Navia was invited to her friend Brooke's birthday party and she was soooo excited! Brooke is a little princess, just like Navia, so for a gift I ran out and bought a tank top with sparkles on the straps and then a women's pink t-shirt (I didn't have time to run to the fabric store). From that I took the women's t-shirt and cut off the bottom part, using the bottom seam as the bottom seam for the skirt, added an elastic for the waistband and then cut up an old pink shirt to make the ruffle on the bottom. I used the extra t-shirt material to applique a 'B' on the front. Then we topped it off with pink sparkly nail-polish and pink sunglasses with "diamonds". It was fun doing a quick project like this that was easy to do and the cost was great.
Brooke's party was held at the upstairs of the grocery store where the kids made their own pizza, fruit salad and decorated cupcakes. They had a blast!
Navia in her chef's hat
Navia and Brooke cutting up the fruit for the salad
Braden had a new experience this past month too - a trip to Rome and back that took 4 days!!! He left on Tuesday and was back on Friday! He's been working on a McDonald's job for Europe McDonald's and they had a conference in Rome in which he showed them what they'd done and pitched another job as well. He came home exhausted, but it sounds like he had fun! His hotel was only a 20 minute walk from the Coliseum so he had fun site-seeing on foot. He came home with hats for the kids and they LOVED them . . . well . . .
Navia loved hers after a little bit, her first reaction was disbelief, not wanting to touch it, cuddling into me and crying because daddy didn't by her any princess things (on the phone she had asked him to bring back a princess dress, diamond earrings, diamond necklace and glass slippers). Poor Braden didn't know what to do! She warmed up though and soon wouldn't let anyone else touch it.
Baseball season has begun in our neck of the woods. Emma is on the Gloucester Youth Girl's Mite team and at the first practice the coach couldn't believe that she hadn't been on a team before or had never pitched in her life. I guess she's kinda a natural and after hitting a home run and getting 3 girls home with it her coach called her "home-run girl"! Yep - she loves it and has been coming home dirty as anything because she believes in sliding too!
Just after Emma hit the ball
Emma running the bases - black outfit, red batters helmet
Emma all ready in the outfield
Emma pitching
Emma's not the only one in baseball though - Kaleb is too! He's on the ROMSA 5-Pitch Co-Ed team and although he's only had 1 game so far he's loving it too! His league is non-competitive and more for learning the sport so they don't keep score and the pitcher is actually the other team's coach while a boy stands at the mound to catch anything that might be hit that way. I guess Kaleb was really getting into the pitching with "STRIIIIIIIIIIIKE ONE", "STRIIIIIIIIIIIKE TWO", "STRIIIIIIIIIIIKE THREE - YOOU'RE OOOOOUUUUUUT" - sounds like he was so much into it that the coach had to ask him to not be so enthusiastic about it! LOL!
"Striiiiiike Two!"
Kaleb ready at first base
Kaleb getting the ball before the runner - "You're Ouuuuut!"
Kaleb at bat
Now baseball isn't the only sport that we're doing right now - we enrolled the kids in TENNIS!!! The only thing - when we got there on Saturday we realized that we enrolled them in 'family' tennis, which meant that one of us had to join as well - so I ran back to the house and picked up Brade's shoes and shorts for him so that he could play along. The three of them had a lot of fun learning how to serve, backhand, and other tennis things that I just don't have a clue about.
Notice the ball flying after Emma backhanded it
Kaleb's got this one too!
And Daddy, well, he hit it right out of my shot!
And what were Navia and I doing during this time??? Sitting in the van watching {sigh}. Yep, Navia had a cough and wet hair (as we had just come back from swimming lessons) and had to stay in the van instead of go to the playground that was right beside the tennis court. Next time though!
Posing with HER tennis racket
The last half of the game was spent putting what they learned into action - with a real game - the instructor and Emma vs. Daddy and Kaleb - no keeping score though! They did really great and can't wait until next weekend to learn more. I'm thinking that this just might be the new 'family' sport that we can do - the courts are just a couple blocks away and the kids are enjoying it . . . so maybe?!?!
This afternoon was my MYC Spring Recital . . . which means that after today I only have my Monday classes to teach for 2 more weeks and then I'm off for the summer!!! Although Kaleb and Emma are quite excited that they are officially done right now!!! I taught 48 students this year so had to break my recital into 2 recitals and had them at the Riverside United Church. The kids all did great and I only had 5 who couldn't make it!
Emma playing 'Shortenin' Bread" - notice the hand crossing over - yep - she's good!!!
My 2:00 recital crew . . . ages 4 - 9 (Emma's in this one)
Kaleb playing 'Joyful Times', a fiddling tune which he rocked!!!
My 3:30 recital crew (Kaleb's in this one - back row)
So, that's what we've been up to lately. Now that teaching is done (or almost done) I can concentrate more on the gardening, making sure the kids get to all their baseball games and just hanging out with my family and friends. I've already booked a trip to the nursery with a friend to shop for my new front garden!!! Can't wait!!!
Oh, and can you believe that we have the kids in swimming, baseball AND tennis all at the same time?!?!?! I don't think that will be happening again, but it does make it so that we're never bored!!!
