Dance Camp Cutie

What's cuter than teeny tiny tap shoes?????

Teeny tiny daughters in teeny tiny pink leotards with teeny tiny backpacks and teeny tiny pigtails. That's what.

My tiny dancer has been pretty pumped up about getting her feet wet in the dance studio ever since she got her new dance shoes/outfits. The morning of dance camp had finally arrived and we decided that a special mommy/daughter donut date was the perfect way to kick off an exciting week. No complaints here....

I had an insider spy feeding me full of details about tiny dancer's behavior/antics/tactics. Kristi helped the little gals with their craft project that they worked on when they weren't busy getting their groove on....

alright. I can't take it. ;)

Per usual, I wasn't sure who was more excited that morning. I think I won. My stomach was doing flips as we walked up to the studio. She had no problem leaving me in her cloud of dust excitement after I helped her put the teeny tiny ballet shoes on. Tears made their way out as I made my way out of the parking lot. Please someone, tell me how I'm supposed to let this girl move out of the house someday....get married....etc. I wanted to go back in their and snatch her up and put a binky in her mouth and rock her to sleep.....

...but I let her stay. I had a feeling that expressing herself through dance would ultimately lead to one tired girl which only meant one thing: GRUMPY GRUMP. Whoa. She was a three-headed angry and very tired monster after Day #1. After camp Nanny took Hal out for a fun lunch at "Nickdonalds" and then back to Paula's where she showed off her three-headed monster ways. I kept thinking "yep, I'm the idiot mom who put her not yet three-year-old in dance camp." Day #2 was eerily similar. The attitude is what happened at the end of the day.....as for what happened at dance camp, welllllll, I guess I'll never know because she wouldn't show us anything. Not a bit. Guess she was keeping it all a secret until Day #3......

I'd been giddy all week (and tired from the three-headed monster, of course) about parent day at dance camp. Quality entertainment at its finest! Things started off a little rocky with her clinging to my side as the first dance was about to start. She wasn't hip on standing on her "spot" while getting ready for the music to start. She chose a nice cozy spot right smack dab in the middle of two other little tiny dancers. It took a bit of bribery to get her to stay out on the floor as we all looked on. I think this pose meant that she was ready...

Well kinda. Ya know how there's always that one child who's wandering aimlessly in their own world???

Yeah. She belongs to me. 

The saying "dance like nobody's watching" 100% applies to Hal. It was as if NOBODY had come to watch the girls dance. In her own crazy world. Yawning of course.....

Oh wait, is that a ballerina turn I see???

It took teeny tiny three dances to really get warmed up. Ha! When the music started for the final number she turned it ON!!! I've never been so tickled by anything. Pure pride and excitement all oozing out of me. She had dance moves oozing out of her. Moves I never even knew she had!

Her "grand finale" move was some sort of twist, swirly body shake combined with some sass and a whole lot of spunk. I guess I should mention that she added it in on her own while the other girlies did the real move. Belly laughs!!! She gave herself a round of applause and then ran for daddy who gave her a big high five!

The little girls did so good! Miss Taryn and Miss Brenda did a fantastic job! Hal even remembers her tap dance by heart.....what a treat it is to watch her do it over and over and over. I was assured that she had a blast and danced, danced, danced.

Keep it up teeny tiny dancer....this is just the beginning.

Fishy Learns to Swim

Step aside Michael Phelps. The Halster knows how to "swim"......

We were blessed with the opportunity to take a couple of evening lessons with the Meinders girls this past week. Little did we know that our friends the Mungers would be joining us for these evenings at the pool. Abigail and Hallie couldn't have looked any cuter when we plopped them in the water.

Hanging out in the water on the steps was what Hallie considered swimming lessons. So when asked to move away from them it took some convincing. By the end of the first session she had learned to kick, hold her breath and stick her face under and float on her back with quite a bit of help....

Check

Check.

Check. 

Grace and Allison were so gentle and sweet with her which I believe is why she was much more willing to do what they asked of her than I had imagined she would be. The promise of sliding down the big slide at the end didn't hurt either. ;) One last leap off the side and she'd earned herself a trip down the slide.....

I was downright shocked that she was awake, alert and polite for these lessons considering she had dove head first into dance camp last week as well (which left her both sassy and exhausted). I was proud of her willingness to trust the girls (for the most part) and happy to have lessened her fear of putting her head under water. Like I said, step aside Michael....this girl's got some power in those thighs!!!

Rodeo Queen

The Woodward Elks Rodeo mosied on into town and thoroughly entertained us yet again. We managed to all three make it to the cattle drive downtown this year which was a nice treat in the middle of a work day. Hallie screamed out to each and every "horse" (I have no idea why the horse/cow thing won't sink in) as they walked  nearly ran by.....

She snagged some candy and a sparkly sheriff badge that she was pretty proud of....

By the grace of God we somehow showered, dressed and made it from our house to the arena in less than thirty minutes on Thursday night. Hallie even picked her own clothes out...and they all matched...and were the same color. Unheard of. Miracle if you ask me. We got there just in time to grab a snack and find our seats before the show started. Oh yeah, and pose. We definitely had time to pose....

This pose is quite questionable.

She was just beside herself when the sheep came out and ran around. Like top 10 happiest moments of her life sort of happy. I had no idea sheep could be so entertaining but apparently so if you are Lil Red.....

"Hello!?!?! What's not to love about them?"

Then came the calf scramble. I never knew such a thing existed. And it scared this momma. The thought of this little girl wanting to jump over the rail and run out there in a couple of years was a bit unsettling to thing about....

Already scheming her approach

She made a few little friends who came down and joined us on the front row. She thought she was hot stuff hanging with the "big kids" who were swinging on the rails. She pretended the rail was a horse and hollered out "giddy up horsey!"

I don't know what I would've done without my sweet bossy girl there to tell me when exactly to clap. Her boots were made for walkin'! Until next year Elks Rodeo!

A 4th Full of Friends

What started out as a weekend with no plans quickly turned into a jam packed weekend full of food, fun, family, friends and fireworks. Did I leave off any 'f's'? 

Oh yeah....fashion faux pas. That's what I was concerned about while out working on the morning of July 4th. Riley was in charge of getting Hallie's day started which meant clothing selection of course. Like a dummy I forgot to pick out one of her four 4th of July outfits that she'd somehow collected. Hubby managed to pick out a dress from last year that hardly fit so he added her new starry skirt underneath. This is the picture I got. Face. Palm.

After hearing from a few friends that he had actually tucked the dress into the skirt to make it appear that it was a top and skirt I was relieved and reminded just how much he likes to torture me so. ;) The two of them spent the morning at the park checking out all the goings on while I worked that morning and saw a few patients. They ran into quite a few friends and family while milling around the busy park. She spotted her bff cousin Carmen. Check out these cuties....

I've decided this year is my last to work on the holiday....it put a damper on last year and this year as well. Mostly a damper on my attitude. I made it home by 1:00 and we kicked off the afternoon with a trip to the waterpark. Hal had just the perfect outfit picked out for the occasion.....

After a little talk about the fact that those black boots were meant for cooler temps we traded them out for some water shoes and we were on our way to some water fun. Sis was already feeling sleepy as we made our way up to the waterpark....

A popsicle quickly pepped her up though....

But it wasn't long before she was cold, tired and ready to go home for a nap....

Oh wait. One more stop. Ice cream.....

"Oran ice ceam on cone" per request

After a nap for Hal, gym for Riley and a Walmart run for me we spent the rest of a very low-key evening just grilling out steaks and vegging out....

Oh, and coloring Hello Kitty pages with daddy....

Later that night Hal got dolled up to go see some fireworks. We kept away from the crowd that night and watched from a parking lot far away with Nanny and Papa. For the second year in a row Hal was less than impressed by the colorful display....

"You won't see me ooooing and ahhhhing"

The next day we finally got in some much needed waterpark time with our girls, Katie and Carmen.....

These crazy chicks spent most of the time running in opposite directions but it didn't keep us from having fun....

Stylin' in her sunnies

Friday night we spent some fantastic time at Matt and Heather's house where we covered most of the F's....fun, food, friends, Friday....and one big W....WATERMELON....

Slice #1

Slice #2

Slice #3

Slice #4

The array of food was delicious and the company was even better. "Uncle Matt" graciously hopped in the pool so that Hal could take a dip. Riley conveniently "forgot" his swim trunks. :0 Matt also helped Hal and Sam get their golf swing on. Brave job but somebody's gotta do it....

Jai and I caught a matinee on Saturday afternoon. I left with sore cheeks from laughing so hard. A good movie is just good for the soul if you ask me. Our sweet friends, Brian and Alexa, invited us over for a cookout that evening and we were more than happy to join them for a perfect evening. Hallie and Vivi played on the floor and looked oh so adorable in doing so.....

Hal got a little too lovey dovey and forgot that Miss V is a beginner at the sitting business. Poor Vivi ended up bonking her head after a tumble backwards....

Hug or strangle? We will keep working on this ;)

But it was all good after a few blueberry puffs and Hal's rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. All was well. We had a wonderful relaxing time with these new sweet friends that evening.

Sunday morning Hal and I were a couple of heathens who drove to Enid instead of going to church. But ya see, we had a very important reason for traveling east....we were on our way for the opening of Champion Park. My inspiring and oh so talented friend, Whitney, has been slaving away on this park and we were so excited to share in some of the excitement as she honored her brother that morning. We sang, laughed and danced (well, she danced, I drove) the whole way there. Oh and she ate....a LOT.

But you say "what's new? She's always eating." To that I say "but it usually stays in her belly." This particular morning she just wasn't feeling fab once we turned off the main highway to make the short one mile drive to the park. Sometime within that mile she started feeling yucky and by the time we made the turn to pull into the parking lot she let out a big wail following by an "I'm going to frow up mommy!" I handed her the only thing within reach which was a tiny 4x4 plate that I brought my breakfast on. It caught nothing. So there we were....watching Whitney get ready to cut the balloons to signify the opening of the park....Hallie covered in vomit and crying....me trying to console her but also wanting desperately to actually watch what we had driven all that way for. I sprinted over to hug Whitney and fill her in on why I was jetting off so quickly and then returned to the car to see how bad the "damage" was. Pretty yuck. So we called our trusty pals Lisa and David and of course they were waiting for us as soon as we pulled in ready to help. Lisa washed down a messy Hal while I worked on the car and washed her dress. It wasn't long before David had her all set with a juice drink as she checked out her special gifts from their trip to Florida. The new shirts came in handy while we waited for her dress to dry. I quickly discovered that she was feeling mighty fine and was eating up all of the attention.....

She dipped her toes in the pool, did a bit of playing up in the treehouse, downed a few Dora fruit snacks and soaked up all the love she could in the hour that we were there. Once everything was cleaned up and dried we decided to try the park thing again. Unfortunately Whitney was at lunch while we went to play and Hallie was getting a bright red face and looked sort of squeamish so we cooled off in the car on the way to lunch. We shared some pizza and made a spontaneous decision to go see Despicable Me 2. Awesome movie. Awesome movie partner. Well, that it until she got her foot stuck in the movie seat. We shamefully exited the theater as soon as I pried her leg loose. Off to Woodward we went to spend the rest of our Sunday relaxing. Here are a few pictures I snapped of Hallie having a blast at the beautiful new Champion Park.....

Oh yeah, and I can't forget the one of her reenacting getting her foot stuck....

About halfway home we made another spontaneous decision to have Nanny, Papa, Luke and Carmen over for a cookout that night. My shopping partner helped me pick up all of the food we needed for dinner...

Riley grilled out some steaks and we watched a couple of naked babies run around the backyard sliding in the sprinkler. By the end of the night we were all fully fatigued from a fun-filled four day weekend full of festivities with friends, fireworks, food. Did I forget any 'f's? ;)