Ballet Weekend

We've had a weekend full of ballet with Piper's final performances for this school year. She did a wonderful job as a mechanical doll in her School of Ballet's rendition of "Coppelia". She is very thankful it's now time to rest for summer break, however. :)

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Mechanical doll. #littleballerina #coppelia

is anybody out there?

This past weekend, we got to visit with David & Misti and their girls for an afternoon.
David sweetly encouraged CHASTISED me for not updating the blog often anymore.
I wish I could tell you my reasons were virtuous...
...because I'm too busy volunteering all my time in my kids' classrooms...
...because I decided to go to college...
...because I've been traveling around the world, serving the needy...
Ahem.
No.
None of those things.
I have no reason! Except perhaps laziness!!
So please forgive me, and enjoy these excerpts from the past few months:

Spring decided to show up!!

Easter came and went...
Thank you Grandpa and Robin for the treats!!! The kids LOVED IT ALL!!!!
That last picture is a cookie Piper decorated to look like our babysitter, Elizabeth. hahaha!

This year, Piper's big ballet performance was the CAC School of Ballet's rendition of
"The Nutcracker", called "Clara's Magical Dream".
Piper was a peppermint.
The sweetest of all!
Yes, I am biased.

Mother's Day!
The top picture is the bag Piper decorated that held my Mother's Day present.
Notice she loves me...awww...
...but also that she is FARTING. Ahem.
On Mother's Day, we made the trek to Michigan to hunt for mushrooms.
While this was NOT my idea of the perfect Mother's Day,
(we just HAD to go THAT DAY or ALL the mushrooms would be GONE)
we all had fun and I enjoyed hiking through the woods with my little fam.

Randoms, from top to bottom:
1. Self-explanatory!
2. The last Friday of the school year.
3. Piper's class made a different recipe every Friday, then compiled them all into an adorable cookbook!
4. The first fire and s'mores night of the season.

Today is their LAST DAY of school!
We are very proud of them...they both worked hard this year.
They both made improvements.
They both learned new things.
But most importantly, we saw real spiritual growth in both of them.
THAT is a gift and blessing from above that this mama treasures in her heart forever.

oh, hey!

Soooo it's been a while.
We've had a lot of this going on:

#snowmageddon
Indiana NEVER sees this much snow!
We have loved every single flake.
The kids got to have a bunch of extra days at home...



...and we've had some of this going on:

We shared the Super Bowl with our dear friends, the Gerbers.
We all refer to each other endearingly as "The Stoops" (it's a long story that would bore you...)
so we dubbed it "The Stooperbowl".
Yummy snacks, lots of laughs, and frankly...not that much football!

The Forgotten Children Worldwide Benefit Dinner & Concert Night(s) happened...
at the beginning of February...success!
God continues to bless this ministry beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
And while we've had our share of storms and dark days,
He's never forsaken us nor allowed us to fall.
We'll soon have FIVE HUNDRED sponsored children!
500!! When I began volunteering for FCW 5 years ago, we had less than 100!
God is amazing.



Someone had a birthday....

...and sadly these are the only pictures we took!
He was pretty pleased that school was CLOSED just for him on his birthday.
Ok, maybe it was the foot of snow and 25 below zero wind chill but shhh....don't tell Mack!
It's hard to believe this boy is 8!
He is the most compassionate, kind, funny, sweet, ornery kid on the planet
and there's no way we could be any prouder of our boy.
The girls are beginning to notice...
but thankfully he's still more interested in Minecraft than silly girls. :)



Last but not least...we know a sweet little girl who had a mid-winter ballet performance last weekend:

Our little ballerina was the best baby crow and baby spider IN THE WORLD!
Yes, we're biased.
We're allowed to be biased from time to time!

family night {ballet}

Before Christmas Break, Piper's ballet class has a family night. It's an opportunity for us to see some of what she's learned. Piper also sees it as an opportunity to show us all her silly faces. Ahem. She assured me she isn't ALWAYS silly during class but that she felt silly having all the people watching in such close quarters. Silly or not, she's still our beautiful ballerina Peanut!

little ballerina

Our little ballerina was in the opening parade for the annual Bluffton Free Street Fair tonight with the rest of the students from the Creative Arts Council School of Ballet. She had a lot of fun and of course looked darling. :) She's excited for classes to begin again next Monday!

where have we been?!

Wow it's been a while since I posted!! I blame my new iPhone, I'm totally distracted by it even though I SWORE I would NEVER be "like that". Yep, guilty as charged!

Here's some catch-up all the way back from Easter!

I just wanted a picture with my brothers......

Piper had her very first ever BIG ballet performance...which is definitely another reason why I've been distracted. After a month of regular weekly class AND Saturday rehearsals, culminating in a final week of daily rehearsal, the show was this past Saturday and Sunday and I for one, believe it was a HUGE SUCCESS! :) Mom and Dad even came (I stole the family shot from Mom!). The ballet corps did "Sleeping Beauty", Piper's little class joined Caraboose as her sprites (you may remember her as Malicifent in Disney's rendition).

Korie ran the Flying Pig marathon and finished by destroying her goal with a time of 3:53:52!!! SO PROUD OF HER!!!!!

Kaeleigh had a birthday!! She's 9 years old, can you believe it?! THANK YOU for sending cards and gifts...she LOVES opening your love-via-postman!!!

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