Kate's 2011 recital

I can not believe I have not done a post about Kate's recital! It was actually in mid-May, and she loved it. That girl sure thrives on performing. The theme of the recital was "Shopping Spree" and all the dances were based on a different store. There was a flower shop, jewelry store, toy store, sporting goods and many more. Kate's ballet class was an antique shop and they were antique dolls. It was really cute!

Here is Kate before the recital starts. She is ready to go! (and looking so grown up!) My little ballerina! Great form Kate!Kate after the recital with her flowers. She was so excited to get them, and wanted them in her room after we put them in a vase.

Kate's friend Max (and his Mom Deb and sister Taylor) came and watched Kate perform and then came over to the house to bring Kate a little gift (an adorable flower ring that I can barely get her to take off now). This made her exceptionally happy! (Deb, thanks so much for doing this. It meant so much to Kate and me!)

Thanks Deb for getting a photo of the WHOLE family. It doesn't happen too often.

We get the video in the next month, and I can't wait to see it again. Kate really can't wait to see it. Kate has decided to not do ballet anymore. She is pretty good at it, and really seemed to enjoy it. Maybe she will come back to it after trying some other activities. She says she wants to to cheerleading, baseball, gymnastics and piano. I just can't keep up...

Trip to Atchison

On Saturday we decided to get out and visit Atchison, Kansas. It is a small town with LOTS of History. We visited the Town museum, the train museum, took a ride on a mini train, went to Amelia Earhart's birthplace, and a really cool park. It was a lot of fun, and we actually learned some cool history. Did you know that David Atchison (the guy the town is named after) was the President of the United Stated for one day in 1849? Who knew...

Here are the kiddos at the town museum in front of all the Kansas license plates. There is a Judy Garland movie called "The Harvey Girls" in which she sings a song called "On The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" The train system is a big part of Atchison's history.
Going for a ride...

This is the house Amelia Earhart was born in. It was has her grandmother's home and she lived here much of her childhood.

Amelia's dolls. Kate thought this was pretty neat.

Next we went to Warnock Park. The Amelia Earhart "earthwork" is there. I'm not sure if you can see it from this view, but the tan (rocks) is her face, and she has an aviator cap on. There were postcards of it with a photo taken from the air, and you could see it much better. Sadly we did not have any aircraft at our disposal...

Oliver and the kiddos in front of the "earthwork."

We played at the playground for a little while. I haven't seen these toys for years! Kate and Cole really enjoyed playing on them.

Last we went to the forest of friendship that was also at the Warnock park. The forest of friendship is a memorial to men and women involved in aviation and space exploration. There were plaques with names such as Bob Hope, Henry Ford, Chuck Yeager and Charles Lindbergh as well as this bronze statue of Amelia Earhart.

There was also a memorial to the men and women who lost their lives in space and a "moon tree" (which means it was grown from a seed that had been to the moon.)

Isn't it a beautiful tree?

We had a great time exploring our surroundings. I hope you all learned a little bit too... ;0)

Easter Day

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone had a great day! We had a very busy week leading up to Easter Day, and we had a fabulous Easter! Kate and Cole were very excited about Easter Day this year. Here are a few photos from our day...

Kate left some carrots, spinach, a cookie and water for E.B, (Easter Bunny) She wrote him a letter and drew him a picture. Cole drew a picture also. Kate wanted curls for Easter, so curlers it is...

This is Kate after setting everything out for the E.B.

and the next morning this is what it looked like...

And there were LOTS of eggs around. Including a trail down the stairs...

I found one!

Gathering the eggs on the stairs...

Looking for more eggs...

Kate's eggs... Easter basket time...

After a yummy breakfast we put on our Easter finery and headed to church...

After church we had a yummy dinner with friends and played outside with the neighbors.

What a wonderful day!

Kate and the Zipline

On Saturday we had another fun outing with Kate's Daisy troop (Thanks to those you you who purchased cookies, this one was paid for with those proceeds.) This time the girls went on the zipline! Kate was really excited for days about this trip. The morning of the zipline Kate was very quiet, and I finally got her to tell me she was nervous. Excited, but nervous. I just let her know that was perfectly normal.

Out of the troop 8 girls came along to participate in the zipline, and 2 other older siblings joined us. All of the girls who came got up the nerve to try the zipline, one of them at the last minute, but at least she got up the nerve! I am so proud of all of them, because it was a lot of work, and it was VERY high.

Here are the girls waiting for their instructors to arrive.

"Gator" has arrived, and they are getting to know each other.

A little stretching out...

Now it is time to get into the gear. Harness first.

Then the helmets...

Lined up in order and waiting for the group before us to finish up.

Now it's Kate's turn. They had a choice of climbing up a rope ladder or getting clipped on in the middle and pulled up. Climbing up this tube rope ladder was the hardest part in my opinion, I am really surprised how many of the girls chose to get up to the platform this way.

Kate is on her way... Look how high they had to climb. It was not easy either! Go Kate, Go!

Almost there...Kate is at the top!!

Some final instructions and a last minute pep talk...

And she off! Woo Hoo Kate!

Pulling the rope back for the next person.

They got to go one more time, but this time (to save time) they were hooked up in the middle, pulled to the end and released. This time she let go long enough to wave to her friends.

Afterwards they gathered together to talk about their favorite parts. Kate said "all of it!"

As excited as Kate was, she did get pretty nervous. As she was on top of the platform, she started to cry. As a mom it broke my heart a little bit, but she worked through it. When she was finished I asked her how she did that, and she just told me she thought about happy things and reminded herself how much fun it was going to be and she shopped crying and just fell back. My baby girl is becoming such a little lady! I am so incredibly proud of her! Now all she can talk about is wanting to do it again.