Ella's Tap

Ella has been in tap for the past 6 week at Wishes Dance studio. To say she has loved it is an understatement. She loves the tap shoes, picking out her skirt (shocker!) and her teacher. Miss Michelle has SO much energy and is such a good tapper.

Although we don't let Ella walk outside with her tap shoes, she has loved tapping on the wood floors in Laney's room. It sounds like elephants stomping but she sure does love it.

I took a ton of pictures and even though I used the "running man" setting most pictures are blurry. Maybe the blurriness is because Ella dances so fast??

Can I get a holla?
Doesn't it look like both feet are off the ground?
Not sure if they are but I am sticking with the story that both feet are in the air.

I had to include this picture so you can see Miss Michelle.
She is ripped!

Miss Michelle said that although she loved the canes, neither Ella or Emma really cared about using them. In fact, in the middle of the number Matthew went up and took Ella's. Matthew liked the cane but Ella was fine without it. Thank goodness or else Matthew would have cried and cried and cried!

Since there are only two girls in the class, Miss Michelle let Matthew and Laney participate in whatever they wanted to. She mentioned ribbon and both of them were ready to go!

They all worked on shuffle kicks.

I love all of the in action shots!
Way to go, Ella...we are so glad you liked tap!!

Untitled from leslie willett on Vimeo.

A change in the weather

All it did last week was rain, rain, rain. Ella found a Rainy Day Book from Chick-fil-A and in it was a craft to make a rain gauge.

It was a great day to do it because by the end of the week, both of them were up at least a few inches. At least there was one good thing that came out of all of the rain.

Then we jumped in the puddles

Matthew has a big boy bed!

About a month ago, Jason and I started thinking about putting Matthew in a big boy toddler bed. We had seen him attempting to crib jump and we thought if we could get him in a toddler bed, it would be one less transition thing to worry about after the move. Our crib converts to a toddler bed but we both really wanted him to have a fun bed. So, I put it on Facebook, asking for a race car bed. A few people offered up race car beds but my friend, Megan, had a firetruck bed. After seeing a picture of it, we were so excited!

We picked it up this afternoon and immediately, Matthew jumped in it. He played with the pretend starter, gave it some good jumping time and laughed as loud as he could. It was a hit. BUT now it was nap time. I had no idea if he would actually take a nap in his new toy (aka, bed) so we kept his crib assembled. Well, he got in his bed said night night and took a 3 hour nap!

It was so sweet because not only did Megan give us the bed, but also valences, matching pillow covers, wall decorations, fire truck blankets, etc. The wall color in these pictures is the same color that Matthew's walls are getting painted as we speak in Cincinnati.

So tonight:

I brushed teeth

Read some books

Jumped in my new bed

And fell asleep in my new bed

Laney's Preschool Performance

It is tough for me to believe that Laney's last day of preschool has come and gone. I guess it is also tough for me to believe because Ella's school year was three weeks longer :)

Laney has learned so much this year and has truly been a sponge. She knows all of her colors, shapes, letter sounds and spells her name in all caps. Our goal this summer is to get her to write it in lowercase.

I love all of the friendships Laney has formed this year. She talks about most of the kids in the class although she definitely gravitates towards Meadow, Mia, Madison and Cruise. Her class has many unusual names :)

Given her recent episode at ballet (where she clammed up when parents were around) I was worried preschool would be the same. Once she saw we were in the front row, she sang and danced like crazy! So proud of her :)

Laney and her class

God is strong!



One of our favorite songs was the "here is the church, here is the steeple. Open the door and see all the people. Close to door and see them pray, open the door and they all walk away. Singing Hallelujah, lujah, lujah."
She called this the halleluLA, LULA, song. None of the kids could say Hallelujah correctly and Laney swore that I was saying it wrong. Love it!

Laney walked to Miss Laura so proper but the minute she got close she dove into her arms.
Miss Carrie is on the left :)



A gift from Miss Carrie



One of the pics from Carrie
This was taken at Donuts for Dad. Jason was not able to make it but Laney's classmate's Dad, Ella's Dad, took Laney under his wing. She kept talking about how he put a napkin on her head and how that was sooooo funny. I met him during the end of the year program. He said that he enjoyed spending time with Laney but had to cut her off after 5 donuts; he was worried she would get sick. That is definitely my daugther!

My recent letter

Recently, this is the letter that came home in Ella's backpack (notice Ella's painted box in the background--that's their new obsession):

Ella's Mom

Can me and Ella, just me and Ella, not Laney

have a playdate because we want to play dress up and makeup, with just me and Ella

Thank you

Carly :)

Laney's last ballet

Laney has loved her ballet class at Wishes Dance Studio. A year ago she took the same class at the Y but only lasted 3 classes until she refused to go in the classroom. We signed Ella up for tap this session, and Laney begged to try ballet again.

I am really glad we gave her a year to mature as it made a big difference. The days the parents came in (first and last class) Laney did not do well and just stood there. But weeks 2-5 she loved :) She participated in all songs and loved the spotlight dance. But bring parents, armed with cameras, and she wanted NOTHING to do with class. Well, unless Ella was by her side.

The first song went well but once the next song came on, she just stood there.
Ella was quick to ask if she could go dance with Laney.

Ella did a few songs with her even though at points Ella just wanted to sit down and enjoy the girls dancing.



Warming up



I love this picture.
Ella turning around to make sure Laney was ok.
A lady next to me said, "Oh, they are so cute. What great sisters."
I told her that 30 minutes ago they were screaming at each other for being the worst sister ever!

Our happy Laney was back!

My personal favorite



Laney's class was full of a great group of little ladies.
I also liked that all of the moms just sat around and chatted for the 40 minutes.
The ladies were so nice; there was a mom with triplets whose older daughter was in the class so typically Ella and Matthew were playing with the three babies :)





Laney usually loves the spotlight dance. She twirls, jumps, stands on her tippy toes but not today. At least all of my kiddos joined her at the end :)

Kindy 500

Last Friday was the Kindy 500 at Ella's school. This is a tricycle race among all of the kindergartners, and the whole school cheers the kids on. Ella has been talking about it for weeks and practicing on Jack's trike. She said that Skyler was the fastest (because he was shorter?) and that she was excited for the school to cheer her on.

I had NO idea what to expect but I can tell you, I didn't expect what I saw. They had a little track with checkered flags around it. Three riders competed at a time, and then the winner moved on to the next round until there was one winner between the three Kindergarten classes. Ella looked very nervous as she was waiting for her turn and I honestly thought she might back out. I asked her later if she was nervous and she said, "No. I was just watching to see which bike was fastest."

As the riders competed in the two laps around the track, there was background sound of the Indy cars zooming by. It was hysterical!

The pictures aren't that great due to the poor lighting in the gym but it was a blast!

Ella later told me she ran to the bike that was to the right because everyone before her that got that bike won. That's my girl!

The red eye remover makes their eyes look glassy but you can still see the happy determination.

Ella won Round 1 and advanced to Round 2.
But wait, is that her friend Amanda (also in green)?
No fear though......the girl in blue (Mrs. Watterson's class) won. Ella and Amanda were satisfied losing to another girl but who knows how happy they would have been if one of them had beaten out the other.

Amanda smiled the whole time--too cute!

After the Kindy 500 we went back to Ella's classroom.
Here is the Good Character chart for the school located in the front hallway.

And there is Ella's name. She has a few stars on this chart and loves getting the nice notes home from her teacher. I know she got one for walking to Speech Class correctly :)

Each student worked on a book about an animal found at the Zoo. Ella picked the Polar Bear and when they went on a fiend trip to the zoo a few weeks ago, she had her picture taken in front of the Polar Bear.

Her book
One of my favorite pages was the Dedication Page. She dedicated this book to Nana Den (Nana Dean). It just made me smile :) Not sure why Polar Bears reminded her of Dean but I just loved it!

As we munched on cookies, the kids read to us.
I learned all kinds of facts about Polar Bears.
I love at this age that words are spelled exactly how you think they should be spelled (bekus=because).

Ella's wonderful teacher, Mrs. Walden.
The first few months were really tough for Ella. We had behavior issues and she wasn't talking much to friends or to the teacher. Fast forward 6 months and she is our social butterfly, reads slightly above grade level and loves math. Mrs. Walden stuck by her and knew she could do it!