The Baby is Five

This year, we decided to take it easy on the birthdays. We just had a couple friends and their kids over for swimming and cake.

We also played Dance Dance. Such a fun game. If you haven't played, I highly recommend!

The cake was a choice made by the birthday girl. I was surprised to find out that Ariel lives in the Gulf. If you look close, you can see oil in the waters of the cake. Very impressed that the cake bakers are able to work current events into their cake making.

Father Daughter Dance

Saturday night, Chloe and Raita got all dressed up in Hawaiian garb and headed out to the dance.

They had snowcones, danced and Chloe won the limbo contest! She really can go low!

Check out this photo, they look like they had tons of fun.

Carnival

The kids' school had a super fun Carnival last week. They played tons of little games, rode on many an inflated slide, ate hot dogs and they even sat on a fire truck.

I was shocked to see how much fun Jonah and his friends were having dancing to Camp Rock! I think they were surprised about that fact too.

By the end of the night, it was all Freya could do to keep her head up.

Hoe Down Part Dosado

Dosado (also written do-sa-do) or Dos-a-dos (also written dos a dos) or do-si-do (also written do si do) is a basic dance step in such dances as square dance, contra dance, polka, various historical dances, and some reels.

Chloe had tons of fun dancing it up yesterday. Her partner was so cute and really got into it.

Chloe has been sick all week and her partner was so worried she would miss the hoe down. He didn't want to be stuck dancing with a five-foot 5th grader or a boy!

And Chloe was so worried she would forget the moves since she missed so many of the practices. I told her to just keep going, smile and think of what comes next if she gets a little lost. It's just for fun, don't worry if you forgot a move.

She amazed me and didn't forget a step!

It's a Hoe Down!

We're not in Oregon any more......

Jonah has been dreading this day for weeks. Both he and his partner came to me after school last week with their heads down and asked if they could be sick for the Hoe Down.

They don't seem to enjoy it, especially with all the parents taking so many darn pictures. And they were forced to hold hands on top of the whole thing. What we put the kids though!

The school nurse has been known to give "cootie shots" to the kids before the Hoe Down. I guess this way they have no excuses as to why they can't promenade with their partner.

Do you see the faces Jonah is making?

Chloe on the other hand had fun. She was laughing, smiling and didn't seem to mind dancing at all. Her partner knew every move, he was a character.
Here is Jonah doing his dance:

Jonah had his piano recital yesterday. He did a great job playing with the other students and fabulous with his solo. I love this picture of him getting down with his bad self. We even watched him dance - in front of people! Seriously out of his comfort zone but I am glad that this group piano class is getting him comfortable with playing. He use to be so shy that he wouldn't even play if I was in the room!

Halloween was filled with a haunted pirate ship that gave adults BEER! A haunted house, an adult party and too much face paint.

We had a fun party for some friends at the house. There was lots of silly things to do, the main attraction was the haunted boat ride.

It got a little out of hand toward the end, but I guess that is what happens when you get too many kiddos in one place.


Thank you Tanya for capturing Chloe as the dead bride. She looks so great, and she acted the part to perfection!

And if you were at the party and wondering what happened after you left, catch the last two pictures. That is what a Karaoke show down looks like in our house. Kids dancing to extremely bad renditions of all songs disco.

Oh Yeah, it's Soccer Time again.

Time to get up at the crack of dawn and stuff the kid's feet into those super tight shin guards and socks, then try to get the whole monstrosity into stiff leather cleats.

Chloe seems to have fun but who knows as anything that takes effort doesn't seem like fun for her. Especially since it starts before she is usually out of bed in the morning.

Jonah really puts in the effort, I worry about him keeling over from heat stroke because he plays for most of the game. Amazingly he is totally fine and gets pretty mad at me if I suggest he take a break. Seriously, a mom knows nothing more than a 9 year old boy.

Today we also went downtown and visited a ballet studio. The girls had some fun trying out some classes as well as rubbing elbows with part of the cast from the Nutcracker. We also had a chance to see a snippet of Not Afraid of the Dark. The dancers were all in black costumes except for certain parts of their costumes which were illuminated by a black light. It looks pretty good and we may go and see the full production some time. Freya was able to get out on stage for the first part of the performance. By the way, Freya doesn't like to be in the spot light at all, can't you tell??