Ballet

Kate finished up her ballet class last week. She has absolutely loved taking this sweet ballet class. The class was a mixture of ballet and pretend--a little girl's dream! They acted out scenes from all the princess movies as well as Madeline and learned some dance steps along the way. For their last class they put on a little performance for the parents. I loved that it was so low-key--no costumes to buy at $60 a pop, or tickets to the performance to buy for the whole family.

I love this picture--the look of concentration on Kate's face as she's trying to do her part, and then the other girls whispering in the background. So sweet!

Here they are dressed up as Madeline. "Twelve little girls in two straight lines." (The girl next to Kate was playing Genevieve the dog later, so she wasn't in a Madeline costume).

Mother's Day Photos

We started a tradition a few years ago of taking pictures with me and each of the kids on Mother's Day. Here's our pictures from this year:

Rachel's 10th Birthday

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Rachel turned 10 last week! We had a great time celebrating her birthday. She continued the tradition of decorating her own cake. Then that weekend she had a sleepover with three of her friends. We went out to eat, watched a movie, had cake and made some summer slippers for a craft. It was a fun party.

She wanted a cake similar to what Sarah had--but Rachel's had to be chocolate!Rachel, Sarah and Kate along with Rachel's three friends.

Here are the summer flip flop slippers the girls made. We took plain white flip flops, covered them in furry fabric, and glued on rhinestones and flowers. They turned out cute and it was a fun project!

Yet another sign that my kids are growing up

Sarah got her ears pierced! She decided a couple of years ago that she wanted to get her ears pierced when she turned 12. That sounded about the right age to me, so we agreed on it and have been planning it ever since.

Life has been busy since her 12th birthday a few weeks ago, but we finally made it to the mall last weekend.

Here are a few pictures of the big event.

All done! She didn't even flinch.

So grown up!

Spring Musical

Last weekend Sarah was in the middle school's spring musical. This year they did Mulan Jr. They had three performances.

Sarah was part of the ensamble, which meant she had roles as a dressmaker, Chinese soldier, and a wife.




They have been practicing for months, with an especially rigorous schedule the last few weeks before the performance. It was fun to see all their hard work pay off in the performance. Sarah was on stage for many of the songs, learned lots of choreography, and did a good job on her solo.

Sarah is in the center with her arms crossed.

I'm glad she had this opportunity to be in a musical and work hard towards a performance. She learned a lot and had a great time.

Dancing in the Blossoms

Kate goes to preschool in the basement of a church. On Friday when I went to drop her off, we both gasped when we saw the courtyard all covered in pink cherry blossoms. It was breathtaking! We both couldn't help running in just to be a part of the beautiful scene. It was peaceful and quiet and covered in pink! After a couple of minutes of exploring I figured she really should go to preschool as I had a dentist appointment to get to, but I brought my camera back when I picked her up a couple of hours later.

Kate and some of her preschool friends had a great time playing and dancing in the blossoms. Kate was singing songs about fairies and skipping and laughing--her sweet innocence was so contagious. It was one of those moments when you wish time would stand still and she could just stay like that forever.
Blossom angels!

Caught red-handed (or thumbed)

Tonight after I tucked Kate in bed, I went back into her room a few minutes later to tuck Ben in bed. And guess what I found...

Kate...

sucking her thumb.

Yep. I can't believe it.

Because she had gone months without sucking her thumb, she got her blanket back about two weeks ago (really, she found where it was hidden, so I decided to give it back). She promised that she would not regress to sucking her thumb again. We had a big talk and I told her if she started sucking her thumb again I would take away the blanket--this time permanently. She promised me it wouldn't happen. Ever. And she had kept her word, as far as I knew. I had checked on her while she was sleeping just to make sure.

Tonight when I found her she was half asleep with her thumb in her mouth. The sucking sounds actually gave her away. I couldn't believe it, so I looked closely at her and then reached down and pulled her thumb out of her mouth and said, "Oh Kate." Her eyes popped wide open and she frantically waved her hand in front of her face and said, "I didn't know you were coming in.... Just pretend ... you... didn't see that!" And then she clutched her blanket and begged me not to take it away. I reminded her that she had promised she wouldn't suck her thumb and reminded her that that meant always, even in the middle of the night when no one would see. She told me she never would again and turned over sobbing and holding tight to her blanket.

So now I am wondering if she's been sucking her thumb on the sly all along (she would have had to be very sneaky as I have been on the look-out for wrinkly wet thumbs and other signs of secret thumb sucking, but have seen none) or if this is a first time offense. She was very tired tonight since we were out late at Sarah's play and she was sad because she couldn't find a particular stuffed animal she wanted.

I can't decide whether to be tough and take away her blanket for good, or give her a second chance. She is so sweet and good and was so sad that she had disappointed me. I really don't want to take it away. Maybe I am becoming too soft, but Kate just melts my heart since she always seems to truly want to do what is right and good. David says it doesn't matter if she sucks her thumb in the dark when she thinks no one is watching and that I shouldn't worry about it. Anyone want to weigh in?