Happy Birthday Grandaddy!

(We apologize for the late post)

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Grandaddy!
Happy Birthday to you!

How old are you? 29?

Dance recital!!

Last weekend, Samantha danced in her 6th dance recital. Each year the recital seems to get better and better - the dances are better, they are more coordinated, the sets are better.

Samantha was in four dances: Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Lyrical.







Her teacher also added something new this year that I really liked - an opening number that involved her two oldest "competition" groups. The put the dance together in a mere 3 weeks and it really was great - I like to see a full stage with lots of dancers working together.

My limited exposure to dance instructors/choreographers has taught me one thing - dance teachers clearly have a style that they are best at. Samantha's teacher is clearly best at tap - I LOVED the tap dance that Samantha's class did this year and it was clear that the girls had a good time doing the dance.

So, we get about 4 weeks off before the 5-week summer dance camp!

It's BACK down to 80 degrees!!

Well, you would think a statement like that would be made in a conversation about the outside weather. Now that Noah has packed up the ark and the animals are back home, it has gotten hot and steamy outside.

But, unfortunately, that wasn't part of a conversation about the weather - it was part of a conversation about our upper level!! Yes, that's right - it was 88 degrees on the top floor of our house today! Turns out - our air conditioner upstairs hasn't been working since Sunday. Its a good thing that we have the AC for the main floor because otherwise, it would be absolutely miserable in the house.

Calls to the repairman on Monday (after we confirmed for sure that it indeed was getting hotter and not cooler in the bedroom) yielded us a repair appointment for FRIDAY - I took the 7-9am time slot in hopes that it would be fixed and we could spend the rest of the day cooling the upstairs.

Sunday night was tolerable upstairs, Monday was uncomfortable, yesterday was marginal but LOUD due to the large fan that Mike had placed in the hallway blowing into our room. But, we had been having tropical rains during that time that, for the most part, had kept the temperature a little lower. Tonight is just miserable. We put Emma to bed in the pack-n-play in the basement after her two naps ended with her sweaty and red faced from the heat. So, I'll be sleeping in the basement with her - do you think I need the flannel jammies?

Raining off and on

This weekend has given new meaning to the term "raining off and on". It has rained off and on this weekend - which means, it has rained BUCKETS and BUCKETS of rain for about 30-45 minutes, then it stops an hour, and then it does it again. The weathermen say there is a stationary front over our area that just keeps cycling - and that we could have rain until Thursday.

I won't worry until I see the animals marching down the street two-by-two

More Words!

Emma is adding new words to her vocabulary every day.

Yesterday, she was on our bed and we asked her if she wanted Breakfast, and she said "bre-fes" and went crawling to the end of the bed.

Today, we asked her if she wanted a snack and she said "snac" and laughed and giggled!!

No more pencils, No more books...

Today was the first day of summer vacation. Samantha and Michael had their last day of school yesterday. It was a bittersweet day - Michael had a great year and a great teacher. Samantha had a great teacher but 3rd grade was just a tough year. We were all looking forward to summer break - and have enjoyed that our extra-curricular activites have been winding down for a couple of weeks now.

We will be working on cleaning and organizing the house a little each day, playing some each day, and relaxing each day. Today the kids side of the basement was straightened up and vacuumed. It will probably have to be cleaned like this about 6 times this summer because the kids have not yet learned the art of "putting something away before you get something else out". The kids bedrooms were also cleaned today. The biggest cleaning challenge is, however, MY space. The kitchen and the family room. Among the piles of normal papers and other things that I typically have at my fingertips, I have piles and piles of papers that the kids brought home over the past week or so. I need to sort through them into a "keep schoolwork" pile, a "throw away" pile and a "summer practice" pile. There are just papers everywhere.

But, I'm using the FlyLady approach of decluttering 15 minutes a day. That's about all I can handle right now because there are just so many they are overwhelming. But we'll get there!!

Dancin' Fools

Emma loves to dance. She'll dance to any music she hears, including commercials, openings to shows, and any song that will play on any toy that she has!! She is quite funny when she does it.

Michael loves to dance too!! So, we often put on the "music channel" on the TV and let the kids dance to the music. On this day, they really were enjoying dancing to the music!!


The second video shows that dancing can be exhausting!!

Kindergarten Karnival!

To celebrate the end of the school year, all of the Kindergarten classes at Michael's school held a "Karnival". They used the Kindergarten blacktop right outside their classrooms, and the room moms set up some great "stations" and activities for the kids to do. There were activities such as: penny pitching, bean bag toss, obstacle course, popcorn races, sand dig, face painting, bowling, and crafts.
When asked, Michael loudly proclaimed that the "bowling" activity was his favorite - and somehow, despite his THREE or more trips to that station, I don't have a photo. But, I do have some other great photos that I thought I'd share.

After the activities were done (and the rain clouds were rolling in), the kids got to have a "sugar buffet" (my definition) consisting of bananas topped with "Magic Shell" chocolate, cupcakes, pringles, and juice boxes. Needless to say - the teachers sent all of the kids home quite rarin' to go!!

Kindergarten Show

All of the Kindergarten classes at Little River Elementary put on a great show to commemorate the end of the year. There were 7 Kindergarten classes and the show for the parents on Thursday night was the only time all classes sang together!! All of the kids did great and it was an amazing sea of tie-dyed shirts.



We were worried for a while that Michael wouldn't sing - but his great Kindergarten teacher worked with him and showed him that all of the kids would be singing and it would be just fine if he sang along!! They sang some great songs and sounded like pros. And they all did a wonderful rendition of the Little River school song!!

Film at 11! - UPDATED

I have started adding posts - I am dating them the date of the event, so you will need to scroll down from this post in order to see them!!

I hate how the news has started to "advertise" their news articles throughout the day saying "Check out the News at 11!" Well, I'm going to do the same to you.

We've been busy the past week or so. The good news is that means I have a lot to talk about. The bad news is that I haven't had much time to do so. So, in the spirit of "Film at 11", I hope to blog about some of the following topics in the next day or so:
- Memorial Day at Smith Mountain Lake
- Michael's end of season T-ball party
- South Riding Festival
- Samantha's Field Day
- Emma's newest adventures

And, if I don't get shaking soon, I'll have to add an upcoming event to the list:
- Michael's Kindergarten Show

3rd grade Field Day

(I will start with another apology for the delay - the blog web site was having problems yesterday)

Samantha participated in the annual Little River Field Day on Tuesday. All of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes participated. As a class, they rotated between about 18 different stations, competing in a variety of team and individual activities. Many involve water!!

The class dressed all in red - which made it easy to find them out in the "ocean" of kids all over the blacktop and playing field at the school.

(L) Samantha throws water out of a "scoop" to a friend about 10 feet away, in hopes that friend can "catch" the water and put it in a bucket - takes a LONG time to fill that bucket.
(R) Samantha receives the baton from her teammate in the 7-man relay

I have helped out in previous years - this year I decided to just rotate around with the class and take photos and help out when necessary. It was a really nice day and I enjoyed going out and watching the kids have a good time and compete in the various events.

Great season Michael!!

Michael just completed his second T-ball season. He played his last game against the Red Sox and then, after the game, his team all went to McDonalds for a little "end of year" party. Imagine 12 4-and-5-year-olds descending on McDonalds on a good day - well, it was busy on Saturday, so that added to the confusion.

All the kids had a good time with their happy meals and ice cream, and they each received their photos (and trophies to arrive later) and we all thanked Coach Steve with a gift certificate to a local restaurant - because after demonstrating all the patience he had with this team of kids, he NEEDS a night away with just his wife!!