Our Little Angels...

This is what happens when you leave a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a 3-year-old alone for 5 minutes....look at those guilty faces. hehehehe. :)

One more thing:

California and Florida are calling my name...loudly. I CAN'T WAIT!!! Mike and I both deserve these past-due breaks from the daily grind...Sure, they're few and far between, but in a way it helps us to remember to appreciate vacations like this that much more. Even if we do have to take the kids with us...

And I thought they were perfect...

I took my girls to the doctor today for their yearly well-child checkup, and for the most part there were no surprises. Ashlyn, as the nurse so kindly described her, is a box: 38 inches tall, and 38 pounds. Nice. Mikayla is just about your average 6-year-old in both height and weight. Both of them are completely healthy; that is, except for Mikayla's eyesight problem.... Apparently, she's somewhere in the neighborhood of 20/60 vision. I honestly have no clue what that means, because my vision is, and always has been, pretty darn sharp. I'm guessing it's near-sighted?!

Anyway, at her doctor visit last year they had mentioned that we should watch her for vision problems because she didn't pass that exam either, but they weren't sure if she was having trouble seeing or if she really just didn't know what the name of the shape was. But, sure enough, this year it was so obvious that she really couldn't see it. So we now have to take her to an ophthomologist and she will most likely end up with a pair of corrective lenses, which, strangely enough, she was more than happy to hear. Aside from now having another thing to worry about (keeping track of and taking care of a pair of expensive but necessary eyeglasses), I'm okay with it and am thankful that that is the worst thing that my child has to deal with.

On another note, Josh and Mikayla danced in the annual LDT recital on Saturday and both did awesome! Josh actually wants to do it again next fall; he actually asked me if he could, which is a gigantic indicator of how much he truly likes it. Believe me, I've been trying to figure out where his niche is for a long time, and I'm so excited that he likes it so much! Basketball and hip hop....

I have video of their dances, but for some reason the disk that it is recorded on is shutting down my computer when I try to import it (grrrr), so I have to figure out what's wrong with it. But as soon as I do, I'll post them.

RANDOM..

Everyone has their weakness...I'm the first to admit that I am a HUGE shoe freak. I love them and I can never have enough cute ones. Seriously, one of the hardest things for me to do is walk away when I see a pair I like. But, unlike so many times before, I actually did just that today; it felt good, but it took everything in me...A pair of black Converse One Star slip ons... cute, comfortable, functional, AND easy to put on...

I must have them.

With the ways things have been going lately, maybe when they go on clearance...

Sigh.

Mother's Day

To all my friends out there who also happen to be mothers, I hope you all had a great mother's day! You're all awesome!

Oh yes, and today is also Josh's birthday. He's 9.

Crazy Weekend

So, I know I said in a post in December that that was the busiest time of year for me...I think I may stand corrected. I am looking at my calender for May, frantically searching for a day when I have absolutely nothing to do..and I don't see it! That's not to say that these aren't things I enjoy, (i.e., my 60-minute massage awaiting me tomorrow morning)...but still...

For instance, what I am about to post are some pictures and videos of this weekend...and after you see them you may find yourself just as exhausted as I feel right now. But, let me assure you, it was so worth it!

On Friday, I let Josh have a sleepover party for his birthday with some of his friends from school. This may have been the easiest party I have ever thrown for one of my kids...5 boys, pizza, cake, video games, movies, popcorn, and sleeping bags in the basement. There was one boy whose father told me as he was dropping him off that he was allergic to cats and that if he started to swell up all I had to do was give him a cold washcloth and some benadryl, no big deal. No big deal?! My kids don't have any allergies like this, and the one time Mikayla did have a reaction to an antibiotic she swelled up so bad that I could barely recognize her and we ended up taking her to the ER. No big deal?! Needless to say, I was slightly overprotective with this child, checking on him every 10 minutes to make sure he wasn't breaking out, swollen, convulsing, or anything of the sort under my care. He ended up not having any reaction at all to the cat. But, just as I was beginning to relax, he starts coughing nonstop and informs me between breaths that he is having an asthma attack, no big deal...and as I panicked, he calmly reached for his inhaler and administered it to himself with ease. No big deal.

Next comes Saturday. As Hailey and Rhea would both attest to, this day was the definition of insanity, to say the least. Too many things to write in detail about, so I will just list them. You don't want to know details anyway. Trust me. :)

• 9-10 a.m. Boys go home from sleepover.
  
  
• 9:30-11 Work
  


• 11-12 Birthday party at a neighbor's house
  


• 11:45 Josh somehow gets tree sap all over the back of Mikayla's neck, causing her to try to rub it off, causing a huge red mark, causing me to freak that it was a burn when she mistakenly said Josh had poured wax on her, causing us to miss the rest of the birthday party and be late for Josh's hip hop class...
  


• 12:30-1:30 Josh Hip Hop class (only boy, front and center, cutest thing ever)
  


• 2-4:30 Work again and naptime for kids (spankings threatened)
  


• 5-6:15 Birthday party at another neighbor's house/BBQ/tequila shots (for added nerve-calming)
  
  
• 6:30-7 Get Mikayla ready for her big ballet debut (Note to self: Never cut your child's hair short a week before a ballet recital requiring hair in ballet bun)
  
• 7:30-10:30 Hansel & Gretel Original LDT Ballet
  

This ballet was such a production! Mikayla was part of the gum drop corps, a scene specifically written to include the smallest dancers of LDT in the ballet. She has rehearsed every Sunday for half an hour for the past 3 months, had a 2-hour rehearsal almost every day this past week, and was in both the Saturday night and Sunday productions. She had no big solo part and really didn't even do that much dancing. But it was adorable nonetheless, she had an absolute blast, and, hey, you gotta start somewhere!

Dance of the Gum Drops (Mikayla is the one with the red lollipop)

The final bow at the end of the performance

Mikayla and her friend Ginelle after their Saturday night performance





The whole thing shot me back to my first ever big ballet performance...and the reason why I love it so much to this day...

The Nutcracker Ballet, Boulder Ballet, December 1983

: )

And now, it's bedtime, so I can wake up tomorrow and start another crazy week..