The Recital

Gillian has been taking dance class at her school. They finish every year with a recital. Gillian has been talking about her recital for weeks. Yesterday was Gillian's recital.

We had the dress rehearsal two weeks ago and the girls looked awesome. Gillian was very strict "You can't watch. You have to stay outside. It's a surprise."

Finally the big day was here. Gillian was ready. Gillian not only had Daddy, John and I in the audience, but Grandma, Grandpa, Grandad, Mimi and Poppy too.  Gillian and her class were the second to last to perform.  They danced to "Little Grass Shack."  They did amazing. 

 

I am so impressed.  Gillian and her classmates did awesome.  Each of them were awarded a medal.  Gillian wore it proudly.
 

Gillian was showered with bouquets when we met everyone outside.  We are so proud of our little girl!
 

Magic Shell

I made vanilla ice cream on Saturday.  This kids were super excited to try it out.  I also gave them the option of having Magic Shell on top of it.  For those who don't know, Magic Shell is chocolate that you pour over the ice cream and it hardens.  It always reminds me of my Grandma and I haven't had any in the house for a while.  So I said "Here's a special treat."  Gillian immediately told me "I've had this before.  At Grandma's house.  It's the best!"  I only put a little on their ice cream but they loved it just the same. 

On Sunday, they again were super excited to have more ice cream.  Gillian helped me out by shaking the Magic Shell bottle.  Of course I got it on video.

Typing

Yesterday Gillian discovered the typewriter in our office. Yes, we still have a typewriter. We actually thought the ribbon had dried out, but Gillian showed us that all we needed to do was repeatedly hit one key. She got it working and had a blast typing her name and a bunch of random letters.

When we got home and told Daddy all about it, he laughed and said "I used to do that when I was little." Some things just go full circle. 

The car

Gillian spent the day at the office with me. She found a car in the Mazda showroom, and told me "Mama, I really want this car!" I said "Really?" She told me "Yes! I love it. I want this car when I get bigger. Can I have it?" I told her "Don't worry when you get bigger, we will make sure you get a car." 

Later, we were in the showroom again and she ran over to her car. "Mama, I love it so much. I want this car when I get bigger!" I asked "Why?" She said "Because it has a beautiful gold bow on it! Can you take my picture by it?"

The map

John made Gillian a map today. He cut it into pieces and hid it around the house and the backyard. Gillian then had to start in her room and find all the pieces of the map. Once she had all the pieces she would be able to find the "treasure." Gillian loved this and volunteered to make the treasure. While John was making the map, she was coloring a Lego man. John agreed to make her picture the treasure. He then rehid the map pieces and the treasure. They ran around the house and the backyard looking for the hidden pieces. After they were done, Gillian cut up her Lego man picture and she hid them for John to find. 

It was such a simple game, but they loved it. And I loved watching them. 

Early Morning

Around 6 am, I rolled over and noticed the light on in the hallway. I closed my eyes for a second, opened them and saw Gillian standing next to the bed. She had a stuffed animal. I motioned for her to climb into bed with me. She did. Just as she settled in she said "Where's John?" I said "You didn't even say 'Good Morning' yet." She said "Good Morning! Where's John?" I said "Probably still in bed, it's really early." She said "Nope. I checked. Just Travis (the turtle) was in there." I said "Maybe Travis ate him!" She said "Nahh." I said "Maybe. You know Travis has been looking a little cubby lately." She looked at me and said "No. Him's a stuffed animal!"

Red Nose

Gillian has been talking about Red Nose Day all week. When you asked her about it she would say "Thursday is Red Nose Day! I'm so excited! All my friends will have red noses!" Gillian's class had a bake sale today with all the proceeds to go to the Red Nose Fund. She had Daddy buy brownies for dessert. When John and I got home tonight, she greeted us with "I got you dessert!" She wore her red nose during dinner and even let John try it on too! I'm sure she doesn't know exactly what Red Nose Day is about, but I'm glad she was excited and enjoyed it. 

Car wash

This afternoon, Daddy asked me to dress the kids in there bathing suits. This resulted in a lot of questions. "Are we going to a pool?" "Why do we need our bathing suits?" "Why don't you have one on?" I sent them to find Daddy. I finished some chores in the house before I went outside to find them.

They were having a blast! They scrubbed Daddy's car. 

They moved to my car next. 

John's favorite part was using the hose. Well, John really enjoyed spraying Daddy and Gilly. That was Daddy's favorite part too. 

Daddy had two helpers and the kids had an awesome time!

No shirt

John was given the chore of sweeping the back deck. It's a hot day, so Daddy told him that he could work outside without a shirt. John set to work on sweeping the deck and Gillian wanted to help too. I gave her a broom and left them alone. It wasn't long before Gillian came running inside. She asked "Can I take my shirt off too? Johnny said I had to ask." I explained "Sorry, girls can't be outside without a shirt." She didn't argue and ran back outside. 

Good morning?

This morning Daddy got up and went downstairs. I stayed in bed just scrolling through Facebook. John woke up and came in our room. He immediately asked "Where's Daddy?" I said "First of all, you need to say 'Good Morning' when you see someone in the morning. Second, come snuggle me for a minute." He climbed into bed with me and we snuggled for a minute. He said "Yea, but where's Daddy?" I told him "Daddy is downstairs. Make sure you say 'Good Morning' when you see him." He asked "Should I wake up Gill?" It was 6:45, and I said "No way. Let her sleep. Some people need more sleep. Please don't wake her up." He left me and went downstairs. 

A short while later, Gillian woke up and came into my room. She asked "Where's John?" Again I said "You need to say 'Good Morning' to people when you first see them in the morning time. And come up and snuggle me." She snuggled for like 5 seconds before she asked again "But where's John?" I lectured her and said "You need to say 'Good Morning' when you see people in the morning time. Don't worry, your brother is downstairs with Daddy." She jumped out of my bed and ran downstairs. According to Daddy she ran right past him and didn't say "Good Morning." So much for my lecture. 

Lip Sync

We taught John about lip syncing the other day. We showed him some videos of Lip Sync Battle. His favorite was the Rock "singing" Taylor Swift.

I was able to get John to lip sync to "In Summer" from Frozen. He cracks me up. 

A Million

In the car tonight, Gillian told me "Did you know I can count to a million?" Now I'm intrigued and say "No! Please count for me." She says "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighth, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, one hundred, one million!" And I laughed. Gillian said "Sometimes it gets out of hand!" 

Mother's Day

My kids made me some amazing Mother's Day gifts this year. Gillian made me a beautiful card. 

She wrote so neatly inside the card. I am very proud of her. There was a little box that she decorated and it had a note attached. 

She has told me like a million times "Don't open the box!"

John made me a beautiful bracelet and an awesome card. 

Number 3 is my favorite. 

I'm one lucky Mommy!

Pearls

Aunt Betty has a pearl necklace that she wears for special occasions. She wore it for John's First Communion last week. Gillian saw her necklace and said "I really like your necklace." And that's all it took. Aunt Betty took it off and gave it to her. Gillian wore it for the rest of the day. 

The other night I got Gillian dressed in her pajamas and she insisted on wearing her pearls. 

 

I said "Gilly, I can't believe you stole Aunt Betty's necklace!" She got mad at me and said "I didn't steal them. Aunt Betty gived them to me! She has another one!"

In disguise

Tonight at dinner, Daddy was playing with a Transformer toy. He held it and asked "What is this?" I said "It's a Transformer." Daddy stared at it for a little longer, and then said "Yea, but what is it?" I started to explain that it was from McDonalds, when John said "You know, robots in disguise."

No TV

We have a no TV during the week rule for the kids. We don't have a lot of time with the kids at night and no TV just makes it easier to do homework, eat dinner, and get everyone to be in a timely manner. Most nights TV isn't missed. Tonight was one of those nights. We got all of John's homework done, read books, took baths and got ready for bed with no arguments. After reading John wanted to make a rainbow loom bracelet and Gillian played with her Monster High dolls. Who needs TV when we can use our imagination and be creative?