Dance Recital 2011

Last weekend marked the end of Madeline's 3rd year of dance and gymnastics. She has really learned a lot this year and has made huge progress in all three classes. Our studio splits the routines into 3 different recitals, so it makes for a very busy weekend! First, on Saturday afternoon, we had her gymnastics recital. Her class performed to a fun song called, "Cha-cha Heels." She has learned to do a back-walk-over and has improved on all of her other skills. Her next step will be a back-handspring! Here she is with her good friend, Sydney.
Madeline and her friend, Carson, who wasn't in the same class but also had a very cute performance!
Here she is posing before getting on stage. She loved how the fringe skirt shook when she danced:)
Saturday night, she had her tap recital. Last year we were lucky and were number 2. This year, not so much:( Her routine was number 37! She dance to the song, "If They Could See Me Now" from the musical, "Sweet Charity." She did a great job and made us proud!
Finally, on Sunday afternoon, she had her ballet recital. Her costume was the same for tap and ballet. It just had pants for tap and a tutu for ballet. I loved her routine! It was to "World of Imagination" from Willy Wonka and was just sweet and beautiful. I have been so pleased that ballet is Madeline's favorite and she pays special attention to her foot and arm positions.

We were glad to be done, although Madeline already tells me how much she misses dance and can't wait to start back next year.
Here she is posing with her friends, Lynley and Macy after the ballet recital.

Will watched all 3 of her performances and seemed to enjoy all of the excitement and costumes:) This look on his face makes me think he is thinking, "Please tell me we are done with all of this now!"
He was checking out Maddie's recital gift here.

Posing with his buddy, Kelsey, who was enjoying her first recital. Aren't they cute!
I love watching Madeline and all of her friends perform. I also love watching the older classes and look forward to watching Madeline learn and grow more each year!

Easter Weekend 2011

Better late than never! We had a nice Easter weekend. We went to several different egg hunts but I only remembered to bring my camera to one:( Madeline had one with her Campfire group at her friend Hope's house. They did such a good job and had so many fun activities for the girls to do. Here is Madeline after pinning her egg in the Easter basket.

They hid a lot of eggs. Here is Madeline with her good friend, Sydney taking a break from hunting to take a quick picture.

Madeline took this very seriously!
The next day, the kids were excited to wake up and find their filled Easter baskets.

Then, it was time to get some pictures! Will is a little hard to work with right now, when it comes to taking pictures but we managed to get a few. I have never attempted to use the timer on my camera, so a whole family picture was not in the cards. So, we did manage to get a picture of Nathan and I each with the kids. This one of Madeline and Will was the best we could get. I hate that Madeline is not looking at the camera but think it is sweet that she is looking at Will.

It was a little sad that we were not able to spend Easter with my parents, but we were excited that John and Lindsey came to celebrate with us!
Nothing is better than celebrating our Savior rising! Our church service was wonderful and it was a blessed day!

March and April Update

Our March and April were very busy this year! We had many things going on at all of our schools. Here is Madeline on the morning of "Crazy Hat Day." She had fun doing all of the themes like silly socks and Wildcat clothes.
Nathan and I spent a lot of time getting our students ready for their annual State Testing. It is one of our least favorite parts of teaching but our students worked hard and we are all glad they are over:)
We had Will tested due to his developmental delays and he was diagnosed with low muscle tone throughout his body. We are not sure why he has this but are fortunate that it is a mild form of the issue. He has started physical and occupational therapy and is making a lot of progress. This diagnosis explains so many things about Will from birth and we are glad he is getting what he needs to help him. He also has a hypersensitive vestibular system that causes him to be sensitive to sudden movements of others, loud/sudden noises, and being upside down, spun around, etc. Again, it is mild and easily helped with both kinds of therapy. Will enjoys seeing Mrs. Kristi and Mr. Sam as well as his developmental therapist, Mrs. Jackie. He is doing well in school and has learned all of his letters and numbers to 20. He is also really doing well socially! He has lots of friends and enjoys playing with them.

Now, this is Easter weekend, so here are some customary Easter Egg dying pictures:)
The anticipation was written all over their faces!

Maddie doing a little art with the wax crayon.
The finished product. Our small, inexpensive kit did not include stickers, so Maddie improvised with some of her own.
Nathan and I thoroughly enjoyed a Good Friday service at church this afternoon and look forward to reflecting on Christ's sacrifice for us and the joy of His Resurrection this Sunday!

Father and Daughter Dance

Now that Madeline is in Kindergarten, she is able to be a member of a local Campfire Girls group. One of her first big activities happened on the Friday evening after Valentine's Day. They had a Father and Daughter Dance! We were so excited! Nana went shopping and found her the perfect dress. I curled her hair and let her wear a tiny bit of make-up.
Here is a more close up picture of her hair and the necklace Nana got her for Valentine's Day. I think I still have a lot to learn in the hair department. Madeline already says she wants her curls pulled up next year, so I'd better practice:)

She was so excited to have her first corsage! Here is her "date" putting it on.
The florist did a good job of matching it to the colors in her dress. I am still a little shocked at how much this tiny arrangement costs! Maybe I should brush up on my flower arranging skills too:)!
Here is Madeline and Daddy. Nathan said they had such a good time together. The dinner was a big hit and Madeline spent most of the dance wanting to dance with her daddy, unlike most of her little friends who wanted to dance together.
I know this will be a special tradition they will look forward to and enjoy every year. Will and I also enjoyed our time together and got his favorite, Taco Bell, for dinner. Then we hung out, watched "the letters" (Wheel of Fortune-his current favorite show), and played with trains and cars until bedtime. It was nice to get some special time with just my boy and I.

Sorry about the lack of blogging. I have been spending a lot of time and energy trying to make some important decisions about my work status, moving, and foster parenting. It seems like every time I mention changes in my life on this blog, there ends up being a change to those plans too. I want to make sure we are more firm in our decisions before explaining them. I think our poor family and friends get worn out with all of the back and forth of this:) Thanks for your patience!

More Snow Days!

I would not have believed anyone who told me that by Feb. 9, we would have taken 4 snow days so far this school year! But, here we are, at home again! It is getting to the point where us teachers, who usually enjoy a good snow day, are ready for Spring. We live so far south that we have no built-in snow days in our calendar. That means we will be adding almost a whole week on at the end of May:(
I posted about our first snow day (Jan. 10th), which actually turned into 2 days as we were out that Tuesday as well. The 3rd snow day happened on Feb. 4, to our surprise. We woke up to a slightly snow-covered lawn but assumed we would go to school. Apparently not all of the roads were as clear as our own because they did cancel. We were excited about going out to play again when it started raining and ruined the snow before we could play in it:( So, we spent the day inside, starting our weekend a day early. One of the good things about the snow days is that Madeline and Will have really been playing so well together. That Friday, I was doing some housework in our bedroom and Nathan was on his computer. We noticed that we had not heard from the kids and went to the living room to see what they were up to. This is what we found:

Madeline wanted to fix someones hair and Will went right along with it. He thought he was pretty funny too!
Now, less than a week later, we have had our 4th snow day! We were told yesterday that they might cancel school even before anything fell, and they really did. It started sleeting around 8:00. We were afraid that we might not get much snow, like the last 2 times. So, as soon as some flakes started falling, we ran outside to check it out. Madeline caught a few flakes on her gloves.
Will was so excited to feel the snow!
Then, they wanted to catch snow on their tongues:

Finally, around 3:00, we had enough accumulation to go play outside. Here is the view down our street.
It is amazing just how much fell in a few hours.
This is the best snow Will has ever gotten to play with. He was amazed by it on his gloves:)
The snow was pretty dry and did not pack very well. But, we were determined to build a snowman this time, no matter how tiny it was:)
I hope everyone else enjoyed their snow day too. Our whole state got quite a bit of snow. We are now just waiting to see if we will go to school tomorrow. I think I am ready for Spring now!

Another Sick Day

I guess my title makes it sound like I have taken a lot of sick days this year, but that is not really true when I compare this year to last. I think I took 9 days last year and have only taken 3 so far this year. I hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying that:) Sick days are hard for a teacher because there is so much to do to prepare for a substitute.
Anyway, Madeline was sick for 2 days this week and I stayed home the second day. Nathan and I try to trade off so that neither of our classes is left with a substitute more than one day at a time. Even though I hated that Madeline was sick, I truly enjoyed my day at home. Luckily, she started feeling much better by about noon and was able to have fun herself. At one point, she came out of her room, got down the play dough, and entertained herself for a good 45 min. That was my first sign she was all better:)
I enjoyed getting caught up on laundry!

When she got bored with the play dough, she wanted to get down a Hello Kitty scrapbook set a friend had given her for her birthday. I had been saving it for a day that she needed something new and fun, and this seemed like a perfect time. At first, I was going to sit down and help her do each page, but then I realized that she really wanted to do it herself. So, I gave her a few pictures, showed her the basic way to set up a page, and let her go to town. It totally made her day! She was so proud of her pages and so was I. She even spelled out titles with stickers all on her own! I'm so glad I decided to let go and let her be more independent with it.
We sent Will to preschool that day but it was so nice to pick him up at noon instead of him staying for day care. He was very happy and spent lots of time playing. He loves to get his trains all set up and then lay down when he plays so that he can see the action close-up.
He sure loves these adventures and plays contentedly for a long time:)
Madeline was glad to be all well and go back to school the next day. It was just in time as she was invited to 2 different birthday parties this weekend! We have had a busy and fun Saturday and are looking forward to a restful Sunday! I can't wait to be a SAHM next school year. I hope to have many pleasant days at home without having a sick child to make it possible:)

Yay! A Snow Day!

We have been excited all week because we had a chance of winter weather on Sunday. You see, we live in South Arkansas and very rarely see any winter precipitation. So, on Sunday morning, as we were getting ready for church, we heard the tapping of sleet hitting our windows. The kids were so excited! We were supposed to get a lot of snow too, but, as you can see in these pictures, we mostly got ice. Still, it was a pretty scene the next morning, especially because school got canceled! Here is the view across the street:
Here is our house:
The kids couldn't wait to get out and play. They kept asking if they could build a snowman but we had to explain that the ice and small amount of snow would not make that possible:( The first thing Madeline did was to scoop some up and taste it!
Will didn't know what to think and at first was very cautious about walking around on the crunchy ground.
Madeline was thrilled and wasn't cautious at all!
There were quite a few icicles around, especially on my van and the plants.
Here is Nathan checking out the frozen street. We sure are glad they canceled school because I would not have wanted to drive on this!
Will kept picking up handfuls of the snow/ice and throwing it:)
He decided this was a lot of fun!
Madeline had broken off and icicle and was checking it out.
Since we live so far south, we feel no need to invest in a sled, especially when a trash can lid will do the trick!

I love this shot of Will. We were worried that the sliding might scare him, but he loved it!
As expected, our more daring child had so much fun in icy driveway!
I am so glad we decided to go out early today because there were already signs of thawing. This doesn't surprise me because it got up to 52 degrees on Saturday and I'm sure the ground is not as cold as the below freezing temps we are having. I still can't believe we had almost continuous precipitation all day Sunday! We plan to stay in and enjoy the extra day at home, a real bonus in a 2 teacher family! I assume we will be back to school tomorrow. I hope everyone else enjoys their winter weather!