Whats new?!?!

Well, busy as usual around the King household these days and its only just beginning with the summer months kicking into gear. The last month has been full of soccer practice, games, dance practice and another competition last weekend. Ohh and of course Mother's Day!! I had a great day with the family starting out with brunch at Rotary Gardens here in Janesville. We enjoyed an enormous spread of food and then were able to walk around the beautiful Gardens and take some great photos of the kids. I swear Grace gets more photogenic every year. She looked so beautiful today! I spent the rest of the afternoon getting my flowers planted while Dad re-dug our landscape blocks, lucky him!
On Saturday Grace and I took the day and went down to St. Charles IL for a competition by Midwest Stars. It was a real fun and relaxed competition. Before the awards they put on some music and let the kids dance on stage to Macarena and other such songs with incorporated dance moves, what a hoot to see they all up there just a groovin! Grace's group did really well and earned a gold award with a trophy for the team and individual ribbons. It was a long day waiting around for the awards. Afterwards Grace and I stopped at Gino's East for pizza on the way out of town and didn't arrive home till about 9:30pm.

This last Wednesday had her reconciliation for her first communion with Father Jim and she seemed to take it in stride. She had to answer a couple of questions to make sure she understood what she has been learning then Mom and Dad stepped out of the room for her to do her confession. She is so excited to have her first communion and will have the oppurtunity to do it along with a good friend and classmate!
This Saturday Mom and Grace attended High School Musical on stage at the Fireside Theatre in Ft. Atkinson thanks in part to Grandma Holly and Grandpa Jack, part of Grace's Christmas gift. It was a really nice Mommy Daughter night with dinner, shopping and the show. I have never seen Grace so wide eyed in my life!! She was so mesmerized by how close the actors were at the performance and was on the edge of her seat the whole time! The Fireside has a small intimate setting where the stage is in the middle of the theatre and there isn't a bad seat in the house. We were up in the balcony first row and it was perfect! Afterwards Grace got to meet some of the actors and got signed autographed photos!
So now going into summer we have a lot of fun times to look forward to including a camping trip with 4 other couple friends and 15 KIDS, yikes!! We are also getting a season pass to the Ft. Atkinson pool to enjoy this summers nice weather. Owen will start swimming lessons in June. Grace will have summer school and swimming lessons. Whew, it should be another summer to remember!!

Update

Well, I just wanted to put together a little archive for myself down the road to try and remember these great days with my toddler boy, seeing as how I have to worst memory in the world!! What a little toddler he is truly becoming! I can't believe my baby will be 2 and a true toddler in just a couple of months. To me he still seems like such a baby. Just the other day he fell asleep in my arms before his nap and he hasn't done that in months. His toddler volcabulary is exploding. Just about every word you say he is repeating in his own little pronuciation. He is now just starting to form two words together. Today he was saying "bye car"! It just blows my mind the things he understands right now but yet can't express himself. I think he listens better than Grace a lot of the time!! He is good at picking up his toys when you ask but then of course he likes to dump them out once they are put away! He understands when I say we are going bye bye and if you say it too early you have to drag him away from the door screaming. He knows when I say its nap time and asks for his blankie, I lay him down in the crib and he says "bye" and waves. He says hi and bye over and over again to people wherever we go and everyone eats it up, even strangers. Gosh I could go on and on, he is just a little smarty pants. Of course the terrible twos rear their ugly head every once in a while but we have seemed to know how to manage it a little bit. I find myself having to try and remember Grace's toddler days and all the little things we had to be sure to do to avoid meltdowns ahead of time! Wow, I feel like Im going way back!! I remember mastering the art of warnings ahead of time if we were leaving somewhere fun and then just trying to think one step ahead of their actions!!
Anyway, I just wanted to journal the essence of now to be able to take a look back in the future and remember these wonderful times!

Competition Weekend!!

Grace competed in the Showstopper Regional dance competition this weekend in Middleton, what an exciting time for her! Her group was in the small mini recreational division, which is a group that practices less than 3 hours a week, ages 7 and under and less than 12 dancers. She had 4 girls and 1 boy in her group and they did a routine to "Your the one that I want" from Grease!! She has had a blast practicing and was SO excited for this competition day to come!! They did a wonderful job and all looked adorable in their costumes complete with poodle skirts, neck scarves and saddle shoes! More importantly they walked away with the highest honor of Double Platinum and received a nice trophy for the group and medals for each member!! The scoring works this way, Double Platinum, Platinum 1st Place, Gold 1st Place, and Silver Awards will be decided by a predetermined range of points for each place. They also placed 4th overall in their group, which was even more exciting!! The top nine receive recognition ribbons and 1st of course gets a trophy. They did get to go up and announce their names and where they were from while they replayed clips of their dance on the screens!!
I have to say it was a very exciting day for all of us who attended! It was so much fun to see her up there and cheer her on! Congratulations Grace, your our star!!