Fishin'

Last week I was talking to my friend Julie about taking Sara Kate fishing with her uncle and cousins, mainly because we went Memorial weekend last year and she has been talking about wanting to go again.  Except I didn't say 'fishING,' I said 'fishIN,' and she thought it was hysterical how my southern drawl came out.  I am a southern girl, born and raised, and some words come out way more southern sounding than others...apparently, FISHIN' is one of them.  HA!  Today after my parents left, Sara Kate and I loaded up and headed to Berryville.  She was beyond excited to one, see her cousins, mainly Hannah, and two, go FISHIN'!  We had this conversation in the car on the way there...

Sara Kate: Yea!  We're going fishing!

Me: Do you know what fishing is?  (just wondering if she really remembers)

Sara Kate: Yes!  It's when you go to the water and catch fish.

Me: How do you catch fish?

Sara Kate: With our hands.

Me: No silly.  With a pole.

Sara Kate: With a pole?  Oh yeah!  With a pole!  Hannah and I are going to put our faces in the water.

Me: You are?

Sara Kate: Oh wait, no.  We can't put our faces in the fish water.  The fishes might bite our noses and slap us with their tails.

Me:  laughing...

She cracks me up.

Pretty quickly after we got to Berryville, we headed to the river.  These kids were beyond excited.  And I can't help but laugh looking at these silly cheeses!

 I had one VERY excited little girl!

Most of Jason's family was there, his parents and sister and her husband and kids, and even my sweet friend Julie, who made fun of the way I said FISHIN', joined us with her adorable little pup!

The kids swam, even though the water was freezing!!  Kids don't care about that though, ha! And I use the term 'swam' loosely because the water was very shallow and they could all touch just fine, but they enjoyed floating and letting the current take them a little ways before walking back and doing it again (don't worry, there was plenty of supervision).

Me: Sara Kate, are you cold?

Sara Kate: No mommy.  *shaking and teeth chattering*

Then Uncle Jason, his mom, and Aunt Jenny broke out the fishing poles!  And a somebody caught their first fish of the year!  And she was SO excited!!  And it was adorable!!

 

She even wanted to hold it, which of course didn't last long because it squirmed right out of her hands.  But she did hold it!

All the kids took turns catching fish before we had to head out because rain was coming.  But we had a great day.  I love doing fun stuff like this with my big girl, and I loved hanging out with friends and family.  And I'm glad she got to expend some energy because I had a WILD child on my hands this morning! 

She had a great day and was exhausted this evening.  Early to bed...yea!!

Hope everyone had a great Memorial weekend!  We're so thankful for all the men and women who serve our country and allow us to live in this great, free land!

First Recital

My tiny dancer had her first dance recital today.  I'll go ahead and admit that I had TONS of anxiety going into today.  I have had several dreams that I would get her there late, that she wouldn't be dressed, that I forgot her hairpiece, and yesterday's dream included me dropping her off naked with wet hair and no make up.  Yep, I'm a mess.  But the main cause of my anxiety was the timing.  It was at 3:00 this afternoon, and they had to be there at 2:30.  Those times are right in the middle of nap time.  A situation with my child on no nap has the potential to be a disaster, but the stars aligned and today went off without a hitch.  I tried to get her to lay down for about 30 minutes before we had to start getting ready but all she wanted to do was read books.  So we read books.  Then we got ready.  Hair (I tried curling her hair yesterday just to see if I could do it and her hair will not hold curl...AT ALL!!), make up, costume...check!!  All ready to go and so so beautiful.

 

 

Sara Kate's class was in the Act 1, and let me tell you, they had this down to a science!!  Bring kids on stage, kids dance, move kids off stage, next group enters, and repeat.  In the dressing room the kids stayed with a 'room mom' until it was their time, then they went back to the dressing room until intermission when we could pick them up.  The room mom for Sara Kate's class was the sweetest...she brought them each a little canvas bag with 'dance' stenciled on it, and it had a coloring book, crayons, stickers, and markers in it.  And afterwards she had them each a granola bar and chocolate milk.  So sweet!!  Sara Kate's class danced to 'La Bamba' and as you can see from pictures they had maracas.  Another source of anxiety was they had NEVER practiced with the maracas!!  After talking with a couple other mom's we all shared that same anxiety, ha!  But the girls went on stage, they watched their teacher, they danced, and it was adorable. 

 

What is with the expression??  I don't even know!!  And there is no telling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So proud of her.

 

Meme and Poppa had a surprise for her...some pretty roses.  She was so proud and loved her flowers!  She said, 'we have to put them in a BASE when we get home!'  Haha!

 

 

Before we left I had to get a picture of Sara Kate with her teacher, Miss Rebecca.  She loved Miss Rebecca this year and keeps saying she wants to be in her class again.

We finished our afternoon with a trip to get ice cream, which is something my parents and I would do every year after my recitals when I was growing up.

 

Overall we had a great first year of dance and Sara Kate said she's ready to dance more and do more recitals.  So I will enroll in more classes and see what the future holds for our little dancer!

Oh, and I do have the performance on video.  I might share it later this week. :-)