Do You Wanna Have a Tea Party?

March 24, 2014

I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids.  I am so thankful to be able to have the opportunity to have them by my side until they start kindergarten.  Each child has a different personality, and it is fun to be able to watch them learn and play and be creative.  The time is nearing when I will have all my kids in school.  It is bitter sweet, but I have been trying to enjoy every minute I have left with Ashlee at home.  She goes to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 12:00-3:00.  I love having the morning with her!  Some mornings we go to the church to meet friends to exercise.  Other mornings we exercise at home and do some cleaning (she loves to help clean) and just hang out together.  She loves to do crafts and read books and play with her babies.  On this wonderful Monday morning, it was getting close to lunch time for Ashlee.  I was finishing up a few things in my bedroom and this sweet little 5 year old appeared in my doorway.

"Mommy, would you like to come to my tea party?"  How could I say no?  I came out to the kitchen and she had set up her little table for us with some of the snacks already prepared.  She asked if I would make us some little sandwiches to go with it all.  It was the best invitation to lunch I had received in a long time!

Ashlee made sure we used our proper tea party manners.  "Pinky up, Mom!"  

We had so much fun chatting about lots of different things.  Her favorite color is orange.  Her favorite food is corn dogs.  She likes panda bears.  She wants to be a gymnastics teacher when she grows up.  She loves to play with our neighbors, Melissa and Jenna.  (And she is such a momma's girl!  She is rarely not by my side when we go places.  She loves to sit on my lap.  She loves to snuggle.  She loves being the baby of the family.)

I hope it isn't too long before I am invited to another tea party!

Gymnastics Programs

March 25, 2014

The girls absolutely LOVE gymnastics!  The begged and pleaded for me to let them do the winter session.  It was a hard decision because they all three do clogging also and would make Tuesday evenings long and crazy, but I caved.  I am not good at telling my kiddos no when it comes to the things they love.  Well, we made it through the winter session, and they had their final program.  Here are the pics I took of the program.  I am not a good photographer and especially when it comes to moving little girls, but we have proof that they performed well.

Ashlee Rose - age 5
Beginner Class (5:30-6:25 pm class)

Kenna Marie - age 6
Advanced Class (6:30-7:25 pm class)

Megan Almira age - 9
Advanced class (6:30-7:25 pm class)

My Beautiful Girls!!!!

Future Mothers

Megan has never really played with babies much.  She does some with her little sisters, but Kenna and Ashlee LOVE to play with dolls.  I love seeing all the fun they have with them.  They begged for
Baby Alive dolls for Christmas.  Santa was very kind to them and he obliged and brought them each one.  Ashlee's doll drinks from a sippy cup and then wets in its diaper.  Kenna's drinks from a bottle and then can burped which causes it to spit up and it also wets its diaper.  FUN for them!  Not so much fun to buy more diapers for the dolls.  I refuse to spend money on diapers every again!!!  (Well, until I have grandbabies but that won't be for a long time.)

So, one day I decided to make the girls these diapers for their babies.  They didn't take a lot of time (once I found a pattern I liked), and the girls were thrilled with them.  They now had pillows (each girl had made one a while back), blankets (my amazing Grandma made each girl one a while back), and diapers for their babies along with all the doll stuff we already had.

I have had a great plan to make them each a diaper bag, changing pad, and wipes to go with the diapers.  I found this fun blog with great patterns that I wanted to use.

http://thediymommy.com/sew-a-deluxe-dolly-diaper-bag-and-accessories/

I, of course, have not taken the time to do it yet.  But tonight the boys and Andy were gone to the temple, so we had just some girl time.  Kenna wanted to craft, so she asked me to help them make the wipe case and wipes.  45 minutes later, Kenna and Ashlee each now have their own wipe case and wipes for their dolls.  They are so happy!  I hope I don't wait as long to get them a changing pad and diaper bag made.  I love being able to do things like this for my girls!

STARS OF TOMORROW!!!!

(skip ahead to almost the minute mark - I thought I would video the MC doing the introduction but I wish I hadn't.  He took forever!)

Meg and three of her clogging teammates performed in a local talent competition called Stars of Tomorrow.  I remember doing this competition when I was younger.  It stressed me out!!!  But Meg doesn't seem to get stressed out when performing.  They had to go through an audition process and then several dress rehearsals along with all the practices they did with their instructors and practices just getting together at one of our homes.  The girls worked hard!  Meg loves to clog!  I always thought she would be my athlete, but she really only enjoys volleyball right now.  Clogging is her passion.

The girls placed 2nd out of 12 acts in their age group - grades 3-5.  They did wonderful!  She and her teammates are good friends too, which makes dancing together even more fun!

Ready to rock the stage!

Anxiously awaiting the results!

Getting their 2nd place trophy (They only had 1 available that night, but they had 3 more made.)

Checking out their trophy

Meg, Abby, Katie, and Morgan
Way to go, girls!!!