Our Little Dancing Queen

"You can dance.  You can jive, having the time of your life.  Ooh, see that girl, watch that scene, diggin the dancing scene."  Ok, now for the group therapy session, sing it out loud, who has the best melody, who knows the song?  Why, yes, I've got a diverse bag of tricks.  And no, tricks are not just for kids. 

As I composed the title for this blog, my mind drifted and I imagined Kaitlin dancing to this song with a big grin on her face having the time of her life.  I'll have to let her listen to it, not sure she has heard it.  Anyway, I so easily digress. 

To the point of blog.  On Monday, Oct 4th, we had gone out to dinner after soccer and were returning after dark.  I had met the rest of the gang at practice, thus we were in two cars.  As I made my way to the drive way, I noticed that Christine had positioned her van to shine the lights in the yard.  To my surprise, someone had put a sign in the yard.  My immediate thought was Christine had surprised me and put the house up for sell - LOL.  The sign read "Dancer of the Month."  Kaitlin has been named "Dancer of the Month" from her dance studio.  What a thrill and great accomplishment for her.  YAY for KK.  We immediately parked and went running out to the front yard.  Kaitlin was so excited and jumping around giggling.  We are so proud of her.  This is her 3rd year in dance and at times, she hasn't enjoyed it as much this year.  More structure, twice a week - she's on the beginning competition team.  To her credit, she has stuck with it and this was the shot that she needed.  Kaitlin loves to dance and dancing has been one of our fun activities many times in the evenings when dad returns from work. 

She didn't know what to say about the reward but was beaming from ear to ear.  She immediately had to call mawmaw and pawpaw / nana and pops.  It's so fun living through your kids!  Great job Kaitlin - we love you. 

The BIG KICK

Kaitlin and William have teamed together on this falls soccer team.  A 5-6 league with the same church league that they have played (New Hope).  To set the stage, this is his 3rd year of soccer.  Each year, he has gotten progressively better.  He loves getting out and running the field, he probably runs more than any of the other kids.  He is not very aggressive and can be passive at times, thus the long periods of running.  Many times, it's away from the ball.  To his credit, he's been working very hard and practicing his kicks.  We've spent a lot of time discussing a number of focus points that ultimately are great life lesson's:  Never give up, always do your best, stay positive and good things will happen. 

Tonights game - 4th quarter (maybe period in soccer - Daddy knows nothing about soccer).  William is on a 1 on 3 break away.  He dribbles the ball through 2 defenders, winds up and boom........  He SCORES, He Scores...  Straight down the middle, passes the goal tender and nothing but net.  The crowd (Mommy, KK, Madison, MawMaw, PawPaw and Daddy) erupts and go nuts.  William's first goal.  His reaction was priceless - he turned around to run back to mid field, teammates flanking him, giving him five.  Not much reaction from him - he was stunned and pleasantly surprised.  Finally, he looked over with a big grin on his face.  Priceless.  Must say, man, I'm lucky I had my sun glasses on.  My eyes filled with tears of pure joy for him.  A big moment in our little man's life.  You could instantly see the new found confidence in him from the goal.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes.  And what a valuable lesson... His first words after the game to me were "All that practice that I did yesterday helped my kick." 

Daddy knows everything

Sitting at the dinner table Tuesday night, Kaitlin and William start talking about their "BFF".  I'm staying quiet trying to figure out what in the world they are talking about.  In my mind, anything that is an acronym BFF just doesn't sound like it has good intentions.  So as I'm listening trying to figure it out, Kaitlin blurts out "Daddy, who is your BFF?"  In my mind, I'm like oh crap.  Christine was watching me and says, "I don't think Daddy even knows what a BFF is.  You need to explain it to him."

KK starts giggling, puts her hands over her face and is so tickled.  She was so excited and then says (while laughing I must add): "Oh my goodness, Daddy knows everything but he doesn't know what BFF is." She then proceeds to bust out in laughter....  They quickly explained to me that BFF is Best Friends Forever. 

By the way, my response was "Mommy".   William chimed in, "She can't be your best friend." 

The adventures of five and six year olds. 
Peace out

William and school

Just got back from a wonderful vacation.  Will post updates and pictures soon.  First day back at school on Monday, William had to pull a "red" card.  Not good.  Green, Yellow and Red to reflect daily behavior.  I asked William, "what happened at school?".  He reluctantly said, "I pulled a Red card today."
My reply "why"
William "For talking and the teacher said I pushed someone.  Dad, I didn't push anyone."
My reply "When were you talking"
William "Lunch"
My reply "You need to stop talking during quiet time"
William "I know Dad, but I had a million things to talk about"

I had to turn and laugh.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.... 

Madison and Daddy

So William and Kaitlin took off with Mommy to enjoy some time on the beach with Cousin Page and crew in Virginia Beach.  I'm sure Mommy will blog on that later.  Maddy spent Thursday and Friday with Nana and Pops.  Had a great time and enjoyed her visit.  Even slept about 12 hours straight one night. 

It's been the two of us for the weekend.  Some great quality time with just the two of us.  This has been very special to Daddy.  Haven't done much, had typical days, but it's been an awesome time to be able to spend time with just her.  We've played a lot, enjoyed a nap or two and I've just listened and watched.  She will be 16 months on Monday and is changing everyday.  I'm sure she grew 6 inches while she was visiting with Nana and Pops.  Maybe not, however, when you are away for a few days you notice how big she is getting.  She is very tall. 

Her favorite activities are climbing on the couch and having the couch as her playground.  She then starts pointing and uttering toward objects that she wants on the couch.  Normally, the first thing is her blanket, then any number of toys or snacks.  Did I say she likes to eat?  Also, she likes hanging out in the kitchen playing in the pantry.  One of her favorite things to do (she's done this since she started crawling) is to take drinking straws off of the older kids juice boxes.  Mommy normally stocks the floor with different to go drinks.  Maddy was in there today (must be a new supply).  When she went down for a nap, I went in to clean up.  There was a pile of 6 straws that she had taken off.  Too funny!! 

We've had a number of conversations.  She's a talker for sure.  Most words I can't understand, however, she was telling me something important.  Her communication skills continue to grow, though she's not saying many words, she's effective of using her hands to make her point.  She understands us better.  We can tell her something and she's knows.  We stopped by last night to see MawMaw and PawPaw.  While  playing with PawPaw, she started trying to bite.  Yes, we're going through that right now - not often though.  I looked at Maddy and said "No maam, we don't bite." She kind of looked at me and tried again.  This time in a stern voice I said "Madison, do not bite.  We do not bite."   You would of thought that I just took her dinner away.  Her eyes glassed up and she started crying.  I broke her heart....  Wow, the drama starts at an early age.  Not sure what's in store tomorrow.  We're excited for Mommy and gang to get home.  Maybe Madison will help me clean up our mess. 

Chad

GoFish Concert

The kids finished up a week of Vacation Bible School at our Church, Holy Trinity.  The theme this year was, "Back Stage with the Bible"  They had a blast.  The music and dancing was to the GoFish Guys, Jamie, Jason and Andy.  This week another church in Charlotte did the same VBS theme.  They invited the GoFish Guys to their church for a concert.  Our church requested to have 20 tickets and we were very fortunate to get some for the kids.  These were awesome "VIP" tickets which meant the kids got to go backstage before the concert to do a meet and greet with the GoFish Guys.  Kaitlin just giggled the whole way through the line.  She thought it was so neat after seeing them all week on a video screen during VBS to actually getting to meet them.  After the meet and greet we enjoyed their concert.  Kaitlin was even able to give Andy a high five (pictured below)  We were all hungry after the show so we stopped on the way home and ate at BT's Burgers.  We didn't make it home until 10:00.  How William and Kaitlin managed to stay awake, dancing, singing and jumping around is beyond me.  (was hard to get pictures of them as they couldn't sit still). It had already been a long day a the zoo in the hot sun.  Needless to say William slept in the next morning until 10:45.  WOW...  He was tired.  Our energizer bunny Kaitlin was up and at it around 8:00.  She was excited about going to the mountains with Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw.  William had already gone for a "boys" weekend so this weekend it was the "girls" turn.  After we sent Kaitlin off around 10:00 that morning I went back to bed until 2:00.  I sure was tired from a long day/night.  Well worth all the wonderful memories we had as a family and with cousins this evening.  Just to see the kids so excited and enjoy life is worth it all!  Life is Good! 

Taylor, Kailtin, William and Brooke waiting to meet the GoFish Guys

William getting an autograph from Jamie and Kaitlin getting one from Jason

Andy, Jamie and Jason
William, Brooke, Kailtin, and Taylor

Andy laughing with Kailtin as she giggles her way through the line
Taylor getting an autograph

Family Trip to the Asheboro Zoo

My dear friend Michele or as the kids like to call her "Aunt" Michele and family were in G'boro this week making their way to the beach from Philly.  We planned on meeting up with them on Friday at the Zoo.  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and it was blazing HOT.  With Michele being 8mths. prego they opted to stay in G'boro and keep cool.  We on the other hand had already told the kids we were going, Chad took off work on Friday so off to the Zoo we went.  Before we left I finally gave the kids Aunt Michele, Uncle Dan, Chase and Logan's B'day gifts.  I've been keeping the gifts until the time was right.  So Kaitlin's gift was a little late and Williams gift was 6 mths. early but, they LOVED them as you can see in the pictures below.  It works out great so Madison can listen to her Wiggles, Barney and all the other favorite toddler shows and William and Kaitlin can enjoy their shows in the back. 

OK, so on our way to the Zoo we went.  We got up at 6:45 to get ready.  We were hoping to be at the Zoo when it opened at 9:00 but as always got a later start than expected and had to stop for breakfast.  We finally arrived at the Zoo around 10:30.  We decided to do Africa first as it seemed to have more outdoor stuff and we thought we could cool off in some of the North American exhibits.  The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals and William walked the entire day not complaining one bit.  He had a blast.  Kaitlin on the other hand was a different story.  About 30 min. into the day she was ready to go home.  Not interested in walking.  The one thing that Kaitlin was interested in was how many animal statues could she stand or sit on and get a picture.  She loves to have her picture taken.  She made it through Africa and when we went over to North America we took time out to finish our pancakes from breakfast on the way and get the other stroller for Kaitlin. 

Kaitlin's favorite part was the 4-D Dora the Explorer Adventure.  First it was air conditioning and second she like how the seats sprayed water on you, shook, and air came out of the back.  Was so neat watching her experience everything.  She would grab for things as they were coming out at you.  William enjoyed the same but, he opted for his second choice to ride the Carousel again.  I think he enjoyed the breeze he got from riding.  Madison enjoyed the elephants and most of all the giraffes.  She kept pointing at them and giggling. 

We had a fun filled day and in the end they both got a little toy and a mask to wear.  William got one of a Lemur animal mask and Kaitlin got a Butterfly mask.  Madison got a little stuffed giraffe.  We left around 4:00 and Madison was asleep before we even pulled out of the parking lot.  She was such a good baby.  Not one cry from her.  She had a lot of fun too.  We got back into town around 6:00 and Chad dropped us off at Good Sheppard Church in Charlotte for our next adventure, Go Fish Guys Concert. (see next post) 

 

Madison (15 1/2 mths.) William 6 1/2, Kailtin 5
Love my family... We have truly been blessed.