Cute kids

Courtney has a take-home book to read each night and sometimes we get so busy that she reads it in the morning.  This morning was crazy and Bryan and I were busy getting things ready for the day.  In comes Super Brother, as Courtney calls him.  Ethan laid on the couch with Courtney and had her read to him.  He helped her out when she couldn't sound out a word and he told her "great job" when she did well.  It was cute.

Dance Pictures

Courtney had dance pictures taken last Saturday.  We didn't want to get the individual photo this year because it's just extra money and I didn't like it all that much last year.  This made our day MUCH shorter.  The individual photos were at noon and the group pictures weren't until after 4 p.m. 

We arrived at Ancestor Square in downtown St. George right before the photos were to begin for the Kindergarten through 2nd grade group.  She was set to go and at exactly 4:20 (the time they were scheduled) the photographer took them off to take pictures.  Each group was scheduled 20 minutes apart so they could have enough time.  Apparently, the little girls were all there on time and the photo shoot for their class rook 8 minutes.  I was chatting with another mom and didn't take pictures of my own because they were so quick.  When I get the picture from the photographer I will scan it and post it. 

Then we waited around for another 12 minutes until all the girls were ready for their big group photo. That photo is always crazy because you have to position everyone so their faces can be seen and there are A LOT of girls! But I think it will turn out cute!

Here is Courtney with two other girls from our ward.  She loves these girls and always tries to "hang out" with them.

 Waiting for the big group photo to be taken:

 Pizazz Dance Team 2011-2012:

She wanted some individual photos so we walked around and took some.

Courtney's Field Day

Courtney had field day today.  They needed volunteers so I helped out.  Because of that, I only got to see a few of her events, but she had a great time.  The sprinklers went on three times during the competitions, which caused a lot of squeals and kids to run for cover.  But everyone enjoyed having the water to cool them off.  It was a warm day!

Here are some photos from her events.

This is their home-made drinking fountain made from a media cart, some tubing and a
hose.

 Here she is falling in the three-legged race:

 Getting ready for the three-legged race:

 Running the 50 yard dash (she came in 4th):

 This is the softball throw:

She is finished!

It was a fun morning! 

Ethan Rode a Horse

Ethan's piano teacher has horses. She came up with a great reward for her students who practice...they get to go on a horseback ride through Snow Canyon State Park! Ethan worked hard and earned the reward but wasn't sure he wanted to ride the horses or not. She set up a time to take 3 of her students and Ethan decided he would be okay to go. It was cold and windy but he didn't want to take a coat...the red coat he is wearing is because his teacher gave it to him and told him to wear it.

He had a lot of fun riding through Snow Canyon! He was saddle sore and the ride was 1 1/2 hours long, but he loved it. He has now earned another ride which she is going to take him on soon.

Here is the video of Ethan riding (it's jiggly because his teacher is on a horse too):



Here are some photos she sent us too:

Ethan's Reward

Ethan's teacher has a rewards program for learning times tables and division. She uses a program called Rocket Math. Each day they spend 2 minutes practicing times tables then she gives them 1 minute to do a test. They have a goal and, if they make their goal, they move on to the next level. The levels are lettered A through W. If a student doesn't get their goal, they repeat that test the next day.

Last week Ethan passed his times tables off and he was given a HUGE candy bar as a reward. He was given his reward at school and this is all that was left of it when I saw it after school. Although he didn't eat it alone. Courtney needed help on her homework and I was teaching piano so Ethan helped Courtney. I heard him tell her that if she got a problem on her homework correct then he would give her a piece of candy. I don't think she has ever worked that hard on her homework before. ;)

Now he is working on division and hoping to get another candy bar! Great job Ethan!!

Dance Competition

Last Saturday, Courtney had a dance competition at Dixie State...and it was a LONG day. There were about 20 dance companies and over 250 dances. Most of the groups were from the Salt Lake and Utah County areas. A few were from St. George but most were here on their Spring Break.

Courtney was in three dances - two of those were with her Kindergarten through 2nd grade group and the other was her Lil' All Star dance with the older girls. They split the competition up into age categories so her dances with the K-2nd group were in the morning (8 and 11:10) but her dance with the older girls was at 10:05 p.m.

We went to the first two dance and then I took Courtney to lunch. I brought her home, hoping that she would take a nap so she wouldn't be miserable at night. I forgot that this is Courtney we are dealing with. No nap was taken and by 7:30 she was wanting to go to the competition and watch the other dances.

I got her ready and we went to the competition while the boys stayed home and slept. She was pretty tired but excited to be dancing with the big girls. When their turn finally came around they nailed it!! It was the best I have seen them perform the dance.

We didn't stay around for the awards ceremony because it was so late but Courtney's dance instructor emailed us. The K-2nd grade group were given a 1st place on their lyrical routine and 2nd place on their jazz routine. The Lil' All Stars/All Stars routine was given 1st place!! I was so excited. They worked hard. Now all we have is her end of the year review and dance is finished for another year.

Here are some photos from the late performance (I didn't get any of her earlier dances because I was on the wrong side of the gym).

Look at her big smile!
Pretty pose:
With her trophy:

Soccer Boy

Ethan has been playing soccer and, I think, he has been enjoying it. He likes playing goalie. He loves playing without glasses on.

Here are some photos from his latest game: (he is #8)

Hilarious Soccer Courtney

Courtney is absolutely hilarious when she plays soccer. Her coach put her in as a goalie for the first half of the game last night and she was dancing around, sliding back and forth, and telling everyone where to stand. It was so funny.

During the second half of the game she was taking a break for a few minutes on the sideline and she and her friend, McKaye, decided to try and "trick" the other team. Courtney's team is pink (the Pink Panthers) and the other team was blue. Courtney and McKaye began yelling "Go blue team! Go blue team!!" as loud as they could. The soccer ball was near the other teams goal and a girl on the blue team stole the ball and began trying to kick it away from the goal. Suddenly, Courtney and McKaye began yelling their "Go blue team!" cheer. The girl with the ball (on the other team) looked up and was distracted by them just enough for our team to steal the ball and make an easy goal. Those two girls went nuts!!! Their plan had worked. It was so funny.

Here is a video of Courtney in the goalie box calling a play-by-play on herself. The sound isn't great because the wind was blowing but she is saying things like "now I go to this side to stop the ball" etc. She is so funny because she coaches, sings, dances and generally loves playing soccer!

Courtney's Recital

Courtney had her very first piano recital last night. She hasn't really been taking lessons from me but she has learned a few songs and doesn't every shy away from the spotlight. I never want to discourage her so she was in my recital. She did a great job. She was a bit nervous at the beginning and messed up a bit, but she did GREAT!!

I can't figure out how to rotate the video so you'll have to lie down to watch it. ;)

To Go

I dropped something off at a neighbor's house today and she reminded me that Ethan has a double-header tonight for soccer. I FORGOT!! So I ran home to see what I had planned for dinner. Now, this wouldn't be a problem usually because his first game is at 6:30 p.m. but he has a "contact check" eye doctor appointment at 4:30 and they are never quick appointments. Plus, Courtney's new lenses just came in so they have to put the new lenses in her old frames then adjust them.

I don't want Ethan to eat something heavy and then have to run for 2 hours, so I decided to make dinner, put it in a "To Go" bag and have them eat dinner on the way to the eye doctor's office. Then Ethan would have time after we got home to do his homework before the game and we, hopefully, won't be rushed. See what a few extra minutes of quick cooking can do?!?!

Now I hope they eat the food I packed. I tried to make it like a Happy Meal. It's a hamburger, baked potato chips and some M&Ms left over from Easter. ;)

The Easter Bunny came!

The Easter Bunny came to our house and left the kids some new church clothes and some snorkeling gear. They were pretty excited!!

Sleepy Easter Bunny

Bryan and I went on a date Saturday night and when we got home and checked on Courtney this is what we found:She just wanted to be ready for the Easter Bunny. ;)

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

It is that time of year again....the Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt!! We took 12 eggs (per child) over to the woman's house who organized the hunt and then on Saturday we all showed up at the church with donuts/juice. The parents stood around talking/visiting while the kids ate a TON of donuts (although no one ate from the box we brought so we had to throw them away).

They let the little kids go first and then they let everyone else go. The kids loved it!! They each get to gather 12 eggs so they ended up with a fair amount of candy.

Waiting for the hunt to begin (Courtney is in pink in the center and Ethan is in the blue just left of center):
Ethan searching for eggs:
Courtney running for eggs:

Contacts

Ethan has always told us that he didn't every want to get contacts because "the girls like the glasses." Well, I guess the girls changed their minds because at his yearly eye doctor appointment last week, he asked if he could get contacts. The doctor asked if he was responsible enough and I said he was responsible. So now he has contacts.

He sometimes has a rough time getting the left one in but he gets it eventually and loves the freedom of contacts. We got tonight for the 1 week check to see how he is doing. He wants to ask for smaller contact because they are "huge." hahaha!

Competition

A few weeks ago (yes, I am a bit behind in blogging) Courtney had a dance competition. We got her ready, drove to Dixie High, and they competed. They did their jazz routine from all the half-time shows, their lyrical and then Courtney was in the lil' all-star routine. They did a great job and had a lot of fun.

With her trophy:
With her big All-Star, Kassi:
Waiting for competition to begin:

The Black Widows and Pink Panthers

It's time for another soccer season! Ethan and Courtney are both signed up for Ivins League Soccer. They both have good friends on their teams, which makes it much more fun to play.

Ethan has games on Wednesday night and Courtney has games on Thursday night. Both Ethan's league and Courtney's league play with goalies this year, which is new to Courtney. Ethan played goalie before in another league with another team and he was chosen to be the goalie on this team too. So he was excited!!

Ethan had a great game and his team tied. He played goalie for the first half and then center for the second half. His heel was hurting him with all the running but he kept telling us it was fine. He was sore by the end of the game but did a great job!

The next night we were back at the park for Courtney's game. She made 2 goals and her team won 7-0 (she says, they don't keep score so I don't know if this is accurate). She is a great soccer player too!