Recital

After finishing up our Elsa tea, S and I grabbed a quick lunch(although after a cupcake and a fruit "wand" I pretty much was the only one who ate!) and headed to rehearsal for S's recital!

After rehearsal we went home for a couple of hours for an early dinner and to re-apply makeup and then made our way down for the big show!  S dubbed this the best day of her life!!

She did both a ballet and recital dance and was amazing!  Her smile showed how much she was enjoying herself on stage!  And she is really quite good too!!

Me, Daddy, C, Gigi, Grandpa, Uncle Bobby, Jennifer, Grandmamma and Granddaddy were all able to come and watch the little princess in all her glory!

After the recital, S was so happy to see everyone and very excited when she was showered with flowers(from Daddy and Gigi), an "I Love Dance" necklace(from Grandmamma) and a ballerina Hello Kitty Beanie Baby(from me)!  It was all well-deserved!!

Congratulations, Little Princess!!

Dropping her off!

This little monkey stayed the entire time!  Such a
wiggle worm!!!

Tea with Elsa

This morning S had one of her dreams come true!

She was able to have "tea" with Elsa!!

MONTHS ago I had pre-ordered her an Elsa dress and then last month I found out about this awesome event to meet Elsa and have cupcakes and special treats with her!

The dress came in just two days ago!  Such perfect timing!!!  I didn't tell S until yesterday that she was going to meet Elsa and I gave her the new dress!  Pure bliss - for her and for me to watch!!

At the tea, all the little girls were able to take their pictures with Elsa, eat their goodies, sing "Let It Go" with Elsa and listen to a story!

I don't think S stopped smiling the entire time:)

Hippy Fashionista!

I don't know where she gets her "style" from but it is truly her own!!!

It's party hippy, part valley girl:)

I wish I had taken a picture before we got in the car to go to school - she even did her own hair!

I hope she always has her own "style" and doesn't conform to things just because others are doing it!  Makes me proud to see her express herself and her independence!

Friday on the Farm

This morning was C's first time ever to participate at Roper Mountain Science Center's Fridays on the Farm!

When S was younger, I took her all the time!!!!!  C was also taken, but he was in a stroller at that point and doesn't remember it at all:)

I wasn't sure how he would like it, but this kid's maturity has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year!  He paid attention, followed instructions, asked questions, answered questions and participated in everything he was asked to do!  He even did the craft(making a real candle stick which is so cool!!) and listened to the story!  Who is this kid!?!?!

I had so much fun with him and am so glad he enjoyed the farm as much as S use to!  Maybe it will work out with his school schedule next year that he can do another one!!

Zoo

Our zoo membership is going to expire on Saturday and I wanted to get one last trip in before then since I don't know if I am going to renew it or not!

Late last night at around 10pm, Courtney and I decided to take the boys and when we told them this morning they were super excited!!  They have not seen each other since school let out!

We played on the playground before heading in and then again afterwards as well!  All of the animals were pretty active since it wasn't too warm yet - the lions let out several growls, the giraffes were running around and even the leopards did more then just pace around the perimeter of their exhibit!

It was a good way to spend the morning!

PetSmart Field Trip

Today was the day of Abby's annual bath and shave... and boy did she need it!!!

C and I dropped her off this morning after taking S to school, and just as I was sitting in carpool line to pick S up this afternoon, I got the call that Abby was ready!  Perfect timing - I didn't have to go home and then get the troops geared up again to go back out!:)

This morning I had promised C that when we came to pick Abby up, he'd be able to look at all the animals in the store!  Both kids got a kick out of it!  Cheap thrills:)

Kindergarten Awards

Today were the kindergarten awards at S's school!

C and I got there early to secure decent seats!  He stayed entertained with a huge bag of mini Oreos and my phone while I watched my little girl "graduate" from kindergarten!

All kids received at least 2 awards - K5 award/diploma for finishing kindergarten and some sort of PE award(110%, soccer, gymnastics, running, throwing, willing to try a new sport).  Other awards were given out as well, but all kids walked away with something!

S got K5 award, Reading, Writing, Art(from the art teacher), Willing to Try a New Sport(from the PE teacher), Perfect Attendance(I had no clue!  I honestly hadn't even been paying attention to the fact that she hadn't technically missed a day even though she's gone in late and come home early on multiple occasions, HA!), Book It(from the Scholastic sponsored program) and I think that was it!  She also got to go up on stage for getting the Terrific Kid Award earlier this year!

I am so so so proud of my little, almost-first-grader!!!

Here she comes:)

Can you see the excitement from the little guy!?!?

On stage to get her awards!

Coming back on stage when she was recognized as a "Terrific Kid" winner!

Mrs. Hairston

Mrs. Whaley

Madison, S, Jaidyn(S and Jaidyn are good friends.  Madison is not necessarily
one of S's better friends in the class but she just kept photo bombing
ALL of my pictures! HA!!)

Since I took S with me after the awards ceremony,
we were out early and spent some time getting some energy out
at PlayNation!

Memorial Day Weekend

We did a whole lot of nothing... yet were so tired when we got up this morning that we need another weekend to recuperate!!  How does that happen!?!?

He's a recap of the excitement(insert sarcasm!!):

Saturday - M worked over at the new house all day.  I took the kids over there to hang out with him while I got my hair done.  Then, I picked them up and we went to the grocery(ugh!  my absolute least favorite thing to do with 2 kids in tow!!).  By the time we got home, it was dinner prep and baths and off to bed the kids went.  M did some weed spraying and I finished my book(402 pages in 48 hours!  I neglected most other responsibilities!!).  Then we finally made it to bed!

Sunday - After church we met the Weavers at the park for a picnic and let the kids run out some energy!  We love our times with them and the afternoon was absolutely beautiful and perfect picnic weather!  We got home and M and I put it into high gear cleaning the house(M replaced tiles and scrubbed bathrooms while I dusted, vacuumed, organized, cleared off counters and rearranged furniture) in preparation for our first house showing on Monday!!!  We are not exactly putting our house on the market yet, but our neighbors have friends moving down from NY and they were looking at houses this weekend and wanted to check ours out!  Wouldn't that be awesome if they bought it!  After about three hours of hard core cleaning, M and I cleaned ourselves up and Grandmamma and Grandaddy watched the kids while we went to see Phantom of the Opera!  Amazing!!!!!  The Phantom's voice was the best!  I could have listened to him sing all night!  I've seen the show once before in Atlanta when I think I was in high school, but couldn't even remember they whole storyline and it was M's first time seeing it!  We both walked away having enjoyed it!!

Monday - M went to help Tyler at his house early in the morning while I finished trying to clean the house(making beds, emptying dish washer, folding laundry... you know, all the fun things in life!) and then I took the kids to the gym with me to try and keep them from messing anything up!!  We made it home for lunch, M got home and then the neighbors and their friends came by to check out the house.  I think they liked it, but couldn't tell if our neighbors were more interested in their friends buying it than the friends were!  Anyway, after they left, M and C went to work on the house while I took S to dance - yes, she had dance on Memorial Day because the recital is on Saturday and they wanted one more practice before they went on the big stage:)  After putting the kids to bed, we collapsed on the couch and were pretty much worthless!

It was a busy weekend, yet full of a bunch of nothing really!

We do have a very clean house now, though, which is kinda rare but wonderful:)

They found some old boxes and made themselves into robots!

Going into the grocery w/ Thing 1...

and Thing 2(she said she was a buggy and they I was going to have
to push her through the grocery store... oh the imagination!!)!

Park fun!  Morgan(Mark's cousin whom we met at the beach last
summer) and S picked up right where they left off!

All the kiddos!

M showed off his "gymnastics" skills:)

Family Pictures 2014

A few weeks ago, we had our annual spring family pictures made!

Jana always does such an awesome job for us!  We all love her - even the kids which I think helps up get some really great pictures!:)

These are a few of my favorites!