Dance Recital 2012

Landree had her Dance Recital today.  And to say it was a great day would be a lie.  Jeff is sick with something (cold/flu?) and leaves for Haiti on Tuesday.  I left her gloves at home (she didn’t even notice).  I wanted to stop and get flowers (meant to get them last night).  And the video camera wasn’t charged like it should have been, whew!  BUT, Landree did a fabulous job.  She didn’t seem to mind that Jeff couldn’t come, (even though she knew it was pretty special since Mia came to town just to be here for it.)  She asked if I videoed so he could watch, I did on my phone, thank goodness for technology (even though it’s not the best quality).  We were able to get flowers at the recital.  And she was the cutest little cat (with no gloves) on stage.  She did a great job, and SHE GOT A TROPHY!  And that was really all that mattered.  She has taken dance the last three years so she got a recognition trophy, and really that was all that mattered {to her}. 

The recital was the perfect amount of time.  Hudson did great!  He clapped and would say, ready, set, go before every performance.  He said, “my sister” about 100 times during her dance number and would dance and clap so proudly after each performance. 

We are so proud of our little kitty, Landree Grace! 

We followed the recital with ballerina food at Panera where Landree ate an entire bowl of her favorite soup in the whole wide world, Broccoli Cheese and a flower cookie of course.  Even though it wasn’t exactly what we had planned it turned out to be a pretty great day followed by rest time, a fancy Chick-fil-a dinner, and watching Toy Story 2.  We are all staying home from church tomorrow (which NEVER happens) to rest and hopefully Jeff will be good as new soon!

      

Happy 5th Birthday Landree!

I can not believe that Landree-my first born, sweet girl, that made me a momma is 5 today!  That’s not a baby-it’s like the start of having a ‘kid’.  People that have kids are older than me.  My how time flies! 

We started our birthday celebrating about a month ago when Grandma sent a box of birthday surprises.   We celebrated when Mia was here with lots of goodies from her and Popee, oh, plus the birthday party we had for her and Hudson, cupcakes at school with friends on Thursday, and yesterday we had our family ‘celebration’ day.  Today was her actual birthday, but we wanted to be able to play without crowds of school age kids so yesterday it was!

We began our morning with the traditional birthday donuts from Krispy Kreme. 

Landree wore her birthday hat they gave her from school.  They noticed and not only did we walk out on a sugar high from donuts, but they gave her a tiny ice cream cone too.

After breakfast we headed to Monkey Joe’s a local jump place. They have about 20 huge jump houses, slides, and mazes.  It’s been a while since we’ve been and Landree did so well!  She did everything!  She wasn’t apprehensive about anything!  She found a little friend  there and they just played and played.  Hudson wasn’t as sure to start-he didn’t want to jump AT. ALL.  He was having fun looking at the car games and pretend driving them.  He did eventually warm up to the bounce houses and had a fun time. 

 

Landree is not the adventurous type.  She get scared very easily and still won’t watch a lot of movies.  (We turned off Mars needs Moms last night, and we’ve never finished watching The Princess and the Frog.  At times it can be frustrating, but I do love how sweet and sensitive she is.) Here she is going right up the middle of this huge wall.  The hard part with less steps.  She did have to end up climbing up the side with more steps instead, but look at her go! 

Here she is at the top of the biggest maze.  The wall to climb to the top of this is huge!  I’ve actually climbed it before when she was younger and couldn’t do it alone.  I was so impressed.  I know she’s totally out of focus, but look at how tiny she looks up there. 

And here’s Hudson playing the driving game and watching another game. 

And Landree knows we never leave Monkey Joes without a treat.  I tried to talk her out of it since we were heading to lunch, but the birthday girl wanted a Dora popsicle, and hey you only turn 5 once, right?  So we indulged her, and boy had to have a sweet treat too so he had and icee.  They we headed to pick up Chickfila for lunch {at the birthday girls request.}  We were home for lunch and then naps!  We were all beat! 

We finished the day off with more junk pizza for dinner and family movie night.  We watched most of Mars needs Moms before Landree got too scared to watch any more, and then we watched a Super Why so she would have good stories in her eyes for bedtime.  And she slept like a dream, of course, in Mommy and Daddy’s bed by her request. 

Landree Grace, I love you so much!  I can’t believe how quickly the past 5 years have gone.  I can still remember that nervous excitement I felt when I had you.  You were the most perfect baby in the whole wide world, and God gave you to me {us}!  What a blessing!  Sometimes you drive me crazy!  You are just like me-stubborn, but you are also so sweet.  You’re sassy and girly!  You love your brother, Mommy and Daddy, family and friends.  You are sensitive.  You are outgoing, and you love people.  You love Jesus and you want to know more about Him all the time.  We are so blessed you are part of our family, I can’t imagine life without you!  I love you so much!  Happy Birthday baby doll! 

Love, Mommy

Landree and 4 1/2 and Hudson 19 months

I realized that I never posted our pictures we had made in late April.  We went to the same ag land that we had Hayden’s pictures made when he and Megan were here in March.  It’s amazing how that grass has grown in the month or two? since we were there last.  We actually just had beach pictures made yesterday so it will be fun to see how much they have grown since we had these made.  The kids birthdays are just a few short weeks away.  I can’t believe I’ll have a two and a 5 year old!  Time flies!

 

American Girl Store

There is an American Girl Store in Dallas that we have been so excited to take Landree to for so long!  This year we thought she would really be able to appreciate the store, the fun lunch, and a new Bitty Baby.  Mia, Landree, Hudson, Maggie and I headed over in enough time to pick out her new Bitty Baby so that she could join us for our lunch appointment at the Bistro.  We love hanging out with Aunt Maggie, but I was especially grateful that she was able to come with us because she helped tame the wild animal (Hudson) in the store.  He actually loved playing with all the accessories.  Landree chose one of the twins and named her Suzie.  She, also, loved the accessories.  You could buy a dolls worth of accessories in no time-they have blocks, and strollers, and potty seats, oh my!  Landree chose a little diaper bag with a bottle, snacks and bib.   

After we Mia (thank you) checked out we headed to lunch at the Bistro.  It is so cute!  A little girls dream!  They have chairs for the dolls at the table (and even a doll you can use if you don’t have your own) and a cup of pink lemonade for them as well.  Landree LOVED the little cup.  She kept drinking the lemonade out of it and refilling it with her straw.  Each entrée came with an appetizer so we chose a different one for each of us and all shared.  Landree and Hudson were impressed with the chicken fingers :)  There were two little girls sitting on either side of us that were having a birthday lunch.  Landree didn’t quite understand why they weren’t brining out cake and ice cream to us, but they were so sweet to share!  Seriously, one little girl was with her sister, mom and grandma and asked the waiter to cut her a piece of cake too.  And when Hudson was getting a little wild and I was walking around with him the other table asked if he liked ice cream.  They insisted that we all have a bowl.  Landree said she wants to come back for her birthday.  Maybe we can have a delayed celebration in December when we are back in town. 

 

     

Hudson enjoyed wearing the napkin holders as bracelets.  That knot on his head is from falling into the coffee table at Grandma’s that morning. 

And of course we had to get a group shot.  One of the sweet ladies at the store came out to take a picture for us with my phone.  I actually had my nice camera with us and the battery died before I even got to take a picture.  I am just glad I had my phone :)  I posted this picture on facebook and someone made a comment about feeling sorry for Hudson.  I just reminded them that he will love having an older sister in a few years when all her cute friends are coming over.  He doesn’t complain about doing girl stuff with us {yet!}

Free Fun

I am determined my blog will not be abandoned, however it may be ‘facebook’ style for a while.  While my camera is in the shop pictures are all from my phone and words may be few, but they will be documented :)

Tonight we headed to Chick-fil-a in pseudo cow costumes to eat chicken for Cow Appreciation Day.  They had a cow pattern on their website that you could print to get a free entree.  Landree had her cow ears attached to a crown, as any princess cow would, and Hudson and I had ours attached to baseball caps.  I loved the “Eat More Chicken” signs :)  We have a youth group student that works at CFL that Landree loves.  She was so excited to see if he would recognizer her.  The cow was there and Landree was in LOVE.  Hudson was only a fan from afar. 

And this morning I went to the blueberry farm to pick yummy blueberries!  If you have a farm near you I highly recommend you go.  They are delicious!  So much better than from the store. I picked about 13 pounds, and they are only $1.25 a pound.  This is only about half of them.  I put most of them in the freezer, but saved a few pounds to eat this week.  I ate about 7 pounds in a week a few years ago.  They are like eating candy!  I hope I can ago at least one more time before the season is over. 

 

Hope you’re weekend is off to a great start!