1 Ballet day

I love the last Thursday of the month, because that's when the mommas get to watch our ballerinas do a mini-performance for us. Leighton is always so proud and excited to have us in to watch. I really have seen her improve over these few months. She couldn't skip at all back in September, and now she's a pro!

One of my favorite things to watch is when the girls act out the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Today was an extra special day because I brought Georgia with me to watch Leighton. I usually don't bring Georgia to ballet because I don't think she would enjoy sitting in the small waiting room there...but she did great and she loved watching Leighton!

0 My transformers

Earlier this week, I told Leighton I wanted her to put on a puppet show for me, so she and Georgia ran and spent a good amount of time getting all their puppets (Barbies and My Little Ponies) ready. Finally, the show began, and Leighton ran around the room yelling about how she was a transformer (performer) putting on a transformance. Then, she presented "Here is our finest act" about three or four times.

Funny thing was, they didn't end up doing an actual puppet show. All their "acts" consisted of them doing somersaults and spinning around and doing jumping jacks outside of the puppet theater. It was hilarious, entertaining, and sweet. (Georgia did stare at Leighton almost the whole time like she had lost her mind...possibly the witching hour wildness.)

1 I love Georgia!

Oh, Georgia. We sure do love you!

1 Coloring Easter eggs

This afternoon, we colored Easter eggs. I moved the girls' little table into the kitchen, covered it in paper towels, mixed all 9 colors we had for our eggs, and let the girls get to it!

They wanted to have an egg in every cup. And Georgia liked using her hands instead of a spoon or the handy egg dipper that comes with the colors.

We had some beautiful eggs...vibrant colors! And out of 16 eggs, I think we had about 6 or 7 that survived (uh, didn't get cracked). It was like a war zone in our kitchen! I have never seen so many eggs go down during a coloring session.

Here's just a few that ended up on the floor, cracked to bits. It is entirely possible that Georgia found this funny and did it again on purpose, but I'll never know. The good thing is no one was upset by the cracking (at least not the girls!).

I sat with them at the table and really did enjoy watching them as they plotted which eggs should go in which cup. They really put a lot of effort into their strategy.

However, when the dye hit the floor, I declared Egg Coloring 2012 had drawn to a close! Thankfully, we had finished all the eggs, and Georgia was moving finished eggs from one cup to the next while Leighton was attempting to pour all the egg dye into one cup. So...yes, they were done anyway. I then did a thorough cleaning of the kitchen floors!

Next on our list of pre-Easter fun is making jellybean bracelets! A much cleaner activity, I think.

1 Rodeo Cowgirls!

My sweet friend Jacki offered us her tickets to the rodeo Saturday because she couldn't go. I snapped them up because we hadn't been to the Rodeo yet this year and I really wanted to. We invited Lance to come with us, and off we went, right about at the start of Georgia's nap time (it never turns out well when we skip over Georgia's nap, but sometimes it has to happen).

We decided to pass all the rides (after our experience last year) and head straight over to the animals. Georgia could not have been happier sitting on a John Deere tractor.

Do you see that smile? I think we could have sat on this tractor all day and it would have been a great day for Georgia. She cried when we moved on, poor thing.

I remember a couple of years ago, Leighton cried just at the sight of Miss Moo. This year, she ran right up to her for a picture! Georgia was also very excited about Miss Moo until it was our turn for pictures...then, she started crying and ran away.

Now I know everyone thinks their own kids are just the cutest. But I heard other people talking about our cute girls as we walked by. They admired their cute red and pink boots, among other things.

I think this was their favorite part of the Rodeo. They actually got to pet the cows!

Georgia was sticking her face through the fence and yelling "Hi Cow! Hi Cow! How you doing Cow?"

I hadn't intended for Lance to help us with the girls, but of course it comes naturally for him to help and he sure was a huge one. The girls LOVE him, to put it mildly. Georgia, who takes a while to warm up to everyone, is happy to see Lance right off the bat.

Such a cool picture I think...that's actually a sculpture of a bottle of milk behind them. And yes, that is Lance holding Georgia up with one hand. Strong boy!

I can't believe I actually got a picture of this. We tried so many times! Georgia would have the sunglasses on, Lance would yell at me to take a picture, and by the time I got my camera out, on, and aimed, she would take them off. Except this one moment!

After Leighton's week of Art camp, we were excited to see this little craft for kids to make. Leighton filled a tiny glass bottle with all different colors of sand, and then they sealed it off and put on a top.

I can't tell you how many times Uncle Matt has tried to carry Leighton on his shoulders. She always kicks him in the face and wants down. So I was shocked to look over and see Leighton up on Lance's shoulders. Thankfully, she did not kick him in the face with those boots on!

We were exhausted around this time. It was hot. Our feet were tired. We sat here for a rest and had some cinnamon rolls and cookie dough on a stick. Yum! These chairs are actually foot massagers and I gave one a try. Whoa. It was awesome. Basically, it just vibrates like wild on your feet. My feet were tingling for a long time after the massage! But they sure weren't sore anymore.

Oh it would have been such a cute picture to get the girls sitting together on the chair! Why didn't you try that? Ahem. I sure did try!

Now this is what I call love: We could only find one quarter, so I was in the chair loving my foot massage. And I gave it up so Chad could have his feet massaged too.

This is where our day at the Rodeo got REAL good. Yee haw! Jacki was so awesome she had hooked us up with her company's box seats...so we had an incredible view of the Rodeo and awesome food, drinks, and service.

Leighton and Georgia were giddy the whole time we were there. Running around, eating popcorn and dancing and jumping. Leighton got a kick at watching all the Rodeo races.

I forgot to mention it was St. Patrick's day...they even had green beer for us!

We were so loving this experience. Great air conditioning, comfortable chairs, a personal waiter. Once you Rodeo this way you just can't go back!

And cake balls. Seriously?! Could it get any better?

We could tell Georgia was slowly starting to lose her mind. She did skip her nap, after all. That coupled with all the madness of the Rodeo and loads of sugar...she was bouncing off the walls. She literally bounced right off this chair a little after this picture was taken. She was jumping on it and just fell over backwards off the side. (She's ok!)

Oh yeah...another highlight. When the ice-cream sundae bar passed our way and we got to make our own sundaes, served in pink cowgirl hats. Yep...the girls were in Heaven.

At some point in our awesome suite experience, we decided the girls were going to quickly spiral down from their sugar highs, so we packed our strollers and headed toward the front door. We stopped to use the rest of our tickets and win a couple of stuffed animals on our way out. I caught this SWEET moment where Georgia was resting on Lance's shoulder. First of all, Georgia rarely rests. And if she does, it isn't on anyone but me or Chad. So this was a moment for sure.

Georgia loved the cow Lance won for her. Lance, you rock!

What a fun day. Exhausting, yes. We all pretty much went to bed when we got home. But what a great time. Thanks, Jacki!