Emily's Spring Recitial - 2017

Emily finished up her first year of dance with her Spring Dance Recital.  her Tap/Ballet class did a tap dance to Bear Necessities.

Before the cruise Emily quotes, June 2:  "you're like the best mom I could ever have"(random, in the car)

"This is the best tasting meal you've ever made"- eating a leftover spaghetti and broccoli lunch

Emily's First Dance Recital

Emily started a dance class this fall at the Tara Cluck Dance Center.  She's been having a blast, and enjoyed going to class every week.  The dance studio puts on a Christmas recital every December.  Her class did a tropic themed dance to Mele Kalikimaka.  She did a great job.  She got a little starstruck at the beginning of the routine (check out the video below), but she recovered and finished strong. She had such a great time, she wants to take another dance class this spring!

September 2016

September was a pretty exciting month.  We got peaches on our peach tree (first time since 2012), so we spent all Labor Day weekend picking, peeling, and freezing peaches.  If you visit, I hope you enjoy peach desserts!

The girls quickly fell into a routine with school.  Emily was pretty gung-ho about preschool at first, but she started getting separation anxiety after the first couple of weeks.  She would be fine right up until the time that it was time for class to start.  Then she would grab onto Mom (and Dad the one time he dropped her off) and sob until we would peel her off and run off.  Fortunately, the teachers told us she'd be fine 30 seconds after we left, though she always seemed a little upset when we picked her up.  She seems to be getting better about it, though.

Kara, of course, is loving school.  She runs off to get in line everytime we get to school, never with a glance back.  She's also been enjoying playing soccer this season.  At this age, it's mostly just the girls running around in a big cluster after the ball, but Kara has fun.

Emily started a dance class (see the video below).  She's only gone a few sessions, but she seems to love it.  She likes to show off her dance moves whenever she gets a chance.  Emily is pretty into board games.  Her favorite these days is Chutes and Ladders, but she also enjoys Memory, Candyland, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Chess (she's just learning how to set up the board and how the pieces move).

Emily quote:
"I'm just not thinking about it." Emily's response when someone asks her to do something she doesn't want to do, like clean up after herself, say good game when she loses, or get ready for school.

"I did a great job today, give me a high five!" - Emily to her dance teacher after class one day.



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Is Summer Over Yet?

The Colorado weather, for the most part, was great this summer.  The highs were mostly in the upper 80's, which is a little cooler than normal this time of year.  We took advantage of the nice weather with several fun outings.  We made a family trip to a nearby park that has water fountains.  Kara, of course, jumped right in, but Emily was a little more cautious.  She eventually warmed up to the fountains and had a good time.  The next weekend, we ventured to Broomfield Bay Aquatic Park, which is awesome for little kids.  They have a huge baby pool (deepest part is about 18 inches deep), which Emily had a great time just walking around.  They also had some decent water slides, which Mommy and Kara checked out.  They also had a small water slide in the baby pool.  After Emily's first time down, she couldn't get enough.  As soon as she got to the bottom, she'd climb right back out of the pool and up the ramp (see the video).

Kara's farm camp at Sunflower Farms ended at the beginning of August.  Her swim lessons also ended the first week.  Kara improved a lot during the summer.  She can now swim by herself (doing a form of elementary backstroke) and even jump off the diving board and swim to the side without any help!  Mommy has been spending the last couple of weeks trying to figure out how to occupy Kara's time.  Only two more weeks until Kara's preschool starts...

Emily's language skills are developing very quickly these days.  It feels like she comes up with a new word every day, such as: milk, wall, door, no (and she also wags her finger for emphasis), water, hug, bug, boo-boo (probably her favorite word), go, out, dog (which is usually followed by the sound of a dog panting), hop (which is usually preceded with a bunny or frog sighting).  She also has picked up an assortment of animal noises, which she enjoys sharing.  Emily also seems to really enjoy music (watch the video).  It has become tougher to catch these things on camera, though, since Emily has realized cameras can also play back videos.  Now, as soon as we take a picture, she'll grab for the camera (the dance video was actually 3 minutes long, but the last 2:51 of it was Emily grabbing for he camera).

Link to pictures