Clown Family

Campbell brought this masterpiece home from school yesterday. She said Cassidy's foot is asleep in this picture, which explains the odd foot formation and the grimace on Cassidy's face.

LT said we look like a family of clowns, but I think the picture is sweet. I love that we're all holding hands. And I love that she chose each person's favorite color for their clothing!

Growing Girlz

I captured this sweet moment yesterday afternoon. The girlz had just finished their homework and were playing games on my Kindle.

It was a rare moment of peace between them. They were back to fighting within 30 minutes!

This truce is brought to you by Amazon.

And this picture is from this morning. Cassidy has outgrown ALL of last year's summer clothes. We've been lucky so far - we've never once started a season with absolutely NOTHING that fit... until now. I realized we were in trouble about 2 weeks ago when the weather warmed up and Cassidy wanted to wear shorts to school. We tried on every last pair, and they were all way too short for school. It was the same with all of her skorts.

We picked up an outfit at Target the other day and I ordered a bunch of shorts, skorts, and t-shirts online this week (none of which are here yet). So in the meantime, Mama has been busy searching through the clothing racks when she's out with Papa. She found this outfit yesterday, and Cassidy LOVES it. Campbell got a few new pair of leggings out of the deal, and that made her happy!

I suspect Cassidy will be as tall as me within a year. That makes me incredibly happy, but also gives me the sadz.

Throwback Thursday

Cassidy's very first dance class, June 2008

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Fun Day? Not This Time!

The antics in our neighboring city disrupted plans once again. There was a homicide early Sunday morning, which meant LT had to wake up and go to work in the middle of the night. It also meant I was on my own until further notice. This time, "until further notice" meant the remainder of the night and the entire next day. Skipping church was not an option because it was my day to teach Sunday School, plus I'd been asked to staff the "loose children" table while the Director of Christian Ed was on vacation. The  girlz also had to sit through a meeting with me at the college that lasted most of the afternoon. We got through the day, but it was not fun and definitely not pretty.

Military families aren't the only ones who make sacrifices.

That's all I have to say about that.

All smiles on the way to the meeting...

... and then boredom set in.

And now it's back to the weekly race to get everything done. Luckily, Spring Break is quite literally just around the corner. Relief is in sight!!

Hooray for Papa!

I finally sat down and prepared our taxes over the weekend. I don't consider our finances to be very complicated, and yet preparing our taxes still SUCKS ROTTEN EGGS. I spent a few hours at Mama and Papa's house on Saturday, keying numbers and running error checks.

It's not overly complicated and only takes a few hours, but somehow I still managed to screw it up in a major way... in several places.

I finally just walked away and asked my Dad to fix it. He asked a bunch of insane questions, like "how much did you pay for this stock?" and "why did you get a 1099 from this company?".

I mean, really. Who has time to keep track of that kind of stuff? I'm lucky I was able to keep all the important papers safely hidden away without one of my "helpers" using them for drawing paper.

Once again, Papa saved the day. He found and corrected all of my mistakes, and cleaned up the royal mess I'd made of our taxes.

Not only did he save the day, he also addressed and stamped the envelopes for me.

Thanks, Dad!!

Daddy's Girlz

When I watch this...



I see this... 

Painting the fingernails...

... and the toenails!!

Max Capacity

I've been dreading this weekend for weeks. It was over-scheduled and hectic, but there was no way around it. There's a short period of time when Upward overlaps with dance competition season, and we have to figure out how to make it work - that's just the way it is. A school program for Campbell added to the mix tilted the scale from BUSY to OMG.

Not only were we facing a mammoth weekend, we were also all battling severe colds.

Sigh.

Friday night was spent at the dance studio rehearsing for Saturday's dance competition. I took NyQuil before bed, but couldn't sleep because I was scared I wouldn't hear the alarm. Since it was one of our busiest weekends EVER, there was the obligatory homicide (of course). Lieutenant Sexy left for work in the middle of the night, which only amped up my oversleeping angst.

Getting out of bed at the crack of dawn with little sleep and a NyQuil hangover was HARD. My body was so sore and my head and lungs were screaming for mercy. I was on my own to make breakfast for the girlz, style hair (twice), apply make-up (twice), finish packing the bags, and load the car... within 90 minutes. And I felt like CRAP.

It was awful. I honestly didn't think I would be able to do it, but I did - thank you DayQuil (and Baby Jesus)!

Lieutenant Sexy got to the competition just in time to help unload the prop trailer, and I made it through four hair changes, five costume changes, and two award ceremonies without dying.

Dalmatians!!!

The Trio (with Campbell in the background)

As soon as Campbell's routine ended, Mama was ready and waiting to shuttle her off to school - armed with make-up remover and a pageant dress.

Campbell and Big Kassidy

As soon as the second award ceremony ended, Cassidy I ran to the car and raced to the church for the Upward Banquet. The cheerleaders did an OUTSTANDING job on their routine and I was able to introduce the entire cheer team without dissolving into a coughing fit.

We picked up Campbell and then collapsed.

I had volunteer commitments on Sunday, but not until later in the day. We really needed the slow start Sunday morning brought. It's been a long time since I've felt that bad, and it happened on one of the worst possible days.

Here's how the routines were adjudicated:

Double Dutch Bus: High Gold, 2nd in category
Furrocious: High Gold, 1st in category
Lollipop: High Gold, 1st in category
Production: Platinum, 1st in category, and highest scoring routine of the entire competition!!!

Great job, girlz!!!!

Throwback Thursday

I didn't have a date in the file name of this picture, but the embedded date is October 20, 2009. I'm not sure if that's completely accurate, but it's pretty darn close.

Cassidy still had baby teeth and a baby face. Campbell still had her curls.

Campbell is now big enough to wear the dress Cassidy is wearing!

Wordless Wednesday...

...because I don't have enough time to write words right now. The struggle is REAL, y'all.

Girlz at the Cinderella Ballet last weekend

The Cutest Puppy in the Pack

Check out my little nugget, all alone on that h*u*g*e stage in front of a packed (and very loud) audience.

There's no way I would have done that when I was 5, but she loves every second of it!

One Down, Four To Go

The first competition of the season is in the books! This competition was sold out, so it was very crowded. The timing of our four routines wasn't ideal (AT ALL), but we dealt with the hand we were given and made the best of it. Thankfully, Mama came to watch the girlz perform and was able to convince Campbell to go home with her. She would have been an inconsolable mess if she had insisted on staying until the end.  We walked away from the venue shortly before midnight, which is way, way, WAY too late for Miss Campbell.

When she made the commitment to the dance team last Spring, we promised Campbell we would buy her a trophy at each competition of her first season - just like we did for Cassidy's first season. But the awards were so late at this one, we had to buy Campbell's trophy long after she had gone home and give it to her when we picked her up from Mama and Papa yesterday morning. I would have bought it before she left, but we didn't know how the routine had placed -- so I didn't know what trophy to buy.

Silly me, I should have known they would win first place!

Here's how the adjudications and placements panned out:

Cassidy's Trio: High Gold, 1st place in category

Petite Super Group (they're both in this one): Platinum, 1st place in category, and Judge's Choice for Most Entertaining Routine of the Day

Cassidy's Large Group Tap Routine: Platinum, 1st place in category

Production: Platinum, 1st place in category, 1st place overall!

This is the only picture I have from Saturday... eating lunch at the mall before heading to the competition venue.

Nice job, Girlz!!!!