Is it Summer Break yet??
Three weeks into summer and its just starting to feel like summertime! May was extremely busy and created a lot of work for me with college, photography events, and thinking we were going to have to move!! Luckily, we didn’t end up having to move, and I have finally made a dent in my workload, but more about that later!
The last month of school
In the last month of school, we had A LOT going on. Sissy had her recital, Seam photography did two event shoots, I started college, and of course, my overachieving daughters had lots of awards and presentations. It was definitely an overwhelming month, but we all survived and came out on the other side, feeling like we are going to be able to accomplish all our goals.
My Cowardly Lion
We survived Recital weekend!!! Sissy did such an amazing job. Her studio did their rendition of the Wizard of Oz Called “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.” Back in the winter they held auditions, and Sissy tried out, and we were thrilled that she got the “mane part” of the Cowardly Lion. This movie was one of her sister’s favorites, so we all knew the story well and patiently waited to see how they depicted it!
It was PHMONMIAL!! It truly was the proudest moments of her whole dancing career. She put in a lot of hard work and hours of practice, and it paid off! She got to show off her lighthearted side, which she has NEVER done on stage before. This dance season had challenged her and helped her be a more confident young lady! Ever since she started working on this role, she has become more outspoken and has given more to her theatrical side. She had always loved to perform but this recital as really helped her become more comfortable in taking the spotlight.
As hectic as recital week was it took a lot of work to help her become the Lion. Around the beginning of the year, she had a day-long tryout for a leading role. (Because of the level of dance class, she is in she qualified for a lead role.) All the dancers spent hours learning parts of the choreography for each part and judges took notes. We are taking guesses as to the part we thought she would get, honestly because of her seriousness while dancing we all thought she’d be the perfect Tinman. A week later she got the big news- she will play the lion. After months of practices and a few weekend rehearsals, it was finally time to get the costume. Having a brown costume with her pink pointe shoes would stick out like a sore thumb, so we had to dye than to match. We did a lot of research on ways to do this, and we decided to try fabric dye. We rubbed it lightly on to the pointe shoes until they were the color we needed. Then she needed to make up to complete the look. As artistic I am, I could not have made Sissy look as good as the Amazing Savanna did! Savanna does all the make-up for my Seam Photography boudoir, fashion/glam session. She is the sweetest girl and always does a fantastic job!
Seam photography
Seam photography had the opportunity to photograph two events in May: A wedding and a dance recital. I am not an event photographer!! I don’t even like doing family sessions!! Anything more than one or two people makes me nervous! I am always so anxious, and I don’t like large groups of people, but when I got theses opportunity, I felt like I should give it my best effort.
As a momma of a dancer, I know how special it is to have pictures of your child performing, and I also know how hard it is to capture the moments while trying to enjoy their performance. It was a very long day, but the older girls and I tackled it together. Sissy worked the day as the accountant and La, and I took the photos of both the dress rehearsal and recital. We ended up taking thousands of pictures that day, and post editing some classes ended up with over 100 pictures. With my fibromyalgia, the day itself and trying to do a quick turnaround has been hard on me. Many days with migraines, I am swelling in my hands and knots in my back from spending long hours editing. It has been a learning process for sure. I’m glad I did it, but do not believe I will be up to doing it again!
The second event was a beautiful wedding. The day was unusually cold and rainy, which was challenging, and with my health issues I was very anxious I wouldn’t be able to push through it, but I did, and I’m very proud of how these pictures are turning out! Hopefully, I will have them completed by the end of next week.
8th Grade Dance
On the same day as the recital shoot, Sissy had her 8th grade dance!! She worked with me the first half of the day then I ran her back home and got her ready then went back to the shoot! It was such a hectic day but seeing her all dressed up for the dance made it all worth it. Since I was working her dad dropped her off. Luckily I was able to pick her up that night and hear about how much fun she had!
Awards Day and 5th-grade graduation
My girls did very good in school this year, and they all received awards such as band, science, language arts, presidential awards, but there is one that I want to really talk about- The Mrs. Hubbard Technology Award. Lee received this award during her 5th-grade graduation. This Award is only given to one 5th grader each year! It was so humbling to hear her teacher such wonderful things about her! I'm so incredibly proud of her! This award is extra special because it was given to La 3 years ago, and that was the first year that it was received. This award was created in honor Mrs. Hubbard, a teacher that passed away during that year. Mrs. Hubbard was a dedicated and hard-working teacher that always put the needs of others first, and the recipients of this award have characteristics that she posed. I’m so very proud of all my girls’ academic accomplishments, but I’m even more proud they are good people that take care of the people around them. I am also proud that they received acknowledgment for this because it isn’t always easy to be a good person, especially in 5th grade!
Looking ahead
Next week I will blog about the amazing Father my husband is, about Lee’s 11th birthday and maybe talk about going back to college. I am also going to try my best to post another blog about the jewelry we made for the cast of Sissy’s recital. It's going to be pretty cool, so I hope everyone will check it at and be a part of our crazy!