Annual Fireworks

We had a beautiful night for our fireworks. We were talking about how it has been our tradition since we moved here. The first time we went, we were staying with my sister, waiting for our house to be available. We had no kids. I've been pregnant, with little babies in carriers, with toddlers, and now with 2 big kids that I had to make wear glow stick necklaces so I could find them in the dark (they thought it was cool, too). All they want to do is hang with their big cousins. They want very little to do with us.  

 Look at this picture. Total perfection. 

 This was the best family picture we got. Leah stuffing an Oreo in her mouth and Juliet showing off one of her birthday presents from Aunt Nicole. I let them pick out their treats before we went. Leah chose gourmet popcorn. Juliet chose Oreos. I chose beer. 

End of Kindergarten/Summer Nights

 Leah's Year End Kindergarten Celebration. This is the only picture I got because I spent most of the program crying. The woman next to me took pity on me and was handing me kleenex. Leah is in the front row. Her teacher picked her to give the music teacher flowers at the end of the concert. Leah was so excited because she LOVES her music teacher.

Leah had a great year in Kindergarten. We both loved her teacher, who I felt had a very special connection with Leah. Leah loved school. Her teacher gave each kid a writing journal for the summer. If they complete the journal, they get to go back to Kindergarten and have a pizza party with their teacher in the fall. For Leah's first entry, she wrote about how much she was going to miss Kindergarten and how much she loved her teacher. 

 Here she is with 3 missing teeth.

A few weekends ago we were playing outside and C was taking turns swinging with the kids. It was so cute that I had to get a few pictures. Leah was all about being a daredevil and trying to flip off Chris, and Juliet was all about the snuggles and making sure Leah wasn't getting any more time than she did, before it was her turn again. It was so cute and it made me so thankful that they have such a wonderful Daddy.

The last day of school! To celebrate we went to Old McDonalds for lunch and went to Finding Dory in 3D. The girls loved it!

Dance Recital

 Juliet was thrilled to participate in her first recital. All year she was so excited that she was in dance too. She couldn't wait for the recital and to wear make-up (no mascara, though, that's much too scary). She was so happy!

 Leah was the experienced professional. This was her third recital so she told Juliet all about what would happen and what to expect. She was such a trooper during dress rehearsal. I had packed up all of the necessary supplies and her costumes. Somehow, I left the garment bag containing her other costume on the kitchen counter. The rehearsal is way out in BFE, and she was in the 5th dance, so there was no way for me or Chris to get it to her in time. She was upset, but pulled it together and was so brave about having to rehearse one of her dances in the wrong costume. At the actual recital one of her friends came up to her and said, "Leah, you're in the right costume!". Leah was so annoyed. She was so brave. I still get a little choked up thinking about my Mommy fail. Her teacher probably thinks I'm crazy because I started crying when I explained the situation to her. She found me later to reassure me and I started crying again. I know it's not a huge deal, but I had so much guilt about feeling like I failed her. 

 Juliet hasn't learned how to adjust her eyes in the light, so I never got a great picture of her. 

 Juliet and Anna had fun in the same class. I bet they do it again next year! 

 The best family picture Aunt Renee could get. Look at Juliet's face. Speaking of Aunt Renee, here was another Mommy fail. I told Aunt Renee the recital was on a Wednesday (which it was originally scheduled for--rescheduled in the winter). We were just finding our seats when I texted her to see if she was close. She, of course, had no idea what I was talking about. Being an amazing Auntie, though, she just got right in the car and booked it over. We didn't tell the girls she technically missed their first dances. We recorded them on C's phone, though, so she got to see them. She saw Leah's second dance. It's too bad, though, because the number she saw got all messed up. Somehow the kids were lined up wrong. They got on stage and no one knew what to do. 1/2 the class ran off stage. Leah stayed on stage, but had a confused look on her face the entire time, trying to recalculate where she should actually be positioned. 

Random pictures

 Leah lost her first top tooth. It was very jarring to see how different it made her look. It also made me a little misty. I feel like loosing teeth is a huge step toward being an actual big kid. She let me enjoy the one less tooth look for about 5 days until she lost the other top one. She got $6.25 for the first top tooth because it was such a monumental loss. The second top tooth only got her $1.25 and she was slightly miffed about that. Then she broke Juliet's Prince CD so she had to use all her money to buy Juliet a new one. Now she has 1 more wiggly tooth and is keeping her fingers crossed that it brings big money because we are going back to the American Girl store in August and she has big dreams of getting Lea's Treehouse (it is $400, so she needs to loose her entire mouth of teeth!)

 We also went strawberry picking. Both girls had fun. We made a pie. We didn't make jelly this year, which Juliet reminds me about often. She really liked our homemade jelly. She went through a 2 year phase where she wouldn't eat jelly. She actually loved the homemade kind. We ran out and bought new kinds, but she always reminds me that she liked the homemade kind the most. I keep saying we should go back and pick some more. We will see. :)

 Leah had crazy hair day at school. We looked on Pinterest and decided on cupcake hair. The picture of Leah didn't turn out. I have a good one on my phone, but don't know how to import it. Oh well.