Tiny Dancer

First Dance Recital

Annika had her first dance recital today, and she did a wonderful job! (I'll be uploading videos in a later post.) She did both ballet and tap, and we were so proud to watch her enjoy being on the stage. Several of her friends from the church were also in the program - two of whom are pictured below. Annika also entered a coloring contest and won second place in her category. She didn't actually color so much as draw more characters on the sheet of paper. She's pretty proud that a real art teacher judged the contest and that she won $25 towards her dancing.

So...She's Her Own Stylist Now

Jess woke up this morning, saw Annika, and thought, "She looks a little different." After blaming it on lack of sleep, we found some of Annika's hair in her desk drawer next to a pair of scissors. Last night, instead of sleeping, Annika decided to give herself a bang trim. Amazingly, she did a great job. It was pretty straight and not too short. She just saved us $15 from a trim, but we're hoping this is a one-time burst of hair creativity. Of course, with her, we just never know! (She wasn't too thrilled about getting her picture taken - I had to bribe her with chocolate!)

Daddy's Little Helpers

It been a LONG time since I washed the cars. Even though we pretty much always have good weather for washing cars around here, with three months of pollen blooms, it seems kind of a like a lost cause. Well, I decided to wash them on Saturday, and to my happy surprise, Annika and Sam wanted to help and were generally helpful. We cleaned the minivan and car in about an hour and had a pretty good time doing so. We even waxed them. (Grandpa Jim is smiling as he reads this!) It's nice to have the kids at a point where they are at least mildly interested in helping out with gardening, yard work, cleaning, etc. Maybe we'll be able to get them into good work shape yet! (The last picture is of Elliot being too lazy to wash the car. He owes me. Can't believe he chose playing over cleaning...)

May Day

Jess likes May Day, and so for the past two years, she and Annika have given flowers to our neighbors on May 1. It's fun for a couple of reasons. First, the neighbors get a kick out of getting the flowers, and, second, we have so many things in bloom around here from March through May that we don't have a hard time picking out blooms. The first picture below is from May Day 2008. The bottom picture is from this year. Kids grow too stinkin' fast.

The Great Outdoors

We had a quick family visit from Trevor, Daphne, and Quentin this past week. We took them to the driftwood beach on Jekyll Island one morning, and we all enjoyed hanging out on the beach, climbing the wood, and marveling at how stunning the scenery is. The kids enjoyed seeing enjoyed each other, and we had a great time seeing family.

Annika and the Woods

As usual, we have some catching up to do. I'm hoping to put up a new post each day for the next few days to give you a sense of what we've been up to - so stay tuned!

Annika and Troy went on a family retreat with the church last weekend. It was Annika's first time "camping out" - and by camping out I mean staying in an air conditioned cabin with showers. She loved it all. She loved hiking through the woods - we probably put in 4-5 miles of hiking on Saturday morning. She loved playing games. She loved seeing wildlife. The only thing we didn't really like were the millions of mosquitoes that were enjoying the wet and warm weather of southeastern Georgia. The pictures below are from one of our hikes. The first is at the low ropes course, and the second is by a lake that is really close to the Savannah River.