July is Gone

Time really does fly when you are having fun! Here it is August already and I didn't write a single blog post in July. We were just too busy having fun I guess. We watched movies in the pool, Athena started taking archery lessons, I got a new sewing machine for my birthday, we finally bought new couches and a really big TV! We went to National Dance Day, Athena got her braces back on for phase 2 and now it is August and she has started 6th grade!

Archery!

Dance Day TuTu

1st day of school

So there you have July in a nutshell. Maybe there will be more time for me to blog in the coming months, or maybe not. Just know that all is well and we are just enjoying life these days, going along and trying to savor the last few years of Athena being a kid.

Legos and Beach and Whales, oh my!

Ahh vacation, I just love a perfect vacation.  The San Diego area is Arizona's backyard, so close and such a nice change for a few days.  We wanted to just get out of the heat and relax for a few days but Athena hasn't been to some of the attractions since she was 4 so we decided to hit Legoland and Seaworld too.  We got a great hotel right across the street form the ocean.  This shot is standing in our doorway :)

We ate breakfast at that table every morning and sat there on evenings that we weren't too exhausted.

The next day we headed to Legoland!  Hasn't changed much since we were there last, including any upgrades and repainting of decor.  We had a good time though but that will probably be the last visit for Shawn and I.  The new Star Wars miniland was probably my favorite.

And we couldn't pass up a photo with Harry and Hagrid!

Next day was some hardcore relaxing on the beach.  Athena was a little unsure of going out too far in the ocean at first but that didn't last too long.  She sure reminded me of Hailey this day, jumping waves and boogie boarding for hours.  At one point there was a seal about 2 feet from her, they both popped their heads up and noticed each other at the same time, it was so cute I wish I would have had the camera on her all day to catch it.

There was also some sand Hogwarts building.  Athena didn't want to build any old castle she wanted to build Hogwarts.  It isn't super fancy but we had fun.

The weather was perfect for our beach day.  June is usually pretty overcast everyday, locals call it June Gloom, but we lucked out and had a clear sunny day.  I even got my sunset I've been longing for.   

(Yes Athena is almost as tall as me)

Next day: Seaworld!! 

 It was really crowded, Shawn noticed they have a really good deal for an annual pass so we figured it was a lot of local's.  Even though it was crowded we had good timing to get great seats for all the shows we wanted to see. 

The dolphins just teased and never got any closer than this to anyone.  Starfish on the other hand can't move as quick so Athena got to actually touch one.

But the highlight of this day (aside from the hilarious Sealion show) was this walking down the path in front of us.

 We told Athena to walk behind them so we could take a picture that looked like she was in the Flamingo parade too.

So that's another wonderful vacation.  Here comes the cleanup crew.

After every show as soon as the people stood up and walked out they would sweep in and clean up.

New Do

Miss Jan

Miss Dinah

We had a fun weekend full of dance recital goodness.  Athena was awesome and loved every minute of it.  Towards the end of the last show she came back into the dressing room almost in tears, I thought she was hurt but she said "that's the last time I ever get to do that dance".  Such a sweetie.  Now we begin the vacation prep, YAY!  I'm really looking forward to it.

Today Athena stayed true to her word to donate her hair to Locks of Love.  She cut off 12"!  Her hair is so thick they had to make 2 ponytails to cut it off.  Her new cut is just adorable too, and I'm looking forward to it being a lot easier to comb through :)  Keep an eye out for vacation pictures soon.  Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

School's Out

What is it about May?  How does it always go by so fast?  School is out now and dance recital is just a couple weeks away.  Athena really had a great year this year.  She was the last 5th grader in the spelling bee, she was a finalist in the Patriotic Speech contest, won 1st place out of 5th grade in the Science Fair and ended the year with straight A's!  There were a lot of fun end of the year activities.  Cake decorating, are you smarter than a 5th grader, sidewalk art walk, and Athena was in 3 numbers for Mock Rock this year.  She did one with her friends, her class and elite choir.  It was fun to see her having so much fun.  Enjoy!

We spent the past weekend at Phoenix Comicon.  It was so much fun!  We really had no idea what to expect but we all really enjoyed ourselves.  And I got my picture with the TARDIS!!  That makes for the whole weekend right there :)  We also got to meet R2D2, he hasn't aged a bit, and was such a polite robot.  Athena is determined to make her own comic book now.

I have also been doing some sewing, but I will save that update for another post.  Hopefully I will get to it before another month has passed.

Hope you all are well and have big plans for a fantastic summer!  I really am going to try and post more often.

Love That Girl

I can't stop thinking about a conversation I had with Athena a few days ago.  We were talking about how she is planning to cut her hair after the dance recital in June and donate it to Locks of Love.

Athena: I like donating and helping people.  My goal is to go to Haiti someday.
Me: Oh yeah?  What will you do in Haiti?
Athena: Oh probably build playgrounds and schools or give medical attention.
Me: So does that mean you want to be a doctor?
Athena: Yeah maybe.
Me: Why Haiti?
Athena: I don't know, it just seems like a place that needs help, because of that earthquake.  Maybe I will go somewhere else.  But don't worry Mom I won't stay there forever.
Me: That's good because I would miss you.

How did she get this way?  We aren't not charitable people, but we are no where near the kind of people that would travel to another country to build playgrounds.  We give to Goodwill, throw our change in the donation jar, I even donated my hair a few years ago but mostly just because I wanted it cut off.  I hope she stays this way because when an 11 year old makes you want to be a better person it is truly a remarkable thing.

Life Right Now

I am in the midst of dance costume season!  We have a competition on May 12th so I have been busy doing alterations and making accessories.  I love doing it but it leaves very little free time.  We have been having lots of fun too.  Athena and I went to a dance convention a few weekends ago where she got to strut her stuff with Twitch.  She had a blast!

We also had a fun picnic with the dance studio a couple of weeks ago complete with 3 legged races.  I thought Athena and her friend Emily did great coming in 4th considering neither of them had ever been in a 3 legged race before.

I have also been working on a few projects, unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of some of them :( But here is a quick phone picture of a dress and headbands I made for our new niece Juniper.  Hopefully it fits her soon.  I also made some more tote bags this time for one of Athena's teachers.  She has new twin baby boys and she wanted bags to carry toys in for them so we used superhero fabric.  I was too excited to get them to her though and never took a picture.  I did remember to get a shot of the bag I made for our niece Lily as her birthday wrapping.

We even managed to fit in the time to take Athena to her first concert!  Florence and the Machine.  It was a great show, one of the rare times that live was actually better.  She had a great time too.  We asked her after what she thought and after a very long moment of complete silence she replied "I just cant put it into words".  It was a really fun family night.

I will leave you with this video of a fun game at the dance studio picnic!

Happy Easter

  Hope you all had a nice weekend full of eggs and chocolate.  Ours was good, if not a bit crazy.  We had the popcorn ceiling removed from the vaulted ceilings in our dining and family rooms on Thursday and Friday and since they said it needs a week to dry before I tape off and paint the walls I decided the day before Easter would be a great day to paint the ugly red drop ceiling in the kitchen.  You know so it could be dry and ready to paint walls at the same time.  But I didn't really decide to do this early in the morning I waited until about 11:00 so we didn't really get started until about 2:00.  Luckily I had our Easter basket hunt all planned out ahead of time.  As most of you know I don't like to just hide the basket I like to make my kids work for it!  Usually with some sort of rhyming clues or pictures when they were younger.  I am pretty much rhymed out though after 21 years of Easter poetry so I had a new idea this year.

 We tied a bunch of yarn to each item and had it work back to an empty basket on the table, so they had to fill the basket.  It turned out really fun but took a lot longer to pull off than I thought it would.  At about 11:30 Shawn called it and we ended up putting the candy in the basket and just hid the other items.  We hit the sack exhausted!  When I wake up Easter morning I realize we forgot to hide the eggs!!!  So Shawn stalled Athena in her room while I sneaked out and crawled around under all the yarn to hide them.
  My favorite remark of the day was when she said "this one is still cold".  I mostly relaxed the rest of the day and then finished up my painting on Monday and Tuesday.  Now I'm ready to tackle the walls next week!