Five Things For Friday: May 2023

- 1 - 

State and Regionals 

Eliza competed at State for gymnastics and had a great time. Walter and I got to watch and cheer her on. All the girls on her team were SO excited Walter was there supporting them! 

State is usually the last meet of the year for our gym, but this year Regionals was in Utah so they decided to attend. Eliza's state meet score was high enough to qualify her to attend Regionals. It ended up being a great meet. She hit her routines and earned her highest scores of the year. I know she was proud of her hard work coming together! 

This hasn't been an easy year for Eliza, but she's worked hard and stuck with it! She found out she'll be moving up to Gold next year (which is a big jump in skills from Sliver). She's nervous, but excited. Lenora also moved up and will be on the Bronze team next year. I hope Walter likes gymnastics meets because there are plenty in his future. 

- 2 - 

End of School

We finished up school the end of May. It was a bit of a slog to the finish line this year haha! After Walter was born, it's been understandably harder to find our grove with school again. But we kept at it, and I think we had a great year. 

Hazel's Key of Liberty class end the year with a Constitution Bowl. I was blown away but how well they knew the Constitution! Hazel did a great job. That girl has a memory that's incredible (and a work-ethic to put it to good use). She's worked so hard this year! 

We spent one of our last days of school on a super fun field trip. BYU Archaeologists are currently doing an active dig of a site near the Provo airport. The kids and I enjoyed an amazing tour of the site where they're excavating a ruin of the Fremont people. 

Since we went during school hours, we had the tour mostly to ourselves. The master's student giving the tour was thrilled with the kids curiosity and spent extra time answering all of their questions. She even let them preview a traveling exhibit she's putting together in the back room of the Museum of Peoples and Cultures. These are moments that make homeschooling worth it! We all learned so much from experts whose passion was contagious. We gained a deep appreciation for the Fremont people and archaeology, things just can't be taught in a classroom. 

- 3 - 

Spring Forest School! 

Spring Forest School can be summed up in three words - SO MUCH WATER!!! With record breaking snows this winter, there has been so much runoff. The picture above is Hobble Creek. The one we usually spend all summer wading. It turned in to a raging river. 

Because of all the water, our normal spring location was flooded so we relocated to a new location up Mapleton Canyon. The creek there was also running really high, but there was still a safe bridge to cross and areas away from the river to play. 

The highlight of the new area has been all the downed trees perfect for building forts. The kids built a whole town up there! 

While the kids were hard at work on the town, Walter was living his best life in the hammock. He approves of Forest School. 

Nothing beats Forest School in the Spring! After a winter of snow and sledding, it's always so nice to lose the jackets and enjoy the new life all around.

- 4 - 

Church News Article

Michael was featured in an article for the Church News highlighting Deaf members serving in leadership callings. We were nervous to give an interview, but the article turned out great! Read it here.

- 5 - 

Walter is the Best!  

In May Walter started to smile more, enjoyed his first time in a swing, turned 2 months old, and found his voice. We LOVE this little boy so much! 

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Remember how I mentored a Shakespeare class in our homeschool commonwealth this year? Well, our play was the first weekend in May. It has been a WILD ride, but I have learned so much and feel so proud of our final product. 

I served as the producer while my co-mentor Britney directed the play. We knew going in to the play that Walter was due just a few weeks before rehearsals started, so I'd planned as many things as possible in advance and had a great assistant producer helping out. What we didn't anticipate was that Britney's mother, who had been battling cancer, would take a turn for the worst and pass away just a few weeks before the show. After missing a few rehearsals (which other mom's stepped up to run), Britney was determined to finish what she'd started as a tribute to her mom. It was hard, but the kids stepped up, and we gave it all we had. By tech week, things we just barely starting to come together. But even dress rehearsal was ROUGH with some kids still struggling with lines, missing cues, and forgetting blocking. 

Magically, things came together during a last rehearsal before opening night. The kids found their groove and felt ready to give it their all!

Five minutes to showtime, the heavens opening and it started POURING! Without time to move to a backup location, we set up canopies over the audience and went ahead with the show. Somehow that rain unified the cast in a way we'd been trying all year to achieve. As they were huddled under a canopy backstage, singing "Rain, rain go away" and having the time of their lives, something magical happened! They went on to give the most incredible performance (and the rain stopped about 15 minutes in).

And can we talk about Hazel??? She played Olivia, and was incredible! It was so much fun to watch her grow in her acting ability this year. She went from nervously talking way too fast and without much emotion during her audition, to creating and presenting an incredible Olivia. 

In one scene, she was supposed to come in screaming to break up a fight. She struggled to let go of her inhibition and really scream during all of our rehearsals. But on closing night, she finally nailed it! She screamed so loud her fellow cast members were genuinely shocked and had the best reactions. 

I am so proud of her! She's always been an actress at heart, and it was incredible to get her up on stage and watch her thrive. Watch their performance here - IMA Twelfth Night 2023

A few more action shots... It really was such a fun show! 

A funny aside not to be forgotten... With all the rain during opening night, my stroller with the master keys that unlocked everything was slid in to the tower and locked inside. Miraculously, Ken managed to jerry-rig a hanger on the end of a pole and scoop the keys up and through the window. Good times! 

Some of the things I want to take away from this experience: 

-  Hard things are not only doable, but worth the effort

- If you want to do something incredible, surround yourself with amazing people. We could not have done it without the support of some amazing moms! (I mean, just look at those costumes)

- Teenagers can by prickly. They can be hard to love, make choices that seem so ridiculous, and let you down at times. BUT, teenagers are also so much fun, have huge hearts, and are capable of doing so much! Give them the benefit of lots of love, patient coaching, and some time - they will amazing you! 

That's a wrap on Twelfth Night, but my Shakespeare days aren't numbered yet. This fall I'll be mentoring Shakespeare again, and next spring it will be my turn to direct. I'm sure it will be a wild ride again, but I'm excited (and so nervous haha!)