Dance Recital

Today was the day Leah had been waiting for all year!  This girl LOVES to dance so doing it on stage in front of everyone was like a dream come true for her!  She had so much fun last year so I knew that she would have even more fun with this one being an old pro now!  Her Intro II class did a jazz dance to "When Will I See You Again" from the Wreck It Ralph soundtrack...super cute for the four- and five-year-olds!  They totally rocked it!  I'm pretty convinced that dancing has got to be the most expensive "sport" out there, but it's all worth it to see how much fun she has with it!

Leah and Ms. Sandy who she has been with for the past two years for both her Intro I (tap and ballet) and Intro II (tap and jazz) classes!

My beautiful dancer!  They don't like the little girls in lots of make-up (they still want them to look like little girls), but I did let her wear a little lip gloss and mascara!  She thought this was the best thing ever!

Sloane and her sweet family came to watch Leah.  Sloane was so cute with Leah before she had to go into the dressing room.  She kept telling her "You're going to do great Leah, I just know it!".

Our sweet little family!

Leah and Mandalynn who have danced together since the beginning!

The program!

Here's to another successful year of dance!  Because she has now completed both the Intro I and Intro II classes, next year she'll have to choose a specific genre class to take.  We're leaning towards jazz (she definitely prefers the up beat songs to the slower ballet numbers) so we're going to try it out for the summer session (and tumbling too)!

Fairytale Town Campers

On Friday Luke and Leah rounded up their camping gear and headed to Fairytale Town for their annual summer campout!  They had so much fun last year that this was a must on our summer bucket list!  Poor Luke had been out of town all week and was home less than 24 hours before he had to head out with his girl, but he was looking forward to it just as much as she was!  And he rocked at taking pictures for me as usual!  AND maybe oh maybe, Lane and I can join in on the fun next year!

The car's all packed and they're ready to head out!

They made it!

Time to play!

Time for crafts!  She made a pink lantern for herself and a white one for Lane!  She couldn't wait to give it to him once she got home (and took a nap)!

Of course Humpty Dumpty was there!

The happy campers and their sleeping quarters for the evening!

Singing songs and bedtime stories!

From the sounds of it, they were one of the last to go to bed!

 Finally settled in for the night!  Luke forgot a pillow.  He said when he realized this when they were going to bed Leah told him "It's okay Daddy, you can share my pillow."  So sweet!  Her pillow was the one that Mimi made her just for her sleeping bag and there's only room for one little four-year-old head, but goodness golly if she's not the sweetest little thing ever!

They were up bright and early with the crowing of Farmer Brown's rooster (no joke), so off to Mike's Diner they went for breakfast (one of them still in their jammies)!  They did this last year too so they couldn't wait to do it again!  This is the only time I will allow my child to go out to eat in her jammies!  :)  Leah was one tired girl, but she got in a nap once she got home!  Good thing because she had a birthday party to go to at noon!

And while those two were out having fun, my little man and I had some fun ourselves!  I surprised him with a little $11 pool and then blew him away with turkey, cheese and Goldfish for dinner!

Bye Bye Santa Barbara

One last snuggle on the deck!

We're sure gonna miss this!

On the way home Leah suggested we potty train Lane as soon as we got home.  Well sure enough, he popped himself down on the little potty that Luke put in the drive-way  as he was unpacking the car.  Ha!

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day was such a fun family day!  Luke has been wanting to take the kiddos to a River Cats baseball game for forever (Sacramento's minor league team), so Sunday seemed like the perfect day he said!

We tried to get brunch reservations at Brickhouse, but when I called Saturday night at 6:30 pm they couldn't seat us early enough so that we could make the 1:00 pm game.  Lesson learned......call for reservations more than 16 hours in advance; although, I must blame Luke a little in that he only decided that night that he wanted to go out for brunch.

It all worked out perfectly, though, because BOTH of the kids slept in until 10:00 in the morning!  Happy Mother's Day to Mommy on Father's Day!  Whoo Hoo!!!!!  If you know our family at all, you know that we will choose sleeping in over breakfast ANY day of the week no matter what the occasion!

So instead of a fancy brunch, we threw frozen waffles in the toaster for the munchkins, drove through the Starbucks drive-thru for the elders and headed to Raley Field along with the rest of Sacramento!  It was the Father's Day place to be!

We got grass seats because, well, we have a twenty-month-old who doesn't like to sit for extended periods of time!  Shocker, I know!  He loved getting to stand at the fence to watch the game!  Luke brought their gloves and a ball which they thought was lots of fun!  We ate lunch soon after we grabbed a spot in the grass!  The food at the stadium was AWESOME!

Soon after we arrived inside the stadium, we saw Jasmine and Belle.  Leah had no interest in the game what-so-ever (another shocker) so all she could talk about was going to see the princesses.  After lunch she and I went for a walk and left the boys to watch the game!  Guess who we went to visit?!?!  (I made her choose either face painting from Jasmine or a balloon animal from Belle.  I only had four quarters in the cash department so I couldn't afford to tip them both, although she really wanted to get a balloon for her brother.  Such a sweetheart!)

It was H-O-T so we grabbed a snow cone and then snuck into some seats behind home plate.  I have way too much of a guilty conscience to have enjoyed the seats.  I just wanted the snow cone gone and us out of there before the police showed up to escort us out!

Leah then kindly requested begged to go in the jumpy houses so off we went.  Most of them were way too hot to even touch with bare toes, but it was still fun for all!

And then we headed home to swim and nap but not before stopping at the grocery store so that the man of the day could do his own grocery shopping and cook his own dinner.  That's how we roll around here!  He wanted to grill and knew exactly what he needed at the store so he didn't mind one bit!  (And his pork tenderloin sandwiches are out of this world so I didn't mind one bit either!)

After dinner it was time for presents and cake!  (Carrot cake from Ettore's that the special guy bought for me the night before!  Man, I rock at party planning!  Where was Pinterest when I needed it?!?!)  Gifts were very simple.....Leah gave her Daddy the card and gift she made at school, Lane gave him a Cars card and I gave him a card with a note to take a day off to play golf!  Simple, just the way he wanted it!)

(Please take note of the thing that Leah loves that her Daddy does for her.  Now please remember what she said on her Mother's Day card about her Mommy's favorite thing to do....."sleep in bed all day".  I know her preschool teachers are thinking Mommy-of-the-year right here, yo!)  A little funny.....Leah (out of the blue) said she told her teachers that her Daddy works at Flexsteel or Naturwood but they didn't know how to spell that so they put "sells furniture".  Heaven forbid they google it (or even just guess at the spelling) for her sake if that's what she wanted them to put.

And then after dinner, the three loves of my life lined up on their starting line for their nightly ritual race to the bath where Daddy gave his nightly baths just as he does every single night that he's home.  I volunteered to take over, but he wanted to do it.  That's just the kind of guy he is!  (I did clean up the kitchen so he wouldn't have to after dinner instead of sitting on the couch with a tub of ice cream like I normally do while he bathes children.  Kidding.....I'm the cleaner upper, he's the bather!)

I know it wasn't a Pinterest worthy celebration by any means and that Luke had to do more than his fair share of the work on the day he should have had "off", but that's just the kind of guy he is!  He wouldn't have wanted it any other way, and that's really all that matters!