Cherries

GQ insisted he didn't have any cherries on his face.  Then, he pointed to all the parts of his face that were clean, which meant the cherry juice on his hands stained everything, everywhere.

Orders

For dinner we had spaghetti:

Mom: M, do you want red sauce on your spaghetti?
M: No. Just cheese.

Mom: E, do you want red sauce on your spaghetti?
E: Yes.

Mom: GQ, do you want red sauce on your spaghetti?
GQ: No. I want blue sauce.

Eisms

(Baby S has a bouncer with toys that he enjoys.  One of the toys is a gecko in a see-through ball.  The ball turns and the Gecko gets pelted with small plastic balls.)

E: Mom, that lizard looks like a poisonous lizard I saw in a library book.

Mom:  Then it's a good thing it's in a bubble or it might hurt Baby S.

E: For someone who isn't usually funny that was a pretty good joke.

Mom, Why You Dressing Me in Girl's Clothes?

Everyone always asks who Baby S looks like.  I always say that I don't know.  But recently I took a look at these old pictures of E as a baby.  They pretty much could be Baby S dressed in pink:

Back in Blue (photo by Angie):

Kindergarten: Check!

E has officially finished Kindergarten.  We are excited for the summer here, although E is already worrying about next year - good ol' Andersen style.  Here she is with Mrs. Swartzendruber on the last day of school, which happened to be really rainy:

Since we had just done a "real" gift for teacher appreciation, E made a gift for the last day of school.  I didn't get a picture of the puzzle she made Mrs. S., but the puzzle below is similar.  E likes to draw intricate pictures and then cut them up to create her own puzzles.  Justin had the patience to put this one together:

This is one of my favorite drawings E brought home this year.  While it looks pretty simple, it is the detail which says "E" to me so completely.  This is a picture of our dining room and E has made sure to only have two of the five lightbulbs working above the table.  (We are down to one now!)

This next picture was hung up in the hallway, which made E very proud.  It is meant to be similar to the famous "Grant Wood's" paintings.  E became very traumatized when a few days later the head of her cow was ripped off.  They later found it taped to another painting and she was able to fix it.  (I am not sure why it is sideways.)

On Stage

**** All of the following photos were once again taken by the lovely Angie Wilson ****

Waiting to get their costumes:

 

The dressing rooms:

Staging the show:

(Do you see those balloons?  Very hard to come by, my friends.  You know, there is a helium shortage nowadays, and no one in Iowa carries balloons anymore.  Luckily WalMart has a balloon kit you can buy because this was all I had planned on for circus scenery.)

There was a brief time when one of my wild animals broke his leg and another was going to be out of town, so I recruited M and a friend to be stand-in animals.  While the whole class eventually danced, M and her friend got to dance too.  Check out M's roar:

GQ was an excellent roar-er.

Tight-rope walkers flying away (E is front, left):

Boys

Baby S has recently begun to enjoy laying on his tummy because then he can look around and see the world.

Sometimes when he looks around to see the world, he finds his brother.  If he is alone, and he sees GQ - he starts to cry.  GQ is not very good at boundaries.  If there are adults to act as referees than he is willing to smile and enjoy his big brother.

"What?  I shouldn't grab his head and rub it for good luck?"

On the day we took pictures of all the ballerinas, my friend Angie tended Baby S when I went to pick up E from school.  She just happened to take these adorable photos while I was gone.  Now if only I could convince her to do our family photos.  Apparently some crazy lady conned her into taking a bunch of dance photos and she is feeling slightly worn out.

Performance Time

*** All of the pictures below were done by the wonderful Angie Wilson***

Recently I did my second PreBallet show here in Iowa:  "A Circus!".  This year we were at a real theatre!!! and I had help sewing my costumes!!! and all of my kids were involved!!! (except Baby S.)

Here are their official "posed" photos.  Later I will share some of the candids which are my favorites!

The Wild Animals

The Clowns

The Tight-Rope Walkers

The Pony-Riders

Photo day took place in my living room and was a crazy day.  But we survived and got to take pictures of all these very cute girls.