The Big Show

Today was Emily's last day of her Jazzy Bugs class at The Little Gym. They ended the semester with a show for the parents. It was very cute. They showed off their gymnastics skills on the uneven bars and the balance beam. Then they did their ballet and tap performances. Emily is very strong and I think she will be a great gymnast. She had a hard time with the tap dance part. She complained about her shoes hurting every other week, (on the other weeks, she would tell me she couldn't dance because her heel slipped out.) She loved the idea of being a ballerina and loved to watch herself twirl in the full lenght mirrors in the dance room. Regardless, I think both the gymnastics and the dance helped to improve her coordination. She had a great time and really enjoyed classes. Any free time they had during their class you could find Emily doing this.

They always started class with a cute song, introductions and a trick. Emily is showing off her forward roll.

The uneven bars were Emily's favorite part of class, she is doing her tummy roll.

She did a great job on the balance beam too.

This was the ballet dance, Emily here with her friends, Madison, Rose and Bella

I love this picture, it perfectly captures what Emily loved about being a ballerina

We didn't get any good pictures during the tap dance, she just stood there, then she got mad and then wouldn't even smile after it was over and she received her award.

So I will finish with these cute before pictures of my beautiful ballerina

I think we will try a gymnastics class at River City Gymnastics and see if this is where her interests as well her talents lie.

Project Update

Did I mention that we are still working on the new wood floor that we started the beginning of November? Before we left for Colorado we had finished all the way to the laundry room door. We decided late in the project that we would also put wood down the hallway. Before Christmas we had pulled up the carpet, ripped out the baseboards, and cut the door jams up in preparation for putting down the wood. We still had to paint walls and glue down wood. We finished that part this weekend. So here's what is left.

• Repaint/Buy new base (some got broken when it was taken off.)
• Caulk
• Grout transitions between wood and tile
• Tack down carpet transitions
• Get the glue off of the wood

I just hope we can finish before my mom comes, at the end of March!

Check Back Soon

I have lots of cute posts and pictures from December, but due to lack of internet service and computer troubles, they have not materialized yet.

SNOW (Ha Ha) Day

I guess the Little Rock School District really wanted an extra day of holiday vacation. I was awakened at 6:00am this morning by my phone ringing. An automated call was alerting me to the school closing. We knew there was a possibility of weather, but there had just been a small flurry before we went to bed. I figured we were in for a snowy day. I got out of bed to survey the situation. I looked out the window...this must be some kind of error, the roads were dry, there was no snow, there was no ice. It wasn't even picture worthy. So just an extra day off for the kids, mom on the other hand still had to work at the office. Which meant that all the kids got to go to the office with me.

Brian made a fort with the floor mats.

Home Sweet Home

It was a long drive home. Once again we had to contend with weather. We spent about 5 hours driving on snowy roads and it slowed us down. We stopped in Oklahoma City, and rested for the night. The room was dark and quiet, and there were blackout curtains on the windows. I guess we were tired, because when we woke up it was 9:00am! We hit the road after a quick breakfast. We arrived in Little Rock about 2pm.

It is nice to be home, to be in our own king size bed with our own pillows. If only I didn't have to unpack the suitcases, put everything away, find homes for all of our new things, and put away the meager Christmas decorations. Any volunteers?

Date Night-- Downtown Denver

After breakfast we made a loaf of wheat bread, which is one of my New Year’s Resolutions. I want to make our own bread this year. It turned our really good and the kids liked it too!

Then we had to make a run to the mall, Eddie and Grammie needed a few things at Sears. We also had lunch, rode the Santa Train and I won a bouncing ball from the “grabber machine”, which was pure luck.

I had a terrible time deciding on where we should go to dinner for our special night out. My mom was going to watch all of the kids, I think this is the first time we have left Danielle, so we could have dinner by ourselves. I really wanted to go downtown. I have been enchanted by downtown Denver for years. I wanted a good steak place, and really it didn’t matter how much we spent. We don’t go out that often, so a splurge once in awhile is OK. But I didn’t want to spend a ton of money and not get a great meal. I finally decided on Sullivan’s and made an early reservation, so we would be home before Danielle got fussy. We had an excellent dinner, there was no one out. We practically had the restaurant to ourselves, the waiter was very attentive, and we were able find a place to park, and the roads were not crowded. We decided on Baskin Robbins Ice Cream on the way home. It was the perfect evening.

Once In A Blue Moon

You have heard the phrase “once in a blue moon?” But do you know what that means? Honestly, I hadn’t until tonight! However, I learned from Wikipedia that a blue moon, (which really is not blue) is a full moon that is not timed to a regular monthly pattern. Approximately every two and a half years there is an extra full full moon during a month, and that extra moon is called a blue moon. This year the blue moon occurred on New Years Eve, and was also accompanied by a partial lunar eclipse. The next time that this will happen is in the year 2028.

We had planned to go to dinner tonight, but didn’t decide on a place early enough to get a reservation, so we figured that tomorrow night will be less crowded and more enjoyable.

We spent the morning over at Stephanie’s house. The kids played great and Stephanie and I were able chat, and catch up. Later on my mom and I strolled kid less around Costco, since there is not one in Little Rock.

P.S. This post was supposed to have been made on 12/31/09, but due to the lack of internet access, I was using my iphone and apparently it did not save this post.