The Ballet with my Tiny Ballerina

This is Kennedy's third year of dance and this year, we are taking classes at the Shreveport Dance Academy, which is where the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet gets many of their dancers. I, not being a dancer, had no clue that THE ballet was housed through this academy! Lucky for us! AND - even better was this season's feature was The Wizard of Oz! Kennedy loves the movie... (remember she was Dorothy for Halloween?). So of course I bought tickets as soon as I could, which put us on the second row. My sweet girl was SO excited!


Okay, mom was a little excited too! Kennedy loved every minute of the show. She got up at intermission and walked down to see the orchestra. She waved to the musicians. Her eyes lit up when Dorothy danced across the stage. She clapped at all the right places. It is such a joy to see her happy.
Conveniently on the way out, we saw DOROTHY!! Kennedy begged me to stop and get her autograph... I suggested we try a picture instead. She stared at her, looked at her ruby (ballet) slippers, and smiled SO BIG!

On the way out, I asked Kennedy if she wanted to dance in a ballet like The Wizard of Oz one day. This is how the conversation went.

Mom: "Do you think one day YOU would want to dance on stage like that?"

Kennedy: "I think so, but I might be scared and shy...."

Mom: "When have you ever been shy?"

Kennedy: "Well mom, that would be a very hard performance."

Whether or not Kennedy decides to continue dancing as she grows up, she will always be my bright eyed, NOT shy daughter.

Painting With a Twist

My friend and sorority sister Jean McQuaig Beauclair opened a new business in town called Painting With a Twist. It's a studio where an art teacher takes you step-by-step through the process of painting the canvas selected for that class. Oh... and there's WINE!


I've been twice since it opened and I LOVE it! I'm a crafty kind of gal anyway, but this was so much fun! I painted this ballerina for Kennedy's room. I love how everyone's painting looks different! My sweet friends made this even more fun... Deanna, DeAnn, Francesca, Deni, and Jean.
And at my second attempt, I painted this slinky (and somewhat curvy) little black dress. It is such a great getaway. And in two to three hours, you walk away with a beautiful canvas. You should try it!

Overcoming Fear

My sweet daughter has always been a little skiddish. Okay, skiddish is an understatement. When she was two years old, she wouldn't step in the grass barefoot. Yeah. I know.

But I have seen a dramatic change in her since kindergarten. Going to big kid school has been a tremendous confidence boost for her. I thought being amongst the smallest ones in school would have the opposite effect. She was a little shy at first, but now - she's swinging from the trees... literally!
This is her flying down a... ZIP LINE! (And yes, she is in her ballet uniform... we went straight from ballet class to a birthday party.) She climbed the rock wall to the top of the tree house and stood at the top of the zip line for a few minutes... contemplating...
...and then she held on tight to the handlebars, hiked up her legs, and WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Do you see that smile? Love it.

And for Christmas, we bought her roller skates. She's been skating around the house (on the carpet) for weeks... maybe months. Then she started skating on the tile, but ONLY if she's holding onto the cabinets or a wall or a chair.
And then suddenly.... she decided she was ready to venture outside. She started skating (translation = walking) on the grass. And then I held her hand and we slooooooooooooooowly skated on the concrete.


And now look at her! Skating on the sidewalks without holding my hand and sliding down a zip line with the BIGGEST smile on her face. My baby girl is overcoming her fear, one small step at a time. And I couldn't be more proud of her.

Daddy Turns 40!

For those of my friends who have children, please forgive the term "daddy" in my title because I am not referring to MY father, but my kids' father. Since this blog is for our kids to learn about our adventures in parenting - I will refer to Chris as "daddy"... and MY "daddy" as "Papa," which is what Kennedy and Brady call him.

So daddy just turned 40! If you know Chris, then you know he is NOT into birthdays...at...all. It's not that he doesn't like having a birthday. And it's not that he's in denial. He just doesn't like people to make a big fuss.

If you know me, then you know I LOVE to make a big fuss. Sometimes we mix like oil and water. This is one of those situations. But seriously - 40 is a BIG birthday! I didn't want to be tacky and obnoxious with "Over the Hill" stuff because 40 is NOT OLD. And besides, he's got a young, blonde 32-year-old wife! Haha!

Birthday morning, Kennedy and I decorated the kitchen, put out our gifts and snuck out of the house before dawn to get his favorite Starbucks drink. Kennedy was so excited to help me get things together for her daddy. The night before, she helped wrap presents and begged to keep them in her room because ..."Daddy would never find them there!" I agreed because who on earth could turn down such giddiness?! When I put her to bed that night, I told her I would be waking her up so we could get daddy's favorite morning coffee. My alarm went off at 5:45. I threw on some clothes and went to Kennedy's room and she was already awake and bouncing with excitement!

So we had our family celebration that morning and enjoyed the company of some friends that evening. Honestly, I think Chris would have been happy with just that. But mama doesn't know how to celebrate small. So the next weekend, we invited our closest friends over for a crawfish boil. It was soooooooooo good! Being in Louisiana has grown on Chris because he really likes crawfish! Crawfish + corn + potatoes + beer + his favorite dessert = THE best birthday party!

This picture makes me fall in love with this sweet face all over again. He is so handsome and so wonderful to me and is the BEST father to our kids. I am extremely lucky to have him. Oh - and you see that cute little button? That's his baby picture! It looks exactly like Brady! I had some buttons made for everyone to wear... they had very embarrassing pictures from Chris' mullet-pimply teen years. Did I mention he is a good sport?

About that favorite dessert - Boston Cream Pie - I ordered this one. I tried to make one the first year we were married and FAILED miserably. I will never try again. It was awful and took me two days to make it. That was the year I learned there is a difference between baking powder and baking soda. No blonde jokes people!

Chris' mom (Memere, as the kids know her) makes this dessert and I will never be able to live up to those expectations. It's just NOT possible. So I called around and there is one bakery in town that makes it. He said it was pretty good (I'm not a big fan, so I had one bite), but I'm sure it doesn't come close to his mom's. That's okay.... it's the effort, right?
One final funny picture of Brady eyeballing this crawfish. He wasn't quite sure what to think, but I just couldn't help but post this photo. Right after I took the picture, he ran off to play.

Happy Birthday daddy!!

"Awww meeeah!"

Quick funny story about sweet Brady.

He LOVES to play outside. That's an understatement. He is constantly pointing out the window and saying, "Side?" That's definitely the boy in him. All Kennedy wanted to do at his age is sit on the floor and play with her toys. So any chance he gets, Brady wants to be outside in the grass, pushing cars around, anything.

This morning, we opened the garage door so I could load up the car for school. Brady stepped down the step into the garage, took a few steps, turned around to see if Chris was within reach, and then made a beeline for the driveway hoping to play outside.

Chris scooped him up and held him like a plank under his arm and Brady, in his sweet innocent voice, said, "Awww meeeeah!" (Translation: "Awe man!")

We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was THE best way to start our day.

Spring Evenings

What is it about spring evenings that make me smile? Last night, Chris fired up the grill and open two ice cold beers for us... I made hamburger patties and sat on the porch while the kids played. It was one of those moments where I was soaking in all the goodness around me. Brady loves playing outside, so we lounge on the back porch as much as possible right now while it's warm!

So as I was sitting in my chair, I looked at my kids sitting at their picnic table and thought.... "How blessed am I to have these two wonderful babies in my life? (Hush, I know Kennedy is 5. She is STILL my baby and always will be!)

And then I was checking out the cute hiney on my husband and thought... "What a lucky woman I am to have THIS man in my life (with a cute butt)."

After our dinner on the back porch, Brady got a little dessert - a bright green Peep from his Easter candy. This child LOVES those things. He practically swallowed it whole.

And then, we went to the front to watch Kennedy roller skate. Considering this girl is a complete scaredy cat about EVERYTHING, I was super pumped about her rolling around on the concrete.

(Disclaimer: she has been practicing for weeks! It took her a week to get brave enough to get off the grass!)

So spring is here and we are enjoying every minute of it! Before we know it, the temperatures will be burning us alive at nearly 100 so we will enjoy every minute of this!

Easter

Besides the fact that Brady was feeling icky (although you cannot tell in this picture below), we had a great Easter. My parents came to our church and Tim was in town, so he joined us as well. Then the traditional brunch and egg hunt at Nina and Papa's house! Grandma Faye felt up to coming over, so she joined us too. Both kids were given books from the Grandparent Easter Bunny.

Did you know he visited the grandparents house? It's kind of like Santa. Ha!

Oh... and Brady had an Easter basket very similar to his sister's (but with boy things and darker colors)... but since he is obsessed with Elmo these days, Kennedy and I found this tiny Elmo basket and she thought it would be fun to buy for her little brother. It was one of those sweet moments that I want to bottle up and take out whenever they're fighting over a toy.