Ellie's Music Program 2013

Ellie has the best music teacher in the world! The annual Picotte program was held on Feb 23rd and let me tell you...it didn't disappoint as usual. Every year I am amazed at how professional the program is. We are very lucky! I didn't take many pictures of the program because I was videotaping but I did get a couple. After the program we went to lunch with a few of Ellie's friends and moms and had a great time. I love seeing Ellie with her sweet little friends from school!

Ann Marie, Ellie, Abbey and Claire at Jimmy Johns

Sledding!

I am not a winter sports fan....AT ALL!! So for me to take the kids the sledding is a big deal! I always feel so bad when I hear about all these kids going sledding when it snows and my poor kids never do because selfishly I don't want to do it! So the guilt got the best of me and since I remember having so much fun sledding down Catlin's hill as a child we took the kids sledding (hoping that it would be the last snow of the season--sadly it wasn't!!) Anyway, we went to an elementary school that is near our house and the kids had a blast. Dave does most of the work and I actually waited in the car for part of the time---it was cold! But I managed to snap a few cute pics of the kids sledding down the big hill:

Jack didn't want to go without dad!

We finally got him on the sled with Ellie--he ended up loving it!

This is the worst part of sledding!!!

Valentine's Day 2013

We had a nice Valentine's Day this year! We started the day with heart-shaped pancakes before school and then off to school for the parties. This year I wasn't able to help as much at the parties because they were both held in the afternoon so I recruited my mom to help! I went to Jack's for a little bit and then my mom ended up staying with him so I could catch the end of Ellie's party. Love being able to to attend their classroom paties--so fun to see all the kids! That night we had our 2nd annual Chinese take-out dinner for our Valentine's Dinner. We decorated the house and make a heart-shaped cake! I used to try to make a special dinner but then it seemed like no one ever likes it/eats so it so why not get something that we know everyone will enjoy! My mom had dinner with us this year and it was nice to get to spend Valentine's Day with her this year! Here are a few pics from our day:

Valentine's Day Breakfast!

Jack's party with Ms Carolyn, Sebastian and Sam

Ellie with her Valentine box as well as her Scientist that she had to study and create!

We got to spend Valentine's Day with Grandma this year!

Our annual heart shaped cake!

My loves!!

Ellie's 1st Gymnastics Meet

Ellie has become a gymnastics queen. She absolutely loves it and it is all she wants to do! She is taking two classes per week and each class is 1 1/2 hr long so she is there three hrs a week and could honestly probably be there 12 hrs and it wouldn't be enough. I am beyond happy that she has finally found what seems to be her passion. I have prayed about that for a while---that she would find something that really motivates her and I think God answered my prayer! To say she loves gymnastics is an understatement. So you can imagine how ecstatic she was when she found out that the class she is in gets to compete in some local competitions. She had her 1st competition on Sat Feb 3rd at Premier. It was a neat experience and I was so proud of her for being so confident! I don't think I could get up in front of a gym full of people and do a routine all by myself---that takes a lot of courage! She had a bar routine, a beam routine, a floor routine and a vault. She received a ribbon for each event with her best routine being her floor routine--she did amazing! She is excited to participate in three other competitions over the next month. I am so incredibly proud of my confidant and courageous gymnast!!!

Beam

Beam

Beam

Doing a forward roll on the beam!

Dismount

Starting floor routine

Floor

Floor

Floor

Floor

Vault

Award ceremony

Ribbons---blue for floor, read for beam, white for bars and vault

Love her!!!

Ice Skating Championship Finals

Ellie and I had the amazing opportunity to spend a weekend at the Century Link Center for the  Ice Skating Champinship finals over the weekend of January 26th-28th. Dave was so kind as to buy us the weekend package when they first went on sale last year. What a guy! It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience. These are the skaters that will be going to the Olympics in 2016 and it will be so cool to say that we saw them skate in person. Plus it was a bonus to be able to spend the entire weekend with my girl! We were there Friday night, all day Saturday and Sun afternoon. It was a long weekend but totally worth it! Ellie really seemed to enjoy it and a highlight for her was being picked out of the entire crowd to be the "Smucker's Fan of the Night". She was chosen and what she had to do was speak in the microphone over the loudspeaker to the entire crowd and say "Everything is better with Smuckers" and then we got our seats upgraded to almost the front row and got a bag full of little treats, etc. It was quite the experience! The seats were fabulous and they were almost right up to the ice. Pretty cook that she was chosen out of everyone there!!

Ice Skating Championships Jan 26th, 2012

This is after she was chosen as the "Smuckers Fan" and we got to upgrade our seats to almost the front row!

Women's championship medal ceremony

Jack's 5th Birthday and Kindergarten Round up

Bday lunch with Grandma

Bday boy

Big fire at kobe!

Kobe

He loved catching the shrimp this time!

Kobe

Celebrating Jack's 5th birthday

Love!

Angry Birds cake for the family party on Sunday!

Opening presents at the family party

Love this pic!

Birthday cookie on his actual birthday after Kobe!

I can not believe my "baby" is 5 yrs old! It is such a cliche' but time really does fly when you are having fun. Sometimes (well pretty much always!) I forgot to slow down and enjoy the time because before I know it they will be grown ups :( We had a great time celebrating our sweet little Jack. He was so excited to wake up to his room all decorated with birthday decorations. Then donuts for breakfasgt and them my mom and I took him to Burger King for lunch (his choice!) and then off to school to celebrate with his school friends. He brought cookies and handed out treat bags to each of the kids in his class. He was excited because he got to wear a birthday crown all day! For dinner went to Kobe which is our birthday tradition destination! Then back home for cake and presents. His big present (a motorized car) didn't arrive in time so he had to wait a few days for that but he was of course a good sport and was excited because it was being made "special for him" and he was very patient in waiting for it! Overall we had a great time celebrating our big 5 yr old and can't believe he is heading off to Kindergarten next year! We had a little family celebration the following weekend as well. We opted to not have a friend bday party this year--we'll save that for kindergarten!!

Just a few days later on the 29th we had Kindergarten Round-up!! Jack was so excited to go to Ellie's school and he felt like such a big kid. He got to go with Mrs. Nixon (Ellie's teacher) and do fun things in the classroom while I had a parent meeting. All in all it went well and Jack was very excited. He is definitely ready for Kindergarten in the Fall....mom not so much :)

Celebrating a successful Kindergarten Round Up at Orange Leaf!!

Being silly

I.love.him.so. much!!!!!