Fun for Everyone

Some of the fun things we've been doing lately....

Sunday Maddi had La Finale, which is like a recital, for dance. It started at 7:00 at night so we got a babysitter for Cade and Emalyn and Brett and I had like a little date night watching Maddi dance. This picture is from their opening number that they just learned a few weeks ago. Maddi was so excited to get lifted by the "big girls".

This is their beginning pose for their lyrical dance to the song We Live. The back of the costume is so pretty. Maddi is on the far right.

Here they are in tap dancing to Disco Inferno. Maddi is 2nd from the right. I don't reallly care for these costumes or the dance. It's ok, but not very exciting. It's very fast and I'm quite impressed that Maddi can keep up with these girls. The girl closest in age to her is exactly 2 years older than her. She's tiny and looks like she's younger than Maddi, on Maddi's right. The other girls are 12-14 years old. Next year they are supposed to have some younger girls in the company and Maddi will dance with them and also the older girls. It will be nice for her to have some girls more her age to dance with.

This is the musical theater dance to Mary Poppins. They are dressed like boy chimney sweeps. Not my favorite outfit, but it's a cute dance. Maddi is doing the straddle on Jenna's back. They've done pretty well with this dance this year.

This is the large group jazz dance to La Vida Loca. They have done really well with this dance all year. Maddi is the center with her arms in a V. This is a super fast dance too and Maddi certainly holds her own. She has grown so much as a dancer having to keep up with the older girls. The girls are all so sweet to her and she really looks up to them.

This was after the show. Poor Maddi girl had been crying. One of the older girls isn't going to be allowed to dance at Nationals because of some financial stuff and the girls had just found out that would be Marissa's last time to dance in the company and they were all crying when it was over. Marissa is 16 or 17 and I'm not sure that Maddi knows her that well, but Maddi was so upset that she was leaving.

I am so glad that Brett loves to watch Maddi dance. He looks forward to seeing her dances and never complains at all. So many times I've wanted Maddi to quit dancing and Brett is always the one who encourages me to support Maddi and support her passion. He's such a great daddy, especially for Maddi girl.

At any point during any day, you can usually find Cade making/playing water balloons.

I'm so happy the kids have learned how to tie balloons and can make their own. However, water balloons can cause trouble, and Cade has been banned to only playing water balloons with Maddi or with parental supervision with other kids.

A good friend from Ohio who we met in Texas moved to Wisconsin right before we moved to Chicago. 2 years ago they moved to China and will be there a few more years before moving back to Wisconsin. They were at their house in Wisconsin visiting for a few days, and we were able to meet up with them and eat lunch, go to Jelly Belly, the park and then play at their house. Abby is a few weeks older than Cade, Jill is 6, and Meg is almost 3. We met them when Cade and Abby were a bit older than Emalyn is right now, and Maddi was probably Meg's age!

It was a great day for the park, and Emalyn loved being outside. I sat on my sunglasses on the way to Jelly Belly and broke the arm on the right side, so my glasses were a bit crooked!

Little Meg was so cute and funny. She would eat all of the nasty flavor Jelly Belly's, like vomit, centipede, skunk spray, etc. and not even bat an eye. I don't think her taste buds are fully developed or something because they smelled awful, I can't imagine the way they tasted. She was running around breathing on us letting us smell her yucky breath.

Meg was very interested in Emalyn and was so sweet to her. Jill was great too and she even fed Emalyn almost 2 servings of pears. All of the kids had such a great time playing together and got along really well. I can't imagine what those girls thought of Cade and his weirdness of being a boy, but Cade's used to being around girls.

I think Cade and Jill were eating ear wax flavored jelly beans here. Nasty. I don't think either one of them liked that flavor. We can't wait for the Decker's to move back to the states so we can see them more often!