June updates!

It's hard to believe June is almost over.  This month was crazy with the wedding and the dance recital.  However, it was full of lots of fun. We also had our Great America trip on Father's day that we do every year with our friends, had lots of gtg's with friends, and even gave Halas her first ride in the "A".  I have lots of photos to get loaded onto Shutterfly, but they will be showing up soon.

I've already started planning for Hal's birthday party! The invites went out this week. I have decided to go with a Bear theme.  With Halas's namesake being Papa Bear Halas, we've called her Halle bear from day 1. So a Bear-themed 1st bday party seemed to be a great fit.  Once things shape up, I'll be sure to take photos and show them there. It's hard to believe we're a little over a month away from her 1st bday! Time sure flies.

Since some of you have asked, Hal is doing well. She's standing on her own, but hasn't quite taken those first steps yet (unassisted). She loves to hang onto things and walk- but once we let her go, she goes "boom" ;)  She's babbling a ton- mamamamamama and dadadadada, but no "real" words yet.  She's got 6 teeth in, and 2 more trying to break through- so most every photo I have of her she's covered in drool.  She LOVES Rylee - probably more so than Maddyn ever did. Something about Ry just fascinates Hal. She always wants to touch her (slobber hands and all, yuck!).  She's still the happiest baby I have ever seen. Seriously, the kid just smiles all the time (except when she has a bad day on naps, but otherwise, she's Cheery Hal!). I hope that lasts forever :)  Hal is still in swimming lessons (she started at 6 months) and is LOVING the water just like maddyn did!

Maddyn is doing great too. The 3's are surely a test of Dave's & my patience. LOL  Maddyn is doing awesome at swimming- seriously, she has some freakishly great talent at swimming, so we're just letting her go with it since it's still fun. We are taking summer off from ballet and just started soccer a few weeks ago.  She loves it so far, but we'll see how long she wants to stick with it.  Her health is ok. We think we have her asthma under control- the new inhaler seems to be working great- but we're also not sure if that is due to the weather being nicer. So we'll just keep our fingers crossed on that one.  Her arm is healed up well.  We still go back for one last check in a few months- but all is great as of the last check-up!

That's about all for now.  July will be another fun month. Anniversary, Ribfest, Windmill Festival, Napa/Sonoma Wine Trip, FUNK#3, Tea at the Drake, Beauty & the Beast on Broadway.... so we'll have lots to post about!

More Ballet Clips....

I've been typing up some updates to the blog, and just not finding time to finish them. So a few to come.

First, here are some clips from Maddyn's Ballet Practice and the Dress rehearsal. Her recital was on June 16th and she did great! I was afraid she wasn't going to make it onto the stage and have a bad case of stage fright.  But she not only went out there- she went out and did awesome!  At one point, she stopped and did her own thing- but we'll just call that a solo ;)

I have photos on Shutterfly already, but here are 2 videos. Another one of her practicing the week before the recital- and then the one at the Dress Rehearsal. I ordered the DVD from the show (they didn't let you tape the show). When that comes in, I'll post it here too!

ETA: Apparantely the one from the Dance Recital is too large to upload. So I have to upload it to uTube and link it here. So here is the link:

You Tube Video of Dress Rehearsal

Ballet Recital - Practice...

Maddyn got her ballet recital costume last week at class.  They let the girls try them on and practice. She wouldn't wear the sequin arm bands, b/c they were too itchy...but she loved the rest of the outfit. They have to wear pink ballet shoes, with tan tights.  I had my hand over the mic for the first half of the video- so you can't hear the song until the last half.  It's Pineapple Princess from Lilo & Stitch.  The recital is in 4 weeks! :)