Dancing Darlings and Mike is 5!

 

Jim and I went to a Carolina Railhawks soccer game. It rained most of the game which was actually kind of cool, especially since we had ponchos (it wasn't a cold rain and still warm out). The poncho only went to my knees though and my shoes and lower pants were soaked!

 

This week we had Dancing Darlings dance camp taught by an experienced dancer in our ward with a daughter Nicole's age. She taught the girls a whole routine in a week with real moves aka lots of French :) . After she left each day, we'd eat lunch and then do a little dance party.

 I let the boys and D join us for the dance party and they loved it!

In their starting positions for the mini-recital.

 

Nicole with her flowers after her recital. It was a sweet and fun experience by an experienced teacher, such a blessing and a great time for the girls.

Mike turned FIVE yesterday! He and Jim went to the Duke Lemur Center together to celebrate. They didn't get to touch any lemurs but had fun looking at all of the different breeds. I asked Mike to take pics and got over 50!

At one point Mike saw a frog in a river, but since the place is only viewed as a "tour" you can't leave your group and poor Mike had to leave the tantalizing frog behind...

 

Then he found a butterfly but had to leave that behind too. They didn't last the whole tour since poor Mike just wanted to play with the animals not look at them, but they still have a great time together.

Mike with his bday present bought with money from Grandma Kathryn. An armored stegosaurus... very cool. We also had a barbecue with the friends he wanted to invite: his two teenage babysitters, and two neighborhood girls a year or two older than him. They all came with their families and we ate hot dogs, played baseball and had a great last hurrah before school starts.

School starts tomorrow! We had "meet the teacher" and Nicole felt comfortable talking to her teacher Mrs. Lamb and told her that she was nervous for school, but I was glad she felt okay talking to her teacher and sharing her feelings. If she can be comfortable enough to do that, she'll be fine. We got her fruits and veggies for the week all ready today since she makes her lunch and it takes a while to do the prep if you do it each day.

And I'm making bread- she has a lot of fun and tends to eat better if her sandwiches are in the shape of a heart, flower, or star. I feel like this is our New Years instead of January 1st since all the change is happening now. Next week the boys will start a 2 day preschool and for a few hours each week it will be just me and D chilling together. I'm looking forward to all of the learning and growing in store. Oh and I start teaching Mike piano lessons tomorrow... cross your fingers on that one!!

 

Here is Nicole's mini dance recital!  http://delbifamily.blogspot.com

Art Camp and Friends Weekend

This week began our Art Camp! Each day we did some animal and I had the kids pencil the animal using shapes they were familiar with. We then erased the lines we didn't need and outlined the animal with sharpie and colored the rest with markers.

Here is Nicole's cat pic which I thought turned out awesome! I was amazed at how well the kids could draw with minimal help from me.

Jake enjoyed the different mediums- this was his exploration of oil pastel.

Michael usually started out with the project we were working on but then expanded the animal by either adding a lot of limbs or turning it into a robot. He also really likes writing his name. I didn't give him any direction, just let him do what he wanted and I was surprised by his abilities at four years old!

 

We used some fruits and vegetables to make patterns but it didn't work out all that well. The girls preferred using them as paintbrushes instead of stamps.

We made Monet-inspired bridge scenes. Jake did a letter "J" instead of a bridge and had lots of fun painting. I have never let him use real paint before since watercolors always always were a disaster if I turned my back for a second! But he did great and I forsee more fun opportunities to paint with him.

I told the kids to imagine a scene with a bridge and showed them Monet's painting to give them an idea. But I kept telling them "you are the artist, paint what is in your imagination" and they all did a wonderful job. I also made sure they painted with "dabs" instead of strokes and it looked great.

Michael really got into mixing colors :) But he did do a sun and sky without any direction from me so that was great.

 

Nicole's finished artwork

 

All three of the kids painted scenes.

The kids find turtles along with the many frogs they bring to me. Nicole was crouched near this turtle waiting for a pic and the little guy scrambled right through her legs. You can see she is a little hesitant to get close again! Jim told them to watch out because it can bite, but Mike put his finger in front of the turtle's mouth and said "Look Dad, it doesn't!" Of course later it DID but Nicole assured us it didn't hurt Mike.

 Nicole's soccer season has begun! Being 6 in a 7-8 yr old league b/c of her bday is tough, but she just enjoys herself and tries hard. I love watching her bounce around the field trying to do her job and help the team. We were watching the game with friends and one of the times she kicked the ball we were so excited that she actually TOUCHED the ball we cheered (you would have thought a goal was scored!). She did get several chances to kick it and the coach gave her some great opportunities which was very kind. I was impressed at how well the kids play- they were dribbling and passing -accurately, I might add- at this young of an age.

 

The kids enjoyed wrestling while we watched the game. We had some favorite friends from DC visiting for the weekend that used to live in NC. Dallin wrestled with Mike and it was nice to see equal energy output collide.

Robin and I with the babies watching the game. So fun to have her visit!!

Beach!

We did a three day beach trip with friends at Topsail Island! Here's Diana (13mo) with Levi (8mo)

Nicole and Weston in a tickle fight! They didn't play side by side the whole time, but still had fun together.

We went crabbing at high tide Friday and before all of our hot dog was gone we managed to catch one blue claw crab.

After we detached him from the net with these tongs, the crab had to be pried from the tongs! You can see Mike's hand- he enjoyed getting as close as he could, he was just so curious!

Diana and Levi

Nicole and Weston

Robin, Lora Leigh and I were all talking and I looked over and noticed that all the kids were playing with the men. The funniest part of the day was when Jacob got a big bucket of water and, trying to fill a sand cupcake mold that was sitting on Joe's lap, poured the water all over Joe!

The kids didn't disappoint and woke up before 6am each day. We had the beach to ourselves for hours! Diana can walk and she enjoyed the greater mobility on the beach, although the slight slant of the sand towards the ocean made her tip over a lot :)

There are some moments you dream of when you think about kids- their first crawl, reading a book with them, first day of school.... for me, one of those moments is this one. Nicole loving boogie boarding at the beach! She went out every second we let her brave the waves!

We stayed at The Jolly Roger, a beachfront hotel at the south pier on Topsail Island. In comparison to Sea Vista, it had a better kitchenette but it was still pretty damp and sandy (standard issue it seems at a beachfront hotel) We decided we prefer day trips :)

Watching the kids is so much easier when we have the beach to ourselves!

Nicole coming in from boogie boarding! Mike went with her most of the time as well, and it was a treat to watch.

Diana has been blessed with an aversion to sand consumption which makes watching her a lot easier!

My girls running to the ocean! Nicole heading back out :)

Jake with the shore to himself!

Mike catching a wave in. Nicole really gets how to catch a wave, Mike is about 3/4 of the way there. I think when he is taller and can really push himself forward into the wave it will help.

Jim spent hours with the kids helping them, and even had Jake on his shoulders (which Jake LOVED) while helping the older kids.

Jake playing with Joe the kid magnet before The Water Incident.

I enjoyed being with Robin and Lora Leigh, we really miss them!

Out to the crabbing pier! Jim raced ahead hoping to throw in a fishing line before the kids attacked...er, arrived.

Checking out the little crabs halfway to the end of the pier.

The tide was low in the afternoon Saturday and the water was too shallow to go crabbing (boo!) but we still went fishing and caught a spot fish.

There are a ton of mollusks (don't go wading here!) and little fish that we could see swimming in the shallow water.

One last swing at the park before heading home! We met up with Sheri and Nick on Saturday since they live so close now which we love! They brought a kite and the boys spent at least an hour on the beach holding the string, trying to do tricks and running around with it.