Cha-Cha-Cha

Each Tuesday night we have a mad scramble in our house, especially now that basketball is in full swing.  This past fall, Emma Jo started taking ballroom dance lessons at 7pm each Tuesday. It has become a tradition at our school for the 7th and 8th graders to participate in Nordquist dance in Santa Rosa.
This is the first year that Emma is old enough and I was eager for her to participate.  I think it is important to try as many new experiences as you can.  You never know what you will love until you try it. At first she wasn't sure if she wanted to participate but soon it became "when can we go shopping for Nordquist dresses?". Thankfully Grammies was more than happy to help out with that request.

I love that not only are the kids learning dances like the swing, Cha Cha, and waltz but they are also learning etiquette and manners. We are part of a car pool so I only get to go to watch every five weeks but the times I have gone there were lessons on walking a girl onto and off of the dance floor, standing when a woman approaches the dinner table, tying a necktie, helping a girl put on her coat and dressing in a way appropriate for the occasion.

This week I was amazed to see how much the kids have learned in such a short amount of time. They were doing the night club two step and knew many moves and actually looked like they were dancing!

Long weekends

Long weekends are a mixed blessing. This past weekend was Presidents Day so we got Monday off. It was a very productive weekend. Saturday we cleaned the family room from floor to ceiling including moving all of the furniture, shaking out the rug and mopping all of the wood floor. We also got Lucy groomed, went to ballet and sold almost 150 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (well Gracie did). We even squeezed in a trip to Starbucks and the park!

Sunday was church, a trip to the nursery for potatoes, and about ten loads of laundry before heading to Grammie's and Grampa's for dinner.

Monday we woke up and weren't quite sure what to do. I washed all the sheets and the towels. Went to Walmart and Safeway.  Finished folding and putting away stragglers and watched Smash (my new favorite show!). Then I realized it was still only 3:00. I decided it was s perfect time to take the kids to the park. Emma want interested but the littles were game.

We had gone to Keiser park in Saturday so Monday they opted for "Connie's" park. It wasn't quite as much fun as our trip on Saturday since we didn't run into any friends to chat with. But it is always fun to send time playing with the kids.

By 6pm we were all beat. Three day weekends are nice for getting to spend time together and getting projects done. But by the end of the weekend we are all worn out and ready to get back to normal. I told Jason that next time we have a three day weekend we are getting pizza for dinner on the last night so that we can just relax.

Long, lean & smart!!!

I took Henry to his 18 month appointment last week. He was 23lb 12oz and 32.5" long. This is the 25th percent in weight and 50th percent in height. I didn't get the head circumference but it was in the 70th percentile. My conclusion was that he is long, lean and smart!

He is growing and changing so quickly! He eats more food than any of his siblings. He is stubborn and opinionated. He demands his own way and is a bit if a bully. Henry has the cutest curls and an adorable smile. He is a love and a cutie. He has recently been learning an explosion of words and there is nothing more adorable than hearing him say "peas" or "dank u".