I Hate Dance Class

Hello Dears. I'm sorry I didn't post last weekend, I was busy taking a nap. I'm pretty sure everyone is panicking that the school year is almost over (sniff!), and so we've been JAM PACKED for the past few weeks. Also, I am lazy on Sunday. (It's the only day I get to be lazy. I pretty much live it up. Case in point: The girls and I ate cookie dough for dinner tonight. Then we had soup from a can. Colby is out of town, so we are just one tub of ice cream and Lifetime Movie Marathon from completing the Girls Weekend checklist.)

As you know, we have two little ballerinas in this family. Usually Ella is the happy cooperative dancer. She is excited to be at class, she participates and listens to directions. But a few weeks ago, she had one of her quarterly meltdowns. I got a series of notes, dramatically handed to me between door slams and screams into pillows.

Ella hates dance class. (Please note the sweet little dancer at the bottom who has been vehemently crossed out. HATE.)



She hates dance class and she HATES GOING TO DANCE CLASS. Add heart. Cross heart out.


Also, Dance Class is Stupid. (Yes, she used the "s" word. Strongly worded letters, I know.)


But here's the real problem.

I know, sweetie. Sometimes I'm just not having a good day either.

After a discussion (you know, once the door slams and pillow screams died out), I found out her day was ruined when her table mate wouldn't share her peach crayon at school. Ella NEEDS peach to draw the skin tone. Brown just wouldn't work for this picture. I can understand that. But Izzy couldn't. I'm not sure if you know this, but sometimes people make decisions that may hurt your feelings. But writing notes is a good way to get those feelings out. And really, Ella will be too self aware for me to share stuff like this for much longer, so I'm going to enjoy exploiting her angry notes for our entertainment while I can.

Luckily Ella recovered from her HATE of Dance Class in time to make it for the last practice before the recital. I went into the whole Dance Recital experience assuming Gretchen wouldn't really participate. And yes, she lived up to my expectations.

EXPECTATIONS:
Gretchen will look SUPER CUTE, and be SUPER EXCITED about her costume, but she will not dance.

Ella did fantastic! Smiled & did all the steps. Good job! (She's smack dab in the middle, the tall one.)



Gretchen looked cute.





The thing is, Gretchen loves making people laugh & being the center of attention. BUT ONLY ON HER TERMS. Friday, I took Gretchen with me to volunteer in Ella's class. Usually the last hour of Friday afternoon is spent watching science videos until it slowly degrades to dancing cat videos on youtube (it's pretty cute, all the kids get up & dance along. Besides, their test scores are fantastic, so I thoroughly approve.) I wasn't too worried about Gretchen being a distraction. How can you be a distraction from dancing cat videos? Oh, I'll tell you. You can lift your shirt over your head, spit through it, and do a crazy dance. I finally posted her on top of the cubbies, where she could no longer dramatically fall out of her chair or sit on anyone. She lost her "Happy Meal" privileges and ended up eating a hamburger with a cup of water for our special Girls-Weekend-McDonalds-Dinner. (I'm so mean, I know.) Nothing would get through to her! I'd taker her for time-out in the hall, and as soon as we stepped back inside, kids would say "There's Gretchen!!!" and it would begin all over again. (Maybe next time I need to put her in her dance outfit and tell her she'll be performing for the kids. That'll stop her!) As soon as all the kids left for the day, she promptly grabbed a book and started quietly reading to herself. ARGH!!!!

And in zombie uprising news... Gretchen saw a big van for Green Thumb Lawn care next to us (the logo was a hand with a green thumb). She wanted to know why there was a zombie finger on the truck. She is REALLY into zombies lately. Maybe because their favorite grown-up-book to look at is Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (they like the pictures).

So how was your week?

Poultery Whisperer, Chick Charmer

Oh Friends, we had quite a week. Full of new discoveries.

MAJOR LIFE CHANGING DISCOVERY: This week we learned that Gretchen is AMAZING with baby chickens. John John got chicks at his house, and we got to go meet them on Thursday with the rest of the preschool gang. All the other kids were sort of freaked out by their weird chicken feet and "sharp nails", and would cuddle them sweetly until the chicks got their gross feet on them or squirmed at all, then they'd drop them in a mix of surprise & disgust. But not Gretchen. She examined their nasty chicken feet and then said, "The baby chickens feet look like they have sharp nails, but they won't really hurt me." Then she snuggled chicks for two hours. TWO HOURS. My child does NOTHING for two hours.

See?



She did take a short break to wash hands and eat lunch. Woo hoo! Lunch!!!



At one point I looked over & slightly panicked when the chick was perfectly still with its eyes closed. (OH CRAP! Did she just kill the baby chick!?!?!) When I asked her if the chick was ok, she shook it slightly & replied, "Yeah, it's fine." And it was! She actually got it to fall asleep in her hand! By the end she was such an expert, she could do it one-handed WHILE EATING A POPSICLE.



Now how can I use this information to help Gretchen? Could I bring a baby chick to all our future playdates (there was no fighting around the baby chickens! They're such peacemakers!) Could I bring baby chicks on our next road trip (that sounds like a fine idea, right? Baby chicks end up being Chicken Nuggets, so it'd be perfectly reasonable for us to bring them with us on all our mid-drive McD pit stops, right?)

On a completely unrelated note, while doing our hair on Friday, Gretchen asked to be Pippi Longstocking. And since I happened to have a bit of wire in my craft supplies, I was happy to oblige:

(She really does eat more than Popsicle & fudgesicles...)

Then, yesterday, we went to VIRGINIA CITY!!! Did I tell you how many cookies Ella's Girl Scout Troop sold? Almost 4,000!!!! A group of 5-8 year olds. Dude. (We sold 29 thank-you-very-much...) To celebrate their achievement, we all went to Virginia City. STEP BACK IN TIME. It was pretty much the greatest trip we've ever had there because I wasn't in charge. One of the moms organized a fantastic day for all of us. We divided up into 4 groups & went on a trolley ride, train ride, visited the museum, underground mine tour, got pizza together AND got $5 gift certificates for the candy store. AND Auntie Amber came. I know. LUCKY!!!

At "The Way it Was" Museum.


On the train ride...


With Auntie Amber. And apparently making a normal face in pictures is painful for Gretchen, cause she just can't bring herself to do it...


Trolley tour:


Old Timey-Pizza Parlor...


Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor (bubble gum ice cream + small children = Good Times)






Old Timey People outside the Old Timey Gift Shop!



Hooray!!! Thanks for coming with us Auntie Amber! And thanks for hanging out with us, awesome Girl Scout Friends!!! We love you!

And, the last bit of BIG LIFE-CHANGING NEWS!!! Ella lost a tooth. It's actually the 3rd tooth she lost, but the first two had to be extracted by the dentist because otherwise I would throw up. (I am NOT a good candidate for dental school.) This one Ella was able to work out by herself. Hooray!!! The tooth fairy came. Left a dollar. (Good thing I remembered to text her just before I fell asleep! I had to jump out of bed to let her know.)



PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK: The girls have their DANCE RECEITAL next Saturday. You're totally invited to come. You know you want to see a bunch of girls dancing to Katy Perry's "Fireworks" for the grand finale. See? It's definitely ALL CAPS worthy.

The Trip We Didn't Want to Take

Happy Mothers Day! I hope yours was as lovely as mine, and that you were able to sit in church and listen to how wonderful being a mom is WITHOUT FEELING GUILTY. (Don't worry about your daughter wearing dress up Minnie Mouse high heels to church, there isn't there a rule against, right? And they were lovely and spring like yellow Minnie Mouse shoes, and SHE DRESSED HERSELF, so take it up with her....)

It was a sad week for us. Last weekend we drove to Utah for Baby Abigail's funeral. It was a really lovely funeral, and just as heartbreaking as you'd expect it to be. Our prayers and love continue to go out to Tyler & Meghan. This is just not fair, and we're so sorry. Abigail was a miracle, and we're grateful for the 100 hours of life she had. She was amazing, and so are you. I feel blessed to have you all as my family.


We love our monkeys.

Despite the sad circumstances, we were grateful we got to spend a day with the cousins, including Uncle Tyler & Big Sister Kait. Pics from "This Is The Place" monument, which is pretty much the coolest state park I've ever been to. (Or city park. Whoever runs it, they do a fantastic job...)


















We're glad to have such a great family, and the even though sometimes the worst thing you can imagine happens, that we know there's a bigger plan out there. (But this still just sucks.)

Here's hoping next week is a little better.