Swim meet vs Cypresswood

Some great action shots by Steven, as well as one of the Shark moms (pics with bluer-looking water). A great meet! They swam really fast!

Me and my blondies


Ellie swimming freestyle


Mary Clare winning her heat in freestyle! She took off almost 5 seconds! She wore a friend's pink flowered swim cap this week since I accidentally ripped her green one while putting it on Ellie. You might also notice Ellie has various goggles on; hers were lost that morning!


Mrs. V always brings great toys!


Ellie swam breaststroke for the first time and was in the same heat as MC.


Take your marks. (right next to each other!)


Mary Clare loves swimming breaststroke



Ellie did a great job but should have been in an earlier heat. I think she was the only 6 yr old swimming this event. They both got DQd as do about half the little ones with breaststroke. It's a hard stroke with no flutter-kicking allowed (Ellie) and no arms below waistline (MC).



Ellie checking out the competition


Steven Joseph would run over to his sisters for a high-five after each race. So cute!


Not crazy about my side profile, but fun memories of me with my sweet Tommy boy.


NeNe and Aunt Kathy before they melted in the heat!


Mary Clare so happy to be lining up for her backstroke


Serious concentration


Love this one from that other mom, a great close-up of my hardworking swimmer!


Way to go, girls! A great meet!

Baseball Team

Blogger is still messing up my photos, ugh. It's grainy but you can see our sweet boy trying to smile on the back row on the right. He acts so shy with his t-ball group. So cute!



And here's his individual one. I think these were taken by a parent in the group. So glad about that!

Ballet Production 2011--Ants'hillvania

On Saturday, June 4th the girls performed in the matinee show of Ants'hillvania,
an animated story of the prodigal son. Here's our family after the production.



And below are the girls with their sweet friends H&H who moved the next morning.



I wasn't close enough to get any photos during the show,
but here you can see Mary Clare 2nd to the right, in the dress rehearsal.


Here they are after the show. Ellie was a flower and Mary Clare was a weed!



Their sweet friends K&K also came to watch. They are ballerinas too!


NeNe and PaPa were there (so glad it was an afternoon and not a late night performance)!


And we didn't get a posed shot but here is a candid so we can remember that Aunt Jill and Grampatti also made the trip to our side of town to see the girls! Such a special day!


And here are some videos from the dress rehearsal. You will notice that there's acting going on at the same time since it was a musical. Also the instructors are all around the stage, and the video quality is bad, but you'll get the idea! All 3 of their dances ran one after the other since they were in the same "garden" scene.

Ellie as a flower in "Seeds." She's 3rd from right in the front row, wearing blue/green.


Mary Clare as a weed, 2nd from the right in the front row. She's 2nd in line when they start dancing around Ellie, and then first in line when their group comes back together.


And Mary Clare's tap "Choices, Choices."
She's in the front on the left side of the stage,
behind the drama instructor most of the time!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

If I'm going to have to load them to photobucket to make them look clear, why not make them huge, right?

Here are my beautiful ballerinas after their production, "Ants'hillvania," on Saturday. They danced beautifully as a weed and a flower! Oh how I love ballet and am so glad my girls love it too! This year's production was the story of the Prodigal Son as a musical of ants and other small creatures. It was very cute and colorful and might have been my favorite one yet! I'll try to load some more photos and maybe a video tomorrow.

{happy}

I'm so happy that we're all well again and can get out and enjoy the world and our family! We went to a local outdoor mall on Memorial Day with my parents in the picture here, and have even visited two local pools in the past two days! Yes, I took 4 kids to a water park YMCA pool last night all by myself! A proud mama moment. Today I was off the hook while NeNe and PaPa watched them in their club pool. The kids are so happy when we go swimming and when they get to see their grandparents and other aunts and cousins! (fellow Aggies, don't mind the hats on my parents, just ignore)

{funny}

Yesterday the kids couldn't wait for Thomas to wake up from his nap so they could throw him a birthday party! I wasn't a part of the celebration, which took place in the boys' room, but they even made a "cake" for him out of baby oatmeal cereal. He looked so cute in this paper crown they made! And no, it's not his birthday...he's still 8 1/2 months! And apparently this weekend will be the birthday of one of their dolls. This is lots of work for them, these birthdays!

{real}

The real life of a homemaker is kicking my rear end. Some of you may have seen this photo on Facebook about a week ago, where I claimed that I need a laundry fairy. You might think that posting this would have helped me to get motivated to fix this situation in the back of my living room. Nope. It's still there, with even more clean clothes in the baskets. At least it's clean, right? I am just not very good at housekeeping. I need to work on it, but I am very much lacking in motivation right now. I'll blame the 100 degree Texas weather. I'd rather just go to the pool.


Read more here:

Spring Sports

I knew I would look back and wonder what I was thinking when we got through this season of ballet exams, ballet production, t-ball, and swim team! Now that ballet is over, I can breathe a sigh of relief. But just a little sigh because now we're able to make daily swim practice which is at...wait for it...8:00 a.m.!!! Gonna be a fun few weeks for this non-morning person.

We ended up skipping last weekend's swim meet at the last minute, realizing we overestimated our abilities to juggle that meet, along with the t-ball game then get the girls to their ballet theater by noon! They'd also been up till nearly 11pm after watching the Friday night ballet production. So we all got to attend Steven Joseph's t-ball game! A special family morning :)



He's losing a bit of the excitement he had at the beginning of the season. It's sunny and hot and I guess a little of the novelty is wearing off. Still he's having fun and enjoys being on first base and trying to catch all the balls.


The coach and his wife are wonderful with the little boys. It could be complete chaos with this many 3 year-olds who don't know how to play the game, but instead it's what you might call organized chaos. Pretty much every child gets confused about where they're supposed to run.


Steven Joseph's favorite part is batting and he's doing pretty well at it. They get to bat twice at each game and I think he only ran the wrong way once at this game! I have no idea how/if they keep score, because the kids keep running bases even if they've been outted. They all have lots of fun and no one worries about the score at this age. It's more of an intro to the sport for all of them.


Although these practices and games are hot, chaotic, exhausting, and just 2 more weekly activities on our busy spring calendar, I'm still glad we made the decision to do a little something special with Steven Joseph. He usually spends all his days tagging along with the big girls' schoolwork, activities, classes, and even their daily play around the house. He needed a little something just for him! Hopefully he remembers this fun first season of t-ball playing on the Orioles! GO O's!

Farewell, dear friends...

I've been such an emotional sap this weekend. Our sweet friends the A family have moved away. The girls had their final ballet performance (photos coming soon!), and then we had to say goodbye. The girls did fine but us moms shed some tears. This was one of the few homeschooling families that I know who have girls the same ages as mine. We met at the ballet school four years ago, when our oldest girls were 4 and the little ones were 2 and were both crushed that they couldn't join the dance class yet! Now all four girls have become dear friends and beautiful dancers.

The precious beauty on the right is the one we prayed for so hard two years ago when she was suffering through kidney cancer. She was so weak she couldn't even dance in the show. She had started chemo and was preparing for surgery. We didn't see them a whole lot those next few months as H was so sick and weak. She lost all her beautiful curls and we missed our friend.

To see her smiling and dancing again makes my heart so happy and grateful to our God who has healed her. I'm so thankful that we had this past year and a half to spend time with the girls again and share in so many ballet and homeschooling activities. I pray that their new adventure brings them much peace, hope, and joy and that the coming years bring continued health for H and all the family. We can't wait to see pictures of their new little brother coming this fall!

Last night Ellie was going to sleep with her Pillow Pet from her friend H. She was crying and it made me cry too. She is one of the few very close girl friends that Ellie has. I pray that all of these girls make some new friends, and that their own friendships continue to last over the years and miles.

God bless you, A family. We miss you!

P.S. Is anyone else having issues with Blogger shrinking photos so they're grainy? I had to load to photobucket and use that code for this post. Looking back at my blog, seems like the issue started around mid-May. Will have to look into this...

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

more at soulemama

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

These photos are all from a friend's "Little House" themed birthday party. We don't have prairie clothes, but I'll have to make them one day. I thought Ellie looked lovely with her daisy crown, and writing in their learning room (more on that below).

{happy}


Dancing, picnicking, singing, crafting...this party had it all! Each child got a tin lunch pail filled with wholesome snacks wrapped in waxed paper like apples, tarts, and cornbread. And they also got their own cloth napkins which they washed on a washboard at the end of the party.

{funny}


Steven Joseph and his little friend were having quite a fun time with the cake and ice cream. Aren't they precious?

{real}

Yes, this is really the learning room of my dear friend.

It's like a homeschooling dreamland.

Filled with every kind of Catholic/Charlotte Mason/Montessori/Waldorf type of craft, manipulative, art supply, or book you could imagine.

And even a fairy garden in the dining room.
Swoon.
So blessed to have such kind, creative Catholic homeschooling friends.


See more {phfr} links here: