Asian Celebration

Yujin Gakuen performed at the Asian Celebration last week. Only 5th, 2nd and K performed, so only Leilani and Elisabeth participated. I was surprised at how long it takes them to get the kids dressed in these fancy kimonos. They use rubber bands and ties in several different places to get them to look just right. Leilani had a picture of her getting dressed in the paper last Sunday too.

One of the Japanese interns had to show me how to do Elisabeth's headband. One of these days I will get the hang of all this. I only videoed the performance, and Dad hasn't taken it off his camera yet, so I don't have anything of the actually dancing and singing from the celebration. I did take some video clips from the rehersal at school. (they are definitely clips because my card kept filling up) They are not dressed in the Japanese attire, but they are doing the same dances and songs.

This is the towel dance. It is a little different.

This is the dance they do with fans

All of the singing videos were too big for blogger, but here is the Japanese chant song.
The kids made headbands with their names on them in Japanese. They decided to make Jackson (Mark's new baby) a headband with his name on it too, since he came and watched the girls perform.

Benjamin loved his, and didn't want to take it off all day. (Apparently I put it on upside down, though, so his name is upside down - who knew?!)

I think Jackson liked his too.

Valentine's Day

I had a really good Valentine's Day this year. It is not always that special, but this year my family made sure it was.
My kids made us breakfast in bed - complete with valentines. It was early in the morning (they were very excited), but hey, soggy cheerios are sweet any time of day or night! :)

Alan signed up to have the young women in the ward come seranade me with "our" song (Can You Feel the Love Tonight). They did a great job, and I was REALLY surprised when they started singing that song! When they were done singing, they gave me a box of truffles and a rose. It made me feel special. (Ironically, I was made Young Women's president the next day)

Alan gave me a dozen roses and took me out to lunch at Applebees. I gave him chocolate and watched a movie with him that he really wanted to see.

Benjamin wanted to be my Valentine too, so he gave me the presents that the Young Women left.

Daddy and his Valentines. It was a good day. Maybe Valentines should always be on Saturday...

Winter Tour of Crater Lake

My dad saw this article in the newspaper a few weeks back.

Who knew that Crater Lake had free ranger-guided snowshoe tours every weekend? They even provide the snowshoes. My dad called and reserved us a spot on Saturday, February 28. I am so excited to go! I think it will be beautiful. You have to be 8 years old to go, so we will have to figure out babysitting for the younger kids, but the rest of us are excited.

If you want the details, click on the picture of the newspaper article. It makes the article big enough to read. It gives the phone numbers and times. Basically the tour is about 90 minutes long and covers about a mile. Can you imagine how pretty the scenery and pictures will be?!

Gymnastics Season Has Officially Started

For the next three months I will be spending several Saturdays watching gymnastics meets. Leilani is on the Level 5 team for Gymnastics Northwest, and they had their first meet last Saturday. She didn't win anything, but she improved her scores a lot from last season (which was her first season at Level 5) This time she made personal bests on every event. (Her highest overall score last season was 29, and she already made 32.77 her first meet this season) She is having a lot of fun and with some fine tuning on her form, I think she has a chance of doing very well this season. We are very proud of her!



bars routine



beam routine



floor routine



vault