FREE of the training wheels

A bit late in this post but it deserves some showing off so better late than never! Early May I was leaving work & headed home when I received a phone call that I must come STRAIGHT to Gran & Papa's {Jon's parents} house to "see something"!

When I arrived this is what I found.....a 5 year old BEYOND excited for she had mastered the skill of riding without training wheels!!

Jon found that once the girls were able to master riding their Razor scooter's they were ready to have their training wheels removed! It proved true with each one! Such a confidence builder this proves to be!! Oh the riding that has taken place since that day....one proud little girl & even more proud are her parents!

A couple videos taken of that special day! Forgive me for making you have to cock your head sideways!

recycling the recycled!

During our yearly Valentines dinner we gave the girls {as one of their little gifts} toothbrushes which were made from recycled yogurt cups! The extra goodness to them is that once you are finished with them you slip them back into the package they came in & drop them in the mail......no postage required!! Extra DOUBLE goodness!! They are then shipped back to the company where they will be recycled AGAIN! Extra TRIPLE goodness!!

Simple pleasures I tell you is all it takes to make these girls of mine find JOY!

With a simple opening of the door....placement of the toothbrush into the slot....& shutting of the door these used toothbrushes are off for some recycling!

There are some things in life that I don't bother my energy with {ie politics....don't lecture me PLEASE!}.......... where my thinking is "what difference will my one small vote or gesture make??" God is ultimately in control anyway right?!! BUT other things {ie our environment} I feel compelled to be that one small person, in a world surrounded by millions and millions of other humans, who tries to make a difference! After all God graciously gave us this earth to enjoy & so we must respect it & take care of it in order to continue enjoying it right?? We recycle, we try not to be wasteful {TRY being the key word.....we have soooo much more to work on....how does one live without paper towels??!!}, we turn lights off when not in a room, we TRY to not let the fridge/freezer stay open when not necessary, we turn the heat down/air up when we leave the house daily {hubby to thank for that one!}, we don't litter, ect, ect, ect! So although SUPER DUPER small.....we felt good about purchasing recycled toothbrushes & then turning around & sending them off for some more recycling goodness!! Kids learn by example & I hope they grow up to respect & take care of this planet we inhabit!

Baseball Season of '11

2011 baseball season is behind us.....& for the 1st time since the girls have started playing we were very sad to see it end! Not that we haven't enjoyed the years past but this year brought with it lots of EXTRA SPECIALS!! Like Jon being their coach. A couple players were non-Seventh Day Adventist & had a very good experience with the rest of us Adventist folks! An AWESOME AWESOME parent support system from EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THE. KIDS!!!

Another reason: the girls being on the same team.....so GREAT cause we only had 1 to 2 games/week opposed to 2 to 4!

AND lastly but OH SO THE MOST IMPORTANT is this little guy LUKE!! The highlight of our season!! You see he has Muscular Dystrophy & his parents {especially his mom} was nervous about him playing baseball. They heard about the "Collegedale League" {we play quite a bit less aggressive than other leagues} & they decided to give it a try! Sunshine I tell you....this boy is a ball of sunshine. He never ONCE {as opposed to my 2} came to a game with anything but a HUGE smile on his face excited to play ball!! He gave it his ALL....never once giving any less than ALL HE COULD GIVE! Inspiration & a challenge.....to be all you can be & smile BIG no matter what.....despite the odds that are against you! We cried as a "baseball family" many a night when Luke hit the ball or when Luke made it to base or when LUKE MADE IT TO HOME BASE!!!! You see this may have been his 1st & last year to play baseball.....although we are praying hard it's not!! We NEED & WANT HIM back on our team next summer!! If you could have heard all the dad's chanting "LUKE LUKE LUUUUUUKKKEEE" when he was up to bat....it was awesome! We love you Luke Dotson & hope to see you again on the baseball field next year!

Always my little spit fire of a girl....that youngest of mine! She kept us on our toes this season!

This one: ready to move on to a bigger league next year

Her 1 wish was a pink helmet....thank goodness for daddy's with {sometimes} soft hearts!

Not 1 assistant coache but 5....really a memorable year for everyone!!! At the end of each game you could hear...."gggGGooooOOOOOO PIRATES ARRRRGHHHH!

Pirates

#1

We ended our last game with a pizza party

& baseball cupcakes

PERFECT ENDING TO A PERFECT SEASON!

Dancer's

So hard to believe that we just {well the summer meaning of "just" is 3 weeks ago!} finished our 5th YEAR of dance! 5 years for Kayden & 3 years for Emery! Every Monday finds us making a 30 minute-ish drive to Karen Horton's Dance Studio for 1 1/2 hours of ballet & tap for Emery and ballet & jazz for Kayden! They both really love dancing & until it becomes a stress of fighting them to go we will continue our weekly trek to dance!

Maybe not the most enjoyable part of the recital but they definitely like what they see in the mirror when I'm done!

Aumie sneaking up to the dressing room to help with some finishing touches

Each of the girls had 2 performances but they each had one song they liked a little more than the other!

Emery's was a "Part of Your World" {ballet} where she was a mermaid

Kayden's favorite was "Start the Commotion" {jazz}

Emery's 2nd performance was "The Princess Song" {ballet}

Kayden was an Oompa Loompa from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" {ballet}

Ever so proud of these girls & always in awe of how quickly times passes through our finger tips

All too soon they'll be too big for me to pick up but you can bet I'm going to try until I can't

A recital is meant for showing off & I feel blessed for my babies that they have such a HUGE cheering section every year!

Gran

Aumie

My best friend has recently moved closer to us & was able to come watch the girls

Cousin Taylor

Auntie.....all this girly stuff is right up her ally

AND.....OF COURSE THIS IS WHAT FAMILY PICTURE TIME TURNS INTO FOR US

unsuccessful in the sense of not getting all eyes looking at the camera with smiles on everyone's face BUT completely successful in making me smile while looking through all our pictures from the night!

We're giving our feet & legs a rest {well they are.....I guess I never was a dancer!} for a few weeks....we'll be back to our weekly dancing routine in the fall!