DRESS REHEARSAL x2

Two excited kids, ready to spend 6 hours at dress rehearsal (parents not quite as excited as them, but still excited!)

I looked across the auditorium at one point and noticed James high up in the stadium seating with 3 girls from his PreBallet class. When he caught me looking at him he smiled at me and gave me a thumbs-up, so naturally I went up there and asked them if I could take a picture. Little ladies man was awfully proud of himself...

 I took videos of all their dance numbers (because during Dress Rehearsal you can get front and center, whereas during the Recital we're either in our seats or in the wings volunteering), but they're too long to email or upload here, so below are links to all of them on YouTube:

Boys Dance (Bandits)

6-YR Ballet w/ Acro (Ringmasters)

PreBallet w/ Acro (Jack in the Box)

6-YR Jazz (Ringmasters)

Production Number (Kingdom Glory)

END OF YEAR SURVEY

DINING AND DAIQUIRIS

Mom and Margie arrived yesterday, and we had a low key dinner at home just letting the kids get all the attention they wanted while we visited. Tonight we'd planned to go to 10 South for dinner after dance class (we met Mom and Margie at RiverPointe, since they so graciously picked the kids up from school and hurriedly got them ready for ballet and Acro), but the city suffered a major water line break midday, causing most people (and restaurants) to lose water (and which was expected to be out for 3-5 days because they had to build a damn, pump out the water that covered the broken pipe due to the flooded Mississippi River, and then fix the pipe and gasket). Luckily, a few restaurants were given the go-ahead to remain open as long as they used paper plates and plastic utensils, served bottled water, and had porta-potties on site. It wasn't the glamorous evening we'd envisioned, but the food (and cocktails) were as good as ever! We followed up dinner with our tradition of scooting over the river to grab daiquiris on the way home.

 And a quick stop at sunset along the river for a group photo!

(Unfortunately, the daiquiri was the start of a 48 hour bout of norovirus for mom...)

MUFFINS WITH MOM 2017

Moms were invited to breakfast at school today, with muffins donated by Cafe Paradiso (and free coffee coupons included). It was BUSY in that cafeteria and I had a lot of fun chatting with other moms, hanging out with my little loves, and letting them introduce me to all their friends.

MOTHER'S DAY HIKE (NOT BIKE)

Mother's Day went mostly as planned today: I slept in, went for my first run (just 1 mile, with Buster to keep me accountable to the prescribed walk breaks my PT ordered), ate pancakes and bacon, Skyped with my mom and dad, and commenced getting ready to go for a family bike ride at the park. Except all the bikes needed a good cleaning and tire tune up (due to months of non-use while hanging in the sunroom getting covered in chicken dust) and we discovered that both kids had suddenly outgrown their bikes (by a LOT). So Jay cleaned the bikes, got the bike rack onto the van, and we loaded up to head to Walmart to grab a new bike for James (because we figured Cora could ride James for a month or so, even though she has grown so much lately that even his bike is small on her). Only as soon as we turned on the car we found the tire warning light glowing. So we got out to investigate and saw that the front passenger tire was completely flat. Womp womp. So we unloaded, ate lunch (we had planned to grab something out on the way to the park), and Jay filled both the flat tire and the spare. Neither of which held air. And we no longer have a bike rack for the Jetta (why own two, especially when 4 bikes couldn't fit on the Jetta rack anyway?), so biking was out. We abandoned the van and decided to head to the park for a family hike instead. Followed by giant ice cream cones and grilled chicken at home for dinner. And while it wasn't exactly as we planned, the day turned out to be a lot of fun (and we lucked out seeing 3 juvenile armadillos on the trail while we hiked from the Illinois Memorial down to "The Hole"). I'm lucky to have a crew of flexible fun seekers under my care :-)

 (Can you find all 3 little armadillos?)

 They were not afraid of us (they literally walked across my shoe at one point), but we didn't pet them or pick them up (they aren't dangerous, though their claws are sharp, but they can carry leprosy and are thus best left alone)

 (They found bleached out snail shells and decided their were the Heart of Te Fiti - Moana reference)

 (Somebody fell asleep on the way home from ice cream...)

MOTHER'S DAY CARDS

 And from James:

MCKINLEY'S TUMBLE PARTY

One of Cora's Girl Scout friends celebrated her 7th birthday at River City Tumble this morning, and she invited everyone's siblings, so James got to be a Tagalong. He and Cora spent most of their time on the obstacle course at the back of the building with some of the older kids, where I got suckered into playing "Monster Chase" (basically sneaking/running around the outside of the obstacle course, throwing lightweight bounce balls at the kids, which was as much fun for me as it was for them AND I figured out that my knee tolerated running!) Cora and Cara Beth also spent a good amount of time playing in the aerial yoga slings, which looked pretty fun to me too (but I refused to make a fool of myself in front of all the moms I didn't know...)

 The party had a Trolls theme, and the take home suckers were pretty dang cute:

GOODNIGHT CHICKS, GOODNIGHT SHARK

Goodnight hugs for her little hens, in her chicken pajamas. This girl is obsessed.

 We did not put shark boy to bed like this:

FIREHOUSE TOUR

Troop 3315 visited the Firehouse today, took a tour, and gave the firefighters the Girl Scout cookies that were purchased via donations during our booth sales. Jay took the kids and they all had a good time!

LUNCH DUTY

To end Teacher Appreciation Week, we gave the teachers a kid-free lunch by having parents volunteer over the lunch hours to monitor the cafeteria. I was supposed to be keeping them quiet, but instead I had a lot of nice conversations with some very sweet kids, including my own knuckleheads... I learned during lunch that they've each had their own cafeteria "account" (used to buy ice cream only, since lunch is provided free), which they started with their own money from their piggy banks. I guess having mama and daddy tell you no, that you don't need ice cream at lunch and should instead be finishing the lunch we lovingly pack each day, is not a deterrent when you have your own funds (or are good at sweet talking your friends or their parents out of quarters here and there to add to your account)... I wanted to be mad, but really, that's pretty ingenious of them.

TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK

James and Cora are really into puns, so we made a few "punny" little teacher gifts for them to bring their teachers and TAs this week in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week:

 On Friday the kids brought Thank You notes that they filled out (with Amazon giftcards attached to the back - it was definitely nice getting the end of year thank you gifts taken care of ahead of the end of the school year, so we'll definitely be doing that from now on!)

(This boy knows how to melt a lady's heart, let me tell you!)

ERDC AWARDS NIGHT

Jay and I attended our first ERDC Awards Night, where I received an Award for Outstanding Achievement in Technology Transfer, for the Inaugural eDNA Training and Technical Exchange Workshop that I helped put on with my supervisor. It was a collaboration among multiple federal agencies and universities that was very well received (and well attended by 75 of the top scientists in the field of eDNA). It was fun to have an excuse to get dressed up and call for a babysitter on a school night!

BEAUTIFUL CHICKS

Young hens, enjoying the sunshine...

 Guinea crowing from the top of the shed...

 ...and Cora has beautiful chicks and a pretty house...

SUNDAY HAPPENINGS

Cousin Skype:

 Hot Dogs and Marshmallows for dinner:

 Bedtime toad catcher: