Parent Observation at Dance Class

Today was parent observation at dance class. Joe had to work, so Holden and I went by ourselves. Scarlett did fantastic and Holden was so well behaved while he watched his big sister. We got to see a preview of Scarlett's two dance routines (this year she'll do a tap routine and a ballet one). Her spot is right up in the front row for BOTH routines and I could not have been more proud. Here are some pictures:

She looks so old in the picture above - I can hardly take it!

Always time to be silly.

Guess who got her ears pierced?

As an early 5th birthday present, we let Scarlett get her ears pierced. We (clearly) did not want to pierce them when she was a baby - saying that we would instead wait until she could ask to have them done. About 6 months ago, she started asking, but when we told her the process (i.e. needle guns, etc.) she would give us ye olde "nevermind!"...but this weekend she started asking some real questions, like "when did you have your ears pierced, mom?" and "did you cry?" - she wanted to get them done and no longer seemed too phased by how the earrings would actually get into her ears. We set it up so that her ears could be pierced at the same time with 2 technicians (knowing full well we'd have a lot of trouble if they got one done and she wouldn't let them do the second). She did so well. Tears, of course, but the smile that came on her face when she saw herself in the mirror was priceless. She looks adorable. And so much older. She went back to school after a week-long April vacation and upon seeing her, a teacher tilted her head to the side and said "did you get taller?!" I'm so incredibly proud of her. And she's very proud of herself, too.

Easter Egg Hunt - 2012

Take one...

 Take two...

Three...

 Four (I'm losing them)...

 And five (yep...they're gone)...

 Ready for the hunt!

 They're off!

 Basking in his success.

 Stopped running long enough to say "cheese!"

 Special visitor - Holden thought it would be either a giraffe or a tiger; Scarlett thought it would be a guinea pig or the Easter Bunny. It was J.R. the donkey!

 Ready for waving.

 Palm procession to some fantastic jazz music.

Beautiful day

A girl and her dog

Family Days at school

Scarlett's classroom has been having Family Days for the past few weeks. This is where a family member of each student comes in to do a special art project, recipe, or hobby with the entire class. Scarlett asked that I read The Cat in the Hat to her class because, well..."it was just a perfect idea." (And it happened to be dress down day at school and football day at work - which explains our attire.)

Christmas 2011

Christmas Pageant

Christmas pageant at church. The kids were very excited - not only because they got to dress up in costumes, but we haven't been to church in, ahem, a bit too long (and here's the part where I complain about Joe's school and my school and Joe's softball team and my graduate thesis and, ahem ahem, blah blah blah.)

Holden started out as a Wise Man...

But wound up as an angel, just like his big sister, when he saw how awesome the wings and halo were.

The kids up on stage. We're talking seriously adorable.

After church, and for the first time ever, Scarlett wanted to talk about baby Jesus...and then adult Jesus. We had a very nice talk. I explained that He was a wonderful man that helped a lot of people and that's why people go to church - to celebrate Him. Scarlett said how she thought that must make Jesus' heart very happy. Then she wanted to know His story. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly lesson on the life of Jesus. Scarlett asked if she could talk about Jesus at school. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly explanation of the separation of church and state. I told Scarlett that other mommies and daddies might want to tell their kids another version of His story and we wouldn't want interfere with that. So then she asked if she could talk about Him with her teachers. Curious to know what she had retained from our little talk, I asked her what she would say to her teachers about Jesus. "Well...I'd say he's DEAD," Scarlett said. And so we're not going to talk about Jesus to teachers, either. At least not until we have a little more Jesus under our four-year-old belt. But, I'd say it was a successful start.