Life as a Leach

My tiny dancer and her cousin Lucy had their "dance recital" on Mother's Day!  Since Abby will be in the hospital for her studio's dance recital, we let them put on their own little show for us.  I can't post videos to Blogger for whatever reason, but the dance video is on my Facebook page.  Here are some pictures of the cuties!  

These guys had a great time at the boardwalk together! A bench in memory for sweet Parker, who was taken way too soon

Of all of the photo props, the Rock Star prop was their favorite.  Every time I turned around, they were fake-singing into the microphone with the "Rock Star" sign photobombing the picture.  They cracked me up! (the glasses were a close second, probably because they were also quite "rock star"ish....)

These kids L-O-V-E-D the photo booth!  We spent lots of quality time in the basement taking silly pictures! Not sure who she's BFFing...or if she even knew what this sign said..l

My kids love to dress up!  We have a dress-up closet that they dig into constantly. In fact, their love for dressing up sparked the original idea for the stage. Well, their cousins love to play dress-up too--especially Anna, but I didn't get any pictures of her!!  She is in the stage where she really doesn't enjoy being photographed. Harry Potter  Jawa and a Storm Trooper Darth Vader on vacation in Mexico while impersonating Harry Potter...? Funny side note:  Abby's elbows are double-jointed, just like her momma's.  I promise it's not broken or dislocated, despite what it looks like in this picture!   Cinderella in her wedding dress from the new movie!  (She adores this dress!)

I'm a scheduler and a planner.  I can't help it--it comes honestly from my mother.  My calendar is on my phone and literally every. single. thing is written down in it...including when I need to call doctors at the end of the month to schedule pre-op appointments for May because they aren't booking that far out yet.   Ahem. So I like routines.  But I also like snow days.  When those two collide, I schedule up our snow day.  But don't worry--it's still fun!  We enjoyed some time outside, for sure! For the schedule, I have a pocket chart with wipe-off cards and clock faces on them.  Then I write out the schedule for the day accordingly.  For example: 9 a.m. breakfast 9:30 a.m. chores/clean up 10:00 a.m. cup activities 12:00 p.m. lunch 1:00 p.m. rest time 2:00 p.m. cup activities 4:30 p.m. school time (we practiced math facts, did Dreambox on the computer, practiced sight words, practiced the trumpet, etc.  It depended on...

I've had a few extra kids here since Saturday, while my sister and brother in law were in the hospital with their youngest doing some intensive testing.  She has some problems with her blood sugar and they were able to see a specialist to get lots of questions answered and develop a plan. So the other three have been with us!  Matt and Owen were gone all day on Valentine's Day because of the Sweetheart Dinner, but our celebrations continued on Monday and into Tuesday with our snow day! I made some photo booth props because I thought they would find them entertaining.  Boy, was I right!  I have many pictures to share with various props. but here are a few of the Valentine's Day pics.