Happy 50th Anniversary, Satsuma!

Wow, What a Georgous Day the Lord did Make! It was a beautiful Saturday for a Parade. And that is just what we did!! Dustin and Lee Primary was involved in the Children's Parade to kick off the weekend for the 50th Anniversary Celebration for Satsuma. It was so much fun and all the kids, including mine, had a Blast! After the parade, we were treated to the Mutual of Omaha Wild Animal Kingdom. We were able to see a variety of animals and we had Fun seeing all the different animals! Oh yeah, We even got to take our picture with a real Gator for all the "Little Gators" out today!! We truly work and live in a great city!

A Quick Update on the Kids!

Well, Dustin is loving school!! He is such "The Big Man" as he walks down the hallway to his room by himself, as he comes into the library in the afternoons by himself and as he does his homework by himself! He has grown so much over these past few weeks...reading so much better, writing so much better, and just blowing us away with what he learns throughout the day!! Shelby is still loving dance!! Every time we pass the building, she says, "I go dance." We say, "Not today, but you will on Wednesday!" She wants to Dance all the time!! I am thrilled that she is wanting to do that and really likes going. All the girls in the class are getting so much better and doing great!

Last Saturday, we had Dustin's 5th Birthday Party at the Skating Rink. It was truly a BLAST!!! I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids!! I know I did. It was a great place just to relax and let the kids play and even the parents could play too if they wanted too!! Dustin told us when it was over that it was a Cool Party and he wanted to do it again next year!! It might be worth it, to do it again!!!

On his actual birthday, September 1st, We surprised him with his trampoline! And they both have loved playing on it! Let me just say that was a birthday present worth the money!! Corey built steps for them today and now they can go and jump whenever they want and don't have to have help getting in or out...it is so nice!!
Well, that is the latest on the kids! I am sure there will be more news to come!

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Our Dancing Queen

Tonight we took Shelby to her first ever dance class!

All the little girls looked so cute in their leotards, tights, tutu, and little ballerina shoes. As usual, my little ballerina didn't want shoes on so she just danced in her tights!!!

At first Shelby was just "taking it all in". She has to observe and watch first and then all of a sudden she was actually doing what they were doing!!! She was so cute!! Mrs. Susan and the other girls helping were so encouraging to the kids and applauded even the littlest of movement which made them all want to dance!

First, they got all the girls in a circle and just got them moving.

Then, they had them stand on their tip-toes and stretch to the sky.

They did the cute ballerina pose.

Then they had them "kiss their heels", which is where they put their heels together.

They even had them do plie--where they put their leg on the other legs knee. The kids were so cute and Shelby did a good job of trying this and looked very cute.

Then, they got the mats out and the kids got to ride on them first.

First on the mats, they had them lay down and then lift their head and straighten their arms. Then, Mrs. Susan wanted to see how limber they were and see how far they could lift their legs and head back and try to touch!! Of course, she helped each one!!!

Then they helped them do forward rolls and then leap frogs! While, the other girls were rolling, Shelby decided to explore the gym and found fairy wings and a boa.... the pictures say it all!!!

Shelby was into the rolls and when she got to the leap frogs, she had that tongue going, too!!!!

I think she had a great time. She keeps saying, "I dance"! And she didn't want to leave!!! We will see if she does better next week!! I'm sure she will be excited!!

On a side not, Corey had to meet us there to pick up Dustin or that is what I thought. I said why don't you stay and watch a while and well, He ended up staying the whole time... Beaming like a Proud Daddy!!! He is such a great Husband and Father!!!

The Second Day of School!!

Today was another great day at school! We started the routine of Dustin riding with Mommy and him having to play on the computer or his leapster in the morning while Mommy is working before the school bell rings. He did a great job!!!

The kids can go sit by their classroom doors at 8:00 and I took Dustin down to his room and he sat down like everyone else and started reading a book. Then I realized he had not eaten breakfast, so I took him to the cafeteria and got his breakfast. He ate all by himself and walked back to his room by himself when he was finished (I had to go out to car duty!). He is such a big boy now!!

During the day, they had started testing and Mrs. Henderson had to tell me what he did.....

1st--- There was a page of words and the directions were to point to a word. Dustin said, "What word?". (They just had to point to any word). They repeated the directions and Dustin said, "What word...and, the, go... pointing to those words as he said their name. Well, atleast he knows some sight words!!!

2nd-- The question was show me what you do after you finish reading a page. Dustin preceded to say, "Duh!! and showed her how to turn the page as he did it!" Such a smarty pants!!!

3rd-- There was a page of sentences and the question was Point to a capital letter. Dustin pointed to the capital letter at the top of page where there was a picture of a car with a car tag and the letters on the car tag were capitalized!! Such an out-of-the-box thinker!!

I never laughed so hard as she was telling me all this. Plus, I was thinking, Maybe I taught him too much!! Oh well, Dustin is learning a lot and having a lot of fun at school!!

Tomorrow Shelby starts Dance so the post will probably be about her! So, now you will get to see what antics Shelby will get into!!

A GREAT First Day of School!!

Getting to the first day of school is a long process! On Friday, Dustin came to the school to meet his Teacher, Mrs. Henderson. All weekend, he asked when he was going back to school!

Then last night we set out our uniform, got most of the lunch ready, and got a treat together for the kids and Mrs. Henderson!

Dustin walking into school to see Mommy... all by myself!!

This morning, Daddy took Dustin to school since Mommy had to be Mrs. Blake. They did come by and see me before they went and of course, I had to fix the uniform and take a few pictures.

Daddy then took him to his class and Dustin was so excited to be there and went right on in!

During the day when Dustin would see me, he would wave and smile and say, "Hey, Mommy!" And give me a hug. It was so exciting to see him during the day and really did Brighten my day!!

This afternoon when he came into the library, he was so excited!!! He said he had a GREAT day!!! I am so glad that he loves school and pray that he will always love school!!!

Pictures from the Last Few Weeks!

Since, I haven't been able to add a new post in awhile, I thought I would do a quick upload of some of the pictures that I have taken over the last few weeks!!

This was from Dinosaur Day at the Summer Bridges program.... And Shelby had to try it on too!!

Dustin's and his certificate of completion of the Summer Bridges Program!

Mom and the kids from her birthday dinner at Logan's!

Two pictures from Caleb's Birthday Party.... Shelby finally decided to try the slide and loved it especially going down backwards! Dustin posed for me for a great picture...never could get Shelby to pose!!

A Fun Evening at the Park!

On Thursday evening, we decided to take the kids to Municipal Park and play and feed the ducks. It was a great evening, there was hardly any people there and the temperature even cooperated!! First, we let them play at the playground. They had a blast running around, sliding, and playing on the equipment.

They loved spinning on these (they were like stand-n-spins):

After they got tired of spinning, we decided to go swinging! The kids got to swing first. Then, Dustin got tired and didn't want to swing anymore, so I got in his swing. I love to swing, it is so relaxing. I was going to swing myself, but Dustin started pushing me and I wasn't going to deny my child!!

When we were all finished swinging, We went to feed the ducks. We found a Mommy Duck and her babies. They were so cute and hungry, so we fed them lots of bread!!

After feeding the babies ALL the bread, we went to supper ourselves at CiCi's! It was truly a fun-filled evening!!

On Friday, I decided to bake cupcakes. Now, usually I put the icing on the cupcakes for the kids, but figure they are able to do it themselves now (and probably should have been letting them for awhile). So, after they were cooled, I gave them each their own spoon with icing on it and they had a blast!

And we all had a blast eating them!!