These Shoes Were Made for Tappin'

And that's just what they do....all the time!!

I teach two dance classes on Wednesdays - the first one is Towns' creative movement class and right after that is a tap class for 7-10 year olds. After Towns is done with her class and while I'm teaching tap, she goes to the church nursery (our church has a School of Fine Arts which is who I teach dance for). The sweet woman who keeps her in the nursery was out last Wednesday so Towns had to stay in class with me, but I came armed with lots of snacks and entertainment to keep her quiet until the class was over. We talked multiple times about how she had to zip her lips during tap so she wouldn't interrupt the class, and she seemingly understood. Fast forward twenty minutes into tap class where she was standing right beside me on the dance floor keeping up with the 7 year olds and their shuffle ballchanges. And since the minute that class was over she hasn't talked about anything else and hasn't done anything else but tap. She puts them on the minute her feet hit the floor in the morning and falls asleep with them on at night. She calls all the girls in that tap class 'the tapper girls' and she's convinced she's one of them. Last night before dinner I was giving her options of what she could have and she passed everything up because 'that's not what the tapper girls eat for dinner.' In the morning, it's equally as difficult trying to find something for her to wear. She'll only wear 'what the tapper girls wear'...which is dance clothes. She's lived in a 'liptard' (leotard) and tights for a solid week. Oh, and let's not forget how I'm expected to be the teacher at all times. She doesn't want to play with her dolls or her puzzles or any of her other favorite things...she just wants to tap...and in turn that means I'm the teacher. I only hope that this is a phase. I mean, she can do a mean shuffle hop toe, and it's thrilling that she loves it as much as I always did...but I can only conduct so many tap classes in one day (without losing it)! The beauty of it all is that it makes discipline around here a breeze. She knows that if she even thinks about being sassy or disobedient the tap shoes are mine....and she's been tapping a fine line ever since!

The one thing the tap enthusiast will shed the shoes for is Halloween...she's fired up because this is going to be the best Halloween ever since Bethany will be here Friday afternoon! She's been asking since last week if it's only 30 more minutes until we leave to go pick her up. She means business when it comes to her Bet-ny! Ahhh, sisterly love...

Fall Festival!

Cate and Towns had their Fall Festival at school (our church) today, which obviously meant they had to dress in their finest costumes (per Towns' request). I'm not scared to bring out the last couple of years' Halloween costumes for such an occassion....

Luckily, I convinced Towns to ditch the monstrous wings on her fairy costume for the sake of preventing everyone around her being knocked out each time she took a step. When I told her there was a big bouncy thing and a slide (all in one...right up her alley) and that oversized glittery wings would put a big damper on the fun, she gladly shed them in no time flat!

Cate had a ball...give the girl a wide open space with candy in close proximity and she's game! She was oblivious to what she looked like in her costume, and she was cracking me up at how her little fanny waddled back and forth when she walked. I don't think there was a single person there who didn't think it was just as hilarious as I did!

Click on the girls to see the rest of the pictures...

Pumpkin Patch Preview

Just in case you ever wondered what it's like trying to take pictures of little people, this is typically how it goes (at least with my children):

Let's both look left...



Now you look one way, I'll look the other...



Turn the other way! Hurry!



I give up!!

Thank goodness this sweet one doesn't mind having her picture taken (most of the time)! With yours truly as her step-mom, I think she's quite used to it!



We spent the afternoon at the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch in Clanton and had a blast (yes we've got pumpkin patches much closer to us, but this is our favorite by far)! Maybe one day soon I'll have enough time to sit down and tell you all about it, but for now here are a few more pictures from our trip...

B, don't get mad at me about this one...this is you nearly killing yourself coming down the big slide...thought it was funny!







Happy Fall!
We're loving it, and every year when it rolls around I remember why we love it so much!

Can I Please Tell You...

....that I have the best mother-in-law on the planet? She came Friday morning to help J with the girls while I was in Atlanta at the dance convention over the weekend. And what, might you ask, did she give me upon her arrival? A new camera since mine is MIA! An early Christmas present! She's the best! Seriously.

I had a blast at the dance workshop....it's been 10 years since I've been a dance student (as opposed to being the teacher) and I loved it! Out of a 48 hour weekend, almost 20 hours were dance classes...pure heaven for me! Granted, I can't move a muscle right now, but it was well worth it!

When I rolled back into town a little while ago, I came home to see that my dear husband (who's always the fun one) had let Towns go hog wild with some Halloween spray-in hair color. Black. Really? Were they out of pink? Nice. No time for excessive blogging when my little Elvira's got to have a bath and a serious shampoo session. Please tell me this stuff comes out after one wash...

Party Girl

Cate's 1st birthday party was almost two weeks ago which makes me a major slacker for not blogging about it until now! In my defense, it's been about that long since I've sat down for more than a two minute stretch so at least I have a valid excuse. After the party my grandmother stayed with us for a week...she's a traveler so we had to snag her when she had an open week. She and the girls became fast friends and I think they're a little lost without her here! After her visit, we all went to Andalusia to stay with my brother (4) and sister (9) while my mom and step-father were in Washington DC. We came home yesterday and brought a lovely virus home with us. Not fun!! I'm really not quite sure how we made it home. It's a blur. I do remember getting off the exit in Prattville, turning a movie on for the girls, locking the doors, and putting my head on my steering wheel for a 10 minute power nap to get me through the rest of the trip. All's well on the homefront today, so hopefully the worst is behind us. This weekend I'm headed to Atlanta to a dance convention (should have known after my Greek Sing '02 obsession I'd end up teaching dance for a living!), and I've got my fingers crossed that after this trip I'm d-o-n-e traveling and can stay at home! The older I get, the more I find myself being a complete homebody. Anyhoo, still haven't found my camera so after these pictures of Cate's party I don't know when there'll be any new ones...SAD!! Anyone out there have a camera they'd like to donate to a worthy cause?! Being that I'd only had mine for a month or so I'm having a hard time giving in and buying another one. I keeping hanging on to the hope that mine will magically appear in one of the five thousand places I've looked over and over again. On to the party....

It was supposed to be at our house, but since it wasn't a huge shindig (just our family) I didn't mind changing it up at the last minute. We opted for the park since the weather was so nice and so that the kids would have a great place to play. The fun started Friday afternoon in the kitchen where I spent all afternoon baking.

This is the only way I got anything done that day:

{The girls licked the bowls while the make-up artist gave Cate a makeover}

The heat got the best of Cate's smash cake, but it didn't slow that chick down a single bit! She's never been shy about eating, so naturally she dug right in!

{After licking the icing off of 6 cupcakes, Towns polished off the rest of the icing on Cate's cake}

We tried our best to get a family shot, but this is the best we could do...this was after 5 tries! Cate was way too into her strawberries and what the other kids were doing on the playground to even attempt smiling for the camera...

She got some really sweet and fun gifts...

{My heart alway skips a beat when I see a peach and mint striped Madame Alexander box...lucky little Bug got two!}

After all the presents were opened, the kids let the birthday balloons go...

What a fun way to celebrate little Bugaboo!

Hope this next year doesn't go by nearly as fast as the first one!