Reading...

I feel extremely blessed that I have children who are such excellent readers! Still, they never cease to amaze me.... Yesterday we picked up the mail and found a letter from Hayden Peak Elementary addressed to "the parents of Qiyana Thornton". I had a feeling it was the standard letter they send for all new Kindergarten students with information on the up-coming orientation for parents... needless to say, Qiyana was extremely excited about the letter.

Qiyana has been reading AMAZINGLY lately, and so I thought (just for kicks) I would give her the letter and see how well she did. She read the greeting and the first 2 paragraphs with help on only 2 or 3 words. After that, she thought the letter was getting a little long and asked me to finish reading it to her. Lee and I just kept staring at each other,.... I called Mom and Dad to do a bit of bragging... and then I decided to video her reading the letter for the 60 seconds that my camera will record.

I'm having a proud Mom moment, so please endulge me!

Here is the beginning of the letter which she read :

"Dear Parents of New Kindergarten Students,

We will be holding an orientation for parents that have children attending kindergarten in the 2009-2010 school year on Friday, April 17, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in the Hayden Peak Elementary activity room. The orientation will last approximately 30 minutes.

This meeting is for parents only. Please leave children at home. At the orientation we will explain the kindergarten program and introduce the kindergarten teachers. They will answer any questions you might have."

IT WORKS!!

OK,... so I have to admit that I was pretty apprehensive about Leandra's kite-making assignment. Neither I nor Leandra have ever made a kite from scratch before,... and while I thought we had done a pretty OK job, we did not have a chance to test it before she took it to school on Friday because of all the SNOW!! Suprisingly, Friday turned out to be a pretty decent day, and Leandra's teacher was able to go forward with her kite-flying plans.

I was SO happy when I picked the kids up from school and Leandra told me the GREAT news! "Mom, mine was the ONLY one in the whole class that flew!!" She added that actually, there was one other kite that flew a little, but not as high as hers. Fortunately, the other kite belonged to Chayston (a very nice boy in our ward), so it was OK. ;)

Let's Go Fly a Kite!!

On Saturday, the wind sure let us know it was blowing in Sunday's storm! Out in West Jordan, it almost felt more like Kansas (in black and white)! Anyway, as yucky as the idea of another snow storm sounded (after so many GORGEOUS Spring days!), we figured we'd try to make some fun of it and decided to run down to the soccer fields to do some kite flying. Granted, we were only flying the $1 Wal-mart kites, but the kids had a BLAST! The wind did get a bit cold, but it didn't slow them down too much.

Kendra even decided to get a bit "creative" with her kite flying.... (could we really have expected much less??)

Leandra has one last "big" assignment in her school class due this Friday (before they go off-track again). They're supposed to make their own kite (no kits!) and then the class will have a kite flying event that morning. Hopefully, the wind will accommodate the assignment!

PIRATES!!

I came home from a song practice on Saturday morning and found pirates in my house!! Lee had the kids clean up their rooms, vacuum, and do some chores... when they were finished Jordan and Leandra (aka Jack Sparrow and Will Turner) decided it was time to battle some pirates! (via the PlayStation)...


Note the "beard" Jack is sporting.... AWESOME!!

Back Flips!!

Kendra has been begging for us to enroll her in a Gymnastics Gym for almost as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, we have not been in a position to fund these lessons. Bless Kendra's heart, she remains understanding and hopeful. In the interum, she LOVES using the trampoline to work on her flips, hand-springs, etc. With her dad's help, she has recently become quite good at nailing her back-flips, and back lay-outs. She has also become so confident in her back hand-spring, that she's trying to get her dad to help spot her on the ground. That worries me A LOT, but I figure if Lee things she's ready for it, then she probably is. Besides, it's Kendra. From the time she was tiny, we all knew that she would be able to do ANYTHING she ever decided to do in life! She proves to me that we were right, everyday!!

Remember when....

Do you remember when you were a kid and you got a new pair of tennis shoes?? I remember that I could always run WAY faster in my new shoes than the old ones. I also remember wearing them non-stop around the house for the first few days, and how COOL they felt on the different floor surfaces.... the carpet was always softer in new shoes, and the linoleum was strong and firm and made it possible for me to feel every new groove on my new soles!! Anyway, my older girls have apparently NOT grown out of absolutely LOVING a new pair of shoes... Ahh,.. it brings back memories!!

More Musical Talent...

I really feel like now would be a good time to add this to our blog. Although Leandra performed this last Fall (before I got up the courage to attempt the blog-world!), I really want to share it with our friends and family because I don't think anybody has had a chance to hear her perform it.

While Kendra has really taken to the the piano, Leandra LOVES her violin! In fact, she also had a pretty great Christmas when she received a new full-size violin. She's been playing on her 3/4 sized for a couple years now, and has really grown into needing the larger size. She's been playing with the school orchestra for 2 years now (after the 1 year I taught her at home).

Anyway, she is in 5th grade this year, and decided that she wanted to enter the Reflections contest at school with an original musical composition for violin. I was impressed with her ambition, but FAR MORE impressed with what she was actually able to come up with! Obviously, she has also received some of her father's musical abilities!! Her orchestra teacher at school was also very impressed. So much so, that she asked her to play her piece - solo - in front of the entire school at their school Christmas concert! Again, Leandra impressed me to no end by actually agreeing to do it!! Wow! I would never have been so brave when I was 11! Also, in the Spring, several elementary school orchestra's combine their efforts into one HUGE program which they call a "Monster Concert". Leandra's teacher has asked her for a copy of her song (which will be provided only after her father has it copywritten... :)... ) so that she can share it with all the other teachers and have the song performed by the entire group at this years "Monster Concert"!

So, here is her original song which she has entitled, "Roaming in the Meadow". I'm sorry I had to upload it in 2 pieces, but my camera will only record about a minute of video at a time.

Enjoy!!

Nothing like a Circus!!

For a long time, Kendra would come home from Primary every Sunday and sit down at the piano and start playing whatever new song they were learning. It was just the melody, but she obviously has been blessed with some of her father's musical talent. We decided, however, that we did not want her father's talent to be all that she posessed, because the inability to read music well is such a HUGE frustration for him most of the time. So, after some searching, we found a piano teacher close who doesn't charge a fortune, and Kendra has now been taking piano lessons for awhile. Guess what? No surprise... she LOVES it!

She was unbelievably excited this Christmas when we were able to get her a keyboard to practice on. (Now she's just as cool as her Dad!!) Since then, her practice time has been nearly non-stop since she doesn't have to fight with her siblings for time on the piano vs time with the TV on!

Her latest "favorite" song is There's Nothing like a Circus. I am very pleased to say that she's reading music quite well now,.... but she also let's her other talent kick in quickly and has her songs learned/memorized in no time at all - leaving the music books to serve as props only.

So, enjoy this quick trip to the Circus... we've been enjoying it for awhile now!!