Tiny Dancer- Kate's First Season of Dance Class

This is a "REMEMBER WHEN" post.....something I meant to post about, but never did and still deserves mention before it is filed away in proper order :) The pictures and videos were taken over the course of the entire semester (sept through dec)

Fall 2009, we enrolled Kate in her very first dance class. She was only 2, but since Dallin was starting soccer and they are so close in age...we wanted her to have her "special" things too. I loved dance as a young adult (and took some as a child) and I honestly have been biting at the bit for a dance class since I found out we were having a little girl. Here she is being a ballerina in the living room before class. She didn't really get the concept of rounding her arms...LOL Too cute! I was really hoping she would like it (but preparing myself to be ok with it if she didn't....after all...it is HER special thing and not mine). She seemed to enjoy dancing naturally and being somewhat petite and less active than her brother, we thought it would be a good choice. The only dance class available for 2 year olds was Kindertots dance class available through Kinderdance at the Recreation Center. This was fortunate for me in many ways because it was MUCH MUCH cheaper this way. Here is her tiny leotard. I will say that it is very challenging to find them this small! Her first pair of ballet shoes were soft and more like little slippers. They both fit in one hand.
The class is very basic. It is more about movement to music than "dancing". They focused on improving coordination and motor skills. Here she is doing some mat work on the obstacle course. They did cute little "dances" to jazzed up nursery rhymes, and popular kid music like the Wiggles. Here they are stretching out. Kate never got the concept that your legs should be straight to stretch. LOL She found it much easier to touch her toes with her knees bent. Smart girl! Here she is getting ready to get down with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! She loved any dance with props! It was simply adorable to see all the little ballerinas every week. I think mine was the prettiest of all...but hey, I'm a little biased.
The first class, Kate did AMAZING! She was so adorable and all smiles. The second class, she became more aware of parents in the room watching and kept freezing up and getting really anxious. By the third class, she mostly sat on my lap and whined or cried. She would watch, but would not participate. This went on for a few classes. I tried being understanding (you don't have to go to dance class if you don't want to....but she always insisted she wanted to go). I tried being threatening (we will leave if you don't dance). I was about to pull her from the program and was feeling frustrated that we were paying for her to be a whiny wallflower. I don't care if she is not good or if she doesn't like it, but I do want her to try until what we paid for is over (then she never has to do it again). Finally, at the end of my rope, I leveled with her. I told her that if she didn't start dancing at her class then I would not be taking her to dance anymore. I told her that we were not going to pay for a class and take her for her to cry and not dance. She looked so surprised......BUT......the next class she started timidly dancing and by the end of the 1st term (each semester has 2 terms), she was one of the best little dancers in the class. Here she is dancing to Jack Be Nimble. Yes...I know the video is sideways....I don't know how to turn it....just turn your head.
I loved watching her progress during the season and seeing the big smile on her face everytime she did a dance. During this term, she learned how to skip(she is doing that in the above picture), tap her toe, stand on one foot, do a crab walk, do the butterfly legs all by herself, and more. She will be dancing again this semester and I am looking forward to seeing her progress even further!
Oh and lest we forget, here are some of her most fun ballet hairstyles!

Kate before her first ballet class.....awesome hair! And a back view!

Kate before her 2nd dance class...cute hair!
View from the top!

Should I Be Worried?

CAUTION: THIS POST CONTAINS IMAGES THAT SOME MAY FIND DISTURBING!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

So Kate got a pretend kitchen for Christmas. I was certain she would adore it since she plays with her pretend food and dishes ALL THE TIME. I was 100% right.....sort of. This is what she does with it..........
What!!??? What is that? Surely that can not be sweet little Kate stuffing her beloved princess dolls into the pretend microwave. ummmmmm........

WHAT THE !? What is she doing!? I am not sure if this is seriously funny or if I should be worried because this is ALL she uses her kitchen for. I don't think she has used her pretend dishes or food on it once. She just stuffs princesses in the microwave and closes the door.....or the oven. Sometimes, they will get lucky and get stuffed in the dishwasher. She even explained to me one day that she was "cooking" them! What!?!? Hopefully this is a weird phase and has no true mental significance. LOL Until then, I will continue to feel guilty every time Snow White is leaning against the closed microwave door looking out.....alone since Kate took all the other prisoners out. It reminds me of the scene from "Independence Day" with Will Smith when that alien grabs the scientist and makes him talk....."release me!" Oh Kate....what will you come up with next? I love you! (and I hope one of your little friends convinces you to use for kitchen for good....soon) LOL

Happy New Year

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!!! We had a really fun New Years Eve at my parents' home with the entire Sharp family. (In case I haven't mentioned it in the past 5 minutes....I LOVE having our whole family closeby and that we love each other and doing things together. We are totally blessed to have each other!) Anyways, we had a super delicious turkey dinner. I love turkey dinner! Then we got busy with our traditional night of game playing! We had a table of "grownup games" and a table of "kid games". Two adults at a time would sit at the kid table and play preschool games like CandyLand Castle and Memory. The adults rotated through so no one felt stuck and the kids had a blast playing with all of the grownups! The kid game I most enjoyed was CandyLand Castle. I enjoyed all of the adult games I got to play. I played Bananagrams for the first time and totally loved it. It is like a speed individual scrabble. I also liked Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride (which I ALMOST won once except that I didn't realize I wasn't connected to my destination city....missed it by 1 train!). At 8:30 ish we took the kids outside and did a few little fireworks and let them do some sparklers. My kids LOVED the sparklers and it was the first year I let them do it. It has been a VERY wet fall here so that wasn't really a concern. I was more worried about the fact that they kept swinging sparklers around and almost sticking anyone in arms reach (including themselves) with the fire. At one point, I told Kate to put hers out....so she stuck the flame IN HER MOUTH!!! Fortunately, it was pretty much out and I think my yelp scared her more than it hurt her. She didn't miss a second of the fun with crying. Kate really enjoyed doing hers in circles (lately EVERYTHING she does is in circles...dancing drawing....if it can be done in a circle...it is so!) No one got hurt or caught on fire and they spent A LOT of time oooohh and ahhhhing so I think it was a raging success. At 9pm, we got out pots and pans and let the littles bring in the New Year. They really loved banging on all the pots and pans and yelling "Happy New Year" It was really adorable (and hey...it was late to them...they can't tell time). We also toasted the New Year with sparkling grape juice. My kids managed a sip this time, but still don't like it. I really wish I could have captured Madison's first sip on camera. She looked so shocked...like her mouth was on fire! So funny! Then we put all the kids down at Nana and Papa's and got back to playing games. Some of the adults would play video games and some would play board games. It was sooo fun. Close to midnight we thought about our New Years goals and shared some of them. I had been thinking about mine for some time as there is quite a bit that I have wanted to improve/start fresh with. A few of my biggies are
1. Attend the temple
2. Lose 30 pounds
3. Blog every day
There are others, but these are probably the bigger/more notable ones. At midnight, we counted down and quietly said "Happy New Year!" Shortly after Christopher and I packed up the kiddos and headed home for the night. The next morning though we all met together again and had a super yummy breakfast (my dad even made buttermilk syrup for the waffles) and played played played through lunch. It was a really fun New Years celebration. Here's to a successful, happy, and healthy 2010!!!!

Professional Soccer Pictures and Dallin's First Trophy

They did soccer pictures this fall and as team mom, I got a free package (yippee!). I was very excited to get his first soccer pictures. I still have mine from when I was in sports. I thought Dallin's turned out really good. Here is his whole little team.And, we sprung for the buddy shot (Dallin and his coach-Papa). I thought it would be meaningful. Also, I have one of these shots from when I played baseball with my dad coaching. It was a good shot. I think my dad looks incredibly happy. We had a planned a little team party at McDonalds after the last game. Well, the game was rained out...but we still met to celebrate the season and hand out the trophies to all our little players. Dallin was soooo funny. All of the trophies were EXACTLY the same. No personalization or anything, but he looked in the trophy box and picked out "his" trophy. He was adament that one was his. When they were handing out trophies, I kept picturing them handing another kid the one he had picked and him flipping out. We laughed because he was soooo serious and they were ALL THE SAME, but apparently it was important to him and he took the matter very seriously. He was so excited to get his trophy that he could hardly stand it. Kate was running around the playground and while looking the other way ran right into a padded pole so hard with her head that she fell over and looked like thisYou can't really tell how bad it was in the picture. It made a HUGE gooseegg and a really nasty bruise that didn't go away for weeks......sigh....oh coordination...where are you?
We got a couple of shots of the team before the trophies were handed out. Here they are doing their very favorite pose--the superman pose. They would do this at games and practices to pump themselves up and to remember not to use their hands. It was HILARIOUS! I think the other team was always surprised when they saw THIS at the kickoff! Finally, it was time for trophies. Here is Dallin showing me his trophy. They handed him "the wrong one" at first, but don't worry.....he corrected them LOL Yep, he got THE trophy he picked out. How he could tell the difference was beyond me, but he was happy he got the one he wanted. Here is the whole team with their trophies. This was the first trophy for most of these kids so they were VERY proud (despite the fact they would have gotten one for just breathing...lol) As team mom, I coordinated for all of the parents to pitch in so that we could get a nice plaque for each of our coaches as a gift. The plaques turned out really nice and the coaches seemed to really appreciate them. Too bad the YMCA didn't tell us they were doing plaques for all the coaches too! (Oh well...ours was waaaay better and bigger...that should count for something)
Here is the coaches shaking hands. We really enjoyed Coach Matt and will sure miss him this season. He has split off with another dad to coach their own team this winter. We are excited to play another season and I am sure Dallin will "bring it"! Go Dallin!

Dallin's First Season of Soccer

This fall, we decided to enroll Dallin in a sport. I have known for a long time that he needs a healthy outlet for all his energy. I have watched him for years wondering what he might excel at, and based on his personality and natural abilities I always thought soccer would be it. He is in constant motion with a neverending supply of energy. He is always kicking things (and has a foot on him!) especially balls. He has a good deal of hand-eye coordination. He is pretty big for his age. He is not afraid to mix it up, fall down, and get up again. We chose to enroll Dallin in the Round Rock YMCA Youth Soccer Program. This was for 2 reasons. First, they have a very non-competitive format and do not tolerate name-calling., yelling, poor sportsmanship (for the littles they don't even keep score). Secondly, Dallin's birthday is September 29 so he was still 3 at the start of the season and the Y allows ages 3/4 to play.
He was placed on the Galaxy team, and I was later informed that the team had no coach and if no volunteer stepped up they would have to be disbanded. So.....I pulled out the big guns and called my dad! He coached me and my brother, Will, in sports when we were kids and I thought it would be really good for Dallin to have his Papa there. He was glad to do it and excited to be able to have that time with Dallin. Here they are warming up at their first soccer practice.I have to say I got warm fuzzies watching my dad coach my son. I hope that Dallin always remembers that special time with his Papa and the sacrifices he made for him. I did NOT get warm fuzzies from seeing my dad in his shorts....pulled up to his navel.....ummmmm yep.
The season started in September and ended right before Thanksgiving. And I have to say.....I WAS SOOOOO RIGHT. Dallin was absolutely the best kid on his team. Here is probably my favorite picture of the whole season...as Dallin takes on 3 of the opposing team by himself. LOLThis was a big surprise for me and my family because none of us was really athletically inclined. I was the one who was the closest to athletic in our family (which is really a sad sad commentary). Will was the daisy picker. He might not score any goals or even pay attention on the field, but at half-time...he had a nice bouquet for mom. I didn't really care if Dallin was good...only if he was trying. But I do have to admit, it is really fun being the mom of the allstar (mostly......you would be surprised how catty and jealous the other parents get. apparently in non-competitive leagues actual talent is discouraged so that it is more fair) He was really a superstar and had A LOT of natural ability. He has a really good control of the ball and isn't afraid to go and get the ball from the other team. Here is a little video clip of him taking the ball down the field. This was early in the season, so you will notice that when the other team got into his comfort zone, he would fall on top of the ball, regroup, and start again. LOL....yes, he was weaned off of that! At the first game, he was the ONLY kid who moved at the kickoff. LOL Most of the kids had never played before so we spent a lot of time in situations as pictured below....pointing where out goal was. We had several team members score in the wrong goal over the course of the season...and they were soooo proud that all the parents cheered anyways (and the coaches would gently point out the right goal in passing lol) My dad often said that coaching this age was like herding cats...LOL And from watching them, it was a very factual statement. During the games, one coach is allowed on the field and they were constantly moving kids around like little chess pieces just to get them ready for a kickoff (or kick in as pictured above). It was really funny! Here is a picture of the kids showing their "listening ears" They did this A LOT...LOL Here they are yelling "gooooooo galaxy!" It was really cute because Dallin and Kate would practice this at home. Dallin scored lots of goals during the season and at least 2 at each game. And most importantly really really enjoyed himself. We did have some "learning experiences" with regards to sportsmanship and acceptable behavior. So we would repeat catch phrases on the way to practice and games. Some of them were - you don't take the ball from someone on your team -you don't use your hands or your elbows on the ball or members of the other team - if they blow the whistle you stop and give the ball to the coach or the ref. -you don't tackle the ball. you need to stay on your feet. We did have to pull him out of one game based on his behavior, but by the end of the season he was a very good little player skill and sportsmanship wise. Throughout the season, he had a lot of support from his family. Christopher or I (and most often both of us) were at every practice. Kate made every practice (except one when she was sick) and every game. It was really cute seeing ways she found to entertain herself. Here she is playing princess dressup with DaddyShe would beg me to take her picture (hence the one above), but I felt kind of bad later because apparently when I took this picture Dallin made an amazing play and scored....oops! Here....Christopher stepped in something at the game...LOL
And here she is dribbling down the side lines with "her" ball. She did this a lot and was pretty good. We had several parents say they should put her in since she has the best ball control on the team. LOL She can dribble AND accesorize! During the season every member of the Sharp family came to at least one game and even Grandpa and Grandma Kellogg came all the way down from Utah and watched him play. It was a lot of fun.He loved it so much that we have chosen to enroll him in the indoor winter soccer season at YMCA. I learned a lot the first season and I am not sure if I will keep him with YMCA or move him to the Round Rock Soccer Association in the spring. Either way, I am glad he enjoys it and we are really proud of our little soccer star.