Lucy's Ballet Recital

We've had SO much fun watching Lucy do ballet this year. Larry's been taking her (because it starts when I'm still at work and it's the same nights I take Cara and Gwen to gymnastics), so I've been in the dark about her dance, I didn't know the song or moves or anything. I was a little nervous when her recital was coming up because Larry said she wasn't doing much in class and so we told her she needed to start doing it or we'd pull her out (and she'd have to return her costume, which we knew she wouldn't want to do). After that he said he noticed she was participating more.

On the 10th, she had a mini/practice recital at an assisted living facility. She was clearly feeling nervous when we got there, but we made sure to get there early and do her hair and makeup there, since Larry had to meet up with me as I was doing my Mother's Day with Mom, and explore a little before so we weren't stressed out. She ended up doing REALLY well with her dance, she moved WAY more than I expected. I was hoping that one helped her with her real recital.

Fast forward 20 days, to the 29th, I had just gotten back from DC the day before and we had gymnastics/ballet and bath night so it was a pretty chaotic/busy night. The next day (Friday), Pierce wasn't feeling very well so I realized we'd all have to stay back and let Larry take Lucy to the rehearsal. I really wanted to go because I haven't seen anything, but Larry had to go to rehearse the Daddy and Me dance. We were worried it was going to be a very long dance, because the timing they gave us looked like it was going to be hours and hours long. We got there a tiny bit late, but we did get there before her dance, at least. The dances were really good, but Lucy's was my favorite (of course) and the daddy one made me tear up, it was SO sweet! Luckily the whole thing only ended up being a couple hours, not 5-6 like we thought.

Larry and Lucy are there at the end

This whole dance thing has been a fun experience. Lucy was even one of only 9 to get a perfect attendance award (there are hundreds of students, so this one was a rare one to get) and says she wants to start doing gymnastics now that it's over, so we'll have all girls going at once, which will be nice. Cara saw her get an award and flowers and is saying she wants to do dance now, haha. I told her she can't choose something just for an award, she has to be genuinely interested in it, so we'll see if that changes later.

Running makeup and a half smile that says
"I'm over it"...that's our ballerina

May Activities

Holy cow what a busy, busy month! Here's what we filled it up with:

-One thing that made this month INCREDIBLY hectic, was that each of the girls has some version of "May Days" this month filled with a theme for the day. Most have an outfit or something that they need to bring from home so I have been super busy staying on top of those!

-Got the girls registered for Soccer. Cara and Gwen will do Fall and Spring, Lucy I only did Fall since she hasn't played before. They are excited for this to start, but it won't be until August.

-Cara got to have another field trip on a birthday, this year to the aquarium. I try and chaperon at least one for each kid, each year, so this was the one I could do and it was great to be a part of it. I did have a surgery follow up appointment the same week, so that made it a bit more hectic, but I knew I had to make it work and it was worth it. The only negative was we gave her a smart watch for her gift that morning and she just ended up playing with it the whole bus ride so I didn't get to chat with her too much, but I made sure to be friendly with the other kids in my group and I think they all had a good time.

-I got to do the birthday lunch for Cara on the 12th. She requested McDonald's (a kid's meal so she could have the toy). I love that the school does this!

-My biggest accomplishment was I got us some tickets to the Gardner Village Fairy Tea party - SCORE!  Unfortunately, I accidentally miscounted who was coming and ended up getting an extra one so Pierce may be coming with us.

-Cara also got to have her 1:1s this month (her month might have been as busy as ours was haha). She went shopping at Five Below with Larry on the 6th, which she loved getting stuff there with him. Then, I took her to Walmart around the 13th to get a cute two piece swimsuit (I didn't think I'd ever let them get those, but they really are convenient for bathroom runs), Hello Kitty summer pajamas, and some Hello Kitty sandals (partly for her birthday "need" gift). Then headed to Froyo for a treat (which she chose, I didn't fight it haha).

-The school had their annual art night so we got to see the beautiful pieces the girls made in school. It's simple, but so fun!

-Gwen had to build a cardboard car for a drive in movie day. At first I was stressed out about how to make it, but then Mom had a good box for us to use, thankfully, and we got some fun ideas (like adding a fun license plate, which I thought would be unique, until I dropped her off at school and some people went EXTRA with theirs. Almost all had a license plate, haha). I ended up looking forward to doing it and even started it early so we didn't leave it for the last minute, which really makes a difference. It turned out pretty cute.

-I found my newest favorite drink. I hate sparkling water and flavor packets that you put in water usually have aspartame in them, so I avoid them, but I found a flavored water that tastes good, has no aspartame, no sugar or calories and lots of vitamins. It's amazing!

-Cara reached her "I read 1,000 books" for the Library on the 19th and was SO excited to have her picture taken to be up on their wall

-Larry did a lot of practice for Lucy's recital, that meant the other kids wanted to try it as well:

-Some kiddo pics:

Cara's obsession with her watch

Love getting outside with the kiddos

Practice bun trial for her recital

Pierce and his "box leg"

Other DC Pics

There were too many pics to put in the posts, so here's extra ones I just want to include (there's a lot)

 

We got off the Metro in China Town
Which had this pretty arch

This Lincoln Tower of Books - all
Books were related to Lincoln

I took t his just to bug my Mom haha

I learned how beautiful Magnolia trees are

I found the Utah column at the WW2 Memorial

This great Fallen Veterans Memorial at the Lincoln Memorial

The Netherlands WW2 gift (it was a bell tower)

Hard to see, but the three columns are the new
Area of Arlington that represent the Air Force

One room from Arlington House. It was really pretty

Some of the Georgetown houses I loved

Part of the Capitol. One of these statues had ties to
The Statue of Liberty, but I can't remember
What it was anymore

This is the statue room in the Capitol. Each state got to give
Two statues each to be displayed

This was the only Utah statue I could find.

The card I got from the Holocaust Museum

The Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial from Washington Monument

The Capitol and the crazy lawns from the
Washington Monument

Silly goats at the zoo

The super boring FBI building

From the Spy Museum, cool spy info!

The Statue of Liberty Deed

Look how faded the Declaration of Independence is!

From the Constitution...such straight writing
I'm still amazed!

The gun that killed Lincoln

The bed he died in

A giraffe skeleton from the Smithsonian

The underside of a Finned Octopod
Looked kind of cool/creepy

All the Hello Kitty stuffed toys

I really found this fascinating

More of the Library of Congress