Easter clothes

Since last week on Easter they were dressing like peasant girls, Caitlyn, Keegan, and Kelsey wore new dresses to church this week, instead.

My three precious, happy girls

Keegan's twists - this was in the evening, so pretend you don't notice the hairs that have worked their way out of it ;)

Above - A genuine Keegan smile (Also in the evening, ditto about the hairs )

Below - Apparently it is VERY funny for me to say, "Move closer together."

Kelsey (wearing her new coat) and Caitlyn, ready for churchKeegan's dress had a jacket that could be worn on or off (mostly on because it was chilly today.) Usually we have traditional colored Easter dresses, but Keegan tried on this grown-up looking, coppery one and really liked it. It seemed to suit her coloring, so we let her have it (but she has a more traditional one, too, that I bought after Easter last year -I hope she'll wear it next week :-)

My sweet Kelsey Rose

The Power of His Love

Happy Easter everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with lots of fun and worship. We did all the traditional crafts, egg dying, hunting, etc. Also, Bill, Caitlyn, Keegan, and Kelsey all participated in a musical Easter drama at our church - The Power of His Love. There were 4 shows. We attend a small church and were excited to have an audience each time! Bill was a disciple. Caitlyn, Keegan, and Kelsey were villagers, palm branch wavers, and witnesses at the crucification. I was an enthusiastic audience member and picture taker :-). Of course Caitlyn, Keegan, and Kelsey made cute crafts. Kelsey with her rabbit and chick. Look at this Easter basket

Keegan is very fun to give gifts to - she responds so enthusiastically!

Dyeing eggs is such fun! This year the girls got rather elaborate, even making 2 UT cheerleader eggs (for me :). Caitlyn is dipping a smiley face egg above.

Kelsey was very pleased to find a Littlest Pet Shop toy in her Easter basket.

Sweet Jeruselum villagers

Ready to start the play. I loved at the beginning, the choir director said, " We are not here to perform for you. We are here to minister to you." Hopefully, that is just what it did.

Keegan with a palm branch.

A dramatic reminder of what it is all really about.

Congratulations Bill/Daddy!

Bill's company evaluates their employees annually. They score points on a scale of 1-100, then are ranked. Yesterday we learned that Bill was #1 in the state! Today we learned that he is actually #1 in his entire region (the country is divided into 6 or 7 regions.) Yea, Bill! Congratulations, we are so proud of you!

St. Patrick's Day

We have a unique family tradition of finger-painting with green whipped cream on Saint Patrick's Day. Usually Bill and I join in, too, but today he was working so it was just the girls and me. We draw pictures, create sculptures, and all sorts of things. It is totally silly and FUN (although now that they know they can eat it at the end sometimes I think they rush to get to that part :-) In the picture above, you can see some of our beautiful view.

Yum, cleaning up is the best part.

Even green, Kelsey has the sweetest face.

Caitlyn has gotten much neater since we started this 9 years ago (and the entire project has gotten much neater since I learned to use a disposable tablecloth! ) She doesn't dive right in like she used to. They are all growing up so quickly.
Keegan's suggestion of green bread attracted much more attention than we expected when I made sandwiches to take to the dance studio. It is deliberate, not moldy :-)!

Sweet Kelsey

Well, I felt so bad that there were no pictures of Kelsey in that last post, that I decided to add one just for her :-). Here she is!

Kelsey is wearing a new coat, very generously given to her in a GREAT bunch of clothes from a lady at our church. We appreciate it! As you can see, Kelsey wore her new coat while reading. She also slept in it :-).

This week

1 Easter play rehearsal
+
1 soccer meeting
+
3 Scottish classes

+
6 ballet classes

+
1 tap class

+
1 dance performance rehearsal

+
2 Scottish Highland performance rehearsals
+
1 soccer practice (the fields were too wet to do anything, but get Keegan and Kelsey wet after we got there)

+
1 nursing home dance performance

+
3 lost dance shoes - between 7 o'clock Friday night and 9 o'clock Saturday morning - I can't explain it, ask Kelsey

+
6 rooms with freshly cleaned carpet

+
1 nicely painted back porch and cleaned garage (yay, Bill)
=
2 extremely blessed, very tired parents, and

3 girls ready to go again

At the nursing home - Caitlyn got perform 2 modified dances from Sleeping Beauty...

(above) one she was in in the show, and (below) one she was not in, but really enjoyed. This music always gets stuck in my head! And...

the Mambo again!Although it was actually the ballet group that went to the nursing home, Keegan (on the left) and a friend got to perform the sword dance from Scottish Highland dancing. This is a very complicated and technical dance. Keegan is really proud she is getting to learn and perform it!I think it is very nice that the ballet teacher provided this performance at the nursing home. Caitlyn and Keegan were excited to be involved and I think it's great the company is reaching out this way. BTW, Kelsey was a supporter and cheerer in the audience :-). Now a few final pictures

Mambo!

Caitlyn performed a great dance with the symphony orchestra. She partnered with David, her dance teacher's son, who is an incredible dancer. They danced to the "Mambo" from West Side Story. They looked GREAT and did an awesome job. I was so impressed. If you saw me this afternoon, you know that already, because I probably made you watch the video ;-). Just in case you are not one of those people, I am trying to upload the dance to the blog. I've never done that before, so am hoping it will work. Caitlyn's teacher, LoriAnn, is such a talented choreographer. She came up with this dance just after finishing Sleeping Beauty, while also preparing for a performance at a local nursing home (she also teaches dance 4 days a week and homeschools her children - whew!) Due to work, Bill couldn't come, but Keegan, Kelsey and I were there for both performances. Kelsey and Keegan really liked Caitlyn and David's dance, but by the second hour had had about enough orchestra music :-). Caitlyn was also excited that several of her friends came.

Well, I couldn't get the video to upload. The blogger site says it is experiencing "periodic difficulty with video upload," so maybe it is them, not me. Meanwhile, here are a few pictures.

Cute audience members - Keegan, Sophia, & Kelsey

Ow, that hurts! (Caitlyn doesn't think so :)

Cha, cha cha, cha, cha cha

Aren't they cute? Caitlyn is 11 and David is 12 - I think it is amazing that they are so young and did such a super job!

En Pointe

It's hard to believe, but Caitlyn got her first pointe shoes yesterday.

She didn't show it at the store, but was extremely excited. I am very happy for her and proud of her because she works so hard and is so committed to her dancing. But I can't believe my baby is this old!

It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were at our first Nutcracker with her saying, "I want to do that." At 2 years old, I didn't know if she would watch the whole show, but she was enthralled and has loved ballet ever since. She can releve' and fuete' and other things I can't say, spell, or do :-). Congratulations, Caitlyn! I am so proud of your dancing and more importantly the wonderful girl you are! I love you!

WHOA!

Skating Party!

Happy Birthday Jordin!

Saturday we went to a birthday skating party for our friend Jordin. Caitlyn, Keegan, and Kelsey all took their own skates, but after a while wanted to try rental skates. That was a lot harder! Mommy and Daddy helped as needed and we discovered it was harder to help than we expected - our arms got tired :-). I was surprised that the rink seemed just the same as when I used to skate cough,cough years ago. They even played the YMCA and the Hokey pokey!