Ballet Recital & Preschool End of the Year Program

Katie has taken ballet now for 5 years and she still loves it, which makes me happy. I just really enjoy and appreciate the art.  I have to applaud her instructor and school because they absolutely strive to be the best that they can be.  I'm always excited to see what the performance theme will be every year.  I've NEVER been disappointed.  Katie finished Level 1 ballet this school year and will be starting Level 2 in August.  The school also offers tap and jazz.  The older girls that are members of the company does a type of dance, I think is considered jazz, but I would call it modern dance because it is mixed with ballet and drama.  Katie is very interested in that type dance.  She really looks up to those girls and she is still determined to be a dance instructor one day.  She told me earlier today that she would like to take jazz, so she can have more experience.  "How many different types of dance do I need to know before I become an instructor?"  she asked.  I have no idea because I've never been exposed to ballet and this type dance.  I was on a drill/color guard team for 3 years, in the country.  I'm clueless!  She was amazed that I didn't know.  "Well, I think I need to take jazz with my ballet because I need to know as many different dances if I'm going to instruct."  she informed me.  I warned her that she would have to learn more routines for performances.  "I think I can do it." She said confidently.  

I love watching her because it seems like every year, she gets better every time.  This year, I did notice that the girls danced a little longer and came out to perform a few times.  At the recital, she asked me when she would be able to go to point.  I told her that I think it's still at least a couple more years before she goes to point.  Sometimes her patience is as good as mine.  Please note that I don't have patience.  

My pretty ballerina!

Colton's Preschool Program

My big boy - graduates preschool

He is ready for Kindergarten y'all!  Every day this week, he has asked "am I going to my old school today or my new school?"  After the hundredth time, it will drive you CRAZY.  Now, this is it.  We are finally having our End of the Year Preschool Program and he is officially a Kindergartener.  Now, he thinks that he starts his new school next week.  Ugh!  Yeah, it's going to be hard explaining this one, but I'm sure he'll figure it out.  The one thing he hates about leaving his old school is leaving his new friends that he has made.  

He LOVES the idea that he got a medal with his name on it.  It's a big thing!

We were happy to share this special moment with his PawPaw.  The school provided refreshments afterwards, but all Colton wanted was cheese bread from our favorite Italian restaurant.  Millard joined us for lunch.  Colton had a great day!  We are so proud of you and love you lil' man!  

 

Don't ask about the staring off in space pose.  I don't know what to think about it, but this is the face that he insisted on.  Yeah, that's my boy!

I have to tell this quick story.  I find it funny.  Katie's got a swim party tomorrow at school because she was one of many kids that made the A.R. challenge.  For their reward, they go on a field trip to our area swim park.  She is so excited!  Yesterday after I picked Katie up from school, we went straight to Belk's to get a swimsuit.  After trying on 3 different ones, she decided on the one.  While we were there, I wanted to check out the baby clothes and gifts.  Colton asked me "why are you looking at baby stuff?"  I told him that I was shopping for the babies that we are having this summer.  Whoops!  Wrong way to word that one momma!  Yeah.  Before I could fix my boo-boo.  Colton was yelling and I do mean YELLING to Katie.  "Katie, Katie did you hear that?  We're having a baby.  Mom said. "  Oh. boy.  I hated seeing my poor baby's face go from happy and excited to sad and confused.  "But you said." As he looks upset.  I had to explain to him that I was referring to Chase and Leslie's twins coming in July/August.  Poor baby.

I do believe summer is showing her face in these parts.  After that cold snap last week, we've been slowing warming right back up.  Today was in the 80s.  Katie and Colton were singing praises when I announced that they could get the pool out.  The little neighbor girl came over and played in the pool with them.  Thankfully, I put a few ice pops in the freezer yesterday because Colton was coming inside wanting his ice pops.  I think he alone ate 5 of them.  Before it was all said and done, I had to restock my ice pops in the freezer.

We hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend and stay safe.  We still have another week of school before both kids are out for summer.  Katie still has her class party and awards program.  She has done awesome, but I'll go into all that in my next post.

 

P.E. Field Day and Ballet Rehearsals

The P.E. Field Day is the one event that everyone looks forward to every year. Normally it is nice and warm on this day. This year, we happen to have field day during blackberry winter. Shew!! It was cold cold cold this wonderful, fun and beautiful day. I don't believe the cold snap phased the kids at all. I believe this was one of the best field days thus far.

Katie and her peeps "N" & "B" - very sweet girls.  
They have been such good friends to Katie this year and they absolutely adore Colton.  Colton had a blast having these girls chase after him on the playground, I think the girls had just as much fun.

It was great that the whole 3rd grade spent an hour with the inflatables and an hour with P.E. competitions on the football field.  The kids didn't want the fun to end.  Dad and I just wanted our jackets and a nice cup of hot chocolate.  HAHA! 

Colton LOVES the inflatable slides - we couldn't convince him to try other inflatables.  LOL!


He wants to try out T-Ball next year.  This was a good open door observation in the sport.


It was a little tricky, so daddy had to help him out.  YES, Doug is wearing his hunting down coat.


. . . and he's back!


Katie hangin' with friends "B" and "H"

It's time to compete! 


All 7 groups of 3rd graders flooded the football field, ready for the fun to continue.  The first competition is always fun - Tug-of-War!


Katie's class competed against all the other classes and came in on top -
First Place in Tug-of-War

By the way, for those that may think this is really mean and that we are all winners.  Blah-blah-blah.  We do encourage friendly play and good sportsmanship, we also believe there are winners and there are those in last place.  No matter if you make first or last place, you must use it as a positive experience and strive to be the best you can be and be happy for who you are.


The object of this competition is that you have to hold hands and have a hola-hoop go through your body and pass to the next person.  Once you pass off the hola-hoop, you sit down.  The team that all of the players sit down first WINS!  We placed 3rd place.  It was so funny, watching these kids.  Lots of laughs.


Relay Race - there goes my little sprinter!  All that running in P.E. paid off this year.  Coach has the classes run a mile at least once a week.  Way to go Coach!!  I'm all for the running.  Our team placed 3rd place in the relay.  I blame it on, one of our kids got confused and ended up in someone else's lane.  Bless their heart, they nearly ran into another runner.


Water Relay Race was very interesting.  Mine you that it was around 65 degrees and the wind blowing.  Cold!  I'm sure these kids were running hot from all the other competitions, but really?  At least it was the last competition for the day.  What was funny is the boys that dipped their heads in the  buckets afterwards, while coach wasn't watching.  BOYS!  Too funny!  I know my boy would be inside the bucket before you could blink.


There she goes just a giggling

Our team placed 4th - so cold!  LOL!!!  

Ballet Rehearsal

The ballet recital is right around the corner, so we had to do our full week of rehearsals that could drive anyone CRAZY.  By the time the recital FINALLY came around, Katie was so excited and exhausted at the same time.  She was just ready to get out there and do her job.

I took these photos during one of her rehearsals at the studio.  She did so good and I just LOVE these pictures of her.

Stay tuned to Ballet Recital and Colton's End of Year Program . . .

April & May In Review

If you've been wondering where I've been, we are at full speed ahead captain. Our life has been full of bridal showers, weddings, and other special occasions. In the month of April, my niece and the love of her life said their wedding vows. She had a beautiful bridal shower and breath taking wedding. Shall we look back, starting with Natalie's Bridal Shower.  Her wedding colors are all soft pastels with a sweet country feel.  We had a craft day and all of us learned to decorate vases, bottles, etc. with burlap, twine, lace and other pretty embellishments.  It added a special country touch to all the guest and food tables.  Dainty frames with Nathan and Natalie's picture were displayed all throughout the room.  I caught guests going from to table to table, looking the arrangements on each table.  

   

Above photo: Natalie with her grandma, mom and future mother-in-law and grandma-in-law

A beautiful group of ladies.  Poor Natalie put on her flats and is still the tallest in the picture.  I think, she is a superstar!

I felt absolutely honored to be asked to take their rehearsal pictures.  Nathan's mom, Phyllis, asked me to take pictures during the rehearsal dinner.  It was very nice.  

Nathan getting instructions down pat.  A whole new experience for this country boy.  :)

The rehearsal dinner was held Nathan's brother's place.  They have a beautiful barn, just for parties and special events.  It is rustic, filled with antiques and a warm cozy country feel. A perfect place for a great celebrate, for a perfect couple.  Congratulations guys!!! 

The kids had a blast running all over the farm.  Katie was so hot and sweaty, but she had so much fun.   It's great when all the relative children get along well.  The little girl and boy to the right is Nathan and now Natalie's niece and nephew.  Such sweet sweet kids.  My kids took to them instantly.  

The Wedding

Us ladies were all sitting around, talking, resting and watching the clock tick away.  Natalie was sitting by this window sill, talking to us.  My photography brain kicked in.  I thought, her sitting there would make a great silhouette.  I took the silhouette first and then Leslie asked me to just take a picture of her with a flash.  As much as I like the silhouette, I have to say that I love this picture the best.  She is so beautiful!  

It's always hard on the daddy's to give their little girls away.  I love these precious moments and it's these moments that I love my job as an artist. 

Doug had the honor to do a reading for his niece, Natalie.  The "Brown" sign, I doctored a little, using Photoshop.  The sign was actually written lightly with chalk.  All I did was enhance and replaced the filter to make it appear a little rustic.  

Ryan's fiancee, Angie, painted this beautiful family tree for Natalie and Nathan as a keepsake, to hang in their new home.  All of the family and friends had the opportunity to put their fingerprint on this tree during the wedding rehearsal and reception.  It turned out so perfect!  She just did such a great job with it.  Angie is a terrific artist!  

Grandpa and Daddy dancing with the bride - It's tradition

Our kids danced more than the adults.  Katie danced so much that she got a headache later that night.  

I absolutely thought this was adorable and something that I hope they will NEVER forget.  Most of the night, Natalie danced with college basketball buddies and friends.  Finally, Nathan put on his shades and hit the dance floor for his bride.  They sang and danced together, it was great!  

Sheer Happiness!  

One perfect wedding of the year has met it's Happily Ever After.  Now, the second wedding of the year is still in process.  

If you didn't know, I've been doing a little volunteer work at our church.  They needed an extra hand and I was happy to loan mine.  During Easter celebration, I saw this display from my desk.  I had to capture it.  I made this photo manually with my DSLR.  It took a few takes to get that perfect shot.  What I envisioned in my head.

Easter

We all came together as one big family and celebrated Jesus' resurrection at Doug's parents place.  Of course, we had a great time and you couldn't have ordered a better day of good weather.  The Easter bunny hid approximately 100 filled plastic eggs.  The kids loved it!  They loved it so much that I hid them again.


Is this not the most precious picture?


She was trying to get the egg away from him.  LOL!

Angie's Bridal Shower

Ryan and Angie will be saying their vows in the next few weeks.  They are beach people and Angie absolutely LOVES the color turquoise.  I've seen houses decorated in turquoise and brown.  So pretty!  Well, we thought we would have a beachy themed bridal shower.  I think it turned out beautiful.  We all pitched in our different sized lanterns, sea shells (we've collected over the years) and throw a few flowers here and there.  I think she had a lovely bridal shower and received so many neat things.  Now, bring on the WEDDING!  

Mother's Day

We are grateful to celebrate another Mother's Day with our little momma.  She walks a little slow and gets distracted easily, but she's a feisty one.  Don't say that I didn't warn you!  I still say that she is beautiful at the young age of 78.  My brother-in-law, Kevin, has given my mother her corsage every year for Mother's Day and Easter Sunday.  She loves it and expects it now every year.  LOL!  Be careful when you start things.  Of course, I'm the biggest in the group of my little sisters.  I think I take after my dad's mother.  She loved cooking, eating and having too good of a time.  :)

Our newest mommy-to-be and daddy too!  She's going to be out of commission in a few short weeks. Twins are growing fast and doing well.  Momma may have to put the nursing job to the side for a while.  

Then, you have me with my white legs and my babies.  

I'd like to wish all of you momma's out there a very good late Mother's Day!  

Stay tuned to a school field day, fantastic ballet recital, wedding and other summer events . . .