The Long-Awaited Opera!

Here's the short facebook version:

Katelyn got to do the coolest thing on earth this year (for a performance-loving girl!)-- her class wrote an opera with Opera by Children. It was about the American Revolution and I was super impressed by what her class and their teacher came up with. Lyrics, music, choreography, sets, props. It was AWESOME. And to top it all off she got the biggest solo! She loved every minute of the prep for this and she was excellent in it! So much fun. Don't worry grandparents, we bought the DVD!

And here's the long version:

The opera was written by the class.  They broke up in groups and wrote song ideas for the modern-day teacher/students part and for each different event of the American Revolution. Then as a class they polished each one.  Then the company Opera by Children came in and discussed different melodies and sounds and ideas for each song with the kids, got their input, and then used their words and musical ideas and turned it all into an OPERA!  It was about 15 minutes long.  The kids all got a CD to practice with.  Then they had tryouts for the teacher solo (like 6 short solos) and the students (1 short solo each) and Katelyn got the teacher part!!  I was super impressed!  And she did GREAT up there.  She was strong and confident, knew what she was doing, and sang on key and pretty much on rhythm!!  So great!  Thank you let's play music, Rococo, and good genes! :)  

Then the kids broke up into groups to create choreography for each song, then came together and polished their ideas as a class with their teacher's help.  Then they came up with the set and prop ideas, and spent a whole day painting!  So they really worked on this all year long, and it was Katelyn's favorite part of school!  This is Kate pretending to be French during the intro American Revolution song.

Seriously I was so impressed the whole time at how well-prepared they were.  There was no one backstage helping them, they all just knew what to do and where to go.  So cool.

protesting the tea tax.

Boston Tea party song.

the ship for the tea party.

crossing the Delaware- this was my favorite song!  You can't see it but the middle boat was a re-creation of the famous painting of Washington, they had a kid dressed up amazingly and he had a flag and everything. and the cloth for the water was cool!

capturing the Hessians.

Battle of Yorktown song.  This was Katelyn's group from the beginning, so she was pretty proud that she basically wrote this song herself!  

And a lot of the choreography for Yorktown was hers too!

It was awesome, awesome, awesome.

I brought her and her teacher flowers. :)  My amazing Kate!  Luckily the 5th and 6th grades have fine arts specialty classes too that she can be in and get to do 2 more operas!  

And I posted this on the last day of school in honor of Mrs. Fisher, her wonderful teacher:

I am in mourning today, because it was Katelyn's last day with the most amazing teacher in the world!!! I have a high standard when it comes to teachers, and Mrs. Fisher was a dream come true. Katelyn and I were THRILLED with the many fun things her class did in science and history week after week! I loved how creative and exciting all their assignments and lessons and projects were in every subject, they got to MAKE and DO so many cool things! And it wasn't just fun stuff, Mrs. Fisher challenged my 8th grade reading level daughter to become a better writer. She helped Katelyn catch up in math--she had very sub-par 3rd grade math teachers. And on top of all that she helped them write that amazing opera! This woman is phenomenal and I have loved trusting my Kate to her care every day this year. I will miss her!! I am so grateful for the caring and amazing people who brave the extremely challenging world of teaching! We will forever love Mrs. Celeste Fisher! She is seriously THE BEST EVER.

Good times from April and May

We had a really cool opportunity in April to host Jonathan and Jenae for several days as they waited for Mom and Dad to come up for Derek's Graduation from BYU.  Their semester had ended, so they split their time among the 4 siblings who live up here in Northern Utah.  IT WAS SO AWESOME to spend time with them!  Especially Jenae, who I feel like just came back to me after being in the high school mode for 4 years, and now she's going on a MISSION and we won't see her for a year and a half!  It was wonderful to talk for hours and hours and really connect.  And to get to go through the temple with her to receive her endowment, and ALL of us were there except Donny and Christine, and we were all doing family names that Allison and I had found so we could bring them back to do sealings in June, and it was just so great.  Also the kids got to connect with her before she leaves, and Maris got to know her for the first time really well.  Now she points to pictures of Jenae and says "Nae!" So cute.

Here they are hanging out at Owen/Whitney's soccer practice.

Uncle Jonathan is a lot of fun too!  He is always up for playing a game or reading a story or playing a chasing or wrestling game! :)

It was so fun to get to see these two a bunch in April!!

Sometimes the kids play so well together that I have to document it.  Like this one Sunday when they were downstairs together for like 2 hours, and most of that time Katelyn was just making up funny "movies" with Legos in this box like a TV, and they were all laughing their heads off!  Eric and I were in peaceful-Sunday-afternoon-heaven!

Another day I found them all like this reading a story, precious!

Cleo had her 4th birthday party at Hang Time and invited us, it was really fun! This is Kate, Cleo, and Owen.

That one time Whitney made Maris a car. :)

And one time when my Dad had brought us some DELICIOUS oranges and we all had them for dessert on a Wednesday night!  It was bath night and Maris let me put rag curlers in her hair!

The next day she was beyond adorable!  (Even with that scrape on her forehead from falling in the Stokes parking lot!)

We went to freezer meals and Relay practice at the school that day, and honestly several people gasped when they saw her and exclaimed how incredibly cute she was!  I need to do her hair like that again. :)

Even after her nap it was pretty good. 

Finally got a picture of this classic event: little hands poking under the bathroom door! Haha.

Fruit forest one of the last days of school!

I finally finished my quilt!

After many months of sporadic sewing I finally finished this quilt! A tribute to my college and coaching years. Thus you see a lot of BYU and Provo High represented! And Harry Potter haha. Thanks for the good times and good races 2001-2007!

more dress-up.

Katelyn's school track meet!  My favorite part is her smile at the end.  Probably she's just relieved it's over, but I like to interpret it that she loves running!  :)

she helped Owen and Maris do the preschool 50 m lollipop race.

I wanna live where the green grass grows, watch my corn pop up in rows.... So excited about our new trees, flowers, and vegetables! It's going to be a beautiful and delicious summer! ‪#‎livinthedream‬ ‪#‎farmersdaughter‬‪#‎itsinmyblood‬

Maris and a dragon (K) made a little nest in the weeds at the edge of our yard haha, 

And Owen played cowboy on the plains!

I bought an azalea bush and we enjoyed feeling tropical with it's flowers!

lightning storm from our front porch!

Maris was just a LITTLE bit excited to run in the lollipop race the next time!

so cute.

The next couple of pictures I titled "she LITERALLY does whatever he does!" because it is true.  Comes in for breakfast wearing a costume?  She runs off to get one.

sticks out his tongue and makes faces?  great plan.  leaves the table during dinner to run around?  Definitely going to copy him!  Sits on the couch?  she follows.  spins in circles?  She does it too.  It's so funny.

Maris has a favorite shirt right now, this Stanford one (go Uncle KJ!) and whenever it's clean it is her first choice, like jumping up and down happy choice!  One day Owen happened to choose his too, independently, so Katelyn wore hers too to match.  People probably thought we were from California, yay!  :)