaurant.
Cute kid in the car
Dallin experimenting with selfies
More photo work from Dallin...
Enjoying watching my boys sleep in their own spaces now. Dallin's bed moved to the library so he can have some much needed privacy and alone time.
Tanner stayed on the top bunk in the kids room, and we turned the bottom bunk into a book nook.
Jeremy started coaching for little league this spring of '22. Tanner and Dallin's ages worked out where they could be in the same division, so they were on the same team. It was Tanner's second season, Dallin's first season ever doing baseball (because he had a broken arm last year) and Jeremy's first season ever coaching little league. Jeremy was a total natural with coaching, and people were surprised every time I told them it was his first season coaching. They assumed he has been doing it for years.
Jeremy hosted a fun movie night for the kids to bond. We held it down at Whaley and they watched the Sandlot.
They had to get creative on where to practice sometimes because space on the field was really limited. Jeremy took the team to some parking lots in Balboa Park that rarely get used for extra practices, and the team had fun and got better. Those were Jeremy's two goals for the kids: have fun and get better.
Dallin pitching.
Tanner catching
At one point, Tanner was catcher and Dallin was pitcher at the same time. It was really neat to see them bond over baseball. Tanner was really good at being patient with Dallin, giving him helpful pointers, and Dallin got really good throughout the season, in all positions.
Dallin quickly developed a habit where he would make up little dances in the outfield. He was so goofy and helped keep the spirit light and upbeat each inning. And it didn't keep him from staying focused and playing his best. In fact, we think his dances helped him focus.
Stats from one of the games for pitching. The league used an app called Game Changer, which would keep track of every play, point and statistic you could imagine in each game!
Family jam session one evening
I think this is ward conference. It was really fun having our ward combined.
At a local bar where they featured a guy's Lego sculptures. They were really cool, especially because they were depictions of buildings and landmarks in San Diego.
Proof that I can still hold my children!
I volunteered to direct the McKinley Variety Show as a parent committee chair for Spring of '22.
This was the first Variety Show at the school since 2019 due to Covid shutdowns. You might remember that I helped prepare the children for singing two big group numbers at the VS that was going to happen on March 12, 202, but then it got cancelled a few hours before.
Some parents had a hard time imagining how we could do the traditional show without 3 months of preparation and without using the fancy high school auditorium. I got creative and developed a vision to host the show outside on the school blacktop in the park.
At first people thought I was crazy proposing that we get a big show ready in less than 2 months. But Claire and Marney put a great deal of trust and faith in me and I showed them how we could meet all the Covid requirements by simplifying past traditions with the show. I'm so thankful for their help and all their work.
The show was a HUGE success!! We had 32 acts and a total of over 50 kids who participated, including my son Tanner! We had a record number of 5th graders audition to emcee and work as stage crew. We found important roles for all of them to fill and they did a fantastic job. The theme of the show was "WE RISE TOGETHER" and that is exactly what happened throughout this experience for the students and the rest of the school community with this event.
The cast and crew
My team of directors
From the first day of auditions to the performance day, we did it all in 4 weeks!! The best part was that I didn't have to cancel any work time at my studio because we did auditions and practices during McKinley's early dismissal hours.
Also, we required students to be performance ready at the auditions (which seems obvious, but at this school, the culture had been that many would audition without their acts fully ready). This saved a lot of time for all of us. We also didn't do any large group dances, which was sad in a way, but with Covid rules discouraging school groups to mix a lot, we decided it was better to keep that off our plates. It was a win in the end because it knocked off several weeks of planning and rehearsal. We didn't worry about written/printed programs, selling tickets, or making gift grams for the performers. All of this saved even more time.
Here is some of the acts lined up as we decided the order for the show. Some parents helped create a structure for the script that the emcees used, and then I went through and spruced it up with descriptions that helped connect our theme.
I had a lot of fun seeing the kids' prepare for the show. The younger kids were so excited to be together. The older kids were sad to not have the performance indoors, but were so grateful and pumped to be able to perform something. Since we were outside, we encouraged kids to really think outside the box with being outside. We had three messy acts that couldn't have been done in a closed theatre, including one where the soda mixed with mentos and went flying 20 feet in the air!
Our very supportive Principal, Deb Ganderton
For Tanner's act in the Variety Show, he wrote and directed a skit about 3 kids watching YouTube and doing replays of it. The "video" they were watching was of a kid throwing pies in their friend's face. Tanner got 5 other 4th grade buddies to do the skit with him and it was a hilarious mess!! Very memorable and became a crowd favorite!
Another fun aspect of the Variety show was that a handful of kids that I taught during Covid private lessons and outdoor camps had participated in the Variety Show. My teacher heart was SO very proud of them.
The big performance was on the weekend at about 3:00 pm. We were so lucky that the weather cooperated! There was a huge turnout. People raved about how quickly we were able to put it all together and how much they enjoyed doing the show outside!!
Another typical evening at our house in March...
Dallin reading at school
I got to be the substitute in his class today!!!
More baseball
Dallin got the swag chain after some great plays!
Dallin climbing at church
Playing at the pool
NO MORE MASKS AT SCHOOL!
Dallin came home and ripped his mask up triumphantly when the district FINALLY decided that we did not have to require students to keep wearing their masks. I was also VERY excited about this because singing with a mask on was torture, and now the kids could watch my mouth as I sing.
Trip to the zoo with my two boys! I think this was our first time checking out the new exhibits in the wildlife base camp. It was well worth the wait.
During this time is when our landlord told us that they want to sell the condo home. They sent a real estate agent over to evaluate what the home looks like and how much she thinks she could get for it. We wanted to place an offer on the home, so we tried to make the house look as small and undesirable as possible. We even borrowed furniture from the neighbors to make it look more cluttered, and I think we did a pretty dang good job! Note-We started looking for other houses to rent in case we would not be able to buy the home on Whaley, and it was not good news for us because rental prices had gone through the roof since we moved here in 2019. More to the story coming soon!
