She should have been born a blonde...

Julia's friends, the triplets, turned 9 the other day. At the bus stop, they were telling her it was their birthday. Julia looked confused and said, "What?! How can it be all of your birthdays today?!" Now she has known the triplets for years and has even gone to their birthday parties. I asked Julia what she thought "triplets" meant? After a long pause and a blank look on her face she said, "Little people that live together?"

Honestly. Sometimes I wonder about her. She should have been born a blonde.

Video from Julia's Hot Shot Meet

Here are some videos from Julia's meet on Sunday. The only video I'm not putting on here is bars because she was too far away and there was a pole in the way.

Warm-ups



Beam (score 9.1)



Vault (score 9.0)



Floor Routine (score 9.1)

Note: this video is annoying because her coach was in the way of her last move which was a round off back handspring...my fault because I should have moved to a better spot to tape...oh well...live and learn, right?

Hot Shot Classic Meet

(Julia doing the gymnastics pose that is on the pink shirt she's wearing in this photo...)


Today was a crazy busy day. Julia had a gymnastics meet this morning and it was picture day at the dance studio. Try being in two places at the same time. Nuts. A wonderful mom helped me out this morning and took Gianna to her pictures. After the meet, Julia and I rushed over to the studio for her pictures. She missed her group tap picture which really bummed me out but she was able to make the jazz group picture. And I was able to get individual photos of both her dances so it all worked out in the end.
Here is her Tiger Team.


Julia has really, really improved with her level 4 routines. I'll try and post her vault and beam routine soon. Her floor routine was really good too but her coach was standing right in front of me the whole time so the video didn't come out good. And her bar routine was like 1000 miles away on the other side of the gym so no good video for that either. She made it through her entire bar routine all on her own with no spot! I'm so proud of her. She has been working so hard and it's really paying off! She'll be going 6 hours a week this summer so I can only imagine how much better she will be by the fall.

Her scores today:

Beam 9.10
Floor 9.10
Vault 9.0
Bars 8.6
She was so thrilled she got 3 blue ribbons this year!

Her flexibility just blows me away. And once again, she was one of the only girls in the meet who pointed her toes, had straight legs, used her upper body and had pretty arms and hands...


And Gianna had her gymnastics show this week. It was so very cute and she did a great job. They started with a dance routine and then did the beam, trampoline and a few obstacle courses. For as loud as she is you wouldn't believe that she isn't very brave. She gets so nervous doing new tricks. But I was so proud of her. She didn't want to do a forward roll on the beam but with lots of coaxing from her coach she did it...and it was great! She had the biggest smile and I could tell she was very proud of herself. She loved the medal she received. She especially loves how it changes color when you move it around. She even took it to Show & Tell on Friday.



So proud of my girls!

Little Blessings Newsletter

As the school year is winding down, we just received our very last Little Blessings newsletter. Each month in the newsletter there is a section called "Famous Quotes". They write the funny things the little kids say at school. Practically every month, including this month, Gianna is quoted with something funny she has said.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Gianna: "I hope Ava (one of her classmates) doesn't miss the crunch...you know...that Mother's Day thing!" (She was talking about the mother's day brunch.)


Miss Kristen (her teacher): "Logan (one of her classmates) is wearing soldier pants today."
Gianna: "Logan sold his pants today?"


Gianna (when her friend Aaliyah was absent): "Where is my Aaliyah friend!?"

Gianna: "I just bought these shoes at the...I don't know store...Oh, wait, I know, I know! The shoe store!"

Miss Kristen: "I am going to write my name here."
Gianna (this was last year when she was 3): "You know how to write your name?!"

Gianna: "The new 'Alvin and the Chickmunks' (instead of Chipmunks) movie is coming out!"

And one other very funny Gianna moment. I took her to the doctor recently for her 5-year-old checkup. The doctor asked her if she knew where her heart was. So Gianna put her hand over her heart and proceeded to recite the entire Pledge of Allegiance.

This morning when I was dropping her off at school, she was looking out the window of the car and said, "Mommy, I love this world." I was like, huh? I'm always so preoccupied and busy to take notice of such things. But not Gianna. She is so present...so here. She continued to say, "Yes, I love the trees, I love the grass..."

Oh, how I'm going to miss this stage.

Fads & My Little Artists

Can someone tell me what is so great about these? Auntie Diane gave the kids some of these for Easter and do you they didn't even know what they were? That was only a few months ago. Now they are THE thing to have. Today I drove the kids all over the place looking for them since they are so deprived and didn't have as many as all their friends. (Mom guilt set in.) The first two places we went to were all sold out. Crazy. The person who invented these is a genius.

Gianna made this for me today...so sweet...

According to Gianna...left to right is Julia, Daddy, Gianna, Nicholas and me.

Julia made this self portrait at school...love it.

And Julia made this too...

I love our family too. Happy long weekend.

Our last Little Blessings field trip...ever

Julia was practicing her jazz dance the other day. She is so flexible so I thought I would take a picture to show her how she looks. Yes, she needs to work on her turn out but I still think it's impressive...

and then look who tried the same move...how cute is she...still don't know if dance and gymnastics will be her love as it is Julia's, but I know she'll be good at whatever she tries...

So Gianna had her very last field trip at Little Blessings yesterday. When I think about it I get all teary. They went to one of our town parks which is really nice. Plenty of stinky animals to feed, lots of woods to play in and several playgrounds. Gianna and I go there all the time on our own so it was fun to go with school this time.


She adores her friend, Brady. They are such cute friends.

And here she is with her gang...Gianna and the boys. That's when she's the happiest, can't you tell by that huge smile?

She loved, loved all the animals. She was thrilled to see so many turtles.

And she wasn't afraid to pat them this time.

I thought the kids looked so cute from behind with their matching shirts and name tags. They were told to stay on the rug but of course as one inches forward so do the rest.

So happy...but wow it was HOT.

They all sat down on a blanket to enjoy a snack.

They always say a prayer before their snack...one of the many, many reasons why I love this school.

And you couldn't ask for two better preschool teachers than Miss Kristen and Miss Hilary. Nice, kind, and gentle with the children's hearts and spirits.

Oh how I will miss these sweet, precious preschool days at Little Blessings. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

Briggs

This picture doesn't have anything to do with Briggs...I just thought it was funny. There are some baby chipmunks that are teasing KoKo by running around the front stairs. Occasionally they stop and look right at him. Lucky, who was an outdoor cat, would have killed them all by now. I'm glad KoKo can't hurt them because they are just so cute.

Yesterday was another glorious day. Gianna and I went to Briggs to buy some flowers, feed the animals and play on the playground...

She says she wants to work here when she's a grown up. She's always talking about her love for animals and how she's going to have two dogs someday. I bet she does.

She loves the new baby pig. The other pig that was there for years has gone to the pastures in the sky...something I haven't shared with Gianna. She would be heartbroken.

Always, always smiling...

She loves playing on this train...

After we went to Bliss for the best peppermint stick ice cream ever...

Gianna asked me how all this ice cream gets in her belly? I know what she meant. Since you don't actually eat it or chew it and it's all melty...mmmm...just soooo good.

And this is how I felt after I finished my ice cream...

Oink...Oink...

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Random pictures on my camera...

Julia exhausted after a long day...


Gianna called me upstairs after I had already put her to bed. She had organized all her "friends". I thought it was so funny that I took these pictures. It's kind of creepy if you ask me...

I wouldn't want all these eyes on me while I was trying to sleep...

Nicholas presented his report on Jackie Robinson the other day at school. And what a project it was! On Friday, all the second graders had their reports on display for the parents. He did a great job.

Gianna got her costume the other day for her "Playmates" dance. I'm shocked that she actually put it on AND she really likes it! This is HUGE for her. Although...she hasn't put on the tights yet. Hope that's not a problem. I cannot get over how CUTE she looks in it!

She had fun posing for us...

and posing...

It was a beautiful day today. Pops and CeCe came over for dinner and we ate out on the porch. Danny made another yummy meal and CeCe made a really yummy dessert...it involved fudge of course...

Isn't this a classic Gianna face?

Sweet...

But Gianna just wanted to make faces...

My special day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I was quite spoiled. The day started with Danny's blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

After breakfast the kids gave me some cards and gifts.

Nicholas made me this sweet, sweet card...

I cried when I saw what he had written on the shirt..."I love my children".


I love when he writes "love your son"...just so precious. He also made me a bird feeder. Love it.

Then Julia gave me this...


Her washing the dishes...


Us putting a puzzle together...

I was starting to get weepy looking at this picture...

and pretty much sobbing at this point just thinking about how much I love my babies and how much they love me back...look...we're holding hands and wearing the same outfits!

They kept putting this card in front of me when I would cry because they knew how funny I thought it was...


Every special occasion, he buys me one funny card and one really sweet card. Loved this funny card!

My mom and sisters came over for the day. We ate delicious food and dessert (thank you Danny) and they listened to me brag about my three talented, funny, sweet, precious babies.

They always listen and agree with me...thank you for that!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. Simply the best Mom there is. Love you!