April Happenings

April was a full month!  Colton had two soccer tournaments (one of them out of town) and the girls had many rehearsals for their four performances of Annie.  The older two had their science fair at school, culminating hours upon hours of preparation since January.  All alongside normal life of homework, soccer and gymnastics practice, church and youth group, and various other things.  All went smoothly and well, but it is good to back to a more manageable pace of life! 

The Dells

Colton's team played in a soccer tournament in the Dells a few weeks ago.  We pulled the kids out of school for a day, and spent Thursday night and Friday playing at the waterpark before all the soccer games started.  It was a really fun weekend with teammates and friends and we made a lot of memories.

Coach Thomas is really amazing with the boys.

Summer and friend Maya (Logan's sister) were inseparable.  Here they built a fairy house at one of the games.

Annie

The girls had so much fun in Annie this year!  Both girls were born for the stage!   Larkyn played Molly, the youngest orphan.  Whether she was chatting with Annie, teasing Ms. Hannigan, singing her solos, dancing, or pretending to be Ms. Hannigan (standing on the bed and shouting orders to her fellow orphans), she played this role to its fullest, complete with all manner of dramatic flair!   

Summer had the opportunity to play many different roles, all of them alongside her best UCA friend Allegra.  The two of them ham it up all of the time, and on a stage is no exception.  It was hilarious to watch the two of them play off of each other to make their characters come alive.  The two of them played the two radio announcers (complete with a fun choreographed dance with top hats and canes to "You're Never Fully Dressed without a Smile).  They also acted as cabinet members for Roosevelt, full of personality!  The two of them were also background characters in many various scenes such as the slum scene, in NYC, and as staff in Warbuck's house.

We weren't allowed to take video or pictures during the performances, so I just have a few post performance pictures and memories!   We were told that they took photos with a nice camera during one of the performances, so if I get those I will post them here at that time.

Thank you to ALL of the family and friends that came to support and cheer on our girls!  A special shout out to Grandma and Grandpa T, Gee Gee Sandy, Grandma and Grandpa K, Auntie Kristin and the cousins, Jenna and Matthew, Nate and Shelby, Uncle Scott and Aunt Brenda, The Tobalski family, the Herzog family, and more.  They loved seeing you in the audience!

Science Fair

Summer and Colton have been working on their science fair projects since January.  Summer chose to research at what age a person becomes recognizable as their adult self.  She spent hours collecting pictures of friends at various ages and compiling a survey in which she had 100 respondents guess which pictures (age 0, 5, 8, 10, 13) matched with a given adult picture.  A huge shout out to all of the friends and family that collected pictures of themselves at various ages to send to her to use for her project and also to those who helped her by taking her survey.   Thank you, also, to Grandpa T for teaching Summer the ways of Google Sheets to aid her in analyzing her data.  Summer was thrilled to get 3rd place in Middle School for her project.

Colton chose to do his science fair project with his friend Isaiah.  Their research question was asking which gender of owner knows their dog's bark the best.  They collected many recordings of dogs' barks, put them into a video with numbers assigned to each bark, and asked owners to identify which bark was their dogs.  Both Isaiah and Colton learned a ton about how to do a research project and are already excited for the next round.

We will wrap up April with a soccer tournament next weekend.  May will be filled with end of year concerts and fun as we countdown to summer break!