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.