Kyndals Birthday

Kyndal had a great 9th birthday.  It was a crazy week with the girls having 4 performances, primary things and Kyndal having 2 birthday parties but we managed to pull it all off.  Her friend birthday was pretty low-key, with a couple of friends joining us to go swimming at our local pool.  We came back for cake and just had a nice time.

Here is (starting at left): Eileen (a friend from a homeschool class), Kayla and Kyndal, Marina (from her primary class) and Elliette.

We also had a family party with the cousins and grandparents.  It was a fun evening as well.

Kyndal was quite particular about her cake this year.  She went through my cookbooks and found  the one that she wanted.  It was like this chocolate cake but with peppermint mousse, chocolate peppermint ganache and topped with candy canes.  It was delicious.

 We did have one really funny part of this family, birthday night.  There was a present that we wanted to share with everyone.  We were trying to have someone notice the elephants.  We talked about the elephants, Paul took a picture of the elephants and showed it around, he had Kayla count the elephants but it wasn't until he said `Gladys, could you please count the elephants` that the message was understood.  There are 5 little baby elephants there.  Then they understood the gift, another little Gainor coming in July.  It was funny as Paul and I worked so hard to try and draw attention to it.  Paul had told Grandpa to count the elephants at the beginning of the evening, and so he was trying to hint at it as well.

The kids were then so excited, especially Kyndal to find out on her birthday, and they kept phoning everyone and telling them that they were a doctor and that we were having quadruplets (or any number they could think of).  It was a fun night to share together.

Performances

These girls had a great time this semester participating in a Show Choir, called North of Broadway.  They enjoyed the time they spent learning their songs and enjoyed the performance even more.  They had a great theme this year that was called `Rise above it`.  It was dedicated to flood victims and had many songs about overcoming adversity and finding ways to be happy.  They were also able to participate in an extra show that was put on for free for anyone affected by the flooding in our area this past summer.  It was a great way for the kids to feel like they could give something back and was a great experience.

 They especially loved getting to wear their 'stage make-up'.  Here they are on their way to their performance.

Elliette really wanted to be in show choir but we almost didn't put her into it.  She has had some real stage fright in the past, even not speaking in small groups of people we know fairly well.  I was concerned about her spending all of the time preparing and then not performing but I realized there would be a lot of growth along the way and that it is not all about the performance.  

Well Elliette sure showed us wrong.  She was prepared and confident at all of the performances.  She was even the only one in the whole group that had a little Solo part!!  Here she is as part of her 'Broadway Babies' group, singing Castle on a Cloud.  This is even her solo part where she sings 'Cosette, I love you very much!'.  It was really cute and she did very well!  She would say after that her stage fright has been cured!  So funny!

Kyndal and Kayla had a great time doing this together.  They enjoyed singing 'A Spoonful of Sugar', 'Come so Far, Got so Far to go', (from Hairspray) and 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough'.  They did a lot of numbers together with a bigger group.  They did a great job!

The girls loved having bigger kids be their buddies.  They met some really nice kids and love to make friends.  I am constantly amazed at my kids being so overly friendly at times.  They very quickly make friends wherever they go.  When I would pick them up after their performances were done, Elliette was usually in someone arms.  She is so small for her age, so people want to pick her up (as well as she tends to climb up people, or anything that she can climb.)  People don`t realize that she is 7, many times I can`t believe it either!

My performing beauties!  (This is Kyndal after her 3rd performance of 4)  She was funny as the first 2 performances she said that she cried all of her make-up off before the performances, the first day by being nervous, the second as she was fighting with a boy in her group.  She was a little embarrassed to be crying as a big group surrounded her to find our what was wrong.  She made a quick recovery after that and performed beautifully, sans make-up!

Elliette is such a funny kid!