May Happenings

May was a busy and fun month celebrating Nathan's birthday, the last day of school, Mother's Day, the girls' dance recital, and our fifteenth anniversary. We squeezed in some other fun too.

These girls always look sweet on Sunday mornings before church. Katherine always asks what dress Elisabeth is wearing before she chooses hers so they can coordinate. 

Elisabeth and Samuel are continuing their gymnastics classes through the summer. They're improving weekly and it's fun to watch their new skills.

While we celebrated Nathan's birthday, Elisabeth celebrated Kaydence's birthday with a girls' night sleepover. The girls went to the mall and got new Build A Bears.

Then they had a sleepover which was a huge success for Elisabeth! I think she's finally conquered her fear of being away from mom at a sleepover. We're looking forward to more this summer!

The kids spoiled me on Mother's Day with a homemade breakfast (made by Elisabeth), sweet cards and lots of love. Being a mother is a joy and honor. I'm so thankful for the gift of motherhood. 

Elisabeth picked out a Mother's Day dessert to make for me too. 

Nathan spent his birthday money on a new Lego set. He can build those giant sets in record time these days. 

We celebrated our last week of school with a candy making day. The kids had just finished listened to the Candymakers and wanted a chance to create their own candy like the characters in the book. It seemed like the perfect way to end our homeschooling year. 

They all turned out yummy and showed off the kids' creativity. 

The kids have been enjoying playing with our neighbors in the afternoons. They came home with homemade masks one day. 

The kids asked to celebrate the last day of school with a Chick Fil A lunch and snow cones. It wasn't too hard to convince me. We made funny faces while we waited for our food. 

These three had a great year of homeschooling. They worked hard all year. I'm proud of them and of all of us on this new adventure. It deserved celebrating. 

Katherine might be three and a half, but I still can't get enough of watching her sleep especially when she's conked out after a fun summer day. 

Matt and I had the privilege of attending Jon and Judy's 50th wedding anniversary party. It was a sweet reunion with dear friends. Judy mentored, encouraged and loved on all of us in our newly married days. Her leadership and friendship fostered the dear friendships among all of us. It was a special night.

Summertime means play date time. The kids seem to never get enough friend time. 

We got to have a birthday dinner with Ilona on her eighth birthday. Elisabeth went over earlier that afternoon and baked and decorated birthday cupcakes with her. They are becoming good friends, and I'm thankful for their friendship. 

The kids had awards night at AWANA. All four of them worked hard to earn their book awards. They had a great year of playing, learning, and hiding God's Word in their hearts. 

I can't believe Samuel finished his last year of Sparks! He's moving on to T and T next year. 

Katherine finished up her year of gymnastics with Almighty Sports at the end of the month. She's a little bummed it's over for the summer and can't wait to start again in August. She's an expert at bridges, handstands against the wall, and for a three year old, I think she has a pretty awesome cartwheel. 

We celebrated Matt's birthday a little early because we were headed out of town on his actual birthday. The Millers came over for dinner and we played games afterward. Matt requested a Pizzookie for his birthday dessert. It's fun to celebrate him! I also got him a big Lego Nintendo set for his birthday.  I think he liked it. He got up early to build it in the mornings before work :).

Dance Recital 2021

The girls had a great dance recital this year. Even though last year's COVID outdoor recital was great considering the circumstances, we were excited  about having a real indoor, normal recital. With dress rehearsal in the morning and getting ready for a 4:00 recital, it felt like all day was spent doing recital things, and the girls and I loved it!

The girls had dress rehearsal early Saturday morning. Even though I had to wake them up, they were ready to go! We snapped a few pictures before we left for rehearsal. 

Sweet Katherine had been so excited about her recital. Anytime we drove past the PAC, she'd yell, "That's my stage" She kept saying it was going to be the best day ever and that she couldn't wait to dance on the big stage. She also kept complaining that it was "going to take forever" before her time to dance on the stage, and when I told her Friday night that her recital was the next day, she said "I can't believe it. It's finally here." Sweet, sweet girl. She loves dancing so much! I was so excited for her. 

Katherine got a little nervous when I walked her back stage to her stage mom. She said, "This isn't my big stage." I guess I forgot to explain that part to her. She calmed down enough for me to leave, and then had a great time playing back stage. There were some girls Elisabeth's age in her back stage room, and she said she played with them the whole time. She called them the pink girls because their costumes were bright pink, ha!

Elisabeth was happy to be backstage with her friends. She danced with some of her best friends this year and enjoyed her dance class a lot. 

I couldn't wait to watch Kate dance during rehearsal, and she did not disappoint. Her smile radiated then entire auditorium. She's had her dance memorized for weeks and practiced it all the time. 

My friend Aubrie took this picture of her ending pose, and it's one of my favorite pictures of her. It shows her pure joy at getting to dance and perform. She's just so happy. One of the best things about being a mom is watching my kids do what they love. I teared up a little watching her dance. 

Everyone practiced the final bow, and we came home for a break to eat lunch, bake some cookies and play for a bit. Katherine kept telling everyone, "I get to dance on the big stage AGAIN, today"

I spent the afternoon doing the girls' hair and makeup. It was a girly, fun afternoon. Recital days always make me extra grateful for the blessing of raising daughters. 

Then the girls posed for pictures. We never buy the professional pictures and actually we were out of town this year and the girls had to miss picture day. But Matt takes great ones for me. 

This sassy girl had the cutest dance to one of her favorite songs. I thought her costume was adorable too. 

And my sweet baby ballerina was just precious. She reminded me of Elisabeth's baby ballerina year. I know watching those babies will be bittersweet from now on at the recital and will always remind me of this special day. 

I got a little nervous at the beginning of the recital because I didn't tell Katherine that she wouldn't be able to see me when she came out for her dance. She saw me during the rehearsal, and I thought she might be upset, but that girl did awesome, even when she forgot to carry her teddy bear to her new square 😉. She smiled the entire dance, and everyone could tell she was having the best time on the big stage. 

These boys had a pretty good attitude during the recital. They were definitely counting down the dances to the end though (so was their dad).

Elisabeth's rehearsal was a little shaky. Several of the girls forgot a few steps. Their teacher assured us, that they were just getting used to the stage and that's the reason for rehearsal. And she was right, because Elisabeth performed so much better at the recital. I was proud of her, because her dance was a lot more complicated than dances she'd done in previous years. It was adorable too!

I hate that the speaker was blocking her feet, so we couldn't see some of her footwork. 

Her ending posse was her favorite part of the dance 😘

The final bow is always fun too! I love cheering for my girls!

 

After the recital, we had fun catching up with dance friends and receiving flowers and gifts. 

I got the girls necklaces as a gift after their recital. Elisabeth got a dancer necklace, and I found a teddy bear necklace for Katherine. I told her I hope she always thinks about her recital when she wears it. 

After the recital we had my parents over for pizza and cookies to celebrate the girls. Then it was time for baths to get all the hairspray out of their hair, ha!

Katherine got to bring her teddy bear home after the recital, so we had to take of picture with it. 

Recital Day 2021 was a pretty great day! When I put Katherine to bed Saturday night, she said "I can't wait for my next recital." I think that statement perfectly summed up all our feelings about the day (well, maybe not the guys in the family, ha!).