Dance, Dance, Dance

Last week the girls was parent observation week at the girls' dance studio. Addison takes jazz and ballet. She also goes another night each week for Nutcracker rehearsal, where she is cast as a mouse. She loves the jazz part and the Nutcracker, but she is not to crazy about the ballet. One of her sweet friends from church also happens to be in the class along with several girls from school, so she has loved the extra time with them.

 

 

Reagan LOVES her class. She takes ballet and jazz. After Thanksgiving they are adding in tumbling, which will make her even happier! She has both of her best friends in her class. The girl has a gift for most anything physical and she is very musical, so she does well in class. She wasn't old enough for Nutcracker this year, but I am sure she will want to try out next year. Knowing her, she probably already has the dance memorized, just from watching Addison practice.

Happy Halloween

Thanks to hurricane Sandy, this year, Halloween was wet, COLD and windy. But, we made the best of it. Our neighbor friends, came over around 5 for a quick soup dinner. The kids could hardly contain their excitement long enough to eat. We ate, cleaned up and got them ready in record time. Gracyn was a "Pop Star" (the Barbie version), Reagan was a pirate and Addison was Merida from Brave.

Reagan picked this costume because she was dying to have the Jake and The Neverlands Pirate playset. I finally told her she could have it if it was for her Halloween costume. She makes a good pirate.

Addison picked Brave, which I loved. Too bad, the wig makes the outfit, because it won't stay on....especially not in heavy wind and rain.



It took about 42 attempts to get this picture. They were READY to go.

They passed out some candy before we made it out the door. Thanks to life at MARS, we had boxes and boxes of full size candy to pass out. It worked out perfectly, because our church had provided us with stickers that said, "God loves you BIG, not just fun size" to put on the candy.

I had a big hot chocolate station set up with Dove chocolates and travel cups. We grabbed some hot chocolate and hit the road. Gracyn made it to ONE house! It was just too cold and at this point also raining. She was more than happy to bring her hot chocolate home and sit in the warm house passing out candy.

Cody and baby Grayson joined us for dinner and trick-or-treating. They are such cuties and my girls love them.

Such a great family picture. Of course, the time everyone cooperates would be when they are in costume and I am in work-out clothes.

Tommy made it a few houses with the girls before Reagan began getting cold. Thankfully just as they were coming in. Their besties from 2 streets over came running up our street, begging for warmth! All the girls came in fixed some hot chocolate and snuggled by the fire.

They ate some candy and re-charged while the rain died down.

Thankfully, after their rest, the rain stopped and we were able to bundle up and head out for an hour of trick-or-treating with Chloe and Olivia. After I convinced the girls we had enough candy and it was time to stop, we came home snuggled in our PJ's and watched "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!". Freezing cold Halloween, but I think it made the adventures that much more fun.

Addison's Fall Party

At Addison's fall party, they had a mummy contest to see who could wrap a mummy the fastest. When it was Addison's turn they played boys vs girls. Addison was smart, as she and her friend decided who to wrap, Addison said, "Oh, we are wrapping you. You are the smallest and this will be easy!". She had good strategy. After the contest, they all took turns wrapping each other.

The tallest girl in class with the smallest. The mom of one of Addison's class friends is the high school volleyball coach. She met Addison at the party and immediately asked if I had her taking volleyball now.

One game required a head piece, so all the kids had to wear lunch-lady hats.

This is the "elephant trunk". They had to walk around swinging it and knock over water bottles. It's an interesting look.

They were a wild bunch by the end. Ms. Williams is their long term sub while their teacher is out on maternity leave.

My girl was so sweet and excited to have me there. I got lots of hugs and affection and I was glad to have them time to meet her friends and begin putting faces with the names I hear.

Fall Party and Princesses

Last Wednesday, we had a fun day full of treats. First, Reagan had her fall party at her class. It was my first opportunity to spend any time in her classroom and can I just say that kindergartners are hilarious! They are just adorable. I worked a craft station, so they kept me busy, but it was fun to get some facetime with each student and Reagan was so proud to have me there.

After school, I picked them up and we headed downtown for an evening of Disney on Ice. First stop was to meet Daddy at his office. This was a first since he went to work for MARS. It was great to see his office and meet many of the co-workers I have heard him talk about. And, bonus, there is candy EVERYWHERE! The girls each made some selections to take to the show for a snack. Thank goodness for the free candy at Daddy's office, because candy is FAR FROM FREE at the Disney on Ice!!! 

 It was a truly magical night! I am so glad we went. Each girl has such a different perspective right now. Gracyn thinks the princesses are real and when they wave, she absolutely thinks they are waving at her. Reagan is my athletic girl and she was so amazed and impressed by the skating and the performers. Addison just took it all in with a very critical eye. She analyzed every second of it.

 On the way out we ran into our friends, Tessa and Camden. Camden was tired and hitching a ride in his Dad's arms, but Tessa was excited to see the girls.

 It was 10:30pm when we made it home, backpacks unopened and homework not even thought about, but it was so worth it! Gracyn asks everyday if we can go again soon.

The Mighty Volcanos

Reagan's soccer team, lead by Coach Daddy has had a great season. They have 2 games left and have won all but one game so far. Reagan had her best game on Saturday. It was cold and yucky outside....temps in the low 40's, windy and pouring rain. Historically, she hasn't done well in these bad weather games. She's a beach girl like her mama and she cried through the coldest game last year. Saturday, we put about 5 layers of clothes on her and it paid off. She played and played well. She scored a goal, had a great block at the goalie and had a good turn-around getting the ball for her team. All this and she found 16 cents in change in the grass while playing. She couldn't have been happier!

Fall Party

Last week, Gracyn had her first preschool party! There was plenty of fall festival fun! They played pin the nose on the pumpkin, made several crafts, and played pumpkin bowling. It was fun to spend some time with her at school. She has such a sweet little class, with so many younger siblings from Reagan's preschool group. It is fun to experience the year with great friends. She loved having me there, but at the end she was done with my picture taking!

Gracyn and Gus

Last week, Gracyn got to bring Gus, the preschool class "pet" home for the weekend. Each child gets a turn to have Gus for the weekend and to chronicle his adventures at your house. We had lots of snuggle time with Gus and he went with us to Little Gym and a birthday party for another classmate. On his last night with us, we had our small group bible study at our house and many friends from Gracyn's class were here for that. They were all excited to see him, but not so excited to take a picture with him. I can't believe how big Gracyn's looks in these pictures. We still consider her the baby, but these photos are evidence she's not.

When she grows up she wants to be a realtor. She is gaining knowledge now by watching HFTV, favs being House Hunters and Love it or List It and playing with the Iphone Realtor.com app.

Wants to be a principal/singer when she grows up. Her inspiration comes from Miss Marsha, the director of our preschool. She runs the school, but leads in the kids in worship at chapel each week. According to Reagan's teachers, this is the perfect job for her.

Wants to be a princess when she grows up. She is not discouraged by her sisters' insistence that "princess" is not a real job. Gets daily practice now wearing sparkly dresses and skirts and constantly playing with hair and make-up.