Dance Recital Preview

Makena and Megan recently had dance pictures. So we did what we usually do and did our own photo shoot at home and then ordered the cheapest package available. Their costumes are super cute this year! Their recitals are in mid-June. And unless I'm in the hospital with #4 I'll be there. The thought of Phil trying to fix their hair if I'm not available makes me giggle a little. As usual, the girls came up with these poses on their own. :)

  And just so he's not left out, here is the little man during one of the girls' dance classes. We do whatever we need to do to keep busy....including taking pictures just to look at them.

Makena's Kindergarten Performance

The kindergartners recently put on big performance at school. They got to perform during school hours for the whole school and again that evening after a PTA meeting. The sang holiday songs from every month of the year.

Makena's class was responsible for December, which explains the Santa hats. One of Makena's best friends, Lillia, is infront of her. They sit together at lunch everyday. Her family is Greek and Makena tells us about Lillia trying to teach her Greek words. Sweet girls. 

 Some of the kids had to memorize lines to say during the performance. Makena was excited to speak into the microphone. She said, "Let's rock out with Jingle Bells. Would you like to sing along?" She said that when she said her line during the school-time performance everyone yelled, "yeah!" 

 

 Here is the happy girl after the performance...

Spa Day

I finally downloaded some pictures off my phone and found these fun ones from a spa birthday party the girls went to. It was their first time going to our local kids spa and they both enjoyed it. I knew Megan would, but Makena isn't quite as girly as her sister. Here they are getting started on their pedicures...

And manicures... 

 They also did up-dos for each of the girls.

 Makena went to another party at the same place the following weekend. When we told Phil where the party was he said something like, "It's starting already. The girls are at the spa every weekend!" :) 

Springtime Fun

These are some pictures from my phone and camera from various events from the past few weeks. There was a big spring event at Makena's school. They had bounce houses, ponies, a rock wall, a dunking booth, face painting, ice cream, snow cones and so much more. We took the girls and our new next door neighbor, Erin. She is in kindergarten at the same school. I only took one picture while we were there and it was of Makena and Erin. It was mostly so they could see their hair after having it painted. Megan also had her hair painted. She chose the color blue.

We made our annual trek out to the strawberry patch. The girls enjoyed it but Everett hated it. He had a belly ache and doesn't care for strawberries so he was a fussy mess.

 I took Megan and Everett to the Greensboro Children's Museum one day while Makena was in school.  

 Cutest Batman ever!

 Here is Everett swinging with Buzz Lightyear. Everett loves to take his toys with him where ever he goes.

Easter 2012

We missed a couple of our usual Easter egg hunts while we were at Disney but we were able to go the one in our neighborhood. Here is the crowd beforehand. Can you tell who just woke up? Everett refused to sit for a kids only photo.

We hadn't dyed eggs yet so it was nice that we could that at our neighborhood get together. We got to keep the mess out of our house. :)

 The girls also enjoyed working on Easter coloring sheets and crafts. Everett stayed pretty close to Phil the whole time and enjoyed the sweet treats brought by all of our neighbors. We took bunny bark like we did last year. It's the easiest sweet treat to prepare. Melt colored candy melts in the microwave and pour them into a wax paper lined pan. Sprinkle candies on top and let harden. Last year we used jelly beans in our bunny bark and this year we used pastel M&Ms. Once the candy is hard, you break it into pieces like peanut brittle. You could use different colored candy melts for different seasons and different candy toppings like candy corn or conversation hearts for different holidays. I put some cloth napkins in a basket and filled it with the candy. Super cute and easy! 

 Everett liked the Easter bunny but refused to get out of Phil's arms.

 They split the egg hunt up by age so I went with Makena and Phil went with Everett and Megan. Makena treated the hunt like a race (as did many of the other kids.) They were only allowed to get a certain amount of eggs and she had gotten hers in no time.

Megan had gotten more than her required amount so we had her split hers with Everett, who had only gotten one or two. 

 Here they are with Breiner eating the treats from their eggs. 

 We tried to get one more picture when we returned home but this time it was Megan who wasn't into the photo session.

 Our Easter weekend was rather busy and filled with good food. Since my mom works Sundays, we had my parents over for dinner Friday night. We had steak, loaded baked potatoes and salad. Then on Saturday we had the Deonanans, Phil's partner Steve and his wife Sara and our friend Penny over for a cookout. Steve brought a ton of ribs and we also had burgers, hotdogs and brats, and plenty of sides. We needed to make our traditional bunny cake and Makena was adamant that this years' cake had to be chocolate. Here is our yummy chocolate bunny....

 Then on Sunday, Phil and I made shrimp and grits together. The Neeley's have a good & easy recipe if you're looking for one! Here are the goodies left by the Easter bunny...

 Everett's basket was filled with a new coloring book and Chuggington book. He also got a new Buzz Lightyear toy. All of the kids got peeps, chocolate bunnies, a new movie and a crayon roll.

 Makena and Megan each got books, wallets and a couple of outfits for their American Girls.

 Later in the day, we went outside to hide eggs. We usually hide our dyed eggs outside. That way if one gets lost it isn't as big of a deal as if one gets lost inside. :) Here is our sweet boy in his seersucker jacket... 

 The girls took turns hiding eggs for each other. The one searching for eggs would sit in a chair that we had turned to face the wall. They both remembered doing this last year and asked to do it that way again.

 This is our traditional Easter bunny mall picture that we had taken earlier in the week. We usually plan ahead and try to dress cute but this time we just went. I was making fish faces at Everett trying to get him to smile and he is looking at me in the picture. All of the other shots they took had him making fish faces back at me so this was the best one out of the bunch.

Makena's 1st Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Makena has had friends losing teeth since she started kindergarten. She desperately wanted to lose a tooth, too, but had to wait until spring break to lose her first one. She had a tooth that had been loose for at least a couple weeks and just wouldn't come out. We thought there was a good chance she would lose it on our Disney trip but it didn't come out until we came home. The story of how the tooth actually came out is kind of funny. The girls wanted to eat pizza lunchables for lunch one day. They had gotten the ones that come with a drink and an airhead (kind of like laffy taffy.) They were finishing their pizzas and starting in on their airheads. Makena got out of her seat and rushed over to me and told me her tooth had come out. I looked and sure enough, it had. There was a little hole where her tooth had been. Of course, the next question was, "Where is the tooth?" Makena was tearing up a little and told me she didn't know. We searched high and low all around the table and could not find it. We finally decided that it must have gotten stuck in the airhead and gotten eaten. Makena was a little sad at first thinking that perhaps the tooth fairy wouldn't come since she didn't have a tooth to put under her pillow. But we had her write a note to the tooth fairy and she did come. She left a dollar and a note telling Makena to hold onto the next tooth! Here she is right after she ate lost her tooth. :)