Gracie Van Gogh

This past week, Gracie attended art camp! It was based on Dr. Seuss books and it was absolutely precious!!!! She loved every minute of it and came home telling me everything she did and even the famous artist and the types of art they did...such as Henri Matisse and Andy Warhol (who she liked to call Warthog!) She created watercolor paintings, pastel drawing, collages, clay sculpture, drawings, paper mache, and even a painting with a knife to create texture. I loved all her projects and that she enjoyed it so much too. On the last day, they had an art show, got certificates and had a little party with snacks for all their special guests. What a great camp!

I swear...

we have 2 children and we love them equally. It just so happens that the older one can be involved in more outside activities that require lots of pictures and I really just don't snap many pictures any more just for the heck of it. But I do have a couple of Mallary recently that don't involve Dr, ER or being in her sister's shadow at her events...

At Art Buddies at Carnegie Visual Arts Center
We love going on Thursday mornings.

Playing Dress up.
She is in heaven now that Gracie's dance
costumes are dress up clothes.




At Abby's Birthday Party
She chose the baby pool over the big pool and
had a blast splashing around!


Can you tell I've been feeling a little guilty????

Dance Recital Weekend

Another busy weekend has come and gone and this time it was Gracie's big recital. -The theme this year was "Dancing with the Mouse" so everything was Disney related. Pretty Cute. Gracie did tap to "m-i-c-k-e-y m-o-u-s-e" and Acro was to "I wanna be like you". This year we added acrobatics to our ballet and tap class so she had 2 dances plus the finale. She did really well and of course, we were so proud of her.

Some pics are from Friday's rehearsal and other from Saturday.

Meme came up for the show and spent the night with us!

Nana was also here

with her sister, Pat

Mommy and Daddy with the Superstar!

Mommy and her best dancer! (for now - Mallary starts in August)

Have I mentioned that Gracie loves to Pose....

I mean really loves to pose. It's hard to take a regular pic of her.

And more posing...(If I wanted pic of the marquee - it had to come with a pose!)

Waiting to dance

a few friends from Class.

Acro - doing her Partner Stunt

and a Back Bend

Tap Number

After the recital with her teacher Miss Erin.
Miss Erin is leaving to go to Grad school for her degree in Marine Biology.
We'll Miss her!

With all her Roses and special trophy.
She also got a ballerina necklace from Meme.

Closing Ceremonies

After staring at treats and fun stuff for 6 hours....Gracie had waited long enough. She was ready for playing and treats and fun activities...and boy did they have it!

Actually we let her do this after the 1st game.
All the girls sprayed their hair green for the game

Afternoon snack - cotton candy and sno cones!

I love this pic! The cotton candy is bigger than her head!
The green faded at 2 hot games, so both insisted on getting it sprayed
again...This time Hot Pink and Orange. Gracie totally thought she was a rock star!
(And for those thinking I can't believe she actually let her child spray their hair - it washed out even before shampoo...must be different from when I was a kid)

Mallary had no problems getting back on big slides after her stitches!

After all the fun stuff and the last game was played it was time for closing ceremonies. The teams and members of each division were announced. Gracie's team got a special trophy for winning their division and a medal for winning the city tournament. My child loves some trophies! (But also knows you get them for working hard, never quitting, and doing your best!)

Getting her trophy from Coach Rocky

It looks like this!

all the girls with their trophies
and getting her medal from Coach Larry

Showing off her treasures!Celebrating with Coach Rob and Maddie

Celebrating with Kacey

City Tournament

{Sorry for the long, wordy post but this is for our memories : ) }

Gracie's softball team had their final games this past week. We started out on Tuesday night with a nice storm at gametime so our Tournament start was pushed to the end of the week. We won our 1st game no problems. Then on to Friday night were we lost a major nailbiter 11-10. It was against the Rockets who have played us hard all year and the team we lost our only game too. We found out that the Stars (who we beat Thursday) won their 1st game all season so we would be playing them again Saturday morning (it's a double elimination tournament) We have to be at the field at 9:30 and Blasters win their 1st game 15-0 and it's called in the 3rd inning due to runs. Time for Game 2 - it's definitely hot out. We get the girls lots of drinks and try to keep them quiet and calm for their 30 minute break. They must win the next 2 games to keep alive and win the city tournament! Game 2 starts and we have one bad inning. The other team scores b/c of errors, but we're hitting aweome and really come alive to win 9-6! Gracie got an important RBI in this game so that was GREAT! This game was VERY heated. Coaches were arguing, etc. But they took a timeout and every regrouped and played nicely : ) Now we get washclothes and ice water and cool our girls down - another 30 minute rest. But this is it! The biggest game of the day. It's really hot and sunny and our girls have played great, but we know they are tired, hot and worn out already. They are 4, 5 and 6 afterall. If they don't win - it's fine. They have played hard and given it their best shot. They are on Fire for this game! They are hitting great, fielding great - Gracie gets another good hit. It's a great game and THEY WIN! 15-10 is the final and boy did they deserve it after all they did!! They were excited!!

up next: closing ceremonies and activities

Opening of Game 1

Final Score - Game #1
(the 1st time we hit the 15 run rule)

Keeping cool after Game 1 with a Slushee
(My girls were major slushee addicts this week! - Me too!)

Final Score - Game 3 - It's official We're tourney Champs!
Good sports!We're #1

With the coaches: Coach Larry, Rob, Rocky and BrianCrazy Time- They were crazy by this part of the day!
With proud daddy

and an excited momma!

Uh Oh!

On Memorial Day, we were hot and decided we needed to cool off so we headed over to Point Mallard. Well the girls were playing and having fun and Mallary decided she wanted to go down the tunnel slides in the kiddie park. Well she came flying out and when I picked her up her eye was covered in blood. I quickly dried her off and tried to see where it was coming from-her eyelid. I took her over to the First Aid where the EMT looked at it and said - it's pretty deep - Yall probably need to head over to the ER and see if they can glue it up. Ugh - but glue it up - no big deal! By this point she is fine, not crying, and probably ready to play some more...but we packed up and headed home. I took her to the ER and the Dr. looks at it and says it needs a stitch or two....WHAHHHHH. I really wasn't expecting it. I'll spare you the details, but use your imagination on what it was like to stitch a 2 year olds eyelid. 3 stitches later and a hug from mommy- she was good as new! The stitches were taken out last Friday and you can't even tell they were there!