My beautiful ballerina, dance 3

Samantha's third dance was by far my favorite.  It was fun and energetic, but at the same time beautiful to watch.  She was a flying monkey, which she thought was pretty cool.  Enough words, enjoy the photos!

After the show weekend was all done Samantha decided she wanted to try out for the dance company, Jubilee.  She had spent all year telling me how she didn't want to try out.  It was a major deal.  She was required to fill out an application.  She had to perform a ballet, modern, and hip hop routine for a panel of teachers that she had just learned.  Then she had to answer questions in front of the same panel of teachers.  It was a moment in mommy history where I was so proud of her for even trying.  It was way outside her comfort zone and the entire way she had an amazing attitude.  And I am proud to say that she made it!!!  She is now a member of Jubilee and I see a whole lot of dancing in our future!

My beautiful ballerina, dances 1 and 2

This weekend was what Samantha looks forward to every year.  It was her year end recital with Dancing For Joy.  This year I was stunned to realize my tiny twirler had turned into a beautiful ballerina.

She is no longer the little girl that makes the crowd giggle.  She is now a graceful young women who dances on tippy toes(better known as pointe).

Being on pointe is a big deal and has taken many years to get there. But she is there and she is amazing.

This was her first dance of the night.  She was in a death scene.  Did I mention it was beautiful!

And really ballet feet a pretty amazing.

Her second dance she was a knight.  She was part of the white queens court from Alice in Wonderland.  She hated what she called her ugly costume, but she still danced wonderfully.  The one thing from this dance she enjoyed was having a small part by moving a chess table from the back of the stage to the front.
My best photos of Sam dancing came from her third dance.  I have so many I like I am going to save them until another day. 

Summer celebration

The other day I was thinking how I really wanted to have a summer party.  I got a hold of my friend and we decided since the official start of summer was almost here, we should have a party to celebrate.  So three days later, inspired by Pintrest, we had a watermelon party!!  All of our treats we watermelon inspired.  We had watermelon cake pops, watermelon cup cakes, and watermelon rice krispy treats.

We did eat a normal summer BBQ lunch which included real watermelon.

And had some very yummy watermelon lemonade.  It actually had real blended watermelon in it!  YUMMY!!

I was super excited for the decorating portion of this party.  The watermelon fabric was the find that made me super happy.  I had seen it on Pintrest and didn't think I would be able to find it.  Thank you Walmart for rocking the watermelon.

After lunch, and before diving into sugar, we played some summer time games.  We had a watermelon seed spitting contest.  About the hardest thing to find was a watermelon with seeds!!

Even I tried my hand at spitting seeds.  After I pulled myself together.  Thanks for capturing the moment Merriann.

An egg race for the littles.

Isaiah tried eating his egg before the race started.

They were so proud of completing with no broken egg(hard boiled)!

Then the big kids raced. 

Their eggs were not hard boiled like the littles!

And we also did a three legged race.  Which went well until there were injuries due to rope burn.  Thanks again for these Merriann.

After all that fun we dived into sweets.  And these two are about as sweet as they come!!

In case you are wondering, when everything is dyed green, kids faces change colors!

I hope you enjoyed the start of summer as much as we did!  This weekend we will be enjoying Samantha's year end dance recital.  Don't worry there will be pictures for those of who can't attend.

Sisters

I can't say that my girls are always the sweetest to each other.  I can't say that they don't know how and when to push each others buttons.  I can say that they love each other. 

And sometimes the whole world can tell.

Thank you Maria for the photos and the fun time at the park!

Tea time

For a little while now we have been trying to have a tea party at our friends house.  It was inspired by them reading and watching Anne of Green Gables.  Mrs. Thames decided an Anne of Green Gables tea party was needed.

 The movie would be watched

and tea would be drunk(drank?).

The only thing I can take credit for is bringing some girls and eating some food.  Oh, and I did make the banner.

And some gluten free treats.

While the big girls had their tea inside(peppermint with milk and sugar, crazy, I know)

 the little kids had their tea outside.

It was a whole lot of fun and I even got to have some fun teaching camera stuff to my friend.

 Did I mention the weather was totally crazy!!  Melia claims we even had some hail!