6!

Allison turned 6 last month. I keep wondering where the time has gone. We threw her a fun art-themed party with her friends. Allison loves art and crafts and is so talented (you should see her drawings! She draws better than I do!), so this theme was perfect for her. 

 

Our easel, out on the driveway for easy location. 

 Table set up for painting canvases. The girls really had fun with this project. 

 Decorated party room. Did I mention that it was a rainbow art party? :)

 Our spread. We served lunch of hotdogs, rainbow gold fish, rainbow fruit salad (which was adorable and I didn't get a photo of it), and a rainbow candy platter. 

 

 We played "Pass the Parcel." Everyone loved that they got to unwrap a layer of the gift (which had the party favors in it for everyone.

 Everyone eating lunch. :)

The cake. An artist's palette seemed perfect and simple for an art party. :) And since we still had leftovers of this on her actual birthday a few days later (and she took cupcakes to ballet camp the morning of her birthday)...

 

 I totally talked her into a simple angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream on her actual birthday.

 My grown-up girl wasn't' much into toys this year. We did give her a horse for her 18" doll, which she's loved. And Carter gave her a Lego Friends set (which he's gotten to play with ever since) but she didn't ask for toys for her birthday this year.

What did she want instead? A watch... perfume (we compromised on vanilla body spray)... jewerly. This one's 6 going on 16 I tell ya.

Happy birthday, Allison! Don't grow up too fast!

Legos: Best Toy Ever or Worst Toy Ever?

Let's discuss...

On the pro-lego side we've got the fact that they entertain the boy for HOURS. HOURS. He'll sit and build, and rebuild. Then build a city to go with his build, and heros and bad guys to be in the city. Plus they're a great imaginative & problem solving toy. Build doesn't work? Find the problem and fix it. Not to mention fine motor skills.

On the con-lego side... They get strewn about the house. Legos are everywhere, in spite of the fact that we have a Lego table for building and a big bin for storing them. Plus they get lost, and if the special tiny piece that he's looking for it lost, its a tragedy. Massive, pre-school level tragedy. And have you ever stepped on a Lego? 'Nuff said!

But here's the real kicker: EVERY single tantrum the boy throws is about Legos. My build isn't working. My build broke. I can't find my build. I want 10 more minutes to build. Allison looked at my build. Lindsey broke my build. I don't want to go anywhere because I'll be bored without my Legos. I don't want to go to bed because I'm not done building. I want that Lego set, and mean mommy won't buy it for me (which is a whole other con: they're EXPENSIVE!).

 So... what do you think? The tantrums have me about ready to get rid of all our legos... because they're the worst toy ever. Except for the fact that they're the best toy ever...

4th of July

Our kid are finally old enough to know when they're missing out on stuff. Like the 4th of July. They may no understand why its supposed to be a fun day (although I think Allison's could probably tell you its America's Birthday), but they know that when the calendar says July 4th fireworks happen and they do NOT want to miss out.


Last year was our first foray into large-crowd, after-bedtime activities. We watched fireworks at the lake with lots of friends, but we decided then that this year we'd be going to the baseball game to get our fireworks fix (they post-game fireworks started 45 minutes earlier than the big show across the lake!).

As luck would have it, there was a carnival going on at the ball park too! Talk about kid heaven. We even let them go on rides for the first time ever (our kids are totally deprived). They had a blast. Carter was in LOVE with the "Wild Hogs" motorcycle ride. Big surprise...

The game and fireworks were fun too, but by that time we were 3 hours past our normal bedtime, and Carter decided that the fireworks were scary. In his defense, they shoot them off right behind the outfield wall, so they are very close and very loud. And in my defense, I was totally prepared with ear plugs for the kids. Carter just decided that they were still too loud, so he sat on my lap, crying, with me covering his ears through the whole fireworks show. The joys of tired kids... :)

Tired, calm, slightly grumpy and bored Carter...

Wired and silly Allison. I made her top the night before. She drew this picture of her wearing a flag dress a few days before the 4th and I couldn't get it out of my head. I didn't get enough fabric, so it became a top, but I thought it turned out so cute. :)

Busy Lindsey.

Swim Lessons

Allison and Carter have been in swimming lessons consistently for over a year. Its 8 weeks on, 1 or 2 weeks off year-round. In my mind, learning to swim is not a choice. My kid WILL learn to swim well enough to be able to survive a normal water situation. That means, bare minimum, being able to dog paddle to an edge/shore and knowing how to tread water. With Allison, we are finally making progress!

This was about a month ago, in the deep end, actually really truly swimming on her own! She needs to get more efficient, so that she can swim farther, faster and longer, but she's swimming!

"Follow the North Star" Recital

Allison has once again spent the year in ballet lessons. Her recital was last night and it was wonderful. I can't being to say how much I think of the women how run Light of the World Ballet School and company. They are amazing and inspired and really do bring the Light of Christ to the people and places they visit.

Last night's recital was a story ballet based on Harriet's Tubman's operation of the Underground Railroad. Allison's Ballet 1 class portrayed water and danced to "Wade in the Water." I got about half of their dance on video before the camera battery died... I feel lucky that the dying battery didn't corrupt the file! Allison is the one on the far left of the video that runs on last just as it starts. She's also the littlest. :)

AND, I got lots of photos too. I tried to balance getting photos with actually watching her dance with my own eyes, not the camera lens. :)

 coloring in the dressing room. She was excited for this... :)

And now with her friends.

 Allison's class with her teacher, Miss Alyssa

I was so proud of Allison last night. For the first time, she was nervous about going on stage this year. We talked about her feeling and how it was okay to be a little nervous. We talked about how she loved dancing and that I knew she would do the best job she could. I could tell from the smile on her face that she got over her nerves and really enjoyed preforming.

 Nervous...

 Opening number

I really love watching that little girl dance. It brings me so much joy. And I am so glad for the special moments we got to have together last night talking about her nerves and her love of dance, and my love of seeing her dance. It was a really special night for our relationship, I think.

 "God's gonna trouble the water!"

 

I love this photo. Look at that great 1st position... and her arms look beautiful. And that SMILE!

 

 

Running off stage. I'm pretty sure that her class lost track of where they were in the dance (it was very forgiving music, and they could be completely lost in the choreography and still look like they knew what they were doing)  and has to be encouraged off stage by the company member in the photo here.

 Closing number, "We Are (the Light of the World)"

 So proud of our little girl. :)

Happy girl. Feeling good about her performance and SO happy to be given flowers. :)

Carter's Preschool Program

Three kids seems to have me far too busy to blog. But since use the blog to justify being terrible at journal keeping, I must blog.

Carter has finished his first year of preschool. He mostly loved it, except for the couple of days this spring when I literally had to carry him in kicking and screaming (I wish I were exaggerating!). He learned a lot: he knows his colors and shapes, and can count all the way to 39, as long at you don't care about 15 (he misses 15 every single time!). His speech is also coming along. I think he can properly say and "L" every time without thinking about it now. If only his "th" would come. :) He knows his letters and most of his letter sounds and is interested in starting to sound out words. I suppose it time to start helping him learn to read... how did we do that with Allison again?

At the beginning of May, Carter's class put on a short program of their favorite songs from the school year. This happened to be one of the days that he was determined not to go to school, telling me that he hated school and programs and he didn't want to be up on stage and see all those people smiling at him. And he didn't want any of his classmates smiling at him either (apparently being smiled at is something Carter takes major offense to). I pulled out my big parenting guns and told him that if he got happy and did the program happily so that I could take great pictures, we'd go to Target and get a small Lego set for him. Bribery makes the world go round...

You'll have to pardon any photo-quality issues: I was wrestling Lindsey, who wanted nothing more than to get up on stage with Carter, while trying to take photos.

So, just a few pictures to remember it by. :)

 Skidda-ma-rinka dinky-dink, skidda-ma-rinka doo... 

 I love... 

 YOU!

The BEST part was when the kids came out for the ending wearing star sunglasses and sporting poster-board guitars. They sang along to parts of the story "Pete the Cat: I Like My White Shoes" on CD. It was awesome, and I'm buying Pete the Cat books on Allison's next book order! :) So adorable. 

 

Carter gave being in the program a big thumbs up. And he thoroughly enjoyed buying his Lego set too... 

FOUR!

Our favorite little boy turned 4 a few weeks ago.

He's all boy with a love of hot wheels, construction, ninja turtles and legos.

I made him a carved cake to look like a road. It had Swiss meringue buttercream... and I didn't have any. :)

He got lots of Hot Wheels for his birthday, and tracks!

They were a hit all around. :) Happy birthday, buddy!