Sunday, May 1, 2011

Moving up in the World

Many of you that follow the blog have seen my almost weekly updates on Abby's gymnastics and swimming classes. This past week Abby moved up to an older class! There are far more kids in the class and Abby is pretty much the youngest. I was not sure how that would go, but she was great. There are two teachers--Sarah and Sunny and they each have half of the kids at a time on an activity and then they switch. I think Abby will really enjoy this class.
Abby climbing up the rock wall.
Abby's teacher telling her to 'finish' after she flipped over on the rings.
Abby holding a 'V' sit.
Walking on the beam.
Abby was the only one in her swim lesson, so she had a private lesson. The teacher was really good with her one on one.
Thursday I was asked to play the piano for the Bakersfield Women's Business Conference. It was quite the event! My friend, Stephanie Holladay is in charge of much of the conference and she asked if I would donate some time and play the piano. I played for about 5 hours and was able to attend the luncheon. It was an excellent lunch, although the speaker was quite interesting. Let's just say we share a few different views on things!
. It was interesting to watch people as they walked by. I don't think some people even heard the music. They were too busy deciding what booth to go to and get free things! Many other people stopped to listen and really seemed to enjoy the music. I played some of my Dad's songs a couple times and those always attracted people. Many asked what song I was playing! You're awesome Dad! The biggest crowd was for one of Jon Schmidt's songs, "The Dumb Song." It has some big glissando's that always attract attention! Thanks to our wonderful friends the Henrie's for playing with Abby during the day. She had so much fun she did not want to leave!
Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. The piano is set up on the right.
Aaarrrrgh!
Saturday our Bishop's son turned 4 and had a great pirate party. Abby loves pirates so she was more than happy to dress up and fight with a sword! We all had a lot of fun at the party.
Pirate Abby.
Abby and her friend Levi (his brothers take piano lessons, so he comes over every Thursday!)
Abby and the Bishop.
Cool cakes.
Grant the birthday boy with one of his cakes.
Trampoline
Speaking of moving up in the world. . . It looks as though we might actually be able to grow something! We have not had great luck in the past, but we are trying a raised garden. We planted strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, etc. Matt is afraid it will not get enough sun because of where we placed the garden. To our surprise I noticed something red in the garden this week. When I looked close. . . .a strawberry! Hooray! We have a strawberry!
And a baby green pepper.
Amazing!