Tiny dancers, big smiles

Molly has been busy in her dance class preparing for her big end-of-the-year recital. It is tomorrow afternoon, and if you remember last  year's blog post about it, it is a HUGE deal. It's at the Lied Center (the performing arts center in Lawrence, KS), and the little ones have fun, but can get a little lost in the enormity of the production.

That was one of the reasons I was so thrilled when Molly's dance teacher told us that her class would be performing at a local assisted living center. The great-grandma of one of the little girls in her class lives there, and we got it hooked up to perform there.

It just happened that it was the morning after we returned from our big Chicago trip. So, while I was very excited for Molly to get to do this, it was also a bit of a chaotic morning. The girls got to wear their costumes, so we had to do make-up and hair. All by 10am after getting home at 10pm the night before. Needless to say, I had to stop by Starbucks for a caffeine fix on the way to the show.

Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line, and the poor residents were under the impression that the show started a half an hour before it actually did. These poor people were sitting there waiting for us to start for 30 minutes. Hopefully the cuteness of the girls made up for their wait time.

All the girls getting ready to go on.

The girls marched out and danced several different songs. Ones they've been dancing to all year, in addition to their recital songs. It was so cute to see the girls dancing for such an up-close audience. The girls got to experience dancing for people other than just their parents, but on a much smaller scale than on stage at the Lied Center. And, the residents from the center seemed to really enjoy the singing and dancing. There were no Boos or people walking out, no matter how many mistakes the girls made.

Dancing to "Tiny Ballerina"

How cute is that?

Molly showing off her arabesque skills.

Dancing next to Rachel (a curly red-headed little girl!)

Bouncing along to "Broadway Baby."

If you couldn't tell: Molly is the one to watch for the dance moves. Molly's got them down.

You can tell the girls get a little confused because the area is smaller than they're used to. So, they all end up smushed in the middle with Molly dancing front and center.

After they performed all their dances and songs, they each went around and shook hands and talked to the residents who came down to watch the show. It was the sweetest thing I think I've ever seen. And, yes, I did hear Molly tell one of the residents that she'd just gotten back from Chicago now that she was 5 and that she has an American Girl Doll. I can't tell you whether that person actually understood any of it, but she nodded anyway.

Explaining that she was 5 years old.

I am so thrilled that Molly had an opportunity to do this. It was good for her to practice dancing in front of an audience and to see the joy that performing can bring to other people. And, the smiles on the residents' faces? Well, that sight was priceless to this mama.

Running the hills: I do it for the bling

Whew. I've checked the last half marathon off my list!

Rock the Parkway - April 14

Kansas Half - April 22

Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon - April 29

Running with the Cows - May 12

Hospital Hill - June 

When I first looked at my list all written out, I didn't think I'd ever get to crossing off the last half marathon. But, I did. And, most importantly, I had a blast doing it!

It's kind of appropriate that I finished up my crazy streak with Hospital Hill, because Hospital Hill was actually my first half marathon six years ago (in 2006). I was stupid back then and ran a full marathon in April, then tried my hand at the half distance in June. Apparently I didn't understand the building up of races of different distances.

And, back then, race directors hadn't discovered how much people (ahem, me) enjoy cool medals (bling) and race swag. My first Hospital Hill, instead of shirts, they gave out unisex running shorts. Really think about that. Unisex running shorts. Yeah ... they didn't work. At least for me. Maybe some people liked them. But they were too long for me and too short when I tried to give them to Cory. I'm not sure whatever happened to those shorts. I'm sure we donated them, so maybe there was a really tall girl or really short guy shopping at Goodwill who appreciated them.

Anyway, in the past six years, races have majorly upped their medal and swag game. For this year's Hospital Hill, we got technical t-shirts, running socks and finisher flip-flops. Way better! Plus, next year is Hospital Hill's 40th anniversary. The race is known as the Grandfather of Kansas City Road Races. In honor of the 40th anniversary, the race is doing a three-part medal, where all the medals from 2011, 2012 and 2013 fit together. It's a great marketing tool, because it's truly the reason I signed up to run this year.

One more left ... (And, no, I don't actually have the  wooden plaque yet. We'll see if we can convince Cory it's worth buying next year!)

You can see for yourself how much cooler the medals have been the last two years versus in 2006. (I obviously don't have pictures of the infamous shorts, or I would share those, too.)

2011 and 2012 are WAY cooler. I just can't wait for next year's! 

50 shades of blue(berries)

Last week, a friend sent out a message on Facebook to see if anyone was interested in going blueberry picking. Blueberry picking is one of those things that I had heard about and always thought would be fun to do with the girls. But, I'd just never gotten around to doing it. Apple picking in the fall is another one of those activities. A couple months ago I thought, "oh, we never made it apple picking last fall, we will definitely have to do it this fall." Then, I realized that this fall Molly will be in kindergarten. Which means, we'll have to become weekend people.

(Weekend people: People who do fun activities with their kids on the weekends. While I have no problem with weekend people, one of the joys of staying home is that you can do fun stuff during the week and avoid the massive crowds. If you know me, you know I do not enjoy crowds.)

So, I had a moment of panic and realized that my time with little ones is slipping away, and they're going to be in college before I know it, and then I'll be all alone ... then the sobbing started. Ok, so I may have gotten a little carried away, but you can see where I was coming from, right?

Anyway, with all that back story, you will, I'm sure, not be shocked to hear that I immediately said "yes" to blueberry picking. We planned to meet at 9am at a place called The Berry Patch, which is probably 30-40 minutes away. I needed caffeine first, though, so I had to stop at Sonic, and therefore were a little late.

Because we'd never been before, I didn't know the first thing about it. But, they give you a bucket, a plastic bag, and a twine to wrap around your waist. You can tie your bucket onto the twine and then can have two hands free for picking. Molly was listening intently to the woman explaining the process to us. She told us that they were picking in fields #11 and #12, and that we should only pick the blue blueberries, because the green and purple ones would not ripen and you would be left with sour, gross berries.

So, we made our way back to the appropriate fields (they plant the blueberries so they ripen at different times and can lengthen the picking season). There, we found Sarah and her kids, Owen and Tessa. They had already been there for a while, so Sarah already had quite the full bucket. We got started picking.

Charlotte was excited by the idea of blueberry picking.