NSCA Talent Show

Last Thursday, Rose and Ava's school had their biannual talent show.  As soon as Rose heard about it, she started planning her act.  She chose to sing "Let it Go" from Frozen.  She practiced her moves and planned her hair and make up to make sure she looked just like Elsa.

For being such a small school, I thought they put on a great show.  They did a vaudeville theme and added in a little history about how variety shows came about.  The room was decorated with big red curtains and the transitions between the acts went very smoothly.  They had a few short intermissions involving participation by some of the parents and the teachers even filled in with a few humorous acts themselves.

Rose did a great job.  She had planned to do some motions to go along with the song, but was a little too nervous to move around very much.  But we were very proud of her.  Here is a clip of her performance:

Then all the talent show participants did a coordinated dance for the grand finale.  

It was the perfect ending to a great show!

Rose assisted her classmate, Seth, by turning the pages of the book he read.

I was very impressed with the support all the students had for each other.  Any student who wanted to perform in the talent show was able to do so as long as their talent was appropriate, so there was quite a variety of acts.  But no one made fun of anyone...instead they complimented each other on a job well done.  We have been grateful to have had New Song as a part-time school option for our girls for the past two years.  They have provided a very loving and accepting environment, giving our girls the confidence to be themselves.  We will be sad to leave this little gem of a school when we move.

Rose and some of her friends: Hunter, Meredith, and Lucy

Rose's Elsa hair from the back

Rose with her favorite boys

Rose's fan club

Photobooth

It was a great night!  I was so glad that Rose got her chance in the spotlight,
(where she sure seems to be so comfortable)!

Friday Funnies

Rose:
"This is not even halfway decent."
was Rose's unhappy response to the outfit I picked out for her to wear to
mass this morning.  When we have somewhere to go, I tell them to put
on something halfway decent...meaning, I'd prefer you don't look like a
slob.  Now she is using those words against me.

Rose played piano when our homeschool group went to the Little Sisters
of the Poor Home.

Ava:
"When did Jesus learn to blow his nose?"
Well, child, I don't think I ever learned that fact in school, so you are
going to have to ask Jesus that when you get to Heaven.


Rose, Ava, and all the other little girls in the homeschool group also
did a little ballet dance made up by the older girls.  It was so cute!

Madeline:
"We just had customers over yesterday, and now we are having customers over again?!"
I think the word you are looking for is guests...and yes we are!

Madeline and Ella eating lunch with the big girls at their school

Ella:
I asked Ella if she played with Max while I was gone today and she said,
"No.  I was trying to watch a show and he was distracting me!"

2 little photobombers

Maximus:
Baby checking out all his options in the fridge before deciding on his next meal.

HAPPY  Friday!

Friday Funnies

Rose:
"You are so cool!"
Rose actually said to me when I told her I can still do a double cartwheel.  I have
a feeling that will probably be the only time in my life I will ever hear her say that!!!

The kind of pictures Rose and Hunter (her BFF) constantly text each other.  ????

Ava:
I told Ava that I did not say the word 'crap' when I was little.  She responded with,
"that's because it wasn't even a word when you were little."
I mean, how old does she think I am???

 
Pics Ava took of herself on my phone :)


Madeline:
"When we get to Heaven, will we get new heads?"
Um...I think it is called a Heavenly body, but I assume that would involve a new head :)

Four kids taking on Paul at the same time!

Ella:
"The bumble bee fell down!"
Ella said when Paul was watching the Colts vs. Steelers game.

Maximus:
What does the fox say?  Haha!

HAPPY Friday!!!

Disney on Ice

The kids' gift from Santa this Christmas was tickets to Disney on Ice.  The show was this past Saturday in Indianapolis.  We stayed the night at Paul's parents' house the night before and went to the show in the afternoon.  I was surprised how smoothly everything went.  There were a lot of people there but lines were not too long and we didn't have to wait long for anything...which always helps when you have little kids!

My crazy family!

Sweet baby blue eyes

We had pretty decent seats...on the first level...so we could see everything!

Toy Story

The girls dancing

Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy

Alice and Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Paul keeping Max busy during the show, with his earplugs in, of course!

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

Peter Pan

Intermission was about 45 minutes into the show, which was a perfect time for a break.  

We got cotton candy, popcorn, and Gatorade to share and it only cost us our monthly 

mortgage payment.  It is crazy how much they can mark things up just by slapping 

the Disney name on it!  But hey, it sure tasted good!!! 

Snacking at intermission

Lion King

Lion King

Snow White

Aladdin

Aladdin

Maximus keeping busy by eating his snacks and the container lid

Aladdin and Jasmine

Little Mermaid

Ariel and Sebastian

All the Disney princesses and princes

Daddy and baby

Happy Boy!

It was a great show and a fun family event that hopefully they will remember fondly!  

We may just have to do more fun experiences for gifts in the future!

Ava is 7!

Ava's turned seven on January 12.  She woke up to an Elsa and Anna balloon bouquet, a present on the table, and donuts for breakfast (per request).

Her present was from Grandpa Ken and Grandma Joy.  It was a My Lego Friends Beach house.  She squealed with delight and all the girls ran upstairs to work on it for the next half hour.  We did do a 

little school work in the morning (I know...mean old me making her do work on her birthday!), but then 

I surprised them with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  You would have thought I was taking them to Disney World, they were SO excited!  It was the perfect time to go too because it was during the week around noon, so there were only about 5 other kids there (one of the perks of homeschooling).  We got pizza for lunch, they played games, and it took no time at all to pick out the prizes 

they wanted to get with all their tickets.

Maximus sporting his panda shirt for the birthday girl

Max's first ride down a slide

Pizza!  See how empty all the booths are?!  It was great!

Dancing with Chucke

Rose ran off to play more games before I could get a picture of all of them together

After about two hours at Chuck E Cheese, we took Ava to her last ballet class of the semester.  Rose told Ava's teacher that it was her birthday, so she got to wear a birthday crown in class and the girls all sang to her.  She was more than delighted!

Ava got some phone calls throughout the day from Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents and loved Facetiming them from my phone!  It was funny to watch her walk around talking on the phone like a teenager...a preview of what life will be like in the all too near future.  Ahh!

She picked lasagna, edamame, rolls, strawberries, and strawberry milk for dinner 

and dirt pudding for dessert. 

We opened presents...more Lego friends...and let her stay up an extra 20-30 minutes since it was her big day.  I actually love doing this with our kids.  It is an easy way to get to spend some one on one time with them and enjoy their individuality!  We gave each of the girls a "stay up late" ticket in their stocking for Christmas and they used those up as quickly as possible.  Maybe we will have to give them more for Valentine's Day.

Ava was so cute on her birthday.  You could tell that she loved having the day be all about her, but was very humble about it.  I think she smiled all day long.  I wish birthdays could last for a whole week!

On Saturday we had her party.  She wanted a Frozen theme, which was fun, because, believe it or not, we haven't done one yet.  She invited 4 friends: a neighbor from our old house, a good friend from church, and twins from our homeschool group.

Olaf cake

Party favors

The birthday girl with all the goodies

Rose made most of the snowflakes.  It was a huge help to me and I thought they turned out great!

Some Olaf themed snacks

The snowballs and marshmallows were first to go...no surprise there!

We played a few games: Snowball bucket toss, pin the nose on Olaf, a pinata (can't have a party without a pinata), and we had a photo booth.

Ava has her game face on

Happy Birthday Ava Joy!

Pin the nose on Olaf

Photobooth fun!  Not sure about Ava's face in this one??? but it was good of everyone else.

Silly Picture

Rose and Whitney

Helena, Ava, and Stella

Ally and Ava

It was a special day to celebrate my special seven year old!  I am so grateful for my sweet helper.