Mother's Day

Mother's day has become one of my favorite days of the year.  I love the homemade cards and crafts.  I love the extra hugs and kisses.  I am so grateful for a spouse that honors my role as a mother.  I am also especially grateful to have a wonderful mother.  She has always nutured us with humor, forgiveness, great spirituality, and unconditional love.  I hope that I can be a blessing to my children in a similar way.  

During the week leadig up to mother's day, Ruth spontaneously surprised me every morning with an immaculate house and this note:

May randoms

David's final school assignment was to interview a California immigrant.  Fortunately, Grandpa was in town just in time for the report.  The kids were surprised to see this beard on him, which was the result of a 3 week backpacking trip through Argentina and Chile.  He gifted the kids all kinds of water canteens (to inspire them to hike, I think).

Our city held its annual art festival.  I don't know a bigger Harry Potter fan than David.  He's invented his own Harry Potter card came and is getting ready to start the 7th novel.

Two pink tongues... I guess Emmy is making the most of her only playmate during the day.  She also loves to make the family laugh.

James is such a happy person when he has a pen and paper in hand.  It's no wonder that my tape disappears so fast!  These are two turtles.  

Dancing life

As summer approaches, things are winding up to wind down.  My home studio held its final showcase this past week.  We invited the parents to observe a class, the kids performed a few dances, and then each were awarded with a medal.  It was so joyous to watch the parents (especially dads) grinning from ear to ear the whole time.  Several of the kids are moving on to other things besides dance next year, so I am a bit sad to see my time with them come to an end.

Emmy is the only two year old in the preschool class.  The rest are 4 or 5 years old.  I did not expect her to participate in the showcase, but she gave it 100% and even insisted that I do her hair in a bun just like Ruth.  I guess she enjoys an audience!

I only had 4 girls in Ruth's class, but they were a lot of fun.  Cute Stephanie broke her arm halfway into the session, but still gave it her best!

A few days later, we hosted a mother daughter dance party.  Ruth hung homemade welome signs around the house and insisted that we decorated with ballons.  At one point in the night, we had all the mothers join in "the hokey pokey".  Before anyone could leave the dance floor, I turned on the song, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".  It was such a precious scene to watch each mother dance with her daughter.  After about an hour of dancing, the kids lined up for ice cream sundaes, decked with pink icecream, oreos, whipped cream, sprinkles, and an cherry on top!  Pretty good, eh?