The Salvateenies: May 2014

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Lilly's Birthday Party

The children couldn't wait to go to Lilly's first birthday party. They love Lilly, they love parties, and they LOVE cake - what could possibly be better? They woke up and instantly asked when we were leaving for the party. This was a problem, since it was 9:00am and the party didn't start until 3. I told them we were going to eat breakfast, play, and watch tv for a while before we got dressed for the party. Oh, the crying. "NO! I don't want to play and watch tv! I want to go to Lilly's party!" Luckily, they were easily distracted by pancakes. Whew!

Uncle and Wendy decided to join us. When we walked in, the kids made a B-line for Sam and Lilly, who were sitting on the floor getting Lilly dressed. Max wanted to give her her present personally and Caroline wanted to give her a big birthday hug. Then they noticed the huge table piled with toys, crayons, and puzzles. At precisely this moment, Sam's photographer offered to take a group picture and the result was, perhaps, my favorite family photo so far.

I'm pretty sure they were fantasizing about the toys on the table to our left.

Yep! Here we are playing with the toys!

We took a break from playing to get something to drink. It was a tea party theme, but the boys were more interested in lemonade - with straws!

Max is hard at work on that lemonade. Not so much the cucumber sandwich.

Daniel, too!

Caroline seemed to sense that as a young lady she should partake of the tea, so she and Uncle selected a cup and flavor of tea and he taught her how to mix a sugar cube in. She really liked this part, trying it four separate times!

My little lady.

We went back outside to play for a bit by the pool.

Max and Wendy hanging out being middle children together.

Caroline and I pose with the birthday girl.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Caroline's Second Dance Recital

Caroline continued to take her "exploration of movement" dance class after school once a week through the winter, culminating in a presentation of a typical class and a little "recital". In her first performance, it became clear that Caroline danced to the beat of her own little drummer and nothing changed this time around.

At the beginning of class, students did some stretching, but apparently Caroline was already limber.

In the next portion, students were asked to choose a color of butterfly they wanted to be and a destination. Caroline chose to be a pink and purple butterfly and that she was going to the airport (no doubt to catch a flight to Chicago to visit Auntie). However, when it came time to actually "fly", it seems that Caroline was employing more of a Star Trek transporter beam approach than her butterfly classmates.

They did an adorable warm up where they pretended to be popcorn kernels - they pour oil on the hot popper, then step in and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, until they POP!

The next demonstration was "across the floors", in which the kids walk across the room doing "ballet walk" or leaps or hops and pose at the end of each pass. Make sure you watch for her Michael Jackson tongue wagging in the last pass.

They practiced some choreography and you can clearly see that Caroline likes to go her own way.

And, finally, there was the "dance" they had prepared for us.

Think, think, think...

One day, out of nowhere, Max started pacing back and forth and tapping his index finger on his chin as he said, "Think, think, think."

It was hilarious, and adorable. And, of course, he stopped doing it as soon as I was ready to record it. We got him to re-create it, but at this point he knows we think it's funny and he's playing for the laugh.

We watched the video a few days ago when the kids were grabbing for my phone and wanting to see themselves. And then last night after her bath, Caroline started pacing in the kitchen, doing the same thing. You won't believe what she told me she was "thinking" about - especially if you've ever been around our house at bedtime!