Gracie's 1st Dance Recital

from June 14, 2013

Gracie had her first dance recital called "More Than Words".  She started tap, jazz, and ballet last year with a local dance studio and they practiced all year long for the big night.

I didn't know if Grace would actually go through with being on stage.  While she has a great personality, she also has a shy side.  I honestly thought that she would get "stage fright" and just stare out at the crowd.  She surprised us, though, and did great.

There were three dances:  Isn't She Lovely? (ballet), Call Me, Baby (jazz), and Pretty Girl Rock (tap).  All of the dances were so sweet but the one that stands out in my mind the most is the first one, Isn't She Lovely?    These little girls were so precious twirling around in their purple dresses.  As soon as the music started I couldn't help but get all teary-eyed.  Gracie looked so beautiful up on that stage.  I fell in love with her all over again.

Call Me, Baby and Pretty Girl Rock were cute, as well.  I loved these songs because it brought out the sassiness in my Gracie Sassypants and boy, did she rock that!

Here are some pics from the night:

Time to Start Again

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it has been way too long since my last blog post.  Life has been so crazy, hectic, busy, insane for me these past few months that I have gotten away from blogging.

I've used this blog mainly to document the events in the kids' lives.  I used to love to scrapbook but seriously do not have time for that.  When blogging came along, it became a way for me to "virtually scrapbook" all of the things happening with my family.

I'm going to attempt to go back over the summer and catch myself up and hopefully, I won't ever let it go this long again!

Look for a new post later today

Chelsea vs Man City at Busch Stadium

Last night was a big night in St. Louis.  The English Premier League's Chelsea Football Club and Manchester City Football Club had a friendly game at Busch Stadium.  St. Louis is a huge soccer town (despite some haters) and the game sold out in record time.

This tent was the first thing we saw when we got down to Busch Stadium.  It was quickly apparent that Chelsea was the favorite team as it seemed everyone initially had Chelsea gear on.

It was really odd to see all of this merchandise at the Cardinals' merchandise stands.

Our seats were mid-field and they were great.  We could see everything.

The Cardinals donated $1 of every ticket sold (over $48,000) to the relief fund for Moore, Oklahoma.  Both Chelsea and Man City Clubs matched that donation.  There was a short ceremony before the game to show signs of unity.

This back up goalie warmed up during half-time and a few minutes in to the second half.  Unfortunately, it didn't do much good.  When he came in Chelsea was winning 3-0.  He gave up one goal within the first 10 seconds and a second goal about 2 minutes later.

Man City ended up coming from a 3-0 deficit and win 4-3.  In the end, I think that most people were cheering for both teams.  There were some die hards for each team but, for the most part, we all were just excited to see these premier players play the game of "football".

After the game, each team walked around the field and saluted the crowd.

One of the hot items of the night were these scarves.  I have seen them in soccer bars/pubs before so I knew I had to have one.  This one has Busch Stadium and the date, May 23, 2013, on it.  Then on each end are the coat of arms of each team.  I love it.

I really hope that we get more games like this to St. Louis.  It was good for the city and great for the fans to see the game played at this high of level.  

Kanin's Last Day of School

Kanin's last day of school was this past Wednesday.  I can't believe that I already have a 4th grader.  This year just seems like it flew by.

As is his school's tradition, the last day of school ended with a parade. Every year on the last day of school, I start tearing up as soon as the kids start lining up.  The 5th graders are so excited to be moving on to middle school and those little kindergarteners, I mean now 1st graders, all just still seem like babies.

We got down to the school about 45 minutes early and people were already lining the streets.  The entire subdivision shuts down for this parade each year.

Here they come . . .

Last day of 3rd grade!

I told you that this school take it's last day of school parade seriously.  

This smile melts my heart every year.