An eventful day...

Today was quite an eventful day. Hunter had his last game of the youth baseball season late this morning. The girls had the end of there 6 months of dance classes and practicing, culminating with this afternoon's Dancing Under the Stars. The kids all put forth their best efforts into their extracurricular activities and had load of fun too! J and I are extremely proud of them!

Hunter's end-of-the-season baseball banquet is later in the week. The girls dance recital went very well. The girls did great in each of their 4 dances. Autumn has been in dance for 3 years now - this year's dance teacher has been the best by far! Samantha started dance classes in January. So this was her first dance recital. With her being 3 years old, it seemed a good time to get her used working in a group setting, where she is part of a team so to speak. There were times that the Saturday afternoon class would be not the best timing for her. Samantha is between still needing a nap some days and others when she doesn't need one. Even though it was a just a 30-minute dance class, she would get bored after 15 minutes. In the past month though, Samantha has really started to enjoy dancing more and more. She didn't need me in the class prompting her and she would go the full class time without a fuss.

Dress rehearsals were earlier in the week. So we got a sneak peek at what the dance looked like strung together. This year both the girls had 4 dances each. I can definitely see the growth that Autumn has made in dance over the past 3 years ans she still enjoys it. So she'll keep at it. Samantha did super too. I just wasn't sure if how she would react being on stage with a full audience vs. just a handful of us watching during rehearsals. Samantha, lately, is quite the social butterfly. My pint-sized journalist will typically start asking questions of anyone around her. If we are standing in line at the check-out, checking the mail or just walking about. On a stage with lots of people watching, was something she had yet to experience. It would be one of several scenarios...

• Samantha would dance with just fine.
• She would get on stage and freeze.
• She'd get on stage, then run off part way through the dance.
• She could simply and suddenly refuse to get on stage at all.

Samantha got on stage, fell a few times during a couple of the dances but dance all the way through all 4 dances. She and her sister did phenomenal! We are still uploading, filtering and editing pictures. As soon as I have some I will share them with you all.

After the recital was over, we all grabbed a bit to eat then headed home. Samantha was exhausted and fell asleep. Since she needed the rest, J stayed home while I and the older 2 kids went to see Night at the Museum 2. The movie was a LOT of fun. I think one I'll add to our collection as we have the first one and liked it too.

At any rate, it's been a looooong day. Time to get some rest. Mom, if you are reading this - you have another package coming your way from a familiar place. This is not something you'll need to forward on to me, you can keep it. Hopefully you'll be able to find a use for it. THANK YOU for ALL that you do for me and my family. I mean really, the help you provide us is priceless. We love you lots!!

Ok, time to clean up the kitchen. Thanks to my purple Nano (Mother's Day gift from the family), I can clean to a beat and get it done quicker. Then it'll be time to hit the hay. I'm fading fast.

Wishing you a good day/ good evening wherever you live.