C&J's Spring Program

Charlotte and Jensen's preschool presented its annual Spring Program a couple weeks ago. Little Miss Charlotte had been practicing...and practicing...and practicing. You already know that this girl loves to sing morning, noon and night (literally, in the middle of the night. She sings in her bed. We lie awake listening to it.). I have joked around with her music teacher about the songs that keep us awake at night. (Actually, the kids' music teacher says Charlotte has a "music memory" or something like that, where you are just super good at remembering songs after only hearing them a time or two.)

Anyways, I won what I consider to be an AWESOME prize in the school raffle--front-row tickets for four to the program! Seriously, only a mom would be so happy about a prize like that. I was so excited to get to tell the kids that we would be right there in the front row watching them perform. Brian was out of town (more on that in a later post), so my mom, my dad, Brian's mom, and I settled in for the show.

(I videoed the show for Brian while my mom took pics...in retrospect, a bad idea. Sorry mom...you're the best Grandma in the world, but photography is apparently not your thing!) So here are four of basically the same picture:

What you can't really see in the pics is that our little Mr. Dude came out and totally surprised us all by singing all the words and doing all the hand motions. Charlotte just looked around 'til she found us, then looked so happy to see us that she just kind of stood there smiling at us and halfway doing the song. But Jensen seemed to take his performance very seriously. Charlotte always makes him perform with her at home, and he kind of just stands there and lets her do her thing, so we were so pleasantly surprised to see him walk out on stage and do all the hand motions that we had never seen him do at home.

And as for Charlotte, she's still singing her program song morning, noon and night...and since she got to sit on our laps and watch the remainder of the program, she picked up on some of the other kids' performance songs as well. I can only wonder which one I will hear in the middle of the night tonight!

Easter 2013

We had a great Easter weekend with friends, family and of course a big scary bunny. On Saturday we joined the Wrens for brunch and an egg hunt at the country club. I think each kiddo got four eggs (which were all filled with bubble gum and promptly confiscated by mommy...sorry kids!).

So dapper.

My Easter cuties pre-egg hunt. I don't know what possessed me to give them cookies then try to get a decent picture, but that's what I did.

Little Ellison all decked out in her Easter outfit.

Windy day!

On Sunday we headed back up to the club for brunch with my family, followed by naps and then a visit to Brian's parents house for more family time.

Poor dude was so scared of the Easter bunny. He was watching him verrrry closely in this pic!

 

My little beauty. She has the sweetest smile that is so hard to capture on camera!

Of course, she's also a gal of many moods...

...and Easter can take a lot out of a girl!

Prior to Easter weekend, the kids had an Easter celebration at school. I of course stayed for the egg hunt and class party...it is such a blessing to get to be involved with their school and be present at all their activities. Plus, I just love seeing them in their school environment, interacting with their friends and teachers!

They both cracked me up hunting eggs. Neither one really has that "killer instinct" that leads to an overflowing Easter basket. :) Lucky for them, at the end of the day, the eggs were divided evenly among all the kids!

All lined up with their classmates.

And finally, one last Easter pic of my sweet kids...a rare moment of twin love!

What's New

Well I have been doing some serious blog slackin' (again). I have half-finished posts about everything from spring break to my brother's wedding festivities. But this time the slacking is for a good reason...or should I say, four good reasons:

Er, well okay that's five reasons. I guess I can count Jensen as a reason too. But the four puppies in the above pic are the main ones...they have come to live with us for awhile until they are big enough to go to their forever homes. Yes, the rescue group I volunteer with recently acquired a mama dog and her 12(!) puppies. For some reason I felt compelled to volunteer to foster four of them. 

Brian is tolerant of our guests, but thinks I'm slightly insane.  

Jensen is in heaven.

Charlotte is mildly interested.

Wyatt is a bit confused by the whole thing, but he's being super sweet to his foster sisters.

Our house is a disaster. I'm kind of frazzled...this is my view for much of the day:

But I mean, look at these little baby girls. It just doesn't get much sweeter than this. Happiness is a golden retriever puppy!

And the million dollar question: Which one are we keeping? As of now, NONE! I will miss these babies when they're gone, but I will not be sad to regain my normal sleep schedule. And my evening tv-watching schedule. And my somewhat-decent-smelling-house.

But then again, they're awfully cute...