Girls Weekend

While the boys were away Memorial Day weekend, Samantha and I had a girls weekend together. 

We rode our bikes to lunch. 

Had fancy drinks. 

Yummy clam chowder from Brophy's. 

Then rode bikes ALL THE WAY to the Mission for the Italian Street Painting Festival, i Madonnari. 

The very talented Meredith was painting again. 

Next stop on our bike ride, pedicures! 

Tennis shoes and a pedicure don't mix. Sam was excited for her new flip flops. 

Treats at See's Candy.

Biking home in her fancy shoes. 

Sam was trooper riding over 10 miles that day and uphill to the Mission. 

Slumber party!

The next day Lollipop joined us out for some exercise. 

Then that evening we headed our for dinner and a movie. 

A stop at the Public Market. 

More fancy drinks at The Benchmark.

Fancy glasses.

And an enormous order of churros. 

With her flamenco teacher, Ms. Cari, at the Polka Dot Alley flamenco movie. 

We had already seen the first movie in the trilogy and were excited to watch the last two. Look how little Sofia is! 

A late night bite at Olio Pizzeria in between shows. 

The one and only, Mrs. Linda Vega! 

Saying goodnight to Daddy and Thatcher and excited to meet up with them the next day! 

First Grade Play

Samantha's class had their play performance a few weeks ago. 

Samantha was picked to be "Narrator #2"  

Because the three Narrators had so many lines, they weren't required to memorize them. Of course, my Narrator memorized hers as well as what seemed to be everyone else's parts which proved a little confusing for her on the actual play day. There was some nudging between the three Narrators during the play as to whose turn it was and what line came next. 

We had our buddy Jack with us this particular day and Samantha so kindly wrote Jack up a schedule of the days events to which Jack read perfectly and agreed it would be a good day. 

Cinnamon rolls, check! 

Class play, check! 

If you didn't hear enough of Sam reciting the play, here's more. I edited it to pretty much just hear Sam so the play makes no sense at all. There's a cute song at the end though. ;)

Lunch, check! 

Ice cream sundae party, check! 

I think we went back and forth to Sam's school four times that day. The boys were troopers and even accompanied me to get some work done at a coffee shop since our internet was out. Sarah and I have these boys pretty well trained on their playdates aka "running errands with mom" ;) 

Spring 1st Grade Dance Performance

I don't really know how to describe the dance performances that the kids put on each quarter at Peabody. They are interesting. I'll focus on the part that the kids have a lot of fun and leave it at that. 

The dance party afterward is always fun to watch! 

Last dance performance as 1st graders!

Samantha's First Piano Recital

About mid-April, Gus began to teach Samantha a third performance song. Mind you, she hadn't performed at her school talent show yet the previous two songs he taught her. So, she was getting confused mixing the new song with the older songs. When he said that she would be performing in his studio's piano recital in a month, I was a little concerned about the new song. I could tell Gus was too. He flip flopped and decided she should play the second talent show song she had learned but Samantha was getting frustrated still mixing up the songs. So, it was sink or swim. We added in an extra lesson and she promised Gus she would practice, practice and practice some more. 

Here's the progression from the start to about fifteen minutes before her recital. 

Prior to the recital, I took her shopping for a new recital outfit. 

We bought a few choices.

And this was her pick!

This is her, "stop taking pictures and stop making me practice" look. 

Excited for the show at SoHo!

Lots of friends including Reesie take lessons from Gus too. 

Both waiting for their names to be called on stage. Samantha said she wasn't nervous. She told me it was a lot scarier performing at the school talent show. Maybe this was old news now that she had performed piano on stage before? Who knows? 

This looks like it may have been after they both performed. Both looking a little more relieved and relaxed that it was over. 

Here's Samantha's performance. I'm not sure if the audience could tell but she played the entire piece an octave higher than she was supposed to. There was a point in the song where she paused and I could tell she realized it but the show must go on! 

Sofia closed the show with her rock band group. 

Proud mom Cami videotaping. 

Here's a little clip of Sofia singing with her band as well as a group of siblings that played after that were really talented. 

Great job done by all three!

Future band perhaps?

How did they go from this? 

To this?!

And thank you, Sarah, for doing your best trying to get a decent family photo.

I'll end with a clip of Gus. Samantha always asks him to play for her and this is a little piece he belted out for her at practice one day. Not bad.