Back from Break- Part 2

It was nice to read your comments and know that I haven't been completely forgotten after my hiatus! I'm still working on catching up with some of you, and hope to visit even more of you this week. But we're on the home stretch of full-time schooling for the year (even though we plan on doing it part time this summer) so blogging is still having to take a bit of a back seat for a bit longer.

Anyway, where did I leave off...Oh yes! The Musical!
After months of choir practices and rehearsals, the middle of May finally arrived...time for the big show at last!

Both of my girls were in the choir...

...but my oldest this year was apart of a choreographed dance team as well as having to do violin solo at the beginning!


Her daddy and I held our breath, but she did just wonderfully. We were so proud of her, not just for performing her best but for being so brave! (I still remember shaking at my piano recitals...)

The musical was entitled "Cool in the Furnace" which showed with music (and a little humor!) how God delivered Daniel's three friends from the fiery furnace after they refused to bow down to the king's idol.
My nine year old completely loved being apart of one of the two dance groups who periodically did numbers throughout the play!

(She's the is the one on the left.)
Everyone- from the director and choreographer- on down to each of the children- worked so hard and all for just one performance! But I think the final result was all worth it.

In other news, most recently our home school group got to be apart of the audience of a local television show last week. I don't have any pictures to share, but it was fun experience and we did, indeed, get our faces on TV! (But please...no autographs...) ;)

And on Memorial Day, our family escaped to the Oregon coast for a unbelievable warm and beautiful day!

The girls had such a great time frolicking in the waves and building sand castles. Or should I say, helping their daddy design and construct!

My youngest and I enjoyed making "sand turtles" too...

But the most interesting part was taking our lab to the beach for the very first time. Yes, she's been slowly growing out of her eternal adolescences these past few months, but seeing the sand and surf for the very first time made her revert back to a hyper, drooling mass of overgrown puppiness.
Well, it was the sand and surf plus being suddenly transported into what should have been clearly labeled as "dog beach".
It's true...we didn't do apart in her puppyhood about socializing her enough... and were way overdue taking her to the beach. But better late than never, right?

Some folks were letting their dogs off leash, so I followed suit and she was soon wanting to play tag with a dog even larger than herself.
But her lack of social skills were evident, which apparently brought out the aggressiveness in the other dog...and she came frantically whimpering back to me as if to say, "Put that leash thing back on me, pleeeeeeese!"

But later that day, I'm happy to report that she had a great time running free - actually zooming- on the beach and through the tide pools.
And as you can see by this last photo, she was completely tuckered out for her ride back home... Now, before I forget... For my 3 year blogaversary, I will be doing a little giveaway. I still don't have all the details on the item as of yet, but I hope to let you know both how to enter and what the giveaway is on my very next post! So stay tuned...

and Happy June!