Aube goes to A Regionals!

Through-out the swim season, swimmers are trying to swim faster at each meet.... not just to win their heat, but to improve their time.... shaving seconds off can mean so much! Aube is 7 this year, so she swims against 6-8 year olds. Bella is 9, so she swims against 9-10 year olds. And for each group, the times to qualify for regionals and state are completely different. Aube qualified for A Regionals this year in the 25 Fly, 30 Free and 100 IM. Bella swam hard, but her times were just under the qualifying times, so she gets to go to B Regionals instead. The difference between A & B....your A times can qualify you for State. Which Aube did! She qualified for State in the 50 Free. Her time for the 100 IM also would have qualified her, but she was disqualified during that race because of her kick. Stink! Obviously it happens... but it's so frustrating because through the whole season, at every meet, there is no disqualifying going on... they just mark it down and tell the coach, then the coach is supposed to work on the issues with the swimmer. Well... these kids..... my kids... have been WINNING races and thinking all is well. Yeah, their coach may say "work on this, work on that" but all the kids are seeing are these 1st, 2nd, 3rd place ribbons stacking up. And to a KID, that means they've won..... am I the only one who see's a problem with this?

I digress....

The A Regional meet this past Saturday, the 19th, was held at the McKinney High School Natatorium. Smallish place... but I guess they take turns hosting events like this. If it was up to me, all the meets would take place at Frisco.... their natatorium is HUGE with ample seating and a/c!

Swimmers write their heats on their arms somewhere. Some kids go quite crazy, drawing fish or bubbles, writing "eat my bubbles" or some such thing. Sharpies are a swimmers friend.

We had some special visitors fly in to see Aubree swim in Regionals! 

Swimming runs in the family, I've mentioned that before. Papa swam the back stroke in high school.... Daddy swam & was a diver in high school.... and Uncle Topher went to state his senior year of high school (we get to rub it in....Aube went to state at 7 years old!

What took you so long, Uncle Topher???)

 Gramma & Grampa came with us, too! (And John.... he never likes to take pictures, nice photobomb)

We are so thankful for all of our families support!

Swimming isn't an easy sport... it takes alot of dedication, and I'm so proud of my sweet girls for doing their best and trying to hard and most of all... sticking with it!

This next weekend is B Regionals in Allen for Bella... then the weekend after we drive to College Station TX for State. Aube is quite excited... especially since she thinks that if she wins at State, she will then "get to go to another country and stay there!" Oh don't we wish, sweetheart!

Happy Birthday Party Day!

My girls have birthdays 19 days apart....and they are still at the age where I say "Hey! What do you want to do for your birthday party?" ...And they ramble off crazy shenanigans like dancingrainbowbutterflychuckEcheese party!! So I reply "Sure you can have a  painting party" 

Haha, tricked ya! Youreallyhavenosay...

So I scoured Pinterest for some ideas....and as always, came up with some fantastic stuff from some talented people. Such as:

This cute party on Catch My Party.

I loved this invite on Parenting.com, and totally did my best to recreate it.

And so on and so forth....Pinterest is such a great resource! So thankful for all those crafty people out there and glad they can be found thru something like Pinterest!

As the guests came in, they were able to pick out a tie dyed shirt to use as a smock.

My cutie pie sister, Emily, and I had a tie dye session earlier in the week. So fun! 

The set up.

James said to me later in the day "That didn't take you very long to set up last night" Um...honey, you fell asleep halfway thru Revenge....and it took me a Revenge and a Project Runway to put it together! ha! 

Totally worth it, tho...the girls exclamations when they saw it in the morning were priceless.

The favor bags were hand-splattered by the girls.

They also splattered a banner for me that I hung on the front of the house. 

I found a set of party cups/plates/napkins, etc in Tie Dye at Walmart! Love me some tie dye, and it went perfectly with the rainbow-y painting theme! 

I tried my hand at making rice krispy treats that were supposed to look like paintbrushes.

See inspiration HERE. I didn't quite recreate it as well as I would have liked. But they tasted good!

I was even able to rainbow-ize the food! 

My sister schooled me on the true rainbow: ROYGBIV

(red orange yellow green blue indigo violet)

Fun little acronym to remember that!

As our cute little guests started to arrive....they passed a little a time putting together fruit loop necklaces.

Then we started in on the fun!
I found some 11x14 canvases at Michaels on sale 2/$5, which was quite the insane deal. 

Lots of cool rainbows all around the table.

My girls LOVE them. We have rainbow drawings popping up all around the house.

Auntie Em came by, decked out in tie dye like a pro, to join in the fun!

Aube's face is priceless. She can be quite the goofball (and drama queen)
Grandma and Grandpa also came, but of course I forgot to get a picture of them all together. Grandpa was in his tie dye, too!  

All the girls (and John Ü my brother) got to stretch their creative fingers and create something fun to take home. I really love seeing where their little minds take them.

Bella's school friend, Emi, did a little splatter pain effect on hers (and a few others around her, oops)

Aubree's school friend, Yede, has an eye condition where she doesn't see very well. Truthfully, I was a bit worried about having her and her sister, who has a bit of the same issue, come and not be able to participate. But both Bella and Aube insisted on having the sisters come. And to my happy surprise, they did just fine with a little help here and there. Yede's picture turned out SO GOOD! I may need her to paint a masterpiece for me to hang on my wall.

Maddy and Abby got a fun table all to themselves. Sweeties!

We let the paintings dry and the kids got all sugared up on sweets.

Then! We started our dance portion of the party. Bella really wanted to have a some dancing happen! 

We started up Just Dance Kids on the Wii.

It took a little bit to get everyone warmed up....and over their shyness.

But in just a few songs, we had everyone participating, dancing along with the silly little songs. 

And just like that....it was over. I swear, parties need to be like five hours long (not really) to make all the prep worth it. BUT in the long run, the look on everyone's faces when they are having fun is what makes it worth it. And Aube telling me "This was the best day ever. It was a super duper awesome day." Makes me smile and start trying to come up with an even better party idea for next year! Crazy lady.

One of the many things...

....I haven't posted about.

The girls most recent dance recital.

....which was in May.

I don't know why I keep acting surprised about my lack of blogging...I'm soooo shocked at being a slacker! ha!

I love Aube and Bella's dance teacher, she's such a sweetie. And the company does a great job at putting on a recital. They've had it, for a few years now, at this renovated theater in "downtown" GP. I love being able to watch the girls on stage! They both did so well this year...no fears or tears.

Their ballet number this year was a combination of both age groups....danced to the Wizard of Oz Munchkin song and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" {insert tears here....love that song}.

It was such a special treat to see them dancing together!

Aubree moved up to a bigger class this past year, so she did 3 numbers, just like Bella did.

All dressed up in their tap costumes.

Sassy pants.

The girls wait for their turn in the side stage area....this neat little ramp where they have to be uber quiet.

It's the nervous hallway.

I just sit and cross my fingers....hoping that there are no tears. And as soon as it's their turn, I dash away, running fast as socially acceptable thru the back halls of the theater, so I can see my girlies perform!

We had a special treat this year! Miss Stephanie's son was old enough to perform! 

That little dude is so adorable....especially in his suit and tie, smack dab in the middle of 12-15 girls. 

But he wasn't shy....and he knew his moves better than all of them!

Aubree in her Jazz costume (A-DOR-ABLE! holy shimmy shimmy shake that tooshie).

I need to post a video of it! 

And for some reason, I didn't get a pic of Bella in her Jazz costume. Timing was off, I guess.

I love having girls in dance! They took the summer off, and miss it so much! 

I can't wait till they can get back into it. 

It's so fun to be a mom of girls. To be able to get all dressed up and girly with them.

And it's a blessing to get to see the differences between them and Jax. Both have their ups and downs.....and it's definitely not easy, but totally worth it.

Mary Poppins the Musical

James is signed up on the Disney website, where it tells you when Disney productions are in your town, such as Disney on Ice....and in our case, when Mary Poppins the Musical was playing. AND, on top of that, there are certain nights you can go for a discount.

So, we got a sitter for Jax, and took the girls out for a night on the town.

We started at Razoo's.

Fried pickles, anyone??

I had to fight the girls to sit by Daddy....he's a popular fellow. 

 After dinner, we walked a block or two over to The Cupcakery. If you're ever in Ft Worth and want a decadent piece of heaven....you need to stop in and pick out a cupcake....all different kinds. I heard they even had bacon on one....

We picked out the Mary Poppins cupcake. {It had this cute little umbrella cookie on the top...totally pulled out the camera too late!} It kind of reminds me of Dr Seuss...but it was quite yummy.

 The play was at Bass Hall in Ft Worth. We've never been there before, although when we are in Ft Worth, we always see the big, beautiful building with the trumpet playing angels on the side.

So it was quite the treat to be able to go and enjoy a show there.

 Our seats were fantastic {and discounted!} right at the edge of the balcony.

I do admit, I had visions of my children plummeting over the edge, made my heart palpitate a little faster. But that's just because I'm a crazycakes mamma.

The play was amazing...the talent of these actors/actresses amazes me. They not only remember lines...they SING and their voices are gorgeous.

It went a little long {like waaaaay long....intermission being at 9, with an hour left!} but the girls thoroughly enjoy themselves and keep asking to go see it again.

It truly was....

Practically Perfect in Every Way.

{except the time thing....let's face it, no one is really perfect, Mary!}

IloveyousomuchIcouldsquishyou

I'm so glad the hubs remembered to snap a picture of this little stud yesterday!

I left early for church with the girls to attend choir....and totally forgot to set out clothes for Jax, which can sometimes spell disaster (James thinks black and blue can be worn together, and I submit that they cannot!). Welp, I had ALSO forgotten that I bought this little gem of an outfit at Target. Holy smokes, when my boys walked in, I about died from the cuteness. What a little MAN.

 Daddy also snapped this sweet little pic of my munchers. Saturday was quite the lazy day...

What's up, Buttercup??

Well....we were lame in the birthday party department this year. With everything going on {the new calling, the maybe-job, Jax and his shenanigans} I skipped over the big party this year...even though I totally started planning one {hello....Princess and the Pea, such a cute idea!}. Instead, we had us a little family party....which was our FIRST birthday party with family, since Bella's 1st. We waited until Em and Jed could come up for a visit....and we partied!

 My cake was only semi-ghetto....but it tasted fantabulous. And the numbers DO add up to their ages: 7 and 5. Woot, go me!

 Sunday .... Jax was dressed up way too cute.

And was, for some reason, standing on a serving tray, holding a pumpkin.

Nice.

 Handsome little stud.

Complete with a boo-boo on his chin.

Crazychildofmine.