back to dance

Kara finally talked us into letting her take dance lessons again. She is taking a "kid's pop" class, and thought it was really cool that there are 3 boys in her class. It was supposed to start January 12, but the first week was postponed because the teacher had a conflict, and last week was canceled for snow, so thursday was the first class.

Kiersten had to go an entire month with no accidents to be able to take a dance class. She was successful for the entire month of December (and most of November). She is so elated to be a ballerina. She is taking the "ballerina enchantment" class. There are only 4 girls in her class. She was so proud to show me all the things she learned in her first class. Her class is right before Kara's, so that part is pretty convenient.

Most of the pictures i took ended up like this. Kara would wait to do her pose right as I took the picture, and kept blocking poor Kiersten. She was pretty worried about it.

I finally got Kara to do an arms down pose.

Ben ordered Evie a plush Mickey and Pluto to complete her collection of clubhouse buddies. They arrived this week, and I cut the tape off the box so she could open it. As soon as she saw pluto, she started saying, "hot gog! hot gog!" and clapping her hands and dancing around. She was so excited, and once I got the mickey out of the package, she squealed even more happily and gave him hugs and kisses. Then she ran in my room and started begging to watch, "cubhow". (mickey mouse clubhouse).

03/29/10

Because Kara loves scrapbooking so much, Kiersten has taken an interest. Kara is really good about sharing her supplies and helping Kiersten. Kiersten sure goes through lots of stickers though. But I only give them stickers that I find really cheap on clearance to use.

Kara has completed the first session of her new ballet class. She has this weekend off, before the next session starts. In may she will be performing in Cinderella with all of the othe classes and age groups. I keep telling her she isn't going to be Cinderella, but she doesn't seem to believe me.

Parents' visit day was this past saturday. She seemed to be having lots of fun, and was by far the best bahaved. the teacher didn't have to get after her once. all of the other girls got in trouble several times each.

There was an Easter egg hunt at the community center where she takes her classes. It started right after her class was over. Here she is waiting for the fun to start. It was only for ages 3-11, but I let Kiersten participate. She only picked up 3 eggs, then decided she didn't like the chaos of all those kids running around, and came back to stand by me. She was perfectly happy with the candy she got. It's better anyway, since we always throw away holiday candy after several months. We do let them have it from time to time, but they always have so much, and we can't just let them eat all of it.

Here she is playing with "Mrs. Gunny-bag". She wasn't cleaning up her toys, so I said Gunny-bag was gonna eat all the toys. I drew faces on 2 bags, and started going after the toys. that got them to claen up, but soon turned into a game.

I let the girls paint these bunny masks. I feel horrible that I touched up kiersten's so much that you can hardly tell she worked on it. She did almost all of the white, though. I just did the other 2 colors, and outlines. But I still wish I had just left it as she did it. Kara's is the brown one. I didn't help her at all. I like that what I saw as bunny paws, she saw as easter eggs.

recognize those blue eyes?

they have been having so much fun with these all weekend. They made them on Friday eveningKara has been trying to teach Kiersten to do a somersault. I haven't been too encouraging for her to learn it yet, but she is so determined to try.

Kara's new dance class

Kara started her new toe, tap, and tumble class today. She did really well, especially with the ballet portion at the end. She instantly made friends with this little girl, Sara. They wanted to be right next to each other with no space to move between them. This new teacher is a LOT better than her last teacher. She is a lot more patient with the girls, and doesn't have as hard of a time keeping them in line. She also prefers that the parents stay to watch the class, but doesn't expect or need us to discipline the kids to make them pay attention. I also like this class better because she gets to learn tumbling and tap dancing along with ballet. Oh, and I also like it because it is on saturday so I can leave Kiersten home with Ben, or he can take her if I don't want to go. Kara had to wear her church shoes (or as she calls them, her "fancy shoes") because I just signed her up on thursday, so I didn't recieve the information yet in the mail. I wasn't sure if she needed them or not. No big deal, she'll have them next week. Kara is 4th from the left. (the one whose mom obviously forgot the tights!)
they are sooo cute. She already learned so much in her first class. I don't think she learned as much in her full 6 weeks of creative movement ballet. Again, she is 4th from the left.

they learned a cute seahorse dance. Kara was the best at pliés.

this was part of the tumbling portion of the class.

Kara's dance class

Kara's class practicing their dance! Kara is the one in a pink leotard and no skirt. Sorry about the sound from Kiersten drinking a capri sun.

Here they are practicing gallops. of course Kara is the one acting like a spaz. On yo gabba gabba, they do a dance game, and when you freeze you're supposed to do a silly pose. Kara kept doing her yo gabba gabba poses instead of her dance poses that I swear, she knows how to do. She's showed me so many times! I guess she was a bit confused.

they also got to show off with a freestyle dance. I love how Kara tattles to the teacher when she gets bumped by another girl.

Here is the dance that the girls have been learning. some of them are really good at following the teacher. Others, like Kara, are a bit distracted with having an audience watching. The teacher made them perform the dance 3 or 4 times because someone messed up each time. after that, she finally gave up and called it good enough. My favorite one, which I unfortunately didn't get on camera, was when Kara announced in the middle of the dance that she got new roller skates. A bunch of the other girls got excited and started telling about their skates and bikes, and they had to start over.

busy week! 5/28/09

I am a sucker for these kinds of pictures. I love it! Kara bought roller skates with her easter money. Here we are getting her all safe to practice in the kitchen.

She did okay for a first-time skater, but all it took was 2 falls for her to decide she was done practicing that day. Ben took her outside to try the next day, and he said she wouldn't even let go of his hand. I didn't get to watch her because I was busy staining the fence in the backyard. My sister Jackie called the same day to let us know that she is expecting another baby! Exciting!

Here are the 2 cutest little chefs!

We went to NW trek on sunday. We knew it would be busy for the holiday weekend, but it was crazy! I've never seen a line to get in, and that day, the line was clear out past the parking lot. Luckily for us, the members line was only about 10 people long. So that was nice for us! It was a good day for seeing some of the animals that aren't always out and about. Here are a couple of lazy wolves.

Ben and Karalee at the trek.

Me and Kiersten baby.

We had pizza for dinner, and this silly girl kept putting it on her head. She thought it was hilarious for us to call it a hat when she did it.

Kara's ballet class had a visitors day on tuesday. Here she is with Kiersten getting ready to go. She was excited for Kiersten to get to watch her dance. Kiersten didn't really care about watching the dance. she was just upset that I wouldn't put her down to join the girls.

Here they are pouting because I wouldn't let them in the backyard before class. Kara kept promising not to get dirty, but I was mean and made them stay inside. I got some cute video of Kara's dance class. I will probably post some of it in the next few days.

Wednesday I took the girls up the hill for a play date with Kara's friend Jonas. Kiersten liked trying to play with his 4 month old sister, Hazel. I was pretty busy keeping her out of that poor baby's face. Kara was pretty good, but did fight a little with Jonas over toys, but they worked it out well for their ages.

Today I got up and went to the gym early so I could get home and shower and feed the girls lunch before my visiting teachers showed up. (They said 12 was the latest they could come.) anyway, they didn't show up or call until an hour later. So that was a bit of wasted time, which always annoys me. But o well, I guess I'll just have to get over it. they did ask if they could still come over, and I said no. I felt a little bad about it, but I have other things to do, ya know? Okay, now I'm just gonna let it go, and not be mad.

my little dancer

The day Kara has been waiting for finally arrived. She got to go to her first dance class today. I originally wanted her to do the toe, tap, and tumble class, but we were out of town for the first class. so I switched her to a pre-ballet class. She was excited enough to get to wear her new dance clothes and have her hair done up. when we got to the class, she was triple thrilled about it. The teacher made us wait outside, but I peeked in the window a few times, and she looked like she was behaving well and having fun. After the class, the teacher told me that Kara followed directions very well and understood everything she was asked to do. She also commented that Kara had a really nice quality leotard and tights. Who new there was a difference? Not me. So we have Ben to thank for getting them for her on his way home from work. All of the little ballerinas were so cute. Kara introduced me to her friend, "Soapy". I repeated it and she said, yes, that was her name. I'm guessing her name is Sophie. I'll figure it out next week.
Kiersten can't get left out of the blog!
She and Kara have been fighting over these sunglasses all day. They are Kara's, but Kiersten has decided that she likes them too.
Kara trying to hug the biggest squirmer on earth!