The Next ShowStopper!

Chloe came to stay with me today. I decided to have a little fun and play dress-up with her. I found Kaylyn's first TuTu from her very first dance recital. She was so proud of herself in her pretty pink TuTu.

Choe is doing well with her speech therapy. Her mappings are going well. Everytime I see her, she is making more sounds and attempting to say more words. We were riding in the car, and she kept saying "Ma", "Ma", over and over. I told her "Mama went bye-bye." (not really sure if she was saying "mama" or just working on the "M" sound) She responded with a "Ma, Ba." In other words she was repeating what I had told her! She was also playing with Kaylyn's old tea set while we were visiting Granny today. She had a plastic fork (part of the tea set, safe for her to play with) eating her pretend food. Everytime she brought the fork to her mouth she would say "Ma." I asked her to point to her mouth and she did it, saying "Ma"!!! She's following commands well. She will point to objects when you ask her about them. She will grab her purse and start waving when you ask her if she wants to go "Bye-bye." She has made so much progress since her activation on December 31, just 4 1/2 months ago. I tried to get some video of her, but everytime I would start to video, she would stop doing whatever I was trying to video and just stare at me. I have about 42 ten second clips of her standing there, not making a sound. As soon as the video camera was put away, she would immediately start babbling. Stubborn child!

Just a ballerina and her trucks (and tools to fix the trucks).

Panama City Beach Dance Competition

This weekend we made our much anticipated trip down to Panama City for Kaylyn's dance competition. We made the trip with friends of ours, Chris and Deborah, whose daughter Kaitlyn is on the competition team with Kaylyn, and whose son Sam, is on Luke's T-Ball team. I think this was the best competition we've been to, even though we didn't get to spend but a few hours playing on the beach on Friday afternoon. The weather was a perfect, sunny 75 degrees, with a nice breeze. It was a bit cold for the kids to get in the water, which was still around 50-60 degrees, but that didn't stop them from trying. P.C. was packed out with the dance competition, a cheerleading competition, a jazz festival, and spring breakers. Yes, my kids got their first experience of spring break on the Redneck Riviera. I hope, years from now, they remember how crazy they thought all of those screaming drunks were....

The competition, the reason we were there in the first place, went well. The stage was right on the beach, which was exciting for the girls, and a different experience. They are used to dancing on a dark auditorium stage with spotlights on them, meaning they can't see the audience and the acoustics are directed toward them. On the sunny beach, they could see EVERY audience member and had to deal with and open stage, with no "backstage," the change in the sounds of the music, the breeze blowing their hair everywhere, and the distraction of all the other kids playing in the sand. So, as you can see, this competition atmosphere was different from anything they've ever experienced. They did great despite all of the distractions, bringing home an "elite gold" score for their jazz dance and a "platinum" score for their tap dance, and a "top first" award for their tap dance, meaning they scored the highest in their group of "large group tap, age 7-10." This is actually a pretty big thing since this was a BIG competition, with around 120 schools competing, and some amazing dancers. The girls had fun and loved every minute of it.

Playing in the sand

Enjoying a few hours of beach time

Kaitlyn making "sand angels"I don't know what was so interesting

Luke flying his kite

Freeeeezzzzing after a short swim in the ocean. I told her it was too cold, but did she listen??? Lesson learned....

These two are best buds. They got along so well all weekend. We didn't have to break up not one fight between the two of them. Now, the girls......that's a different story!

Silly Boys

Getting ready to dance. This was, after all, the reason we were there.... Their jazz song is "Vacation." Pretty cute dance. This dance received an "elite gold" rating.

Kaylyn and Kaitlyn posing for the camera

Group Pic

Costume change for "Satisfaction," their tap song. This dance received a "platinum" rating, and they got "Top First" for this routine.

Hammin' it up for the camera

Chris and Luke passing the time during the competition by digging a big hole in the sand.

The ShowStopper's group at the awards ceremony

MOM! Stop with the pictures!!!

Waiting a looonnnnngggg time at Sharky's to eat. ALL of the ShowStopper's Competition teams (and their families) went to Sharky's after the awards ceremony to celebrate. This was planned months ago, reservations were made, meals were ordered in advance....they knew we were coming. Good idea in theory, but in actuality, not so much. We waited FOREVER! I felt so sorry for our poor waiter. He had only been working there for 2 days and they stuck him with 75 + hungry dancers and their families. He had to deliver food and drinks to all those people BY HIMSELF. Poor guy! I'm guessing he turned in his resignation by the end of the night.

Two hungry, cold, and VERY unhappy boys

Happy Easter!!!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter weekend. It was a busy one around our house. Yesterday we went to Chelsea to an Easter egg hunt, then Luke had 2 ball games, then to my parent's house for Easter dinner. This morning the kids were up at the crack of dawn to check out the goodies from the Easter Bunny, then it was off to church. I took some quick pics of the kids before church this morning in their Easter outfits, but they weren't really in a picture-taking mood after such an exhausting couple of days. Poor Kaylyn looks like she's about to fall asleep standing on her feet!

A Visit From the Easter Bunny....

.....or "Bunny Easter" as Luke calls him. (and you can't convince him he's wrong.) The Easter Bunny payed a visit to the kids last night. Of course they were up before the sun this morning and had completely emptied their baskets in 0.6 seconds. Kaylyn said they were up at 5:30 and by the time their noise woke me up at 5:50 they had completely emptied their baskets and eaten most of their candy. You can only imagine how well behaved they were today! :)

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday morning bright and early we headed to Chelsea for the Easter Egg hunt. Chloe got to tag along since Paul and Candace had to attend a funeral. They all had big fun hunting eggs and playing with the other kids.
Luke found him a hiding place to check out his loot. At this time, everyone else was enjoying cupcakes and juice. At one point I didn't see Luke, I found him sitting by himself inspecting his candy. I guess he didn't want anyone else to know what kind of goodies he had!

Game Time X's 2

After the Easter Egg Hunt, it was off to the ball park for 2 ball games. The Blue Devils took a loss in both games. The first game was a blow out 22-10 by the team that beat them in the first game of the pre-season tournament. The second game was a nail-biter game that was played until time was called with a score of 23-22. Oh well, maybe next time! The kids all had fun and didn't really care about the losses. Luke played well. He batted 2 times in the first game, and 3 times in the second. During the second game he hit a double. He was so proud of himself.

I love the look on his face here!

Luke's Class Easter Party and Egg Hunt....

....well, the egg hunt part of it anyway. Today, Luke's class was supposed to have their Easter party and egg hunt, but with the threat of tornados this afternoon, school was dismissed at 1:00. With the party scheduled for 12:00, they just did the egg hunt and sent the snacks home with the kids. The kids didn't seem to mind, they had so much fun finding all the eggs. Chloe came to stay with me today, so she got in on the action too.

Luke and all of his eggs. Luke has now decided that he will no longer be eating eggs. When I asked him why he had made this decision, since eggs are a fav of his, he replied "There's baby chicks in there." There's no convincing him that the eggs that we buy at the store and cook and eat at home will no longer hatch baby chicks. The other day he and Granny were dying easter eggs and one of the eggs had cracked while it was boiling. When he saw the crack in the shell, he wanted to know if the baby chick was hatching.

I love this pic of Luke and Garrett hiding on the slide checking out their loot. They thought they were being so sly.

Tomorrow we have another busy day planned. In the morning we have an Easter egg hunt, then Luke has 2, yes TWO, ball games in the afternoon. After the games, we're off to my parents house for Easter dinner. Whew! I'm tired already!

3rd Place

We FINALLY got to continue our pre-season tournament today. Between the miscommunication (don't even ask!) and the rain delays this week, the game that was supposed to be played on Tuesday (miscommunication), then Thursday (rained out), then Friday (ANOTHER miscommunication), finally got played this morning. In fact, we played 4, yes F-O-U-R games today. The day started at 10:30 am, and we finally wrapped it up at 4:30 this afternoon with a loss and in 3rd place. Those babies just ran out of gas, and who wouldn't after playing 4 games back-to-back-to-back-to-back, with NO break between them! Luke played very well today. He batted a total of 8 times, stopped the balls that made it to him in the outfield, and stopped a runner at second. Not bad for a long, hard day! He played a total of 16 innings! We are all exhausted now, and sporting a swwwEEEt ball park tan!

Picture of the Day! I just love this one!

I made a video of all of the pics I took today. Y'all know me....TONS of pictures!

Guess this little guy was tired. This is one of the players from the team we played in our third game of the day. He decided to take a nap in center field.

Crimson's New Game

You know you've been neglecting your "other children" when they are so desperate for some playtime, they teach themselves new games. We've been so busy lately with Luke's T-Ball season starting and Kaylyn's dance competition quickly approaching. We are at someone's practice EVERYDAY and we usually don't make it home until after dark, just in time to feed the kids a quick meal and throw them in the shower, then it's off to bed. Poor Crimson has missed her usual daily playtime with the kids. She's gotten so bored, she's learned how to play fetch by herself! The other night, at 1:30 am, I hear the sound of something tumbling down the wooden steps on the deck outside my bedroom. I know Crimson is up to something because that's where she sleeps. I actually thought the crazy dog might have fallen down the steps. In a few minutes I hear the same sounds, "Plomp-Plomp-Plomp- Plomp, Plomp." Then I hear Crimson trot down the stairs, then up again. A few seconds later, the same sounds. After about the third time I hear this, I decide to see what she's up to. She has one of Luke's baseballs, rolling it down the steps, retrieving it, and repeating this over and over. Poor baby, didn't have anyone to throw the ball for her, so she had to throw it for herself!

Speaking of Crimson, can you believe she was ever this small?? My little 4 pound puppy, now weighes in at around 70 pounds!

Way Back WHEN-esday

Dateline: March, 2007

Luke's Age: 2 1/2 years old

Luke's first fish! Love the look on his face!