Dance Dance Dance!

Last Thursday was Kate's last dance class of the year.  Tomorrow we have recital pictures, next Friday is her dress rehearsal and then next Saturday is her recital!  We have a busy few weeks between all of this dance stuff, my sister's wedding, and starting swim lessons, but it will be a fun few weeks.

I snapped a few pictures of the little ballerina before we went to her very last dance class.  She might not be the most graceful or calm ballerina, but she sure has fun dancing.

And just because I obviously love a good comparison, here is Kate on her 1st day of ballet last August and her last day this past Thursday.  She sure has grown! I just THOUGHT she was a big girl back then... and now look at her!

Memorial Day Weekend

We typically spend Memorial Day with my family at my parent's lake house, and this year was no exception.  I grew up spending almost every summer weekend on the lake- either boating, skiing, swimming, jet-skiing, or tubing.  Kate has ridden on my parents pontoon boat more times than we could count, but she hadn't gotten to experience the thrill of tubing until this weekend.  And she LOVED it.  She is such a daredevil.  She has no fear, which is probably not a good thing when you don't know how to swim. Hopefully she'll pick that skill up quickly at her swim lessons in a few weeks.  

I made Kevin ride with her first, because I wasn't sure how she would react.  After they finished, we tried to get them on the boat and Kate wouldn't have it.  She wanted to keep riding, so I hopped on with her.  She wanted to sit up so badly, so we rode sitting up once we got close to the dock.

Picture taking with a 2.5 year old has gotten difficult.  This is about as good as it gets right now.

The next day we ended up trying a tubing with 3 people.  Kate kept yelling "Best day ever!!" so I'm thinking that she enjoyed it. 

She might not know how to swim, but she thinks that she does... and she loves the water.

Hope you and your family all had a wonderful Memorial Day as well!

School's Out for Summer!

Well, Kate is officially a "Mother's Day Out" graduate.  Last Thursday was her last day of "school" for the year, so of course I had to take some pictures to document the monumental day. I think somebody was just a little bit happy for the last day of school.  (If I'm being honest, she was just happy to be able to hold the sign.)

It is crazy how fast this school year has gone, and it's also a little bit crazy just how big my girl has gotten in the past 9 months.  Just for fun, here's a little comparison between her first day of school and her last day of school...

Doesn't she look a little more excited for the LAST day of school than she does for the FIRST day of school??

Like I said, this was Kate's last year in Mother's Day Out.  Next year, she starts a 3 year old preschool.  Time sure does fly! 

iLife

I haven't done the best at taking pictures with a real camera lately, but my iPhone sure has come in handy at helping me keep up with things. Here is just a little bit of what we've been up to lately...

We've been eating Mexican food (and loving it).

And playing doctor (or pretending to be Doc McStuffins).

We've planted some flowers.

And then used free child labor to get my flowers watered. Doesn't she look like she loves it? 

We've done a little bit of swinging.

And washed a few cars.

And had an adventure Bachelorette party day.

Oh and of course, played around in Target.

Had a girls-only picnic on the porch for dinner while Daddy was out of town.

We have played in the sprinkler.

And we have tried as hard as we could NOT to smile, but that didn't work out so well. 

We have been busy having fun!

Mother's Day 2014

I think that until you become a parent, or have the desire to BE a parent, you don't really understand how special Mother's Day is.  Until just a few years ago, it was just another holiday, and I'd remember to say "Happy Mother's Day" to my mom and other moms, but the day didn't have any bigger meaning until I became a parent myself.  Now I understand what being a parent, and more specifically, a mom, really is and that makes me so much more grateful for the sacrifices my own mom made.  Mother's Day really is a special day to celebrate some special people, and I'm so grateful to have some pretty exceptional moms in my life.

The first, of course, being my own mom.  I'm so thankful that God chose this woman to be my mom.  She has given so much of herself to both my sister and me, and now to her grand-daughter, Kate.  She has loved me and supported me throughout my life, and taught me how to be a mom.  Now that I am a grown-up (based on age, anyway), our relationship has developed into a friendship that I depend on.  I don't know what I would do without her and our daily phone calls. Love you, Mom!

The second exceptional mom in my life is Kate's birth mom.  She is a strong and beautiful young woman, who loved Kate before Kevin and I even knew of her existence.  She, and Kate's birth father, first chose to give Kate life and then chose Kevin and me to be her parents.  They trusted us with her, and gave me the title of "Mom", which I'll be forever thankful for.  When they placed Kate with us, our family grew by not just one tiny baby, but by Kate's entire birth family.

There are so many other exceptional moms in my life, but for brevity, I'll stop the list here... and I'm getting a little sappy anyway. :)

So on a different note... as is tradition in our family, we took an annual Mommy/Kate picture after church today.

It's a little crazy how big Kate is getting.  I'm thinking that this will be the last year that I'm able to hold her for our annual Mother's Day picture.