Kara's Recital

Kara finished the first Suzuki piano book and to celebrate her accomplishment, she had a solo recital.

Kara played the entire book from memory... all eighteen songs! And then played four duet pieces with her teacher.

We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful piano teacher.  Kara has learned so much since she started lessons in June!  The kids have spent the last month or so learning about Bach and they know all kinds of Bach trivia... did you know Bach had twenty children??

Kara received support from her brothers... Jason helped make cookie dough and both boys helped to decorate all of the cookies.  Ben was very complimentary of Kara's performance and Jason did his best to keep quiet.

Kara was lucky to have grandparents and uncles travel into town to attend her first recital.

Kara really worked hard and Sho and I sat, very emotional, watching our little girl in amazement of how much she's grown and accomplished.  We are so proud.

When the kids started piano lessons, Sho would try and play what Kara and Ben were playing... and he was good up until the right and left hands did not play the same notes, which was probably the third song.  

I was able to keep up with the kids and sometimes we'd joke about how I could do a recital as well... But Book 2 is no joke and Kara has definitely passed me up quickly!

Cheers to Kara for a job well done! 

Bring on the Madness!

It's March... and that means it's definitely madness in our house!  For me, the madness is the crazy amount of work I have to do to prepare for the Donate Life Run/Walk... But the good kind of madness is March Madness, which we all love!! 

When we told the kids that the tournament started, they were excited to know that it meant eating in front of the television watching college basketball. Who wouldn't love that?

When Ben started taking piano lessons, his teacher said he was tenacious, which it turns out he is, in basketball as well.  Ben started shooting and was excited to make his first basket.  The next day he made six baskets.  And the next, he was determined to make 20... and ended up making 22.

Kara has been working on her shot as well.  Sho is helping to give her pointers... and we know she listens because while watching a game yesterday, she said, "that's an 'and-one', right?"  That's our girl!

And Jason... well, he can be his own madness all by himself.  But, as our piano teacher said, it's hard to be mad at him because he's just so cute.

With all of the "madness" it is sometimes exhausting... sometimes exciting... but it's always a treat to experience it together.

Straight to Summer?

Even though it's not officially spring yet, I think the kids are already looking forward to summer!  It was such a nice afternoon, they asked to play outside and then wanted to test the water...

Soon they will be in suits and we'll have to invest in many Costco packages of sunscreen. For now, I will encourage them to enjoy the mild, sunny weather... because the Central Valley heat is unstoppable!  Good thing our trio is armed with the pool and the shave ice machine. 

Happy Girls' Day!

To celebrate Girls' Day, we had four generations of "girls" together for dinner.  Everyone ate well... and the boys did join in on the celebration.

My mom would always wish us a happy Girls' Day and said to make sure we had something sweet...

which we did... and we do!

We heart, heart, heart you!

Happy Valentine's Day! 

All the kids enjoyed Valentine's Day parties at school today... Kara talked about playing bingo and making some crafts.

Ben loved passing out his Valentine packages and stuffing them into their personalized mailboxes...

And I now know why Jason came home with pink hands the other day!

Happy Heart Day!

Our Week

It's basketball season... and this week, we have watched a lot of basketball!  Last year during basketball season, Kara became friends with one of the Clay 8th graders who now plays on the Kingsburg varsity team, so we went to go watch the game against Selma.  Though Kingsburg didn't win, Kara got a big hug from Karen after the game, which left Kara with a big smile.

The following evening, we went to see the Fresno City women's team play against Reedley.  And for the second evening a row, Kara was flanked by me and Grandpa and since Grandpa and I seem to have all of the same comments when watching a basketball game, Kara was probably hearing them in surround-sound.  Hopefully this wasn't too annoying and I hope that one day, she will also appreciate Grandpa's love of basketball and the words of wisdom that come along with it... and that she'll always remember to block out!

In addition, the Clay girls had two games this week (which they won... yeah!) so it has been quite a week!

Ben had his friend, Chase, over on Friday after school for a play date.  Fortunately, the weather stayed nice and the boys got to play outside and have a great time.

We woke up to rain this morning and no one was eager to get out of their pajamas, but we made a quick stop at Kady's to pick up a huge, yummy cinnamon roll to have as part of breakfast.

Oddly enough, one of my favorite moments was on Friday morning when my alarm went off at 6:30am... Sho is on a business trip and Jason had, at some point in the sleeping hours, climbed into bed with me.  The alarm goes off and I say to Jason, "I have to get up and get in the shower," to which he responds, "stay wiff (with) me.  Stay wiff me, Mommy."  Knowing I have to get breakfast and lunches together and make sure everyone is ready to go to school on time, I say again, "but I have to get up," and he again says, "just stay wiff me, Mommy."  How can you say no??

Whether it's a sunny day, shared moments with family and friends or an extra snuggle, I cherish it all!

Super Sunday

While most people had football on the brain, we wanted to enjoy the sunshine, since it's been so foggy lately, and we had a mini-basketball clinic.  Since we haven't moved the basketball hoops yet, the focus was on the basics and everyone worked on making their way down the long driveway.

Even Daddy participated in the dribbling drills.

Kara has been reading like a mad woman.  A few days before winter break, we found out she was behind in accumulating her reading points for her second trimester goal and she pledged to get back on track.  This week she surpassed her goal with three weeks left of the trimester!  Kara has been playing indoor soccer and helping out at the JV girls basketball practices (since I am still kind of coaching) and she's eager to help in the kitchen, especially when she has cute aprons to wear.

Ben recently lost his bottom two teeth.  He actually pulled them both out, the first one while we were walking in the mall.   Ben is also doing a lot of reading and now, while we're driving in the car, he asks us to give him math problems to solve.  He loves everything about school and still has his sweet demeanor.  Just yesterday he told me that he wished he could just stay 6, even though he knows that he can't.

Jason is learning all of his letters and their sounds, thanks to Miss Shawn and the Letter Factory video.  He now likes to tell us what sounds the letters make and he enjoys getting books and "reading" the stories that he's heard us read to him time and time again.  Then he tells us that he has to get ready for his AR test (just like the big kids take at school).

With the nice, weather, we enjoyed our first picnic in our backyard.  We reminisced about how we used to have picnics at our Sherman Oaks house and we look forward to many more picnics at the Academy house.

We had to take a few selfies to capture our first picnic...

What a great sunny Sunday!