Dance Til You Drop

Ashlyn is in the middle row on the far right wearing a black tshirt and purple shorts...

Mady is in the front in the middle wearing a teal shirt and black shorts

Ashlyn and Mady's dance studio does a week called dance til you drop and you can come and try and class that is within your age group and my girls were dying to try hip hop...
I wasn't so sure about it, but after watching them I learned one thing...MADY was BORN to HIP HOP;)

If we could just get her to stop watching the other kids around her...ha ha Ashlyn loves hip hop class also...I think I will be watching a lot of hip hop dancing in my near future.

Picture Time

Ashlyn's dance studio told us to wear the costume and that they had backdrops and we could just come use our camera to get some good pictures of the kids in their outfits.  I was so happy to know that I dressed her up and put makeup on her to drive her all the way down there to stand in front of the white wall that is always in her room;)  Oh well!

Arrrrgh a pirate

Mady was invited to  a birthday party and she was the only kid that didn't want to have her face painted...so I did what any other mom would do...I put my 5 month old in the chair and told them to paint on his face;)  He actually liked it and was definitely the cutest pirate I've ever seen.
Then Mady was ready to get a cute little butterfly painted on her face

Tubac, Arizona

My cousin Brooke (on my dad's side)  got married this past weekend in Tubac, AZ...we had never even heard of it before we got our invitation.  It was a real quick trip...Wil was supposed to be off work that whole week, then ended up switching to a better crew for work, but it screwed up his days off and he actually had to take a vacation day friday so we could drive there.  We swam all afternoon friday then we went to a welcome BBQ which was really fun for the kids because they had a guy there with his guitar playing country music while the girlies danced and then they had a huge grassy area where the kids could just run around and play.  Then the sprinklers turned on and our kiddos thought that they hit the jackpot when we told them they could run through them;)
Saturday morning we got up and went into a little town and got breakfast and went to the grocery store to buy sandwich stuff for lunch, then we went back and let the kids swim for about 5 hrs.  We took a short break in the middle to eat our lunch and wil and nate took a nap while I took the other 3 back out to swim.  We had so much fun just hanging out in the pool with my sister and her family.;)  Nate LOVED the water!!!!!  He is going to be a lot like Zach I can tell!
Then we got changed for the wedding which was in a very cute little chapel at the resort we stayed at.  Brooke was walked down the isle by her fiance Justin's two boys.  It was so sweet!!!  We are so happy for her.  We didn't even get to stay for the reception because Wil had to work at 8 am sunday....so we drove all night and then I dropped Wil off at his car down the hill and I drove home with the kiddos.  A very long drive, but the kids had so much fun....which made it all worth it!;)

Happy Birthday To ME

This year we celebrated my birthday a day early and we just went to Chili's with the kids since Wil was headed out of town early the next morning.  It was also free chocolate molten cake's all around thanks to Aunt Erin who hooked us up with a coupon!!!

Nate was there too I promise...just asleep in his car seat!!!  We had to do a quick dinner in between ashlyn's dance class ending and Zach's baseball game getting ready to start;)

Baseball season

This year baseball season weather was SO unpredictable....the one that suffered the most was poor baby Nate. He has been sick non stop.  Zach has improved SO MUCH in baseball and it was so fun to watch him play;)  He played a lot of 2nd base and right field.
Everytime it was there turn to run in from the field or run out to the field he would run past the pitchers mound and touch it with his foot.  I always snickered a little when he did this because I knew why he was doing it, but one day Wil and I asked him and he said I've always wanted to be that guy who gets to stand here and I haven't yet...but one day I will;)
Love this kid!!!!

Then he also had a baseball party for end of the season.  He got a LARGE trophy where the ball spins and he was pumped.  

They did a Hit a Thon this season and Zach hit the ball 52 feet and he was able to get a tshirt saying 2011 hit a thon and a free hot dog from the snack bar for raising $35 in donations thanks to grandma and grandpa blackwell, aunt amy and uncle david, aunt marin and uncle rob, and us!

Awards

Zach has had a little bit of a struggle with his first grade teacher...She tends to be a lot nicer to the girls in her class and she has never  taught first grade before...Zach is a very smart kid, but he is so stinkin shy in class and if he doesn't get something he won't raise his hand and ask for help...

He got an award for winning the young authors book contest and having his book published
He also got an award for most improved in Math this year.

 We are so proud of Zach and love that he used his creative imagination to write and illustrate a book!

Ashlyn's Dance Recital

Ashlyn's class dances to a hip hop version of the itsy bitsy spider and it is such a cute routine.  Ashlyn had the best dance teacher...and I was hoping to keep ashlyn in her class but she left the studio to try and open up her own.  BOOO!!!!!

Ashlyn is so fun to watch dance;)  Here are some pictures from backstage since I am the backstage mama