Jeana's Recital

This year, Jeana took dance at a very traditional (and expensive) dance studio.  She had taken dance for four years now and I think this was the first year she actually learned something.  It is cute to watch her progress, learn names of dance positions and dance EVERYWHERE around the house.  In the past we have also had a Friday and Saturday night recital, but this year, both girls only had one recital.  It was quite lovely.  At this ballet studio, all the dancers tell a story through their dance and I really like that aspect, Jeana is a story-teller and looks forward to the fun things they get to make up in class and I really think it helps them remember their parts.  The other fun thing they do, is they have an older girl (usually 12-14) dance with the girls so they can follow her instead of watching their teacher the whole time, again it helps them learn their own parts.

Another Red's Game?!

Just kidding, the games can be fun (once a year?!).  Our good friends the Runyans invited us to go to a Reds game on Memorial day.  So, the girls got to play with their friends, eat cotton candy and have soda pop and peanuts.  What more could you ask for?  Well, the game started out nice, but the eventually was postponed because of rain, but we still had a good time.

Mother's Day

Oh my girls are sweet.  Living out here I feel like I miss out on the 'latest' crafting ideas, but I just had a friend show me how to make metal jewelry so after finding out how easy and fun it can be, I decided to attempt a necklace/bracelet/earrings for my mothers for Mother's Day.  I took the girls to the craft store and was looking for fun beads and overheard the girls on the other side of the aisle say, "let's make a necklace for our mom."  How cute, so they debated for quite sometime, finally they came over and asked if I would buy some beads for them and they would give me their money when we got home.  I knowingly, asked why and they both turned to look at each other, trying to make sure they other wouldn't give away they secret and then said they just wanted to make a project.  How can you say no to that?  So, this is a picture of the oh so pretty necklace and bracelet I got to wear to church!

Jeana's Birthday

Jeana had quite the eventful day.  Of course again, we had to do breakfast in bed which she was super excited about.  Then, she got to open presents and even got a barbie doll that had interchangeable earrings to pierce her ears.  She didn't want to put it down.  She also got to take cupcakes into school.  Then, that night we went to Build-A-Bear.  Mom, in her creative thinking, thought that if I suggested going there, it could be in place of a party.  Well, that thought was only successful until AFTER she got a bear, then conveniently, she decided she still wanted a party...Oh my.  The other mistake--going as a family.  How do you tell the second child she doesn't get one?  Well, bottom line-you can't, so instead we let her build one, but in the end, she had to earn it.

The party theme changed for awhile, and talked about bowling with cousins only.  Sounded great to me and I still the same invitations from Abby's bowling party, but that would have been too easy.  So, in the end she decided she wanted a 'Barbie Fairy' party.  So, she wanted to have a mock sleep-over where everyone comes in the evening in pajamas.  They decorated fairy houses (from birdhouses) so the fairies would have somewhere to sleep at night.  They also made fairy flower crowns, had pizza and watched Thumbelina (the Barbie version).  Then, as the party was ending they all got a fairy pillow, which turned into a pillow fight...I guess if you mix pillows with pajamas and throw a few girls in there, it is an innate quality to start a party fight.  Jeana and her friend Alessia (Matthew who Abby combined her party with) decided to do a party together as well.  Both friends have Birthdays close together, so it worked out well.  It was actually nice to have another party planner instead of an eye-roller like Dave whenever the word 'party' is mentioned! 

Here is a picture of Jeana with her cake.  It was difficult to come up with someway to combine all the things she wanted for her cake, but I think I mostly managed.  She wanted a poly-fairy and of course a barbie in a dress cake (b/c she has begged every year for a cake like this) and she wanted wings and bright colors and flowers...wow!  Anyhow, I think in the end and especially for not being a professional, I thought it turned out okay...and most of all, Jeana loved it.  The white chocolate wings...were quite a challenge.

Calling all food lovers...

Okay...I must admit, that when I first found this website, I wanted to keep it hidden, b/c it was so great I wanted to create my own and since 99% of the recipes I have tried from this blog are fantastic, I wanted to try my own hand at taking fun pictures and sharing the recipes. however since I know I will probably never get around to it, and since I have pretty much cooked exclusively from it for the past three months, I decided to just post the address.  So, for all of you sick of cooking the same things, here is my new(er) favorite blog with fantastic recipes and great pictures to tempt all taste buds.  mykitchencafe.blogspot.com  I have already introduced several people to this blog, and let me tell you, it has been a hit!  So, for all you craving a Raspberry Lime Rickey... (like me, included on the dinner menu tonight), go check it out!

Goodbye Yarik

Abby had a little friend in her preschool class who is from the Ukraine, named Yarik.  His family is very nice and even though it took us a long time to finally meet up, we got together several times before they moved to Belgium.  We walked around the university campus, went to a few events, and even fit in a last minute trip to the Indianapolis Museum.  Abby and Yarik had a great time there digging for dinosaur bones, driving tractors and just being silly.