Our Little Ballerina

Jocelyn's 3rd Ballet Recital was last weekend.  I can't believe she's been doing ballet for 4 1/2 years!  She continues to love her classes, and performing on stage.  Up until now, she has done Ballet and Tap together, but this year she tried out Jazz with Ballet instead and she loved it.

We're so proud of her!!

And when the pressure is off....

In our back yard under the Dogwood tree.  For some odd reason it only blooms every 2 years, but this year the timing is perfect!

Arizona Trip to see Pepere and Memere!

Easter break this year found us travelling farther than some of us have ever gone in our lives!  Hubby has a very short bucket list - as in there was only one thing on it - he wanted to see the Grand Canyon.  So we decided to take a trip to Arizona to visit Pepere and Memere and make a side trip to the "Big Ditch" (Pat's name for it!) while we were out there.

We arrived in Phoenix on Saturday and drove to the Grand Canyon Sunday for an overnight.  Sunday evening we went on the Sunset bus tour and Monday morning we took the Hermits Rest bus tour.  We did a lot of traveling in those first 3 days of the trip, but it was well worth it!

The rest of the week through Friday we spent time with Pepere and Memere.  We saw the Arizona Opry show, went horse back riding, and watched cattle rustling, toured an old mining ghost town (where Jocelyn had her first **real** beer - root beer that is!), and ate pizza for dinner one night while being entertained by a man playing a HUGE organ.

During the trip, I took advantage of Memere's long arm quilting machine to quilt Jocelyn's new heart quilt that I've been working on for her!!

It was a fun, educational, enlightening, tiring, exciting, special trip, and we are so glad we went!!

Catching up... Again

The blog is always there, but sometimes there is just no time for the extras in life...

In the last couple months...

The Easter Bunny came!

The Sandbox came!  (though Mommy may regret that one)

Spring came!  (though I'm still not totally convinced it's going to stick around!)

And new fish came - each times 2!

There's more of course, so stay tuned!

It Was Bound to Happen

It was only a matter of time before this....

Became this....


The Maryland Science Center hosted a Family Engineering night at Jocelyn's school last night.

She started by balancing blocks on a tiny can.  She's a great builder!

Then she played with electrical circuits.

She tested the power of the "wolf" fan by building "pig" houses out of Lincoln Logs, popsicle "sticks and "straw"s, and got to learn the wonders of binary code first hand.

Then she built a building out of straws and anchors and tested it's ability to survive a simulated earthquake.  Her building survived an 8.5 magnitude earthquake!!

This stuff was all right up her alley.  She was excited to go to every station and try it all out, even the (Yawn...) binary code.  It should be no surprise that the daughter of an engineer (not me, in case you're wondering) should find her talents in the engineering world.  I can't wait to see where it takes her!

New Family Members!

For over a year, I tossed around the idea of getting a fish tank.  I had one many years ago in another life, and since we can't have other pets, due to allergies, the idea of it came up again.  I went back and forth on whether I really needed just one more thing to take care of, but over the holidays, I finally decided to do it!

I had forgotten after 20 years how to set up and maintain a fish tank, so I barraged the poor guy at the store with a million questions!  We decided on a 20 gallon tank which is plenty for us, but going smaller means more maintenance, so it's a good size.

After the initial set up, we got some Swordtails, a Cori cat, and some Rasbora, which are tiny schooling fish.  Then we were told to wait another month to make sure the bacteria levels don't go crazy before getting anymore fish.  Last weekend we went back for another Cori cat, and as you can see above right, the two of them are already buddies.  We also got these pretty fish below.  This is two out of the three Glo-fish that Jocelyn picked out.  They are really pretty bright colored fish.

In another month or two, we might finish our little fish family with the last couple additions, but over all, I'm really happy with the fish tank.  I'm so glad I finally decided to get it.  It's so relaxing to watch the fish swim around, and it hasn't been hard at all to care for.  So welcome to the family little guys!

Selfies

I once read an article from a Mom about making sure you - as the Mom - are in pictures with your kids.  You can read the article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-tate/mom-pictures-with-kids_b_1926073.html

This article really struck me.  Like every woman on the planet, I'm not always that crazy about pictures of me.  But I learned something when I read that article.  My daughter doesn't see my faults, she sees ME - MOMMY, and none of those other insecurities.

So I decided, with the wonders of modern technology, to be in the picture with my daughter so she can look back on those photos one day and know for sure that I was, and always will be here with her.

Here's some of our latest creations, including some from Jocelyn herself!

Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc...   And Mike's eyeball!

More eyeballs, this time from Jocelyn!!   Any guess who's forehead??

Snuggling with my girl.