"My Child My Princess" {Ballet Performance}

This is now my very favorite performance by our ballet school - "My Child My Princess". It is an adaptation of the book by Beth Moore. Ms. Lisa, our ballet school director, has done a wonderful job adapting it for the stage. The music, choreography, lighting, and stage setting were beautiful!

Ava Mae was in four dances/scenes ... her favorite being the tambourine dance. She worked really hard on that dance with the Invitational I class.

Ava Mae with the beautiful girl, Emily who played the princess.

Lexi was in three dances playing the part of both a village girl and a rich girl.

My very favorite dance of Lexi's was this one, "Give me Jesus".

Devin with his sisters.

Lexi and Ava Mae before the performance.

Lexi with two of her friends, Ellie and Gracie.

A Blog Planner Review {Mosaic Reviews}

I am planner ... I love to plan! In my previous life, {as I sometimes like to refer to life before children} I was a wedding planner, go figure.

As a new member of the Mosaic Reviews I had the opportunity of choosing a blog planner to review from a pre-selected list. Though there were quite a few good ones - Beckie from Infarrantly Creative has a blog planner that is not only nice to look at but, perfect for what I need.

Between homeschooling our three children, teaching at our enrichment school, volunteering as the co-leader of our homeschool group, volunteering at church, and now, working on adopting a child from Latvia - I find that I REALLY need help in the planning department for my blog. If I fail to plan - I better just plan to fail at blogging.

Here is a run down on what this planner offers, in Beckie's own words:

"#1 I try to do three projects a week so I have three boxes for post ideas and projects.  I still blog 6 days a week but a few of those I don’t have to plan out (i.e. giveaways, 5 Ways posts, personal posts or guest bloggers).

#2 I have a place to track stats.  I try not to focus on numbers too much, but I will say tracking my stats helps me stay focused and not measure myself against other people.  Each week when I write down my stats it helps me measure myself against myself — which I highly recommend.

#3 Blogger to encourage. I have a huge heart to encourage and rejoice in the success of others.  Since my mantra this year is this is the little spot that helps me be intentional in sending a little note to a blogger each week.

#4 A running to do list.  I try to keep this for proactive blogging things.  One of the things on my to do list in February will be to figure out Google +.  One of my past “to do’s” was the create a FB landing page, which I did.

#5 I also have a place for ideas.  This could be future post ideas, tutorials, dreams, goals, etc."

All the areas that I need to be able to quickly focus on. And the best part, Beckie has made this wonderful planner free to everyone! Just click here to head over to her blog and download your own copy.

A huge thank you to Beckie from Infarrantly Creative for creating such a wonderful blogging tool and then letting us all use it for free! While you are over at Infarrantly Creative take a minute to look around her site - she has some wonderful posts!

Three Field Trips in Two Days

After no field trips last month, we made up for it this month with three field trips in two days. We started out with an educational trip on Wednesday to Medieval Times - wonderful food and the kids really enjoyed watching the program. I had never been before and was not expecting much - I was definitely impressed. It was nice going on a school day - we were there with only three other private schools.

After Medieval Times we headed over to a new indoor trampoline place called Sky Zone. All three of our kids love trampolines, who doesn't, right. Lexi and Ava Mae have been working hard on their side and front aerials {they desperately want to take acro dance}, so they appreciated the practice. They both spent a solid hour on a trampoline just working those moves. The trampolines are much better than anything they had been on before in someone's backyard and they would have stayed all day. Devin enjoyed trying out all the areas - trampoline basketball court and foam pit.

Yesterday, was indoor rock climbing with our GENESIS 1:TEN group. Two hours of scaling indoor walls. We even got Ava Mae climbing - who is normally afraid of heights but, the poor child was suffering from a neck injury from her tumbling at Sky Zone. She was  good sport though and really wanted to climb, pain or no pain.

Italian Days – Taste the Tradition event at Publix® {and a GIVEAWAY}

UPDATE:  Congratulations to Amy A from One Blessed Mama ... winner of the $25 Publix Gift Card.

My family absolutely loves Italian food - so you can imagine during Publix's Italian Days ~ Taste the Tradition event, we stock up on some of our favorites. This wonderful event goes on through March 1st. 

During Italian Days, I like to pair Publix’s awesome prices with coupons to stock up on some of our favorite General Mills brands like Green Giant and Progresso {love those Buy 1 - Get 1 sales}. Plus, stocking up on all the ingredients for some of my family's fave Italian dishes! One of our favorite meals is Lobster Ravioli with a cream sauce, sauteed shrimp, and a big salad.

During Italian Days, you can enter for a chance to be 1 of 500 shoppers that will win a $100 Publix® gift card!  Look in-store or visit www.clickcallmail.com to find coupon savings, recipes and to enter for a chance to win!
General Mills and Publix have also generously provided me with a $25 Publix gift card to give to one of you! To enter this giveaway, simply comment on this post with your first name, last initial and let me know your family's favorite Italian meal. The deadline to enter is Friday, February 22nd at 11:59 EST! I will announce a winner on Saturday, February 23rd.

Disclosure: The information, products and General Mills gift pack were provided by General Mills and Publix® through MyBlogSpark.

Valentine's Day {2013}

Valentine's Day 2013 ... my husband surprised our daughters and I with a dozen roses each on our seats in our car after church on Wednesday night. I put them all together in one big bouquet and we have enjoyed looking at them and they made for a nice centerpiece during our party.

Homemade cupcakes for our homeschool Valentine's Day party.

Goodie bags and a group shot ... 22 kids and 6 moms for a fun get together on Valentine's Day {Pizza, Valentine Card exchange, and lots of games of tag}.

Summer Orphan Hosting

New Horizons for Children has begun their matching matching process for their summer hosting period. Please take a look at our video showing highlights from our hosting experience this past winter season.

So many wonderful orphans, like Miranda, from both Latvia and Ukraine are available to be hosted this summer.

There are 147 million orphans in the world ... would you step out in faith and love just one?

Father-Daughter Dance : Take 1 and 2 {2013}

Our church hosts a wonderful Father-Daughter Dance each year. This year Lexi and Ava Mae were able to go on separate nights {they divide up the attendees based on age}. It was a special night for both girls. 

First up ... the girls and their friends had to get their nails done.

Take 1 {Thursday Night} ~ Lexi

Take 2 {Friday Night} ~ Ava Mae

Love, love, love the Neiman Marcus dresses I found at Target on clearance after the holidays for the girls! Both girls enjoyed their evenings - special time with Dad all to themselves. They also had lots of fun with their friends who attended. It is such an amazing community outreach event - we are blessed with a wonderful associate pastor, church staff,  and volunteers who help put on this event each year.

Photo Pendant {Tutorial}

Recently, Shutterfly ran a special where you received 101 prints for free. I jumped at that offer as I have almost 300 Disney pictures from our 2012 trip to scrapbook.

The bonus with Shutterfly orders is that you receive the index print sheets. My daughter suggested we use our new Epiphany cutter to make pendant necklaces with photographs from Disney. The index photos are the perfect size for this craft!

It was super simple ... we just chose the photograph each of my girls and myself wanted to use in our project

This little cutting machine is so super easy to use ... just pop the photo or scrapbook paper you want to use in the window. Add a clear sticker {also made by Epiphany} and press down hard.

Next, just place the finished product into a pendant. {These pendants are also made by Epiphany - though we have made these necklaces before without the holder. Just use lots of glaze on the back of your photo or scrapbook paper.}

This next step is important ... we glued our picture into the pendant using Glossy Accents. Then I went around the photo with a line of glaze to seal it up.

Here are our three pendants drying ... the girls each chose a picture from Bippity Boppity Boutique and I went with a picture of all three kids in front of the castle with their mouse ears on.

And, our finished necklaces. I used Disney themed ribbon to string our pendants but, you could use a silver chain or whatever strikes your fancy.

So glad to finally get all of our Disney photographs scrapbooked and what a great bonus ... fun new necklaces!

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