Taylor's Star Day!

Since Tay's bday falls in the summer, she had her "STAR" day on March 22nd. Her teacher, Miss Crowton, sent home a "Junie B" journal for Taylor to complete with pictures and answers to questions about 2 weeks before her special day. It was REALLY cute! On the day of, I went in with a few of Tay's favorite things, the journal and a treat for the class. When I arrived, Taylor was dressed in the "STAR" apparel - blue cape and star headband. She was so happy, truly on cloud 9! We read the journal to the class, told about the items we brought and then Tay answered her classmates' questions. We showed her blanket, her Disney autograph/scrapbook and her baby book. And everyone loved the half of a go-gurt that we gave out as treats. Here are a few pics.

Her funny picture was one of her with Minnie Mouse where they were both holding their skirt out (like a curtsy). Her favorite adventure ... DisneyWorld and Thunder Mountain Railroad. Favorite vacation ... DisneyWorld and camping.
Favorite snack ... Go-gurts of course. KitKats were her favorite TREAT. Unfavorite thing to eat ... just about everything else!
The kids asked lots of cute questions about her favorites and unfavorites.
With her favorite snack, a go-gurt (also her main sustenance in life ... 6-8 of these bad boys a DAY!) She can down them in just a couple of seconds! And blue ones are her favorite.
Taylor with Miss Crowton ... such an AMAZING teacher!

At the end of our time, it was recess time. This is a picture of a few of the girls from Tay's class with Taylor and her teacher. Yes, this is most of the girls in the class. The boys all ate their go-gurts and bolted, most of the girls dilly dallied so they could play with Tay on her "STAR" day. So cute. I am so proud of this little girl and how she has come out of her shell. She definitely is NOT shy anymore.

Early Easter

Because my parents were leaving town on the 22nd to go to Ohio, NC and Kentucky (to visit family and be there for my nephew's baptism this weekend), we did Easter early at their house. We have some fun traditions ... the kids all have a color for their egghunt. So each kid gets to find ONLY their color of egg. It allows each kid to get the same number of eggs and lets us hide the older kids' eggs a bit harder (although sometimes its the one in the lawn they walk over and don't notice!). Then they do a scavenger hunt with Grandma to find their baskets (which were hidden in the back of their van this year) which is always filled with more goodies. Fun times!

All 6 grandkids that live locally

Taylor had purple eggs this year. Jessica looked for blue eggs this year.Don't walk in grandpa's (unplanted) garden Tay! :) Alyssa and Glen ... no shoes! Alyssa was searching for pink eggs.Ronnie - another one with no shoesStretch Jess!Glen was standing almost on top of one of his eggs at this point and wasn't noticing the two in the tree either. Glen is not taller than most of us ... he has SHOT UP in the last couple of months. He's 13 and about 5'8". Definitely got his dad's height going for him.Alyssa finally found this one in the fence.Jessica counting her eggs. Everyone counting their eggs and checking out the stash inside. This is my neice Meghan, bringing her basket from the back of the van.Always something in this kid's mouth ... not food, but SOMETHING!Cheese!!After they found their baskets this year, they ended up running races in the front yard. All the kids ran back and forth. Taylor and Jessica figured out they couldn't keep up ... so they just watched for the big kids to almost reach the end and then turn around and head back too (even if they were only half way)and they'd giggle and laugh all the way to the finish line.

Jess had already turned around and Tay was stopping to turn... they're smart little kids! Ok, so its also called cheating, but it was funny!Alyssa could just not keep up with Ronnie - maybe because he's a boy, maybe because he's 6 months older or maybe because he's about 8 inches taller. This kid is going to be looking down on me VERY soon and he's only 10! Again, definitely comes from his dad (my brother-in-law is abt 6'4")! In this picture you can see Taylor LAUGHING. :) I love her endless giggling.

Lots of posts ...

I'm knocking them out!! Trying to get March done before March ends. It bugs me to not be current. Since I can't keep up on my scrapbooking, I'm at least going to be current on my blogging. I'll just do it the way I did before I started digital scrapbooking. Lots of pics. :) Hope its not too much!

Dance Competition at Timpview

Its that time again ... time for Alyssa and I to spend a few Saturdays, getting up way too early, doing hair and makeup and changing in and out of costumes in between dancing! :) She loves it. I love that she loves it... First competition was March 20th at Timpview HS in Provo. She had to be there at 7:45am with hair and makeup ready. Because I wasn't sure what makeup needed to look like this year, we even got there 15 minutes early!! :) She is in 3 dances again this year.

The first is a jazz number to a song called "Fashion".This is her team. There were 6 of them until about 10 days before the competition when a girl threw her knee out. She's out for the rest of the season so they had to do some quick changes to all the routines. This routine was the one that was affected the most. They had a hard time remembering things because of all the changes to timing and positions. They placed 3rd in their category. Its going to be a CUTE routine when they get it down though. And they have almost a month between the 1st and 2nd competitions so they should be good. My mom and my nephew who is just a few months older than Alyssa went with us to watch and support Alyssa. After her first performance, we had a 2 hour break before warmups for the next one, so we skipped out to Burger King for some breakfast with Alyssa's friend Abby and her family.
Her second routine is a SUPER FUN tap number to "My Boyfriend's Back". They rocked on it! I was so proud of them. They all had a lot of fun with it too. Unfortunately, they were competing against a team that had to have averaged at least 3 years older than them ... so they only placed 2nd. I hate when teams put incorrect information on their registration forms so they get put in the wrong category. Honestly, the youngest girl on the other team had to have been 14 and the oldest on Alyssa's team is only 14. The other team was really good. Go figure. I was so proud of her though! Next time ... Oh, and did you notice the hair? Last year we had to put it in a curly pony tail ... this year they went with hair pieces. It is SOOOO Stinkin cute and SOOOOOOO much easier! Lovin' it!

The last number is a production number involving the entire studio. I saw it at dress rehearsals one week before the competition and thought it would be an absolute DISASTER! TRAIN WRECK! BUT, it turned out pretty well. It is to a mix of High School Musical songs and really fun. There are probably 30 girls in the routines and anywhere from 4 to all 30 are on the stage at a time with them all moving on and off. Alyssa loves to use the basketball prop and her scarf! Alpine Peaks was the only company with a production number so they were given a "Gold" rating. Ratings range from Platinum, High Gold, Gold, High Silver, Silver, High Bronze and Bronze. So, a gold was pretty good for first competition.

This is Alyssa with her friend Abby. We carpool with Abby who is 2 years older than Alyssa but on her team. Its fun to watch Alyssa with the older kids. She's on an older team this year, and a more diverse team. The girls are not as strong of dancers as last year, but it is the PERFECT fit for Alyssa. She is happy and has friends and has fun dancing again! The team last year was all within about 18 months of each other in age and very "girly" acting including the petty little girl stuff. I'm glad Alyssa is happy and fitting in. And her dancing has improved a lot too. Go Alyssa! "Get your Head in the Game" :)

1st Grade Dads and Donuts

One of the biggest perks of helping with Dads and Donuts is getting to know the teachers a little bit. But the BEST perk of all, is getting to see all the cute dads with their kids and how HAPPY this makes the kids. And of course, getting to take pictures of my own kids with their dads is that much more fun! :) Taylor doesn't eat donuts so we packed her a bag of Ritz crackers instead. She was just as happy! Gotta love the expression from Steve.

St Patricks Day

I wasn't creative AT ALL. No leprechauns dyed our toilet water green, or turned our couches and pictures upside down or even left gold at our house! Our kids didn't even eat a green breakfast or dinner. BUT, they loved their 4-leaf clover necklaces, wearing green and playing with their friends later that afternoon. Having it be sunny was such a blessing. The kids are ready for more of this "outside" time. Maybe next year the leprechauns will visit us.

Craft Night at Crafters Corner

Another outing with my Cedar Hills friends ... Tuesday, March 16th ... a Girls Night Out this time. Jenny discovered this craft place in Am Fork called Crafters Corner that will let you purchase a craft and then use their workroom and supplies to make it (for a $5 fee!). Afterward, we all went to JCWs for some dinner.
I did all of these projects ... I love bright and cheery Easter decorations and these turned out soooo cute ... even if I say so myself! And it is so fun to see them in the niche in my hallway and the chick on my mantel in the living room. It just makes me happy. I should have taken pics of the other projects. There were some REALLY cute ones!