Cody's California Conference.

Cody recently arrived home after 

presenting at a radiology conference in San Diego. 

He grew up there and his Mom, step Dad and sister Kelli still live there, 

so he was able to stay with them during his week there. 

Spending time with his family was certainly the highlight of his trip.

He was also able to visit his dear friend Ryan's family...but leave it to a male to not get even ONE picture with his family OR with Ryan's family. 

Good thing he is still the greatest guy on earth!

He did however manage to get a picture of himself driving one of his step-dad's corvettes.

Cody was asked to present three different lectures on 

three different topics for a total of 3-hours of lecturing.

This called for a hefty amount of preparation beginning many months 

 prior to the conference. 

Night after night of working on these presentations brought 

back the NOT too distant memory of medical school and residency...which were 10 wonderful years with parts that I'm not sad to let fade into oblivion.

I'm sure he nailed it, although he would NEVER say so.

Dancing Days

 Two weeks ago the big girls competed at the Queen City Feis in Cincinnati. 

We drove up the night before and enjoyed dinner and swimming with another 

dance Mom named Sara and her daughter Abby.

Cody stayed home with Reese and Aspen. 

A full day of crowds, noise and concrete floors does not mesh 

well with toddlers and pre-schoolers.

 

 (A peak inside a Feis. I took this photo taken from the side of one stage.)

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed to the Feis along 

with the rest of the masses. 

FEIS 411:

1- Several performance stages, I think there were 10 at this Feis. 

2- Musician at each stage plays fiddle or accordion (hooked up to a speaker)

for all of the competitions on that particular stage that day. 

3-  Each stage has a judge/judges sitting at the head.

4- Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and teachers swarm the stages.

5- You best have a really good master plan going into the Feis because if your dancer is not on the right stage at the right time for the right dance then the competition goes right along without them.

6- No pictures or recordings of competitions.

(These are solo dresses. Our girls wear school dresses until they meet the advancement requirements to wear a solo dress.)

I did take a picture of this line-up of dancers AFTER they danced.

Brinley and Avery compete against between 8-28+ dancers in each dance.

When the dancers from the previous dance walk off stage, they walk on in a row of dancers in their division. Then when the music starts the dancers step forward, two by two, dance their dance and then step back into place until all the dancers have gone.
Then they stand and smile for a few moments until the judge is done,
 at which point they walk off and the next row walks onto the stage.

I am still learning about this whole world/culture of Irish dance and 

it has proven to be quite the educational process.

Brinley and Avery really love it and so I am learning to really love it right along with them because what is important to them is important to me.

 (Brinley's long awaited new wig, purchased with her financial contribution, at the Queen City Feis)

Many of the girls' dance peers have been competing for years now, but due to babies, budget and residency, we really could not make competitions a part of our lives until this summer. Plus, I wanted to wait until the girls repeatedly requested the chance to compete so it was a choice born from their inner desire and committment.

(The girls fell fast asleep in the car after the day of competition)

The girls each placed in FOUR of their SIX dances. 

Brinley now competes in the Novice category.

 Avery competes in Beginner 2 for all of her dances except for the Hornpipe. 

Because she had placed 1st in her Hornpipe she in now competing Novice in that dance.

We brought back these sweet socks for the little girls to practice their Irish dancing in. 

Reese is always asking to wear her "dance socks" now. 

Aspen will be starting classes this fall and she is really looking forward to it. 

Me too...kind of, except for the added commute to the dance school that is 20 min. away IF we don't hit traffic, and an additional afternoon taken up by dance.

Last Thursday the girls performed in their annual recital. 

The entire school did a wonderful job! 

It's pretty cool to watch a recital when world champions are a part of the show.

Here are the girls with some of their dance friends.

Upcoming Feis' that we are going to:

Dayton

Indianapolis 

Columbus x2

Walks, Runs and Rides

We just LOVE being outside whenever we possibly can, and after a winter when we had over 50 days where the temp. never rose above freezing,  

we are really excited when it's not raining and we can get outside.

Between bikes, baby joggers and bike trailers I am able to bike, run and walk with some or all of the children. Twice recently Apsen decided to jog next to me and she did a great job!

Most often times we go down to "The Woods," which is just a bike bath through a really wooded area a ways away from our home.  

(We ran into this little clan during a bike ride this week)

Sometimes I take the little girls on a really long ride to Homestead Park. We did this on Monday and between the biking and park play our little outing took three hours. 

We had a great time!

Field Day

 All of the girls enjoyed their end of the year Field Day events last week. 

I was able to volunteer for Aspen's, which is why I only have pictures of her.

It was fun to watch Aspen play with her friends as they  

excitedly moved from station to station.

The forecast called for rain that day and Aspen had been so excited for this day for SO LONG and knew that if it rained there would be no make-up day for the event.

That morning at breakfast we decided to pray for the rain to wait to fall until after field day was over.

Oh the sweet faith of a five-year-old. She believed that if she prayed for the rain to hold off, that Heavenly Father would hear and answer that sincere prayer.

And He did! We had clouds and much wind, but the rain never came...

until after the event was over.

And in my heart I believe that God does care about even the  

seemingly trivial events in our lives. 

I believe this because I am a parent, and even though a few outside games for field day may not be very significant, they were really important to my daughter and 

because of that they were really important to me.

Children's Theater

We love going to plays at the children's theater in downtown. 

Last week we went to see Hansel and Gretel.

They have some really incredible actors and 

can pull of a great show with even just four to five actors.

 

After each show the children like to obtain 

autographs on their programs from each actor.

After the play was over I came outside and stumbled upon 

Avery doing Yoga and Aspen being a butterfly.

It's so fun to observe what the children come up with to occupy their free time.

Easter 2014

We had a fun and simple Easter. 

Leading up to Easter Sunday we always enjoy the lessons from our  

Christ-Centered Easter book. 

Daddy had to work all weekend, but he was able to join us for a delicious Easter dinner at our friends house that night. Prior to Easter weekend he made it a priority to participate in coloring all the hard boiled eggs with the girls.

The Easter bunny brought each of the children some candy (as you can see Reese was beyond thrilled and wanted to show off the basket to my camera) so they were not too hungry for breakfast.

Bananas, hard-boiled Easter eggs and strawberries were perfect.

I am grateful to know and to be teaching my children why Easter is about 

so much more than bunnies and candy. It is the knowledge of our Savior, His ministry, His atoning sacrifice and His Resurrection 

that we celebrate!