Recital day

A lot of work has been put in the last few months to learn the routine for the big ballet dance recital. A four and a half year old has a limited attention span for the most part, but if it is something they truly love I have found that their atention span has the ability to double. Each of the little girls in the class worked hard and practiced diligently each week and at home. They also had the help of their out of this world teacher Miss Polly who always made class a very fun place to be while still teaching the core of ballet.

All of their hard work showed in their performance, they all did such a fabulous job. They performed to the song Somewhere Over The Rainbow and it literally made me cry. I was one very proud momma. She was so happy and so at home on stage. There were no cameras allowed in the performance auditorium, but I was able to get a good amount before the show.

Little ballerina

There's all that personality shining through!

With her class. Miss Polly is the best!

Sweet girl!

 I am not sure when we will pick dance back up, with the kindergarten transition and all we want to give her time to adjust to it all before we add any extras back into her schedule, but she has been asking to dance again so I for see that in our future.

Closing a chapter

Well folks it has happened. Our first born is growing up. She will be starting kindergarten in 1 month!! We are so excited for her to start this new adventure. She is also excited and can't wait. She loves learning and is a social butterfly, so this will be perfect for her.

With kindergarten around the corner our participation in our amazing co-op came to an end. We had so much fun participating in it. I would love to do it again someday when we have a little more space with our other kids, but for now in our little apartment we won't be carrying it on with our little guy, at least not right away. I will homeschool him with preschool curriculum, and get him involved with a playgroup of kids his age and in community classes.

The co-op has been great for so many reasons. I have had the opportunity to be involved with her learning while still giving her the opportunity to learn from others. It was free other than supplies, which who doesn't love free??? And best of all it was with a group of women that I trust and know and opened the door for new friendships for me.

For our last official week of teaching/hosting we took some photo opportunities and captured the co-op kids all together. I also asked each of them what they wanted to be when they grew up and dated it so they can look back and have that sweet memory.

"When I grow up I want to be a mommy"

"when I grow up I want to be a firefighter"

A hiking we will go

Our family loves to get outdoors. We never turn down a beautiful day spent hiking and taking the beautiful surroundings. There are so many different places to explore around here and although we have been here nearly 5 years we have barely scratched the surface on places to see and hike.

This year our oldest is finally to big for the hiking backpack and gets to hike with her own two little legs. She has been amazing and although there are moments when she needs some encouragement and some cheering, she it the most determined 5 year old I know. Who knew that hiking would teach the lesson of hard work and perseverance?? I find myself telling her over and over that just because it's hard doesn't mean we quit and hopefully it will stick with her throughout her life.

We have walked natural areas that are local,  a very well known hike around here called Horsetooth falls, and of course our favorite go to spot Rocky Mountain National park. RMNP is about 45 min away and a few degrees cooler than down in the fort so we go there most often.There always seem to be plenty of wildlife out and about and the kids love that. They also love looking for the perfect walking stick or the prettiest rock.

After two or three hikes we all really challenged ourselves and did a 4 miler! Our little ones did great. Our little guy who hiched a ride in the back pack on dad's back fell asleep and the 5 year old rocked it! It had quite an elevation gain and was on some pretty rough terrain. She fell a few time from rocks that she didn't see but she never gave up. love that girl!

Lots more hikes in our future!

Snow! Gives you an idea of our elevation since it was an 85 degree day

 We took our close friends up to Rocky mountain natl park and explored with them. We all including our kids decided to boulder up to the top of a waterfall. The kids loved it and thought that climbing rocks was the best!

One of the little animals along one of our hikes (no zoom used)

 I have more pictures of all the wild life we have come across, including a female moose, elk, chipmunk, and different birds, but these animals photographed great because they were so close.

The kids love to climb rocks

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

This summer I set a goal to feed my family healthy meals, but to not spend a ton of time in a hot kitchen. First off with no AC and 95 degree weather, that would be just crazy, and secondly I am tired of meals taking forever to prepare and taking time away from my family. Pinterest has been my best friend through this challenge.
There are so many great ideas out there and I am the type of person who loves to try new things. I told my husband when I first signed up for pinterest that I wasn't just going to pin a bunch of things and never do them, I was actually going to try them and so far I have stayed true to that. This recipe was one that I found on pinterest and originally cam from Here.
Now I have tried a few recipes on pinterest that have claimed to be the best ever, but they have been pretty disappointing. This however was not one of those. My kids scarfed it down and kept thanking me and saying how yummy it was. Mind you they are 3 and 5 so they are pretty particular when it comes to their food. Their other comment was "mom we can't even taste the spinach", which in a way is music to any parent ears. Getting enough veggies into a child's diet can be extremely tough sometimes.

Other benefits to this recipe is that is was really quick. about 10 minutes of prep and 10 minutes to cook it. One of the best tips I have read was about utilizing rotisserie chicken during the summer. All the cooking is done for you and in our house we can use one chicken for 3 meals. We definitely get our money's worth.

So you want to know how I did it? It's semi-homemade and easy!!

Gather all of your ingredients

Flatten out your biscuits and add one spoonful of the progresso starters

Add you fresh chopped spinach, chopped chicken (we used rotisserie) and your cheese

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until edges start to brown and then drizzle with a little more of the recipe starters

If you are a vegetarian or want to have a veggie night you could omit the chicken and use roasted red peppers. The possibilities could be endless with this little recipe. It's a keeper for sure!

RollerLand

The kids are growing up on us. It's bittersweet. I miss holding them and rocking them in my arms, but the good part of growing up it trying new things. We've now reached the point where we can roller skate. At first I thought it would be a long shot, but since our local roller rink has a special toddler day I thought it would be worth checking out. To my surprise the kids loved it and were natural skaters. Well maybe not natural, but they sure learned fast. They were able to pick up on the basics of the movements and how to catch themselves if they started to feel off balance. It's fun to add another activity to our list of activities and the best part, it's cheap! Toddler skate is only $3 and they get to play in a jungle gym area also. We will definitely go back.

We've got our skates on and are ready to hit the floor.

The last hour they brought out these "turtles" which the kids LOVE!

Using his arms to find his balance

Catching herself from falling.

Just another Friday

For the past four and a half years we have gone to playgroup on Fridays. I love it because the kids and I know that we can always depend on Fridays. As the kids have gotten a little older we have been able to explore more of what our lovely little town has to offer and recently we explored a natural area. All of the kids walked about a mile and at the end got to play in a little pond throwing rocks and dipping their toes in. There was minimal complaining about how much we were walking (most of it from my little Lilly, she's very much a girl and too much walking rubs her the wrong way), but overall they loved it and loved exploring the world around them. Being with friends was an added bonus!

Only in Seattle

There is a must see for every visit to Seattle and that is Dicks. They have the best little burgers and they are super cheap. We love eating there, but I am pretty sure every time we walk away with a stomach ache. I am pretty sure it's just because we eat WAY to much. This time was our kids and my nieces first trip. It was a great first time except for Kyle's little...well maybe not so little...potty accident. Thankfully that was at the end of our meal.