Sweet Baby James

Today we went down to Columbus to visit my friend Blythe and her new baby. Blythe and I were college roomies. We go back a long way, see?....

circa 2000

Blythe and her husband adopted James into their family at the end of April, so he's still newbie.

I love holding a new floppy little baby. They make little snorty sounds like pigs and look at you with buggy eyeballs and fart outloud without a care in the world. Ah, I remember these baby days well.

He took a nap on me for a nice long time and I didn't complain.

While we visited, the kids played for a long long time on the awesomely cool commons playground. This place a great local treasure for kids and free! AND...air conditioned indoors!

Can you spot Tessa three stories up at the tippy tippy top? Don't worry, totally safe and foolproof.

After that we went to an old timey ice cream parlor across the street. Charley was more than eager to help with the stroller pushing.

I see London. I see France. I see Star Wars underpants....on Charley, not Blythe.

All in all it was a great day. We are so happy for Blythe and Scott and excited to watch this little guy grow.

Dance Recital 2013

In her six short years, Tessa has now completed 4 years of dance and 4 dance recitals. Her recital was this past weekend and we are now on dance hiatus for the summer. Because of that I did tell her she could sign up for gymnastics at the same studio Charley goes to. She's loving it so far.

Dance and gymnastics during the school year?...perhaps a little more than we can handle. I'd prefer to stick to one out-of-the-house activity per kid at a time. I know in this day and age that makes us lazy or something but don't forget that we also host a once a week bible study at our house, have in home piano lessons and the kids often accompany us to worship band practice. That's a full enough plate for me.

This year Tessa had advanced from the preschool dance class she has always been in to the 'beginner' level which is all 5 and 6 year olds. It really was a harder class this year and their routine required more practice and memory. She got a little distracted onstage but all in all she did a great job and most of all...she enjoyed it!

These are the professional pictures that the dance studio takes. I said we should have sold this top one to a modeling agency or something...doesn't that look like it was ripped right out of the costume catalogue?

Mamaw and Papaw came of course, as well as Dad and Charley. She had her usual cheering section.

This was from the ballet with was Pinocchio. Her song was "I Ain't Got No Strings". Notice all the costumes and sets and such...Tippy Toes puts on a great production!

For the tap portion of the shoe, the theme was Broadway Baby and Tessa's song was "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair". I myself was in South Pacific in high school and remember this song very well. It was a bit of throw back!

Afterward, we met Mamaw and Papaw for some post-show fueling. Then headed back to manning our church garage sale. Yes we did both in the same day, because we're insane :)

Charley was in the recital last year but I think he much prefers being in the audience with Dad.