At the end of September, Maggie auditioned for her dance studio’s production of The Nutcracker. She was so excited to be cast as one of the mice – especially when she saw what she’d be wearing.
She had pictures last weekend and was able to try the costume on for the first time.
She makes an adorable mouse and I can’t wait to see the show.
I took Annie for a haircut on Saturday.
We’ve been to places like this before, but this particular location just opened up a few months ago.
She was pretty excited about that slide (I can’t blame her).
She got to pick out which vehicle she sat in and they even put one of her favorite cartoons on the television for her.
Annie’s hair turned out adorable and she got two stickers and a balloon (in her favorite color) so we were both happy.
Over the weekend we took the kids to get pictures taken for our Christmas cards. Sorry for spoiling the surprise, but they’re too cute not to share. The kids all did a fantastic job listening to the photographer and following her instructions.
My mom made Maggie and bunch of legwarmers and she has been rocking them!
The big kids got their school pictures back last week. They each picked their own outfits (or in Maggie’s case fabric*) and backgrounds.
I think they did great!
*I tried to get Maggie to pick out the pattern too, but she asked me to surprise her. I found the matching ears at Target a few days before her pictures. She was thrilled.
The toddler story time take home this week was a cowbell.
Yay.
Today was Dave’s work family picnic. Dave and the boys went first thing this morning and the girls and I met them at lunch time. Maggie was a little disappointed that there weren’t any picnic baskets.
After lunch, Dave took the kids out on a water trike.
Maggie was super excited that she and Annie matched.
This was Maggie’s last day of school dress and I surprised her with a matching romper for Annie.
There was a pretty intense water balloon fight.
I stayed on the sidelines, but the rest of them were right on the middle of it – even Annie.
Dave broke a balloon over her head. She wasn’t pleased at first, but got over it pretty quickly.
Adam, Luke, and Maggie all participated in the sack race.
Luke took a bit of a tumble.
He got back up and kept going, but I think he ran more than he hopped. Adam ended up winning the race while Maggie took the slow and steady route.
Adam and Luke also attempted the three-legged race.
It was a pretty fun day (despite the lack of baskets).
On Luke’s birthday, he and Adam got to be professional baseball players for the day.
The day started with them signing their one day contracts with the team. Per the terms of the contract, they received the following as compensation:
After changing into their hats and jerseys, Luke and Adam got to hang out in the dugout and on the field.
Maggie was thrilled to meet her favorite mascot as soon as she got to the game.
The boys were announced with their players and ran onto the field.
They stayed on the field during the national anthem.
It was so cool to watch and such an incredible experience for them.
After the anthem was over, I went to pick them up and we ran into both mascots on our way to our seats.
The kids’ kindergarten teacher (they all had the same teacher and we adore her) also works for the team’s entertainment department. She hooked Luke up with this special birthday pin.
She asked if Maggie wanted to go on the field between innings to play tug-of-war with the mascots.
Her team lost, but she still got a t-shirt.
It was a super fun day.
A couple of days after the game we got a link to the video I shared and also these baseball cards.
The boys have already asked if they can sign up to try to be picked for the program again next year (and Maggie too, since she’ll be old enough). I’m all for it.
Adam had a ukulele recital tonight. He did really well and we’re super proud of that kid.
He played two songs, “Camptown Races” and “Cripple Creek”.
Here’s a video of him playing. Annie “helped” with the filming.
He has a luau coming up at school soon and had asked me to make him a Hawaiian shirt for it.
We raided Dave’s side of the closet and found a shirt that was perfect for a luau and for the recital too.
I started cutting it up Monday and finished it this afternoon, just in time.
I was so nervous, since I pretty much had one shot to get it right. It turned out even better than I’d hoped.
Here’s a picture we took before I started cutting the original shirt up.
And here’s a picture of Dave wearing it in July of 2006.
Don’t tell Dave, but I think it looks better on Adam. It’s not really a fair comparison though, it was literally made for Adam.
Two weeks ago, Adam and about 45 other students from his school sang the national anthem at a local baseball game. The students auditioned back in February, along with over 800 others, for the chance.
The kids had to be there early for a sound check. Afterwards Adam and I wandered around the ballpark.
He played some games, won a giant foam finger, and ate a soft pretzel.
It was so cool to see the students on the field and on the jumbotron.
In case you can’t pick Adam out of that crowd, I’ll give you a little help.
The game ended up getting called for rain after the first inning, so Annie didn’t have a chance to catch any foul balls.
The chance to sing the anthem was only open to students in 3rd-5th grades, so Maggie and Luke weren’t able to take part this time.
The kids didn’t seem to mind the rain cutting our day short (I think the ice cream helped).
I’m just glad it held off until after the anthem was over.