Lauren's First Dance Recital

More on this later, but here is the video of Lauren's dance recital. They let us record at the rehearsal. She did really well! More pictures and a full post coming soon.



Are we crazy? Yeah probably so.

Lauren has been enrolled in Princess Ballet for the past year and she loves it. I've only gotten to watch her class a couple of times because the teachers don't want the kids distracted, but now we get to see the big performance they've been practicing for months. The recital is May 14th, a week from Saturday, and we've got the cameras ready. We've even hired our first non-family babysitter to watch the boys so both Patrick and I can go to the recital and enjoy the show. Lauren's class is the second act of the show, which means she'll be done fairly early. My plan was to stay for most (maybe all) of the recital so Lauren could watch the big girls dance too. However, today I was thrown for a loop.

Patrick called me and said he heard a commercial on the radio advertising that the Imagination Movers are coming to Charlottesville for a concert. Now, if you're not familiar with them, they're a band geared toward kids and they have a show on the Disney Channel. Lauren LOVES them. We have one of their concerts recorded on our DVR,  and Lauren and Nicholas watch it at least twice a week and each time they're captivated like they've never seen it before. In fact, they enjoy it so much, I wouldn't let mom play it for them when she was here because I was afraid she might accidentally erase it. 

Here's the catch...the concert is May 14th -- the same day as the dance recital. It starts an hour and a half after the recital starts and the two venues are only six minutes apart. However, we don't want to leave the boys with a babysitter for almost five hours so Patrick and I decided that we'd get two tickets and one of us would take Lauren to the concert and the other would go home to be with the boys. Right now it looks like I'm the one going to the concert.

May 14th is going to be a looooonnnnnggg day for Lauren since there won't be time for a nap and she'll be at the recital rehearsal the night before from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. We haven't told her about the concert yet and we probably won't until the morning of and then use it as an incentive for her to smile and do good at the recital.

Normally I'd say "no" to trying to do both of these events on the same day, but due to the circumstances, we're going to attempt it. So yeah, we're probably crazy.

Spring Evenings

Since the weather's been nice recently we've been taking the kids outside for a while before dinner to burn off some energy. It's usually cooled down a bit from the heat of the day and Patrick has wrapped up school work by that time. Lauren likes to kick the ball back and forth with Patrick to "practice." We're not sure what she's practicing for, but she's logged a bunch of time doing so. She also enjoys the sandbox and blowing bubbles. Nicholas likes to wonder around the yard, eat grass, fall down and throw the ball.

They both also enjoy sidewalk chalk. However, since we don't have a sidewalk or patio they write on the deck.

 Admiring her artwork.

Baby Zachary comes too, but he just chills in his bouncy seat right now...

...or hangs out in the infant carrier.

So that's what we're usually doing between 5 and 6 p.m., most evenings.



"Woof, Woof!"

Yesterday as I was holding Nicholas he made a sound like dog. I told him doggies say "woof, woof" and he understood me. So now if you ask him "What's a doggie say?" He'll smile and say "woof, woof." It's pretty cute. Here's a short video of him doing it, just ignore the sidewalk chalk on his face and clothes.

Twins

After I posted the pictures in the last post I realized how similar Baby Zachary and Baby Lauren look. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Lauren was one month old at the time and Zach was 2.5 weeks. However, Zach was bigger than Lauren at birth, plus he eats CONSTANTLY so they're probably about the same size in these pictures. Nicholas looked nothing like these two as a baby with his square head and long dark hair. However, he looks just like Lauren now.

Birth Announcement Outtakes

Today I took pictures of Zachary for the birth announcements and they turned out really well. I had to wait until his newborn rash cleared up plus find a time when he was alert and awake -- in between baths, naps and meals. So today was the day. The announcements are ordered and should be here sometime next week so you'll have them in about two weeks. Until then, here are some outtakes that didn't make the cut, but that are still cute.

 I like this one b/c his expression is like "whaaaat?"

I am DONE with pictures today...

...and I am tired.

All things Easter

The weekend before Easter me and Lauren made an Easter egg tree outside. The kids "helped" me put the fishing line on all of the plastic eggs.

The finished product. We tried to get Nicholas in the picture, but the tree was too close to the street and he wouldn't sit still.



Saturday night after the kids were all in bed, I dragged out all the Easter goodies and started stuffing baskets. I knew Baby Zachary would be making his appearance sometime in the few weeks before Easter so I bought everything ahead of time to include personalized Easter Baskets for all of the kids. In fact, as Patrick pointed out, Zachary's Easter Basket is older than he is  :)

Each of the kids received a basket with toys and candy, as well as a Limoges porcelain box where the Easter Bunny leaves $5 for their bank each year.

On Sunday morning Lauren woke everyone up bright and early to go see her bounty. She did pretty well. Her basket included a ballet Dora t'shirt, a new Dora movie, stickers, a coloring book, Dora socks, pink and purple peeps, cotton candy, a chocolate ballerina, a chocolate "L" and a white chocolate bunny with pink polka dots.

Not really understanding what was going on, Nicholas was excited to find his new bulldozer for the sand box, squishy ball and Yo Gabba Gabba squirt toys. He doesn't yet know the deliciousness of Sarris chocolate so he didn't care about his chocolate rabbit.

Baby Zachary is only two weeks old, but he had to get something so Lauren wouldn't think he was left out. His basket included a couple of ducks for the bath tub, a little frog rattle, peeps and a chocolate bunny that will probably be eaten by Mamma. Lauren checked out his basket for him.

After a yummy turkey lunch it was time for an egg hunt. Lauren was pretty excited about hunting eggs, but as it turns out, she as a terrible hunter. She needed major help even though the eggs were NOT hard to find.

Off and running...

I found one!

Eeewwee! This one has dirt on it!



Mmm...Nerd jelly beans!



Pausing the egg hunt to play with flowers...such a girl.

After the egg hunt both kids took naps and we intended to dye eggs when they woke up, but we ended up Skyping for almost two hours so egg dying got moved to the next day.

"WHY CAN'T I DRINK THE EGG DYE?!"

 ..."Fine. I'll just eat the eggs."

All done!


Baby Zachary was noticeably absent from our Easter festivities because...well...he's quite boring lately. His days consist of eating and sleeping with occasional fussing thrown in every once in a while. Next year he'll be more fun and we'll hopefully be in Birmingham for Easter. However, until then...

Happy Easter!