Miriam's dance recital

Just like our other girls, Miriam started dance class during the fall of kindergarten. Unlike our other girls, she took dance from a lady near our home instead of a studio in town.

As a dance parent, I was able to observe lots of differences between the two. Although each has its strengths and weaknesses, I'm kicking myself over not having the older girls do this program over the other. I've loved every aspect of Miriam's dance this year (including the laid-back attitude about how to style the girls' hair for the recital.)

Back on May 11 and 12, Miriam had her first-ever dance rehearsal and recital at Rocky Mountain Middle School. She loved every minute of them.

(At the rehearsal, they wore the same costume to perform all three of their songs.)

Dancing with a "cane" (PVC painted black) during her piano mix.

Joining hands with the other girls in her group during the princess mix. (Notice how tall Miriam is compared to the other girls.)

Not sure what she's doing here, but I think it's adorable.

Dancing with a scarf during the princess mix.

Singing along with the "Once Upon a December" part of the princess mix.

Her teacher dancing with her during the partner part of the princess mix. 

Still singing. Gosh, this kid is cute.

Miriam in her piano mix dress before the recital.

Miriam in her princess mix dress. The girls could have any Disney princess dress they wanted; Miri chose Rapunzel.

Curtsying in her red balloon mix dress.

Each girl was given lights to pin/sew to her red dress that would show up when they dimmed the lights during the red balloon number. Instead of having random swirls and designs, we wrote a message.

Performing at the recital.

The girls were supposed to join hands and extend them into the air. I told Miri she could only go as high as her neighbors' arms reached. That prevented shoulders from getting dislocated.

So many princesses! (Miriam's eyes are visible behind the right-most Cinderella's shoulder.)

To see more pictures from the rehearsal/recital, start here.

Yellowstone with cousins

We finally took Rachel and Justin up on their offer to stay at their cabin (April 29-May 1) and threw in a little bit of Yellowstone while we were at it on Saturday.

Analee looking at Gibon Falls with Seth's binoculars.

Pretty girl and pretty falls.

Miriam and Cooper climbing on rocks at the Gibbon Falls overlook.

Hudson getting some comfort from his mom. If you look at the background, you'll see Seth's holstered gun on his hip and his hat. He says he carries a firearm and wears his hat in Yellowstone to get the out-of-country tourists to point and stare.

Everything was hunky-dory until we stopped at the Artist Paint Pots. We all stood on the boardwalk by the mud pots for a while:

Notice the splatters on the walkway? Yeah ... we should have paid attention to that.

The kids were all lined up watching the mud bubble when a fist-sized clump of mud shot clear up past the railing and hit Winnie squarely on the bridge of her nose. She started screaming, and Seth (who was closer), ran over to her and wiped it off as quickly as he could with his bare hands.

 Rachel shot this picture of Winnie between Seth's wiping and mine.

I ran to the stroller and poured some water from a water bottle onto a Tinkerbell washcloth that just happened to be in the bottom of the stroller (Winnie had left it there during one of our neighborhood walks days before) and wiped her face more thoroughly. That's when I saw that some of the skin had come off on the right side of her nose where the mud had burned her. That mud was hot! When we got back to the van, I put some Neosporin and a Band-aid on her face. She was still a little sad about the whole thing, but gratefully all that remains of the whole incident is a little pink splotch where the skin is still healing.

We continued our Yellowstone journey with a trip to the Norris Geyser Basin and a picnic lunch (where we all nearly froze to death).

Rebekah at Norris Geyser Basin.

Winnie and her Band-aid sad about something NOT boiling-mud-on-your-face-related.

Cute cousins Kelsey and Winnie.

After lunch, Winnie went back to the cabin with Hudson, Kelsey, Rachel and Justin while we took Cooper and the rest of our girls up to Mammoth.

Rebekah, Analee, Miriam and Cooper at the Mammoth Terraces.

Miriam sharing her binoculars with Cooper.

Walking past the elk on the lawn at Mammoth.

On our way back from Mammoth out to West Yellowstone, we were rewarded with being able to see a sow grizzly and her three cubs walking along the bank of the Gibbon River.

So cute!

How close we were to them! (While still remaining safe and listening to the park rangers who were there making sure nobody was too stupid.)

Our group (and everybody else in the world) watching the grizzlies.

I shot a little video of them when Seth suggested it. Adorable!

We also saw more bison on our way out.

A bid daddy bison walking past our van.

A mama and her baby on the road.

The rest of our stay in Island Park was low-key and fun for everyone. To see more pictures, start here.

Bedtime reading

The other night, Seth and I checked on the girls like we do every night before we go to bed. Unlike every other night, Winnie was sporting a mask of sorts.

And the flash didn't even wake her up.

Gwenism #17

Gwen: Cooooooozzzyyyyy! There's a Z in cozy!

She's 3 1/2, folks. That's my literate girl!

Gwenism #16

Andrea is standing at the sink, cleaning out a paintbrush. Gwen approaches her to ask something, and Andrea starts whacking the handle of the brush against the side of the sink to get the extra water out.

Gwen: (Covers her ears.) You're making my words mess up!

Piano recital

Bekah and Ana have worked hard and progressed a lot this year in their piano lessons. We enjoyed some of the fruits of their labors at the recital on Sunday. Both girls memorized their pieces and played beautifully. Analee had a bit of a hiccup on her second song, but she started over (which is hard to do with so many people watching) and made it all the way through the second time. We're very proud of them.

Analee playing "Pumpkin Boogie" and "Sunburst Waltz."

Rebekah playing "Morning" and "Sonatina," a piece with three movements.

Spring cabin trip

We've visited Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin in the winter. We've visited Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin in the summer. We've visited Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin in the fall. But before last week, we hadn't visited in the spring.

Spring in Island Park is different than spring in Idaho Falls. There was still plenty of snow in the area, but the high temperature every day we were there was around 50 degrees. That made for icy, crusty snow in the morning and sinky (I just made that word up), wet snow in the afternoon. We took advantage of the frozen stuff in the morning to play and do some sledding.

Winnie and Miriam sliding down the snow next to the cabin. See? Plenty of snow. All the way to the roof.

Bekah and Ana headed down a nearby hill.

There was a bump after 2/3 of the way down the hill, and if you could get enough speed before hitting it, you could catch quite a bit of air.

Seth taking Miriam and Winnie off the jump. Winnie's body actually became airborne and landed back in the sled. It was the only time she went down the hill, despite being physically fine after her first time.

Seth and Ana in the air. My absolute favorite picture from the whole trip.

Seth and Bekah about to fly.

Seth and Bekah racing down the hill.

And at the end of the hill, there was an abrupt drop-off at the plowed road. It was a good idea to stop the sled before you got there.

The drop-off. I was chasing after them and yelling for Seth to stop the sled so they wouldn't kerplunk.

Once Seth opted not to stop. His vertebrae complained afterward. 

And sometimes the sled didn't cooperate by going straight down the hill.

Bekah veered off the path and fell into the hole by this tree. 

The next time, she didn't fall quite as badly.

It was warm enough that most of us ended up taking off our coats.

Winnie stomping in the crusty snow to make an indentation.

We also spent our General Conference weekend at the cabin by drinking hot chocolate; playing Spot It, Coup, Wig Out! and our Frozen memory game; sleeping; going on a walk to pet a horse in a nearby corral; watching movies and shows; coloring folder games for the Humanitarian Center; going for a drive only to find that the roads to Big Springs and Mesa Falls are still under feet and feet of snow; coloring General Conference packets and listening to General Conference.

Seth had to be quite the tech MacGyver to rig everything so we could listen, but he figured it out (I knew he would), and we heard everything clearly. This was one attempt:

Headphones taped to the window as an antenna, plugged into an mp3 player that was hooked up to a transmitter that broadcasted a signal to the radio that was stuck on one frequency.

In the end, he had the TV antenna on the house picking up the radio waves and relaying them through the transmitter to the busted radio working as the speakers. (If this is inaccurate, I hope Seth will edit it.)

We came home Sunday afternoon in time to unload the truck and get dressed for the older girls' piano recital (post to follow). It was a fun, relaxing weekend.

To see more pictures, start here.

Miriam is 6

It's not very often that your birthday falls on Easter, but Miriam's did this year. Rather than mess with everybody's holiday plans, we held her family birthday party on the Friday before her birthday.

First, we ate dinner.

Pizza, as per Miriam's choice. Also a fruit salad and a veggie tray. And these awesome straws for the kids.

Then, we smashed a piñata.

Miriam and the owl (?) piñata she made with my help and painted with Analee's help.

After everyone got a turn with a blindfold, we let each kid take another turn so we could get to the goodies.

Then Miriam opened presents.

Opening a present from Aunt Jessica. Miriam received a 30" doll, a lightsaber and a remote-controlled car from her parents; Shopkins from Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis; a Mickey and Minnie umbrella from Aunt Jessica; Star Wars jammies and a Star Wars sticker book from Grandma and Grandpa Scott; a birdhouse to paint, a Lego Palace Pets kit and sidewalk chalk from Bennet; and a Lego Friends set from Cooper after her birthday because he was out of town during her party.

Miriam and her Shopkins. She was an enthusiastic present opener.

Rebekah showing Oakley the lightsaber. Either that or threatening her. Oakley looks pretty scared.

Winnie with the lightsaber. The green mustaches were in the goody bags the kids got from the piñata.

Oakley mesmerized by the spastic glowing remote-controlled car.

Then we had cake and ice cream.

Miriam chose the Barbie mermaid cake. Yet. Again. Ana baked it with supervision. Rebekah frosted it and added the blue. Miriam decorated it with fish and blue bubbles. Rebekah made the trident from toothpicks and tape.

Getting ready to blow out the candles. One of the candles nearly started the trident on fire.

Eating frosting off the mermaid.

On Miriam's actual birthday, Easter Sunday, we went to church, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt (see earlier post). Miriam looked beautiful in her Easter dress.

This spunky 6-year-old loves reading. She listens to Winnie the Pooh stories and Magic Treehouse books on her Kindle Fire whenever she can. Lately she's been getting Berenstain Bears and Fly Guy books from the school library and earning AR points with them.

She's been enjoying her dance class and is looking forward to her dance recital next month, although she proclaims to be a little nervous about going on stage. She is a tall girl (several inches taller than anyone else in said dance class) and immediately inherits any clothes that Analee grows out of, despite their almost 3-year age difference.

More than any of her sisters, she is a perfect 50/50 split of tom boy and girly girl. She loves princesses, Ever After High and Palace Pets, but she also loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars and Legos.

As evidenced by her cat dress, green mustache and lightsaber.

To see more birthday pictures, start here.