Little Miss Dancing Queen

*I uploaded the video of Brooke's performance to youtube. To see Brooke's dance to "Cruella DeVille" click HERE

*Porter also wants to show off his dancing skills. To see them, click HERE

This summer, Brooke was able to take a dance class from June-August. She just had her dance recital last Saturday (August 17). Brooke's teacher was Ms. Marcy, the same instructor that we took classes from last summer, so it was nice for her to have a familiar face and some of the same girls in her class. It's an exploring dance class meaning that Brooke learned tumbling, ballet, modern, and cheer. It was a good combination for a bunch of 4 year olds that have a little attention span. It was fun to go back and look at last year's blog post and compare big/old Brooke looks!

somersaults

backbend

ballet

practicing their dance routine

 On the day of the performance, Brooke was very excited. She showed me some new tricks she's learned this year

bridge

table

ready to dance!

I was so proud of Brooke when she finished! I was not very diligent about having Brooke practice her routine outside of class, so she learned it all on her own and did such a great job at her performance!

Moments that made up our Summer

Along with the bigger trips and activities we did this summer, there were plenty of little moments I want to document. Some of ones not pictured were playgroups at the park with friends from church, going to the walking park with mom in the mornings, and storytime each week at the library.

I can never leave anything on my kitchen table--Porter will climb up and just help himself

 Blake spent 2 days chopping up our woodpile for this winter. The kids had fun watching

 Halfway done:

 Lots of backyard fun (yes, we are always in our jammies at our house)

 I found both my kids reading one day..it was the cutest thing!

 More fun at the splash park

 Brooke makes friends wherever she goes

 Blake built shelves in our garage to give us some more storage. Then we realized we don't have that much and they are empty. I'm sure we'll find stuff to fill them!

The finished woodpile

 Playing on the horses at CAL-Ranch

 My friend made this cute bike carwash from plans she found on Pinterest. The kids loved it.

So-long summer! It was fun!

Fair Favorites & Work Picnic

I can't believe we've come to the fair already! This is usually our "so long" summer activity. 

 This is the 4th year I've taken Brooke to the Little Red Barn at the fair. This is Porter's second time coming. It's our family favorite and a great tradition!

plating seeds

the piglets were my favorite

 Brooke got to help spray the fire hose

About a week later was Blake's work summer picnic. Have I said how much Blake is enjoying his new job and how much our family loves it too? Well, we do. And these perks like summer picnics are just a few of the resons why! The picnic was in a meadow with a bounce-house, climbing wall, and several of those inflatable slides to play on. They fed us a BBQ lunch and let us climb on some of the heavy equipment they use (ones that cost millions of dollars--crazy!)

 They had face-painting for the kids and Brooke was so excited to be a kitty

 As soon as Porter saw the trucks, he got very excited and pointed and said "vroom-vroom"

As I look at the calendar and see that there is only a week and half left of summer vacation, part of me is ready (I am getting SO TIRED of cleaning my house over and over each day, and Brooke and I are starting to butt heads big time), but the other part of me is not ready to see it go. There are several activities I still want to with the kids. I'm going to squeeze every last drop of fun out of these last few weeks of freedom!