Oh my gosh! Carlie's 12th birthday seemed to take FOREVER to come this year--at least she thought so. She is the LAST Beehive to enter Young Women's this year. She did get to go to girl's camp despite her STILL being 11:) This past Sunday, Father's Day, she was especially moody with me because BOTH the Primary and the Young Women did a special musical number for the dads. I had no idea that this was happening until I looked at the program. Well, Father's Day was June 17th and her birthday was not officially until Wednesday, June 20th. So I told her, "Carlie...you WILL sing with the Primary AND you WILL sing with the Young Women and you WILL be HAPPY about it!" So she rolled her eyes constantly during the primary song and I'm supposing she sang beautifully during the young women #--but I'm not sure because I was playing the piano so please let me know if I am supposing wrong:)
All good. She made it. She had a FANTASTIC slumber party on Tuesday this week--this was the ONLY night that she did not have rehearsals this week so we jumped on it. Despite still not being caught up on sleep from girl's camp, I braved a 12 year old slumber party:) We had an interesting mix of girls this year. She had a group of theater friends, a group of school friends, and a couple of church friends and they all got along fantastically--no small feat:)
So they did LOTS of swimming:
And EATING:
Cake:
LOVE LOVE Maddie's face in this pic:)
And YES!!! She FINALLY got her own cell phone--she will tell you that she is the LAST one in her grade to get one:) (I missed the SUPER excited face--DANG it!!!)
And this is what happens when you have a couple theater divas who will NOT be out-sung by one another:) Good times--AMAZINGLY talented girls:) Just REALLY REALLY loud:)
And my personal favorite Wicked song:
Well, my baby is 12 now. She is growing up WAY too fast for me:( I remember having a small spaz attack when she was old enough to go to Primary from Nursery. Well now I'm having a slightly larger spaz attack with her entering Young Women's. What to do? I am so proud of this girl. She is so amazing and talented and I thank the Lord EVERY day for her in my life. I love you Carlie Mae! And I will love all the sassiness you bring my way these next coming years:)
Well...I DID IT!!! And I survived:) I still don't like to camp--no offense to those who do:) But I sure had a ton of fun with the girls. I was SOO lucky to have been their camp director this year.
Here are the beautiful girls right before loading up and heading out:
Funny story: we had received directions to camp from a good friend. I loved her directions because they were "woman" directions--like "turn left at Walmart"--instead of my husband's "man" directions like "head north." Well, her directions included a funny little, "Don't pull over at the topless bar:)" Well, we were making great time heading to camp when I get a phone call from one of the other vehicles telling me that there was a carsick girl. Since I was in the lead I said I would pull over at the next possible place. Well, that just happened to be the "Topless Cabaret." WHO KNEW RIGHT?!?! Well of course the leaders were all laughing--the girls had NO clue what the place was but we had 5 girls that all of the sudden needed to use the bathroom. "NOOOOO!!!" We were almost to Payson so they would just have to HOLD IT:)
Here are the cuties setting up camp:
Camp was full of fantastic classes and lots of fun things to do.
I seemed to have stayed mostly with the first-years. I was glad to because I got to be with my beautiful Carlie. Another camp leader--Marla--had a 2nd and 3rd year daughter so she mostly stayed with them. So it all worked out wonderfully.
Here are the first years on their hike. As this was their first time, they were asked to carry a paver which represented a "burden." They carried this throughout the entire hike and then were asked to write their names on the front of the paver and any "burdens" on the back of the paver that they were going to leave behind. Our stake has been doing this for a couple of years and they have a nice little pathway being built by the pavers.
Here are the 1st years on the ZIP LINE!!!
The first years also had to go through an "initiation" in which they were progressively taught a cute little dance by the YCLs. Their "costumes" were also added on to daily. Here is the final performance--our girls ended up front and center!
And here the first-years are with all of their initiation gear (notice the "bling" on their fingers?)
One of my most favorite things of camp was the 3rd year service project. Amber and I were able to go with the girls over to a ranch to help out a non-member family with several projects. It was HARD physical labor--filling in pot holes, washing windows, piling tree branches. The girls had a great time.
This is cute little Hayley May making cookies:) This amazing girl has had a rough year to say the least--both of her feet reconstructed. So she was on cookie duty during the service project--and we sure did enjoy eating her cookies:)
The last night was ooh so much fun as our Bishopric came up to join the girls at camp. I was amazed at their willingness to be such good sports. All of the Bishoprics from our stake were asked to dress up and dance! It was kind of fun to see our amazing spiritual leaders show a different side to them. Needless to say, the girls LOVED IT!
Well, it was sure A TON of hard work but TOTALLY and COMPLETELY worth it in the end. I would most definitely do it all again in a heartbeat:) I wanted to post our skit one more time as I absolutely loved doing this project and it just sums up all of my feelings. I LOVE THESE GIRLS! They really do SHINE in my eyes:)
We headed out to San Diego on Saturday, June 2nd. We met up with Chris' best friend, Marco V., and his family and just had the BEST time:)
Marco, Linsey, Jovi, & Ruby
Chris and Marco met in the 7th grade in Albuquerque, NM. Marco only lived in NM for 2 years but they have always kept in contact. Marco moved to Kauai where he stayed until he graduated from high school. Chris spent 2 summers with him in Kauai. Chris actually performed Marco's wedding ceremony--well...Marco wanted Chris to perform it but since Chris did not have a clergy license, he just did the talking. Marco had a 16 year old cousin who got his clergy license online so the cousin was the "official" signature. Kinda funny story:)
Anyways, Marco and his family live in Seattle, WA. We hadn't seen them in over 4 years. So when we found out that they would be in San Diego for a medical conference (Marco is a Naturopathic Dr) we jumped at the chance to drive out and see them. He and his wife, Lindsey, have 2 little girls--Jovi who is Max's age (7) and Ruby who is 3. We spent all of our time together at the beach. Chris and Marco love to BBQ so we had GREAT food too:)
Marco and Lindsey are just so easy and fun to hang out with. The kids had the BEST time just playing in the sand all day.
Ain't she CUTE?!
Carlie & Ruby
I lost count at how many times Max was buried! It was definitely the favorite activity:)
Max & Jovi
Beach Bums:)
Ethan would only let his legs be buried:)
Okay...so this is a traditional picture that Marco and Chris take EVERY time they are together. I need to go round up my other pics like this and scan them into my computer for laughs. Silly boys:)
So our ward decided to host our own "Boy Scout Day Camp" this year and it turned out GREAT! In the past our ward has had the boys go out to the Scout Pueblo--great camp but my son actually HATED it mostly because they kept the boys out super late (like 11:30 pm) and Ethan is an early to bed early to rise kid:) So I was thrilled to be having a camp on "his" schedule:)
I am still one of the Bear Den leaders and so I volunteered to teach one of the stations--knots. I also volunteered my hubby to teach campfire safety.
The boys had a lot of water time and just plain fun time. It seems that so often we are so scheduled and focused on earning badges/belt loops, etc...(which is all good)--that there is never enough downtime for the boys to just HAVE FUN. So what I enjoyed the most was watching the boys just play together:)
I was only able to be at the first day of camp as we left on the 2nd day. But apparently the 2nd day went just as well.
I have to admit that I wasn't 100% excited about being called into Scouts. But as I have just finished my first year in scouts, I can honestly say that I love it. It could be because my second calling--Girl's Camp director--has been kicking my butt! There's is just SOOOO much less drama with 10 year old boys than there is with 12-18 year old girls! I LOVE BOY SCOUTS!!!
Whew...I'm a little behind here. Drowning in Girl's Camp stuff but taking a moment to update my blog:)
My baby has graduated from Packer Preschool!!! My last one:( All 4 of my kids have gone through the Packer Preschool program and we have LOVED LOVED LOVED it! I have pretty much had a kid in Mrs. Packer's every year now for 9 years (I think there was 1 year off between my boys:) Either way, we are sure gonna miss Mrs. Packer. No matter how many times I've heard the songs, I love them every time. This one is my personal favorite called "When I Grow Up." (I was super sick on graduation night so I left the video recording to Carlie--little bumpy but she did pretty darn good:)
Here's the graduate:
And her BFFs: Natalie & Chloe (Thanks Danika for taking this pic:)
Holy cow! This year for girl's camp instead of performing skits AT camp, the camp leaders asked that we video-tape a skit beforehand to watch while at camp. We were all assigned a specific song--having to do with "light" which is this year's theme at camp.
So over the course of 2 weeks at mutual, we recorded about 3 hours worth of video that I had to edit down to 3 minutes and 44 seconds and set it to our assigned song. The "idea" of our video was to have the girl's participate in "Flash Service Mobs." Great idea right?! Wish I could take credit for that one:) Thank goodness for wonderful and creative YW leaders:) However...I can take some credit for this video:) But the REAL genius behind the editing would be my WONDERFUL SUPER-GENIUS husband!!! Thanks babe...you make me look GOOD:)
As stressful as it was to put this together, it sure turned out FANTASTIC! We have the MOST beautiful young women in our ward!!! Just LOVE these girlies!!!
Whew! I know I say this every year, "MAY KICKS MY BUTT!!!" Well, I am through the worst of it at this point! YAHOO!!! Here's a small glimpse of what my family has been up to:
The first thing that is taking up most of my time is our ward's Girl's Camp coming up June 12-16th. I made the mistake of saying out loud to my husband, "It would be kinda fun to see Carlie at her first year of girl's camp." Well...they called ME as our ward camp director shortly thereafter--NOT really what I meant! I just wanted to be a fly on a tent or something. Soo...it has been an adventure to say the least as I try to make a small miracle happen--because girl's camp is COMPLICATED!!! I know my husband just took the 11 year old scouts on a camp out this past weekend. He picked the days at the beginning of May, they met this past Tuesday to buy the groceries, and then they just WENT camping!!! How does THAT happen??? Why am I loosing sleep over T-shirt designs, PJ pants, crafts, skits, etc??? It will all come together and be FUN and AMAZING--right???
This CUTIE PATOOTIE has her birthday on September 29th. In Chandler you have to turn 5 by September 1st to be allowed into Kindergarten. I have had many many many mixed emotions on whether to have Tatum tested for early entrance. At the beginning of the year, she was still napping everyday. But all of the sudden, this girl has blossomed and turned into this little learning sponge. When she began reading full on Kindergarten/1st grade books in March, I decided I would have her tested. Well...she PASSED and will be starting Kindergarten at CTA-Independence July 23rd. She is SUPER excited. I already told Chris that he would be taking that day off from work because it will probably be one of MY worst days ever!!!
Carlie had her spring band concert a couple weeks ago--failing to mention that she and Taylor were playing a duet! My video camera was filled up with girl's camp stuff so we recorded the duet on Chris' phone--gotta love these phones that do EVERYTHING! I'm still in the stone age with my lame
Blackberry phone:)
And of course PIANO PIANO PIANO! I had 17 students participate in Achievement Day on Saturday, May 12th. They all PASSED! Yahoo!!! It's nice to know that my students are all up to par with all the other students throughout the valley:) It's a strenuous day as each student has to perform 3 memorized songs, multiple octave scales (according to their level), an ear training test, sight-reading, and composer reports. Every year for this event I am asked to be an Evaluator for performing students. It's actually one of my most favorite things to do. I really enjoy listening to polished pieces and giving constructive/positive comments and suggestions--I had to fail a student this year--HATED doing that:( But it was necessary.
And then of course this weekend was my marathon of piano recitals. 4 recitals back to back at my home. I like to keep the recitals short and sweet--no longer than 45 minutes--and so 4 recitals breaks them up just right. Soo proud of ALL my students and especially proud of my kiddos. I always record my kids after the recitals because I forget during the recital--too much to think about:) (ONE of these days, my boys are going to slow down and play beautiful music with no mistakes but for now apparently their motto is "faster is better"--FRUSTRATING but I love them to pieces anyways:)
This is the Meeker family residing in beautiful, sunny Chandler, AZ. Chris and I have 4 beautiful kids: Carlie (23), Ethan (21), Maxwell (18), and Tatum (16). Thanks for stopping by:)
