March

We kicked off the month with the Music Festival. The girls have worked so hard to prepare, this really has been their big focus in piano lessons for months now. They each entered in all nine categories, making them eligible for a master musician award. In January they finished their compositions and sent them in. And then during the festival, they each performed and were adjudicated on theory, sight-reading, technique, Baroque/classical, romantic/contemporary, jazz, duet and accompaniment. They did half of their entries on Friday, all getting to go around the same time and support each other. And then on Saturday, L competed early in the morning while the other two were scheduled for the late afternoon. I was so proud of my girls. They were very polished and confident, always volunteering to go first and performed very well. Later that afternoon we got a call that L have been chosen to perform in the best of Festival concert that evening. She played beautifully in the concert, following it with a very graceful curtsey (I'm really sad I cut the video before her bow actually, so classy and elegant!) Over 300 students competed in the festival, about 50 of them are chosen to preform in best of Festival. And then at the end of the concert all three girls were invited to the stage to be recognized as a master musician, meaning they had received excellent marks and all nine categories and will receive a composer bust statue. I am so crazy proud of these kids!

Week 2 was spent preparing for surgery. Husband ended up needing to be out of town that week, so my dad drove down the night before and spend the evening helping me run kids around and get the house in order. He took me to the hospital and then played with the kids all day. He got me settled in at home and handed me off to my mom (he had to go home and back to work the next morning). So then mom got to witness the super exciting initial recovery including the nerve block wearing off and finding out I'm allergic to Percocet. That was super fun. Luckily husband came home the next day and got to help her juggle a very busy weekend.

On Friday night A had her opening night performance. She is participating in a Community Theatre group and they performed a show called how to eat like a child. At the same time, L and E performed with their dance teams at the high school drill team's end of year review. The drill team is fantastic and uses local dance studios to fill in more numbers in between. The turnout is huge and it's always a fantastic show.

On Saturday A had two more performances so we took the whole family to support her. It broke my heart to have missed the first two shows, so I made sure I was there for the final performance. A was adorable. She's so animated and has such a fun, spunky personality. She didn't have very many lines but performed with the Ensemble and lots of fun numbers.

The third weekend in March took us to another dance competition. I was a week and a half out of surgery by then so feeling better but not very confident yet. Luckily grammy got to come to everything and we had a blast. The girls performed well, even better than their first competition and took first place in every entry. Their studio really is phenomenal. The studio has very high expectations and requires a lot of time and commitment from the girls. But it when it comes to performing, it really shows! They are so classy and well prepared. I have no doubt that they are the best for technique and choreography and I'm so grateful my girls are getting the opportunity to attend there. They performed all of their team numbers, but due to the scheduling issue L wasn't able to do her duet that weekend.

So instead she was given the opportunity to do it the following weekend! However that weekend was the annual ladies runaway that I have with my mom and sisters every year. We usually attend the Scrapbook Expo, but this year it fell on a weekend when we weren't able to go. So instead we picked a hotel and created our own Expo weekend. We arrived Thursday night in time for dinner and some shopping. We spent most of Friday doing digital scrapbooking in our hotel and going out for a nice dinner. And then Saturday we went out for pedicures and lunch before returning home to our families. We spent our time talking and lounging, snacking on treats and catching up with each other. It's so much fun and I love being with these fantastic ladies. As an added bonus, Grammy and I slipped away on Friday night to attend the dance competition. It was actually only about a mile from our hotel. L got a ride down with her best friend and we met her there to help her get ready and watch her dance. I realized I was overdoing it a bit so we didn't stay long, and I headed back to the hotel while the girls stayed for the awards ceremony. They ended up taking first-place! And they were thrilled to find out that their recognition included a delicate little tiara! She even wore it to church the next day and to school on her birthday.

St Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday. The girls had spent Friday night at a birthday party for L's best friend. They got to swim at the pool & L made adorable mermaid cupcakes for it. Once they got home we had to set a trap for the leprechaun. The leprechaun managed to sneak out of there Trap by stacking his gold coins to use as a ladder. So the girls were pretty excited about the gold coins but obviously disappointed they didn't catch the leprechaun. They even made sure Z he got a turn discovering the gold coins. Then our celebrations were put on hold until Sunday when Grandpa and Auntie Lu came to join! Grandma always made a st. Patrick's Day dinner complete with corned beef and cabbage, I have kept this tradition since she passed away but obviously wasn't feeling up to it this year. So Lu settled in and made a wonderful dinner for everyone, even thoughtfully making me a steak because she knows I secretly don't like corned beef. I'm pretty sure we played and watched a movie and such after, but I was pretty drugged and uncomfortable from over doing it for the past few days.

We had another chance to celebrate our dancers in March at the company showcase. All of the team routines were performed at the local high school so that family and friends could come watch. This time we got a seat right in front E and I was able to focus just on her during the big mini production routine. Previously I had been on the other side and hadn't seen her as clearly. I'm so glad I get to see it multiple times because I love it so much every time! A sat between me and Daddy and I think she had a great time watching her sisters and cheering on the older dancers. Z spent most of the time crawling around on the floor and making noise, every once in awhile a certain dance would catch his attention and he would stare and applaud enthusiastically. And then when his sisters appeared on stage he would squeal their name and cheer them on. Even Grandpa was able to come and watch them dance! After the show we returned to our house for ice cream sundaes!

March also included a couple of fun things like starting work on the basement! We are going to finish the basement with two more bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big TV room. It might take some time but we're excited to be starting. We had check-ups for L and Z, reporting both of them to be in great health and crazy tall. We attended SSPs, or parent-teacher conferences, for each of the girls. Their teachers reported that all of them are academically doing very well. They're all getting excited for the end of the year to come and we set some goals to keep their behavior on track. But overall I'm so proud of these kids! I did as many cakes as I could before surgery, and I'm putting the money towards a good house cleaning when I'm out of commission! And other than that there has been lots of cuddles, books, movie nights and play dates with friends. I'm especially for Grammy who has come down nearly every weekend to help husband juggle taking care of our kids and catching up on the house. And so grateful to my best friend who fortunately lives only a block away and adores my son because she came nearly every day to help take care of him while husband was working. And very very grateful for my very compassionate and sweet husband and all he does for us. At my post surgery check-up, almost 3 weeks after surgery, the doctor was pleased with its progress so far. The x-rays look great, everything seems to be settling into place correctly. Unfortunately I have no range of motion at all and am very worried about that atrophy in my wrist and hand. Looking forward to my next check up and getting the green light for physical therapy.

Next up: spring break!