Knock Before You Enter

Mother's Day weekend Hallie shut her door and posted this sign

 She was in there for hours and since Hallie hates being in her room by herself we knew she was up to serious business. Mother's day morning I found out what it was, she had made me 9 Mother's day cards-yes 9!

They were decorated inside & out

Since she was just a little bitty thing she has always written us cards to show her love and I have treasured every one of them.

The entire family also surprised me with this basket full of goodies they had picked out.

I have to laugh at the contents because I can immediately tell Hallie helped pick them. Anyone who knows her-knows what a little germ-a-phobe she is and look there are 3 antibacterial products from hand sanitizer to soap! You can also see they know me well because there is lots of chocolate!
I am also including a pic of Hunter right after he had gotten up and wanted to know what the deal was with the gifts and then grinning sheepishly when he found out it was Mother's day! This is him saying "Happy Mother's Day"

Come Fly With Me

Last week Hallie & Izzy came running in the house shouting "Come quick!" They had discovered baby birds in the birdhouse outside. I headed out with the camera to try and get a few pics but try as might they wouldn't peek their heads out for me.

Izzy kept begging "Don't blind them" (with the camera flash) and all I could think of was the Andy Griffith episode where Opie had to raise the baby bird!

The baby birds were chirping away and the mother bird was flying over protectively so we left them in peace. They stayed a few more days and then flew away.

I couldn't manage to get any good pics of the birds my camera (really me) just couldn't get close enough but I did take a lovely close up pic of the tree. Ha!

Come to the Carnival

I can remember as a little girl being so excited when the carnival came to town. I have to admit as an adult the excitement has dimmed :-) but Hallie loves it... so this week as I headed to work our local radio station was giving away unlimited ride bands and I thought why not? So I called & won!

First, Hallie slayed the dragon

 She is definitely not a daredevil and thought the dragon went too high so she moved on to tamer rides :-)

The absolute tamest was this train where she saw her friend Montana and they rode together. Hallie said it was so slow that Montana kept asking the "conductor" if she could get off because it was so boring :-)

She also tried her balance in the fun house with the spinning barrel

But her absolute favorite was the carousel (I think because it involved horses) she rode it AGAIN & AGAIN

 Oh my, do you remember the ducks? This was always my absolute favorite! Memories...

What child would not be tempted by all this?

And they are off! Who will win?

 Hallie wins!

Other tempting items funnel cakes, cotton candy, popcorn...

We were honored to be escorted by a rock star. Yes he did take some ribbing for toting the hot pick guitar!

 That concludes carnival time for this year but what carnival trip would be complete without cotton candy? (although I do miss the old fashion way they used to make it with a stick when I was a little girl)

New Again

Some of you may already know this song and video but I saw it the first time this weekend. The song is so beautiful and done to the scenes from Passion of the Christ-so powerful. I have watched it and truly listened to the words several times and it gets me every time. Dear God I thank you for making me new again and for giving the ultimate sacrifice-your Son.

Time to Dance

Where has the time gone? This is Hallie's fourth dance recital and it seems like yesterday she was walking timidly into class looking back at me with those big brown eyes making sure I was still there. I look at these pictures and see the beautiful young lady she is becoming. My prayer is that she will be sweet & beautiful on the inside because even though outward beauty is nice-it's what's inside that truly matters.

The dancers are asked to wear makeup for the performances because the lights really wash them out and even though I know that is true-it's still hard to see your baby with makeup on looking all grown up!

YIKES! Talk about a close up! (I told Tim only waist up and he minded me for once HA!)

Sweetie pie Emma & Hallie

We were excited to dance on the same night as Isabella-she is just the cutest!

Our yearly shots of the girls I haven't went back and looked at years past because I'm afraid I would cry

Our yearly pic with Mrs. Vickie

Hallie in her assigned seat looking a little anxious and ready to begin

Fast forward and it's all over, she's all smiles because she got her customary prize (she requested zhu zhu pets) and even had a smile for her brother

Speaking of her brother, Hunter was all smiles because he got to take a pic with his beautiful (and smart) math tutor Katrina. Thanks for all your help Katrina!

Practice Makes Perfect

One of Hallie's all time favorite movies is The Wizard of Oz and this year their tap routine was to "If I only Had a Heart" It turned out really cute.
I love that the camera caught the interaction between Hallie & Claudia. They have always been so excited to see each other and talked "90 to nothing" and these pictures while they were waiting to practice really captured that. It's almost as if you can hear their conversation

"Guess what happened today?"

"Then....."

"Really?"

"No, really!"

"That's so funny!"

Now, time for business and rehearsing of "If I Only Had a Heart"

Now a few shots of their jazz practice performing "Pink"

Great job girls, great job!

This year for the finale instead of just taking a bow all the dancers came on stage and did a group dance to "Hoedown Throwdown". Hallie was most excited about this! She knew this dance by heart after seeing the movie and from the looks of it so did the other girls. They seemed to love it & so did the audience.

Country girls Hallie & Claudia

"Pop it, Rock it, Polka Dot it"

That ends rehearsal, tomorrow we finally dance!