Finally!

I say finally because Evelyns birthday is LAST of our families. I have done some serious blogging about her today, she started school, dance and had her birthday all in one week. Whew! It was busy, and very, very fun.


I kind of had my mind set that I would never make anything fancier than a two-layer round cake. I blame this on all of you. I thought I could hide all the fancy cakes everyone makes, and when my children do see them, somehow convince them that the plain ones I make are just as cool. So a week before her birthday when I asked her what color she wanted her cake to be (which had always brought excitement), she said she wanted a princess cake. I said, "So... pink?" No such luck. She wanted a princess cake. Thanks to YouTube, I figured it out and made a cake that's going to knock all your socks off. I mostly made it so I could blog about it. Just kidding, don't know why I'm making such a big deal about it.

Reveal:

Opening Presents. Earlier in the day she told me that she was going to have Gwen help her open presents and she did!

Rapunzel showed up...

After the party, we were saying goodbye to all the grandparents and our neighbor just happened to have his boat out. So Evelyn broke in her new fishing pole! Thanks again Grandpa Reed!

Until next year.

My Shy Dancer

Evelyn has been so excited to start dance class (almost as excited as me)! She was so excited at the dance open house! She shook it in front of that mirror! She loves her leotard and tights and dance shoes! She was excited to have her hair fixed in a bun like a ballerina! She was so excited to see what sweet moves she was going to learn from her teacher! She is so excited to have some friends she knows in her class!

That all changed when we walked into her room, full of her dance class mates. Cling! (To me, that is.) Well, she didn't dance, but she did observe and has been dancing at home with her sister, and me, of course. I can already sashay better than either of them.

This was before the clingy set in. All smiles here.
I taught her a thing or two, as you can see here.

Posing

Thanks to a little time spent with cousins, my kids have been posing themselves for pictures and asking me to take their picture! This is very un-like them. But just goes to show what good examples will do. (please nod seriously here)
I was just out weeding, and Evelyn told Gwen where to sit and said, 'mom, take our picture like this!' Trying a new pose.

Gotta love that stake as a prop!

Could you please smile like this when you hair is fixed and you're wearing your best dress? No?

First Day of School! First Day of School!

Evelyn started pre-school (pre-pre-school) last week and she did AWESOME! I couldn't believe it. She just took off her bag and ran off with her friends/classmates. I almost called her back for a hug and kiss, but realized that it she didn't need that and I could tough it out! It's been fun. I let Gwen wear her bag, too. She thought it was pretty cool walking to school with her big sister.

Fair 2011

This post is for Heather, who didn't get to check out all the carnies and W.T. at the fair this year.

No scone nuggets either.

A Day Out

A few Sundays ago we took a little jaunt into the wild. Found a nice cold stream, and hung out for the day. We had a lot of fun spending time together.
I am loving this first picture of Evelyn. She normally doesn't share her wild side when it can be permanently documented.
We spent some time throwing rocks into the water. The water was PAINFULLY cold. My feet hurt just thinking about it.

Gwen wanted to swing on this make-shift swing all by herself. Obviously, I wasn't having any of that. This picture keeps reminding me of the song from School of Rock, "You Know You're Not Hard Core!"

These double smiles pictures always make the blog. Even when that's all there is to write about.

Gwen fell asleep on the 4-wheeler ride, and Derek was nice enough to oblige her.