Tiny Dancer

Recital Time!

 

Lila Lou has taken ballet and tap since this past September, and her show-off time was finally here.  We had two days of rehearsals leading up to the big night, starting on Wednesday with the dress rehearsal.  We did her make-up and hair and headed up to the theatre.

We got her costume on and then borrowed daddy's shirt to make sure it stayed clean. 
Two thumbs up.

 

After lots of waiting around, it was time for this little hound dog to take the stage.

A few hours later (yes, hours!) they were ready for her ballet routine.  These two were such patient little girls--I know they were ready to just go dance, but they didn't complain at all and waited their turn so nicely.

The next night, I had to have Gigi pinch hit for me.  Sweet Cami woke up with a high fever and ran it on and off all day long.  Gigi took Lila to rehearsal, and even squeezed in dinner between the two routines.  They had a good night together and I got to stay home and take care of my baby. 
Thank goodness she was fever free on Friday!  Just in the nick of time.  Whew!

 

 

The big night was finally here.  I got Lila ready backstage--she was so excited, and so was I!

 

 

Lila, Henlee and Lila Ichiba--love these three cuties.  Smile big, girls!  We left them backstage and took our seats in the auditorium.  After waiting a while for the show to start, they were the third group to perform.  And they did so good!  Cami was sitting in my lap, and when she saw Lila on the stage, she started hollering, "Yiya!" and waving so big at her big sister.  Too funny!

 

Meme even came to the show, too, and told Lila she was such a great dancer.

 

 

And Brooklynn came to watch, too.  Now that's a good friend!

We let this wild woman crawl around at intermission...

and Lila got some last-minute well-wishes from her two favorite boys.

 

Then we headed backstage again.  Such cuties getting ready to dance to Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid.

My very favorite tiny dancer!

Oh my goodness, this girly was simply awesome!  I went to get her after her routine was over and she asked, "are all my fans out there?"  Ha!  She did have lots of fans:)

We are so proud of you, Lila Lou!

So are Memaw and Poppi...

Aunt Colleen...Madison and Gigi...

and Boom, too.  We loved seeing your smiling face on stage.  You were simply beaming. 
Love you, sweet girl!

Happy Mother's Day

 We celebrated Mother's Day the whole weekend, beginning on Saturday evening with the Hays family.  Scott and Lyndsie just got a brand new baby kitten and they brought her over for a visit!

She is 7 weeks old and just as cute as can be.  The kids were so smitten with this kitten!

Lila and Jackson both held the kitty, while Cami just watched for a bit.

Eventually she got brave enough to pet Sophie, though.

Awww.

"Whoa!  Easy now!  Nobody said anything about me holding that kitten."

"Retreat!"

After dinner, Lila got this soft blanket and Aunt Lyndsie put Sophie on her lap.  The sweet kitty fell fast asleep while Lila was petting her so gently.  It was precious.

Mama Hays with her youngest and oldest boys. They love their mama!

The Hays girls love her, too!

The next morning we all feasted--the kids and daddo even braved the crazy rain to go and get donuts and then coffee from Starbucks.

My three loves.  All ready for church, even a few minutes early.  Now if that isn't a Mother's Day miracle, I don't know what is.

 

We took the big kids into church with us so that they could see Jenny and Dusty dedicate Baby Dylan to the Lord.  He did awesome and even sat through the rest of the service without making a sound.

 

 

Love these boys!

A few hours later, we went to Gigi and Boom's for dinner.  This little girl is growing up way too fast, but still loves some mama cuddles.

My oldest child decided to wear pink in my honor, which was so sweet. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the rest of his outfit didn't match, so we just went with it!

I enjoyed the night so much and loved getting to spend time with Meme, Mom and Colleen. 
It was a successful Mother's Day indeed!

Muffins with Mom and Mom's Regatta

Mom's Week!

Jackson and I left the house before 7am to make it to Muffins with Mom at his school.  While I appreciated his school trying to do something nice for all the mom's, truthfully, it was a failed bit.  First thing, it made all moms have to get up before 6am in order to get showered and ready for the day.  Ugh.  It also happened to be on the very same day as the Dallas Zoo field trip, thus nullifying any chance of going without a shower.  But wait, wasn't it so worth it to sit and eat breakfast with one child?  Ehhh--no so much!  In fact, we arrived at school, picked out one pastry (J's was the tiny mini-cini) and then proceeded to dine on the gym floor.  A few minutes after we sat down, my son saw some buddies of his across the room.  He got up and went to sit with them.  Neat.  Hence, no pictures of the first Muffins with Mom.

 

A few days later, Lila and I went to her school for the Mom's Regatta.  We built a sailboat, then decorated it and named it "Miss Lulu."



Then Lila gave me this adorable gift, called All About My Mom.  My favorites on this:  Mom's favorite food is "broccoli."  Now don't get me wrong, I do like some broccoli, especially when dipped in ranch, but my FAVORITE food?
My favorite thing to do with my Mom is "snuggle."  Sweet girl!
My Mom sometimes forgets "to go to the bus stop to get my brother."  Oh no! 
That only happened once and we were at home, so he just walked down the street to our house.  I sound like some delinquent parent, though! 

After that, the four classes sang three songs for us.  All were cute, but my favorite one was called "Happy Mother's Day," and was just precious.

After their short performance, we headed outside to see if Miss Lula would sink or sail.  She did great!  Must have been that expert boat building skills that I possess.  Either that, or the fact that it's the 6th sailboat I have made!  Maybe by the time Cami is old enough they will have a new event for us:)

Field Day 2015!

Somehow, some way, the rain held off for Field Day, again!  It was very touch and go, as pretty big storms had come through the night before, but we woke up yesterday morning to no rain.

 

By 7:45am we had checked in and were at our station. 
I definitely had the coolest partner in crime there.

Go Dad, Go Dad!

I mean, this guy doesn't just talk the talk!  Check out those mad limbo skills!

A few hours later, this cute guy came to our station.  He had already done tug-of-war and a few of the other games and was ready to try his best at limbo.



I did miss getting to watch him go around to all the games this year, but he said he was having a great time!

 

 

Gage and Jackson were buddies for the day and did every event together.  I don't think Jackson stopped smiling all day:)

 

He totally went for it in water limbo, too!

How low can you go?

How low can you go?  Pretty low!  He did it a few more times and then was off to other things.  Some of his friends, though, like the two girls in this pic, must have done it 27 times. 
Water Limbo is where it's at!

These kids had a ball all day, and the fun even continued into the night, with a swim party at Tucker's house.  A very big day, indeed!

That's a wrap!

We are in the middle of May and that means a few things--wrapping up some things and getting ready for summer.

Lila has officially graduated from Bible Study Fellowship now.  I cannot say enough good things about this program and how much is has helped to strengthen our little girl's faith in God.  Her two sweet teachers, Mrs. C and Mrs. Cowan, definitely made a big impression on Lila and helped cement her faith even more.  She loved spending her Tuesdays with them and then hanging out with Memaw afterwards.  A win for everyone!  Thank you, Memaw.

After being rained out more often than not, the Golden Strikers finally had their last game this week.  And ya know what?  They played great!  They were aggressive, won the ball, and played with heart.  And what do you know--they won!  Big thanks to Daddo and Uncle Andrew for stepping up and coaching these boys this season.

We are all so proud of Jackson for getting back into the sport after such a long hiatus. 
He loved playing center mid-fielder and scoring goals.  I liked watching him develop his leadership skills on the field.  Sports really do teach the kids so much more than just how to score points.

 

Trophy #11!  This is the last year that they will get participation trophies in soccer.  From here on out, they'll have to earn them.  We support that 100%. 
You gotta earn things in life, and third grade will be a great time to learn that!

 

Busy Little Bees

Saturday morning started out with a bang and we were at the soccer fields by 8:45 to cheer for our favorite little Bumblebees.

 

This little girl played her heart out.  She got knocked down, scraped a knee, but always popped right up and kept on going.  She played almost the whole first half, but then we had to leave and get to our next gig...

dance pictures!  Lila, Ashley and all the other little dancers made such precious Hound Dogs.

 

Lila's tap routine is to "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog, " and is really fun.

After the first round of pics, it was time to change into their ballet costumes. 
These two soccer chicks sure looked elegant!

My favorite tiny dancer.

Their ballet routine is to "Kiss the Girl" from the Little Mermaid.  So very precious!

While the girls were taking fancy pics, the boys were having baseball pics.

Jackson ran into a few of his buddies from school who play on a different team. 
They all love them some baseball!

That afternoon, the whole fam met back up and went to Bradly and Henlee's 5th Birthday Party. 
It was a carnival theme and really cute!  There was a clown who did a magic show, a balloon artist, face painter and then popcorn, cotton candy and cupcakes for everyone.  Greatness!

Miss Lila got herself a unicorn and balloon...

while J opted for a funny balloon hat and basketball with his buddies.

Before the night was over, though, Jackson got a Superman logo on his cheek and Lila got another painting, too.  We had dinner afterwards with some friends who were at the party, then went home and put the girls to bed.  We ordered the Mayweather/Pacquiao Fight and Andrew and Justin came over to watch it with us.  Jackson was so sad that it didn't start until 11pm and his mother said he had to go to sleep.  At least he got to watch them enter the ring, though--that was the best part anyway!