HONK Jr.

Lydia has enjoyed being part of the Lakeland Hills school musical since Kindergarten.  We are lucky at the elementary school to have such an amazing music teacher that puts on an amazing play each year.  Every year over 100 kids try out, they have to make a big commitment to be in the play, but making it to play practice every day after school for 3 months, sports and other activities come second when it comes to a conflict. This is an especially busy time of  year for Lydia as she is starting soccer, has piano lessons and attends activity day girls.  This year since Lydia was a 3rd grader she was secretly hoping for a principal part.   After trying out she was trilled to get the role as Duffy in Honk Jr.  (One of the ugly ducklings siblings)

Lydia has a grand entry in the play, when the play starts their are 4 eggs laying in a nest.  Lydia is under one of them and she is the last one to hatch.  At each of the 3 performances she was all smiles as she cracked open her egg and showed herself to the world (audience).  

Here are some pictures from some of the scenes she was in.  

Lydia had a few speaking parts.  In the picture on the righthe is saying "It's not fair Mama"

Below is their reaction when they first see the ugly duckling.

Dancing, singing, speaking lines, and smiling on stage, 

all part of being in the play! 

Every year Lydia is in the play she makes some new friends and gets to interact with other kids from different grades that she would otherwise be able to.

More than just duckling scenes there are some other very cute groups of kids.  Below are some pictures of other parts of the play.  

The cat

The Geese

The frog

                                                                                                                        Below: The duck family

Curtain call


      Some of Lydia's best friends were in the play too.  McKenzie was a flower and Ella a frog.  

And of course flowers for our STAR!!

Way to go Lydia!  We were so proud of you!  Looking forward to next years play! 

Spring Field Trips

 We went on some great field trips this spring, and it was fun for mom to be able to go on some of them too.  

Mason at Evergreen State College 

Orchestra Festival

Mason spent the day down in Olympia, WA at Evergreen State College.  

His Orchestra was given instruction from Dr. Cobbs from the Tacoma Youth Symphony, and then they performed with 3 other schools (from Kent, Seattle, and Centralia).

Lydia's 3rd grade class to the 

Washington State History Museum

Lydia spent the day in Tacoma at the Washington History Museum.  I got to chaperon these fun 5 kids. 

Hunter, Mckia, Kate, Elizabeth and Lydia

And our group tagged along with another group (pictured below). 

Chaperon: Joelle

Kolby, Jeremie, and Bruce

This is a beautiful museum, with lots of interesting facts about Washington.

The favorite part was dressing up like the early settlers of Washington.

Jacob's Preschool class at 

Sub-Zero Ice Cream!

It was super fun to go see how they make ice cream at sub-zero.  

Tyler's mom and grandpa own the ice cream shop, so we got special treatment!

Sub-zero does a science experiment lesson along with showing us how they make ice cream.  It was neat to see what liquid nitrogen would do to many different things. 

Making ice cream.

Yummy!!!

We are hooked, can't wait to bring back the rest of our family to try it.  

Mt. Baker's Production of Cinderella

Mason and Landon have always enjoyed being on stage.  They had anxiously awaited the announcement of Mt. Baker's middle school production would be.  When it was announced that it would be Cinderella they were a little disappointed.  Landon decided he would still try out.  Auditions were a week long.  Landon would practice at home and occasionally have Mason read lines with him.  On the last two days of auditions Mason decided he would try out too.  Both landed parts and the show was a great success. boys had a fun time making new friends and being in a cast. 

Starring: Mason as a Royal Guard 

Landon as the Prince's Dad: King Max

The show was double casted so when they were not the above parts they were extra or town folks.  Having two casts makes for two completely different shows, and it makes for two very entertaining evenings.  

Mason singing as an town folk

Mason as a Royal Guard

Dancing!!!  

Mason holding back one of the step sisters

Our favorite part of the show was the "Ball".  Since both boys are in 7th grade and will not attend dances until they are 14, dancing with a girl was a new thing.  Thanks to Mr. Char who taught them how to ballroom dance a little bit.  They did a great job and didn't even seem uncomfortable:]

Happy Birthday Jacob

On March 28th Jacob turned 5 years old! 

Jacob started counting down to his 5th birthday about one month into turning 4 years old.  He could hardly wait to be a big 5 year old!  Though we hate to see him grow up so fast our family sure loves this little boy and we were excited to celebrate him and his firsts five years of life!  

After our cruise earlier this year, Jacob has become interested in pirates.  Nowadays, it seems like every birthday needs a theme to go along with the celebration.  So a pirate theme was a perfect choice for him.  Jacob was especially fascinated with Captain Hook from "Peter Pan". He had asked for a cake with Captain Hook on it.  Due to lack of time and creativity, he got a hook cake instead.  He loved it!  

Jacob's birthday is one week after Grandma McKinney's birthday.  Since Grandma and Grandpa were going to be out of town over his birthday we had a family party the Sunday before to celebrate both of them.  

 The day before his birthday, he wanted to take birthday treats to his friends at preschool.  He loves Rice Krispy Treats so these cone treats were perfect for the his special day.  

On Jacob's birthday he woke up bright and early and wanted everyone to know it was his birthday.  He opened the front door and yelled at our neighbors:  "It's my birthday and I am 5 today" 

 As a total coincidence, our family scripture study that morning happened to be in Jacob chapter 5.

And a few times trough out the day I would hear Jacob singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.   

He was one very happy birthday boy! 

 Jacob also had a birthday party with his friends on his actual birthday. 

He had lots of fun and loved every minute of it.  

We started the party making pirate pictures with stickers. 

Perfect for a party of friends that ranged from 2-6 year olds

Other activities included: A balloon stomp where the kids had to attack (pop) the balloons to find a treasure inside (candy).

Digging for buried treasure: In the sand table in the garage the kids dug to find buried jewels. They each were able to collect several jewels along with some sand for their little sacks.  The jewels were so shiny that many of the kids thought they had struck it rich! 

Pin the Hook on Captain Hook & Walking the Plank 

were also lots of fun! 

                      Then it was cup cakes and ice cream! 

We ended the party with a treasure hunt through the house (due to the rain).  The kids had lots of fun looking high and low for clues.  In the end they finished by finding chocolate coin favors just in time for the party to be over.  

That evening Jacob got to pick a restaurant to celebrate with his family.  His first choice was McDonald's and his second choice was Red Robin (we went with his 2nd).  He sat across the table from Zeke and I and just seemed so much bigger all of the sudden.  He enjoyed being sung too and he especially enjoyed his free sundae.  He ate it slowly savoring every single bite, as if to realize that birthdays only come around once a year.  Happy Birthday Jacob!  We sure love you!