Dance Observation Week

Paige's studio had an observation week for all the parents to watch their kids' classes up close. Paige is there for so many hours that I couldn't make it for every class but I did get to a few. This week was a great reminder of how hard these kids work. Not everything is just dance, they have conditioning and strength training and acro lessons. But they also have so much fun!!

Lyrical

Jazz

Ballet

Paige demonstrating her leg strength before class:)

Cuties

Tap

Clash of the Heightans!

While Paige and I were out at the park (and home watching a movie...), Owen and his friend Adam were competing in an event at the rec center. We signed them up at the last minute so they didn't have a full team like some of the other kids and were paired up with other people who also didn't have a team, i.e. all the girls:) I could see they were a little skeptical about being put with girls but their team did great and I was glad the girls proved that gender doesn't matter! They ended up losing in a tie-breaker for first place overall when their team couldn't nail some free throws but they were the only team to take first place in two events-kickball and tug of war.

Before

Medals!

After!

Earth Day!

Our Earth Day was a little less earthy than years past but Paige and I still got to a park to take in the scenery and beautiful weather, even if it was just for an hour. We were both a little under the weather but feeling pretty good by the afternoon and Paige wanted to take her camera to get some pictures.

Easter/Birthdays

We spent Easter afternoon at my parent's house and the kids started off with their annual scavenger hunt to find baskets! We played games and had a super yummy brunch and celebrated Lisa and Alex's birthdays. I made a pineapple upside down cake for the first time (I think?) and it turned out really well! Usually things that need to be flipped don't go so well for me...

Easter/Home

Happy Easter! We decided to attend church the night before Easter and accidentally attended a two hour mass! We were all exhausted by the time we got home at 10pm so I thought maybe the kids would sleep in but....no:) Owen got up at 8 and promptly woke up Paige. Then they went on the hunt for their baskets. Paige's was behind the cornhole board and Owen's was in the bathroom closet. They snacked on junk food from their baskets until I could convince them to eat some real food. Then we played a game from Owen's basket called, What's That Smell? It was hilarious and disgusting. Pretty soon we had to get ready to go celebrate some birthdays!

Party

Sometimes I do two posts on our parties. One post covers food and decorations and the other covers people. Well, I'm throwing it all into one this time! Paige wanted a Hermione theme this year so we did our best but it probably ended up being more of a Hogwarts theme. Hermione specific items are hard to come by! I thought it ended up looking great though, we didn't go overboard but if you looked around there were little surprises-a mini Hermione, a wand, invisibility cloaks...

Chocolate Frogs and Pretzel Wands

Find Laney!

I caught my Mom and Dad taking a break outside. It was a beautiful day!

Lauren surprised us!

The Hall family

We made butterbeer that I don't think anyone liked:)

I asked Paige if I could take a picture of her by the banner and this is what I got!

I thought this bag that Lauren got for Paige was hilarious

Paige requested an ice cream cake!

We wanted the decorations in the kitchen to sort of feel like the Great Hall with a starry sky and floating candles!

Doughnuts and Rock and Roll

We had a lot of fun stuff planned but our plans got squashed when we had to be on call almost every day for the plumbers to show up. We did have one fun date day that started out at Brewnuts for some awesome doughnuts! I got a Lemonhead donut and Pat got glazed. On our way out the owner came over and asked if we wanted to be the first to try a Toaster Strudel flavored doughnut they'd be releasing the next day and I was soooo excited! We were stuffed but we took the free doughnut to go! We had also been given a free cookie at Starbucks the day before so we were doing pretty well. 

We followed that up with a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My mom had given us free tickets to the Rock Hall maybe two years ago so it was nice to finally get to use them! I think a bit more knowledge of guitars might have made the experience even better but I liked seeing the clothes and the stories behind songs and how people met. They also had a special pinball section and everybody got two tokens to play. Pat chose a Metallica themed game and I played a Beatles machine and a Bootles machine:)

So excited!

No really! So excited!

Glamour Shot!

Find Pat!