Sammy's Dance Recital

Sammy had her dance recital a couple of weeks ago.  I think she was glad when it was all over. She hasn't been sure whether she likes being in ballet, so this year has been a challenge. The dance was to the song "A Dream is a Wish" from Cinderella. She really did well for her first recital.  Megan was a sweet sister and decided that she was going to buy Sammy some flowers with her own money.

End of the School Year

I'm a little behind on some of our events, but wanted to post pictures from the end of school. The girls did really well this year.  Megan earned the citizenship award for her team. It is an award that is given to one girl and one boy from each team of 120 kids.  We are so proud of her because it shows a lot about her character.  Sammy got an award for learning all 300 sight words that they were supposed to learn.  It was a lot of work, but she is becoming an excellent reader because of it. 

Sammy with her teacher, Mrs. Stamps

Sammy's Kindergarten program.  It was called Bugz.

Megan's last choir concert.  She is on the top, in the middle.

Megan is 12!

Yesterday was Megan's 12th birthday.  Other than the fact that my age tells me that it is indeed possible, I can't believe that I am old enough to have a 12 year old child. I have spent the last couple of days going through pictures of her and wondering where the years have gone.  She is such an amazing girl - she is everything I wished I was when I was her age.  She is friendly, confident, smart, pretty, talented, adventurous, fun, outgoing, and the list goes on.  I often grumble about dealing with her emotions and attitudes, but we truly are so lucky to have her in our family, and we love her so much!

Since I was going through all of her pictures, I thought I would post birthday pictures of Megan through the years.

Megan had a birthday party this past weekend with 2 of her 3 best friend from school.  I took them to the movies to see "Prince Caspian". Afterward we went to dinner at Pizza Hut.  We came back home and the girls went swimming for awhile.  Then we came back and did a chocolate fountain for dessert.  The party was a sleepover, so they went upstairs, and we didn't hear from them the rest of the night.  I truly think that parties get easier as kids get older!  This one was a piece of cake!! We celebrated her birthday quietly as a family yesterday.  Her main present that she wanted was a Rip Stik, so she was excited to get one.

In case you don't know what a Rip Stik is, I posted this video of Megan riding one.  It's a 2 wheeled skateboard, and Megan is really good at it. Mike tried riding it too, and after several tries, and one fall, finally got the hang of it.  I however will not be attempting it!

  

Gateway to the West

Last weekend we decided to take head out for another adventure to a city we had never been to before - St. Louis.  This time we went with 4 families that are friends of ours.  It is only a 5 hour drive, so we were able to be there for 2 days.  We split up and traded off going to the temple and watching each other kids.  We also visited a really fun children's museum called the Magic House.  The guys went to a Cardinals baseball game, while the girls went shopping.  We also got in a little swim time at the hotel, and did a big group lunch at a restaurant (there were 28 of us!).  The last thing we did before leaving was go down to see the Arch.  It was awesome to see something that we've only seen in books.  It was huge and very impressive.  The trip was a lot of fun and we really had a great time!