Mrs. Covington was the choir teacher for many years at our school. It was sad when she decided to retire, but she pulled out all her favorite songs for the end of year concert. The kids learned choreography and music and they changed costumes and there were lots of fun solos.
As usual, you only get one video. It was my favorite song mix. Most of the numbers were multiple songs that blended into one big number. The western mix was really fun. I like Ivory's outfit. (She is wearing my shirt.)
The Disney mix was my favorite and therefore the video you get. Also, I like all the blue shirts they were wearing.
There was a 70s mix that was really good. Ivory was mostly a background singer for that, but they look like they are having fun back there.
The whole choir sang Come Thou Fount which is a favorite of mine (and apparently Mrs. Covington's as well).
The final song was Amazing Grace accompanied by bagpipes. Do you see Brock playing? He is Ivory's friend who went on to Nationals in NHD with his bagpipe playing and performance on Scottish History.
And finally the big goodbye to Mrs. C. She was joined by Mrs. Taylor (band) and Mrs. Tippetts (orchestra). We have a great music program at our school and I'm so grateful to all these super ladies and the love of music they have given to many children, including mine.
Hope of America comes up for us every other year. You may remember posts from 2017, 2015, and 2014. Oops, see I lied. I forgot that Robyn and June are only a year apart in school. Well, you get the idea. Almost every other year.
We have the drill down pretty well. I know what to expect and yet I still missed getting over to Daisy to take pictures before. I think it was because we didn't go early. Instead, we came just before and Daisy ran inside and I found parking. Tyler came later, but we all got there.
Also, Daisy was on the floor. She technically wasn't part of the flag, but there are really cool things about being on the floor. The kids got to be more involved in some ways. You'll see. First up, remember any of these groups from previous years? There is the senior ladies dance group. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to look up their name.)
BYU often sends one of their groups.
The Green Man group is always a must. They taught everyone to do the Orange Justice. (I didn't know that was a dance.)
They also had a number where they wore glow wigs. You can't see it well, but here is the drummer sporting his wig. (Hmmm, I guess they are all drummers. Duh.)
There was also a group that did a Lion King dance. This is the worst picture but can you see Zazu? The others are lions...or blobs of pixels.
One more from the old ladies. This is a traditional costume. I think they've used it every year.
We are more than ready for the kids. Bring 'em out! This is Daisy's spot. I often try to find the guy in front and go back one person. Or I find the girl with braids and go back on a diagonal.
Okay, now see if you can find her.
The flag picture is always a big deal. I had to walk down the stairs to get a closer shot. They look pretty good.
I tried to get one more close up while I was down there. It wasn't the best. However, my neighbor's son happened to be standing by Daisy so she took a couple shots for me. Now you can see the smile a little closer.
We were sitting pretty high up. From here you can see why I went down to get a picture. The flag is blocked by an obstacle.
I got a couple tiger tails. We split them because they were so big.
And we brought the binoculars. Here is Pearl checking it out. This is probably what she sees.
Here are some fun poses from the kids. And the song This is America! The great thing is that all the older kids know the songs from when they performed, so they like to sing along. In the video, you can see some of them singing and doing the actions.
There was a really cool part where they got a huge flag and had the kids on the floor extend and hold it. It is part of some project called 'Follow the Flag'. Not exactly sure what it was all about, but the huge flag was cool.
Here is another video. Daisy was also next to Henry, her good friend. Sometimes it is easier to spot her next to a redhead. America rocks! I like the sunglasses.
But my favorite is still the last one with the flashlights. Apparently it is called, We Can Be a Light. (Maybe, the girls weren't sure.)
Then we actually got to our car and left in record time with no traffic. The Statue of Liberty must have been smiling on us that evening. Daisy did a great job. Now, just one more (two years from now).
Even as Summer was slipping away from us, we were partying to the very end. It helps that we have our own holiday in August, but we wouldn't need it to stay busy. This was also our last week of the art themes and it ended up being my favorite theme. All the entries were tremendous. But hold on...art show stuff is at the end of the week. We still have a lot of other stuff to cover.
I can't remember exactly, but I think this was the week we almost gave Nova away. She was really having trouble with getting house trained and I was worried about what we would do with her once school started. So we put her on KSL. We had one family that was interested, but they decided not to take her. By the time another person asked about her, we had decided to keep her after all. She really is a very sweet dog. She still barks whenever someone comes to the door and she still chases off all other dogs who come near our property, but she also fetches and plays like a champ and she loves to cuddle.
Although Robyn's big band camp week was over, she still had post band camp stuff going on. One day the Pit did a photo shoot and dressed in period costumes. Robyn took some selfies in her attire. I can't wait to see what they use all the pictures for.
Speaking of photo shoots, Robyn dressed Pearl up, dying her hair and painting her face and then she took lots of pictures of her. Lots. Here is an example of her google photos.
I think there were around 80 pictures taken. I wasn't around for any of it. I was very impressed with the outcome. When I came home I found Pearl with red hair and face paint. It looked pretty cool.
Some of the week was spent getting ready for Fete day. The color this year was Neon and we went to Saver's to pick up some last minute bright colors. We also made sure we had our gifts. Check out these adorable rocks June painted for Hannah. (Yes, she just happened to randomly draw her best friend for Fete day.)
Sadly, we also did some school shopping which makes the beginning of school and the end of summer much more real. Thanks for reminding us for a month and a half before, Wal-mart.
We managed to watch our movie, The Neverending Story, but our treat was a little slow in the making. I didn't get around to it until Friday night. And then it needed time to chill, it being a cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake, but a chocolate swirl cheesecake. The base was chocolate graham cracker.
And then of course, lots of cream cheese. Blend it right up. Daisy did a lot of our beating. Great job! She's a whiz in the kitchen.
I forgot to get a picture when we swirled it, but I got one when it came out of the oven. Looks mighty tasty.
The slow timing ending up being perfect. The cheesecake would be ready right in time for Fete Day. And when Curtis brought over a huge box of Crumble Cookies, I decided for the first time that I would NOT make ice cream cake and we would eat the desserts we had on hand. It was a break from tradition, but an okay one.
For Fete day this year, I tried a new activity. We did a puzzle dash. What is that, you say? Well, get three puzzles and put them on three different tables. From here, you can see the three tables in the different rooms.
Then divide up your Fete day people onto teams. Here we have the pink team: Robyn, Esther, Allie, Jared, Rachel, and James.
Next the green team: Logan, Denise, Jana, Ivory, Tyler, and Bethany.
And the yellow team, which happened to have no adults: Hannah, June, Rachel, Anna, Pearl, and Daisy.
Our puzzles were bright, almost neon puzzles (to go with the theme). Each team had about five minutes to work on the puzzle at their table. It is always hard to get going. Look for the edge pieces and the corners.
After the five minutes, each team had to rotate to the next puzzle. I'm sure it was hard to keep switching their brains to a different pattern, but all the teams did great.
One puzzle was just colored blocks. It looked like it should be easy, but it turned out to be the worst. Organizing by color was helpful but not perfect.
The door puzzle came together quickly.
And the lion was in between. Are those eyes different colors??
One of the rules was that you couldn't take pieces out. But there was no rule about flipping them over. When the timer got close, the pink team flipped over as many as possible to slow down the yellow team.
But it didn't matter. They finished the doors. It looks great. Way to go girls. Who needs adults?
The pink team finished the lion next. Nicely done!
Which left that blasted block one. So tricky. Everyone pitched in to help finish it.
Good job green team (and helpers).
Time for cheesecake.
And then gifts. It was really fun to exchange neon presents. People were pretty clever with their ideas.
How did I not notice that these two were opposites of each other?
I took a selfie later to prove that I made it to Fete day. I had chosen to take pictures since we had one extra person. And it worked out nicely.
It was a fantastic Fete Day and we are so happy the Mason's and Keen's could share it with us.
The week ended with our last mini art show of the summer. The theme? Volcanoes! (That is Ivory's little volcano there.)
This was our biggest show yet. The Hulse's (who judged last week) came and submitted several pieces of art. It was so great to have extra creativity in the house. Henry did an awesome video. Check it out.
Daisy did a experiment display of her own. Great minds think alike.
Robyn also did a video. It was a spoof on one of our favorite videos.
If you didn't understand that, check out the original here. Skip forward to a minute in. (I am a terrible person. I laugh every time.)
Now for some other art pieces. Here is Ivory's Blown Away. She used a stray to blow the paint out.
Daisy did this volcano. The smoke seems very genuine.
I really like the bubbles in Pearl's volcano. I feel like they are going to burst any second.
June worked on her project for a couple weeks AND taught herself how to quill. I think it turned out amazing.
Recognize these photos? This is called Awakening.
June was inspired by the song Pompeii by Bastille for this next piece.
Maggie did this awesome Narwhale Rainbow Explosion.
I love the pineapple coconut, 'Tropical Explosion' by Jane.
Robyn worked hard on her pixel volcano and didn't quite finish it, but you can hardly tell.
I did a scratch board underwater volcano. I really like the jellyfish.
Maggie did this camel which was one of my favorites. What a great idea. Jonny helped her title it, "My Hump Runneth Over"
Jane also did this Lava Sunset. Great idea.
I worked really hard on this paper Hawaii Sunset. I think it turned out very well. Check closely. The red is all connected.
Phew. That is a lot of art for one show. Kendra was so kind to come judge for us. I know it is a lot of pressure. It ended up sliding in Robyn's favor this time around. (Three out of four categories. Judge's favorite was her video if you can't tell.)
Can you believe that we did 10 weeks of art and 10 mini art shows? Now we just need to have the big final art show. We need to share all these great pieces from the summer...
