Dance!

Last Friday was the last day of Ady's 6 week dance class. I was a lot more disappointed about that than she was. I thought she would beg to go back, but when I asked her if she wanted to sign up for the next class she told me no.
So, I guess dance isn't her all time favorite thing - right now anyway - but I think she had fun.
For the last class, the "families" of the dancers got to watch as they put on a little show. They showed us everything they had learned. It was lots of fun to watch!
There were eight little girls ages 3-5, all dressed up in little leotards and dance shoes. Super cute! The warm up exercises the teacher did with them were very clever. The started with their heads and said "yes, yes, yes" (nods) and "no no no" (slowly), then shoulders "I don't know, I don't know". To stretch their legs, they pretended that a spider was tickling their toes and they had to reach down to get it. I thought the teacher was really great with them!





They did learn one little dance that they showed us. Of course it was far from perfect, but oh so cute!
(I tried to upload the video, but for some reason it won't work!)
This link might work

I am very proud of my ballerina, and I don't feel too bad that she's ready to move on. We may try gymnastics next! (or, thanks to the Olympics, Ice skating??)

Valentine's Day - and President's Day

At the school my son attends, they had a Valentine's Day party the last hour of school on Friday. I was really excited that it happened to fall on the same Friday that my husband had off work so that I was able to go while he stayed home with the little kids.
They had fun little crafts for the kids, some goodies, and games. It was a good time!
I didn't get very many pictures because it seemed like I was the only dorky parent who brought a camera.

My goofy kid with a mouthful of cake.


Since there was no school on President's day, I wanted to do something fun with the kids. I got a Culture Pass to the Desert Botanical Garden. I REALLY like that place. I've taken the younger kids there a couple of times, but this was the first time that Zander got to go. What is really interesting is that because of the nature of it (plants in different seasons) it is different every time we've been. And there are LOTS of different trails, each with something different to learn about.
I learned a lot of different plants and thier uses, and the kids really enjoyed it too! I learned that you can use Mesquite beans (which are EVERYWHERE around here) and grind them into flour. I'm not sure that I would ever do that, but it's cool to know.

Still has a black eye

My pretty girl

The sun was bright and they didn't want to look at me

The baby was there too

Trying to grab the mesquite tree

One more pose

The weather was perfect, and it was a great time! Then, we had lunch with Daddy as a bonus!

A Black Eye - and Green Eggs and Ham

On Tuesday of last week I got a call from the school. My son was in the nurse's office. She wanted to let me know so that I wasn't shocked when he came home. Apparently, he had taken a bad fall while he was climbing the "spider web" on the playground. (One of those metal, half-circle things that kids like to play on). The bar hit him right above his eye. This is what he looked like when I picked him up:


And the next morning it looked even worse!

I kept telling him that he should tell people he was in a fight, but, thankfully, he didn't go along with that plan. He was actually quite embarrassed about it, and got tired of everyone asking him what happened.

In other news about my boy, on Monday (the day before the black eye) he got an award at school - "Appreciation for Reading Green Eggs and Ham to the Class". He got the book Green Eggs and Ham for Christmas, and spent much of Christmas break learning how to read it. He was pretty excited that he got to share it with his class. So, after he got the award, he asked if we could have green eggs and ham for dinner. I didn't have any ham, but I cut up some turkey slices and dyed some scrambled eggs green. It was basically just like an omelet, and if you could get past the way it looked, it was actually quite tasty.


I like green eggs and ham - I really like them Sam I Am!

My Next 30 Years

Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it. I don't really FEEL any older. It's not like that number actually changes anything about my life. But it does give me the chance to look back on the last 30 years, and think about what I might do differently in the future.

I think somewhere, I have written down where I thought I would be at this point. Written from my perspective at about 16 years old. (I should track that down) I'm pretty sure that life hasn't turned out exactly as I had planned, but I think it's better then I could have expected!

I'm happy with where my life is right now. I love my family. I have a wonderful husband and fantastic kids. We have great friends and I actually like where we live. I never thought that we'd be here this long. I moved to Phoenix to go to school. I was going to stay here for three years, and then be LONG gone. Now, more than 11 years later, I'm still here. But I don't think there's anywhere else I'd rather be right now.

I'm thankful that my husband has a great, mostly stable job and is able to provide for us. I'm happy that I am able to stay home with my children. I don't think I ever really imagined what it would be like to be a full-time mother. It's definatly not the glamorus job I might have thought it would be. But, what else would I want to do? I can't imagine doing anything else right now!

One thing that getting older remind me of is just how short life really is! We all get caught up in all the day-to-day stuff, but, at least 1/3 of my life on this earth is probably over. I need to make the very most of the next 2/3!