Wow, March isn't even half way over and it already has been a super busy month. I started the month by attending Charlotte's 4H speech in which she spoke about Sally Ride, the first woman in space. She worked so hard on this speech and really impressed me with how well she did. She even dressed up for the occasion.
David and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary and few days early. We love to eat at the Downtown Grill in Charlottesville. It's our favorite place. I sure am lucky to get to spend eternity with him. And maybe one day we'll master taking a better couple selfie.
Dallin turned 6! Oh man, no matter how much I didn't want him to turn another year older, he did it anyways. Dallin continues to be kind and humorous! He loves bedtime stories, "stuck hugs", telling jokes, chocolate milk and corn dogs, and he begs to go on "Mother and son dates" which I love! He always makes me laugh.
I had to remind him he was only turning SIX not SIXTEEN!
I got to take popsicles to his class and read them some books at the end of the day.
And that same night I also got to take him to Lions Scouts. This night they were learning about being a good citizen on the trail. I don't know about Dallin, but I learned a lot.
Three years after Charlotte's Bilateral Ureter Re-Implantation surgery, she finally got the all clear from her doctor that her kidneys and bladder look great. So this was hopefully her last ultrasound for a LONG time!
Dallin tagged along to Aliza's cheer practice this week and luckily brought all his Pokemon cards with him! Neither one of us have a clue about Pokemon. He just knows it's cool to collect the cards. We pretend played Pokemon for and hour and a half... oh what joy that was for me.
Next Charlotte's birthday came! We had to celebrate a day early because we were going to be out of town for a cheer comp. Charlotte didn't mind at all having to open presents a day early.
We weren't able to have cake until two day later, but she was such a good sport about it all! She is always super understanding and a great support to her siblings. Charlotte loves Shopkins and Hatchimals. She loves orange chicken and Oreo Lasagna. She's great at soccer and loves to draw and color. And I just love her positive and brave outlook on life.
And that same day I got to chaperone Carmen's district band assessments. I was really not looking forward to sitting all day and listening to all the area middle school bands play and then be evaluated, but it was actually really cool to watch. I enjoyed it and hope I can do it again next year. Carmen's group sounded really great and got a "Superior" score!
After band assessments we rushed home to pack up the car and head up to the National Harbor in Maryland for Aliza's cheer competition. We stayed at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention center, which could be it's only city in it's self! That place was ginormous and packed to the rafters with cheer families. I was speechless as to be able to describe it to David, who was meeting us up there later that night. All I can say is SO. MANY. PEOPLE. in one place. We had a really late night, but wanted to spend the next day celebrating Charlotte's real birthday and also getting all prepped for Aliza's 9:30pm performance. We started out enjoying the pool at the hotel.
The birthday girl supporting and cheering on the cheer girl.
And then we walked the streets along the harbor and visited some fun shops.
The Candy Kitchen was Charlotte's dream come true, she said. It was pretty spectacular! We later visited a Peeps store, which was equally awesome but I didn't get a picture in there.
We walked down to the beach to see The Awakening Sculpture, which the kids all wanted to climb on and explore. This is only a small part of it. The entire sculpture is a man coming up out of the sand. You can see his hands, head, knee and foot just coming up out of the sand.
We were starting to feel pressed for time by this point, but I knew I was going to regret it if we left without riding the enormous Ferris wheel. The line was short and we were able to hop right on.
The view was amazing. You can see our giant hotel at the top of this picture. And in the other direction you could see the Washington Monument in the distance.
After our ride we headed back to our room to get Aliza's hair and makeup ready for her performance. We had to do it kind of early because we had to check out of our room. So we rushed to get her all ready and then still had 5 hours before she went on stage. We walked around a lot, watch a lot of other teams, did some shopping and ate a lot of junk food waiting. But we finally sent her off with her team around 7pm and then we waited even longer.
By the time 9:30 rolled around everyone looked like this.... these three were asleep somehow. I don't know how because it was anything but quiet in there. Lots of loud music and people cheering on their teams. But we had had a really long day by this point.
But the time finally came and we got up close to cheer on the Glitter Girls. And they did a really amazing job. I had to remind myself that these girls have only been cheering for 3 months now and here they were at a BIG intimidating competition. They ended up coming in 5th place, which is pretty good!
The big star coming off the stage afterwards. It wasn't all over yet, we still had to wait around for awards. Which finally ended at 11pm. We were all exhausted, yet still had to drive home 3 hours.
These other pictures are from other team moms.
Aliza adores her coach Aspen. Aspen's mom is my friend and also my assistant camp director. She is the one who roped us into doing cheer. I'm so glad we have them to help us rookies learn everything cheer related because it can all be a lot intimidating.
Carmen has been learning about the Great Depression in her history class. She was given the assignment to feed our family of 6 for only $6.75. It was a pretty big challenge for me and her, but this is what we came up with. Rice, beans, bratwurst and roasted asparagus. And we only spent $5.18 total! And it was delicious.
Carmen has been so busy with school and band and volleyball and church and watching Charlotte and Dallin while I'm gone to cheer with Aliza twice a week. Since she missed school all day on Friday for band assessments, she missed a whole day of classes, but still has to make up that work. Every free moment she had at the cheer comp, she was trying to catch up. It all caught up to her last night, and the emotions of feeling so overwhelmed came spilling out. I offered to get up early with her and help her with homework. So we were up and studying Evolution at 5:30am and then Greek Mythology at 6:30am. We made a good dent in her workload and she felt better afterwards. Middle school sure stinks sometimes. So much homework!
I finally got over to Charlottes class for birthday treats. She requested Duck Donuts. Good choice!
I guess on your birthday you get to sit at one of the "high tables" and bring two friends with you. She brought Leah and Emmy.
Her birthday may have extended a few more days than others because other things kept getting in the way, but I think it's safe to say she has been celebrated and we sure love her a lot!
The youth from our ward got invited to a special fireside in Richmond with an Apostle - Elder Ronald A. Rasband. I was so glad that one of their leaders not only encouraged them to shake his hand, but also took pictures of them doing so. He is a phenomenal speaker and I hope that Carmen always remembers shaking the hand of an Apostle of the Lord.
Every couple of months I make a huge batch of strawberry freezer jam. It's the only jam my kids will eat and we go through a lot of it. I enjoy making it and enjoy eating it too!
We got a pretty late snow storm at the end of March. Most flowers and trees were already blooming, but we were excited for a final winter hurrah. And Koda just loves the snow!
David and I went to lunch with Aliza and Dallin after watching Charlotte in her Greek concert. She did such a great job and even sang in a small group. Dallin was thrilled to have us at lunch and Aliza mostly just acknowledged us long enough to snap this picture.
We had another successful Easter party at our home this year. My mom, Oma, puts together the most amazing party every year and we all just love it. This year, however, because of the late snow storm, our yard looked less than Springy.
Cousins come from all over for this party, even Indiana!
David and the girls were having a plank challenge one night. I think Carmen won.
And to finish out the month, we celebrated Carmen's birthday a few days early because we would be gone on spring break during her actual birthday. Somehow she always talks us into opening her presents a few days early because her birthday fall on Spring Break every year. She's tricky like that! She's an official teenager now, at 13.
