Thursday, June 07, 2007

Exciting accomplishments!

All three kids finished activities this week of which they were very proud. Madeline has been taking ballet all year and had her performance, The Jewel Heart, last weekend. She and her classmates played the Rose Fairies who brought clown Gemino back to life after he was lost in the forest and taken by the Creatures. They danced around the stage as they sewed him back together. Here are some pictures...


On stage for the finale/curtain call. Madeline is at the far left side of the picture.






This is her second year taking ballet, and while she enjoys it, she thinks she might want to take a break and take a karate/gymnastics class next Fall.




Ben has been taking that karate/gymnastics class this spring and had his last class this week. At the last class the kids were able to show their parents all that they had learned. They showed us blocks, stances, kicks, gymnastics, and more. Here are some photos from that last class...




Ben with one of his good buddies, Charlie, who was also in the class.

He really loves karate and is going to take more lessons in the fall.

Ellie has been taking gymnastics this spring and also had her last class this week. They had a beach theme during that week and all the kids were encouraged to wear their swimming suits to class. They showed us all of the skills they'd been working on throughout the session and had a great time. Here are pics of Ellie doing her thing...






Ellie had an awesome time with gymnastics this spring, but wants to take ballet in the fall.

We're really proud of all of their hard work in these activities, and they had such a great time!


One month, two month, old pics, new pics

It has been quite awhile since I last posted pictures and updates about Samuel. Since I last posted he has had both his one month and two month "birthdays". When Ben was a baby we started a tradition of taking a photo of baby on each month birthday for the first year in the same spot and with a special stuffed animal. At the end of the first year, we had a wonderful look at how baby has changed and grown. We plan to continue this with Samuel and have started with his first and second months. Below are pictures of Sam at one month...








and at two months.







He is growing and changing almost daily. I never grow tired of seeing how much babies change and learn during this first year. Sam is a fairly content baby, still sleeping quite a lot (most days)and even sleeping fairly well at night (usually!). However, he does NOT like riding in the car and if he doesn't fall asleep, he invariably screams for the entire car ride. It is really sad to hear him and nothing works to calm him except getting where we're going, taking him out of the carseat, and holding him. Sam has started to smile and "talk" quite a lot in the last couple of weeks. He has a really sweet smile and especially lights up for Madeline. He also has found his hands in the past week and now chews and sucks on them often. We went in for his two month check-up this past Wednesday (the 6th) and found that he is now 13 pounds, 10 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long - a big boy!

Happy two month birthday Sam!