Konnors new Favorites

Konnor loves motorcycles, blue, chocolate, his sister and brother, 4-wheelers and THIS VIDEO!
He wants to watch it over and over and over!  I love it when my kids find joy in the good things!

Dance Company Name

Hey there to all of my blog fans and blog stalkers!:)
I need some help coming up with a creative dance company name!
Many people have asked me, and I have not come up with the RIGHT name yet.
Any and all ideas will be helpful!
Karen!

Dance Recital!

Yesterday was our Spring Dance Recital!  

It went really well.

I introduced every girl and shared a few things about each one.  They all did SO awesome!

 Me and my sweet dancin daughter!  Sure love her and I am so proud to be her mom!

 Mara and Kaylee doing a "best friend Pique".  ha ha.  Cute costumes huh!  I am a firm believer in modest costumes.  It was a little work to get modest, cute, and inexpensive costumes.  But with a little perseverance, I feel it paid off!  Efforts to have modest costumes is also something Kaylee and Mara really feel is important.  They tell me regularly that it is important to be modest in every outfit we wear.  And I sit back and feel so proud that Kaylee is such a wise little sweetie (and has a friend who feels the same way she does!)

 The 3 classes were so much fun to teach!  I just adore all of these little princesses!

Then at the end, we called each girl back up for an award and small gift!  I feel it was nice to make the recital a little more personal for each of these girls!  They are not just a "number", like in many other recitals I have been to.  In our dance company, they ARE special, and I will continue to do my best to recognize them!

Konnor is 4!

 Here is my handsome 4 year old!!!!  

For his birthday party, he wanted a DIRT BIKE THEME...

Well, that's exactly what he got!  Plus some free entertainment.  

Below is a pic of him on his new "Dirt"Bike...

 Here is the cake I made him.... A dirt bike track on a mountain.

 Plus cupcakes on my homemade cake stands.

 Daddy and Kase cheesin it up.

 Hanging on the front door..

 Walking up to the party, this is what you see...  (for each of the party friends, we took a pic by the bike of their choice with the birthday boy.  I will print them, and use the pics as a thank you card)

 Here is our "Free" entertainment.  Some people hire a clown for a carnival party, or a magician to a magic party.  But Konnor scored his DAD for the dirt-bike man to the dirt-bike party!   whoot whoot!

 He first explained how dirt bikes start, and a few differences to the two bikes we have.  The kids were REALLY into that!  Then Kyle hopped on one, and jumped off our rocks, and then did a wheelie or 2 or 3 or 4 up the street! 

 The kids were cheering and having a fun time watching the mad man on the loud bike!  ha ha

 Then we did a dirt bike themed obstacle coarse.  You had to toss the hula hoop around the balloon that was tied to a dirt bike toy.

 Then to the right of this pic was station #2 where you had to toss a ball into the tire.  And then you run up the stairs and around the grass for station #3.  This is where you pick up a tire and wheel it through the finish line!  It was entertaining to say the least.  haha

 Then each of the kids got a gold medal for winning the race.

 I had to throw in something fun for the adults.  They had to kick a checkered flag hacky sack into the tire.  That was also really entertaining to watch.  I had some good sports at this party.  Grandpa Keith got it on second try! 

 Here is the birthday boy with Dad and Mom.  LOVE HIM! 

Time has sure gone fast.  I hope he will grow up to know that his mom and dad love him to pieces and that he is worth all the efforts of these parties.  He is sure our sunshine.  I mean just look at that smile!  Happy 4th birthday Konman!

Grandpa Fun

 Fun with Grandpa on the HARLEY!  Just look at those smiles.
Below:  Kase wanted to make sure Kaylee was ok with standing next to the thing that was super loud a few min earlier!  ha ha

I don't know what it is about Grandpas and Grandmas... but they are truly the BEST!
Lucky for my kids, they have 2 Grandpas, and 3 Grandmas to get love from!
I had a super funny grandpa that I just LOVED!  And my grandma was the most sweet, loving, and generous woman EVER!  Sure miss them.  But luckily my kids get to spend time with their grandparents, and it is a very special thing to see them create strong bonds with all 5 of them!

Spring Break!

I tried to do something fun each day with the kids during the week of Spring Break.  Here are a few pics from the fun week. 
We went to a different park 3 times.  

 For all of my dance students, we had a spring party during their class time!

 We went to the mall, and we did a "Do all of the NOT TODAY things".  Ha ha.  Things that the kids beg for when we go places, and I say the common line, "Not today, maybe another day" line.  Well, I figured it was a good time to cash in on that, and do it TODAY!  Catch up day!  Since it was raining outside, we decided to take our fun indoors.  We went to South Towne mall.  We rode the carrousel, rode the train, rode the little rocking cars, ate hotdogs, got a chocolate shake, bought each kid an article of clothing of THEIR choice, and we all skipped to the car!  ha ha  It was a blast!  And I did it all by myself at the mall with 3 kids! 

 Even Kase was in heaven!  He is much like many in the family... he is developing a passion for horses.  This was a highlight for him to ride the horse on the carrousel.

I love my kids and I love spring.  Here is a pic of some of the flowers in my yard!

Colors galore!  Yellow, pink, red, orange, fire-n-ice, white, pink/white feather... We've got it all! 

Easter Dinner

It was a fun and low key dinner this year.  We had a ham dinner, with our new family tradition of Ressurection rolls.  (Recipe is in my last years post).  We did a Family Home Evening type of lesson about the real meaning of Easter.  Where everyone draws an egg out of the glass vase.  Inside has a scripture and a symbol of Easter.  Also in last years post.  It was a good time.  We missed having the big group, but it was nice to have something a little more simple and intimate. 

Here are some pics to highlight the fun night.  

The kids table-

Me and my little man!

 Me and My Main Man!

Jessica and Andrew Bybee

 Danny & Melony!

 The gang (minus Grandpa Keith)  Look at all of those smiles!  That has got to be some kind of record!

 CrAzY pose!  These little kiddos are creative!

The Easter Basket cake-  Chocolate cake with chocolate chunks, grass for toppings, and more chocolate around the edges!  Yum!

Easter Mornin

Sunday morning, the kids came downstairs all together to see if the Easter Bunny stopped by.  Which he DID!  Lots of books, stickers,  games, candy, and one fun thing for each child.  Konnor got a rocket launcher!  He loves that thing!

 

Kaylee got some bedtime slippers, bunny jacks, and this nummy Chocolate bunny.  She ate the ears off first.  Just like her mom used to do.

 

You wanted to see a close up of that right?  Good, because here ya go!....

 Kase didn't really care about much but his breakfast shake.  ha ha  Later in the day, he warmed up to his basket of goodness!