Happy Mother's Day!!!!

I would just like to say Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!!!! I hope you had a wonderful day!

As mom's, you know we do a lot for the kids...including shuttling them to and from activities, sports and practices. Although I try not to over-schedule my girls, they are involved in a few things throughout the year. And at the end of the year, there is the inevitable dance recital. I love it...I really do...but it takes a lot out of you...can you relate? So, this year I had Sarah and Devon to dress and prepare. Thank goodness they were past the preschool class where you had to get their hair to stay curly in pig tails! This year, both were in slicked back buns with hair pieces. I could kiss the person who invented them!
There were three weeks of dance recital practice including dress rehearsal. Devon's tap number was to See You Later Alligator...and they got to wear the softest velvet green costumes....

My friends and I watched and clapped for the adorable dancers on stage!
Devon's second number was her ballet routine to Butterfly. The classes are lined up ahead of time and I love seeing all of them costumed and cute!
Sarah and her best friend took a jazz class together. They danced to Dive Into the Pool....kind of a weird song but it worked! Here they are in their costume finery. They were also old enough to require false eyelashes....aka dead caterpillars on their eyes!
Back stage moms!!!!
So finally it was time for the big day!!! We obtained our tickets and found our seats...and waited for the big show to begin! Devon's two numbers were spread out and Sarah's was practically at the end of the show! So the three of us came and went!
Here are Daddy and Brooklyn in the audience!
Our beautiful and sweet dance teacher heading back stage!!!
Devon getting a "break a leg" hug from sister!
And Brooklyn and her friend...two princesses!!
They number the students in line so they end up in the correct place backstage!
All ready for her second dance!
I love how the little kids are all excited to go on stage!
Exiting from backstage! All done!!! Way to go Devon...you did a fantastic job!!!
Flowers from mommy and daddy!
Congratulations from daddy!
Mommy and her girly girls!!!
Daddy and his girls!
Next up was Sarah turn~good luck girls!
Everyone watching in the audience!
All finished! Flowers for Sarah for a job well done!!!
Heading to the audience to watch the show finale!
Final parting shots...can you believe it was 10 pm by now??? I think Brooklyn was on her second wind by now!
Thanks for the love girls!!!!
And so ends dance for another year! I hope they continue though...its such a nice studio and everyone is so friendly!

Meanwhile back at home, I tested out a new soon-to-be-released pattern....boxer shorts!!! This is another fabulous collaboration between Carla and Jennifer and it will be another home-run!! There will be both child and adult versions!!! I am making shorts for everyone in the family! They sew up easily and, as usual, there are plenty of pictures and step-by-step directions to go along with it! I love the fact that Carla's patterns are perfect for the beginner thru advanced seamstress!!

Other fun things we have been up to in this fine (but windy) weekend included a bike "rodeo" and a trip to the boardwalk.
Inside, at the bike rodeo, were carnival type games... a sombero toss and a fish stomp..
and they gave each child a little back pack for the treats they won! Sweet!
They also had a bouncy firetruck.

And facepainting! Devon was a butterfly....


And Sarah was a princess....did you know her name means princess??
Outside, they had a cone obstacle course. The kids also had their bikes and helmets checked compliments of the police! Here is Brooklyn finishing the course...
and then Devon and Brooklyn making their way around the cones!

We watched and chatted.
Then we hopped in our trusty mini-van and headed to the boardwalk! The girls each got to pick a few rides! Devon chose the airplane....she's in the yellow one!
Sarah chose the Sea Serpent...a looped roller coaster. The only thing is when she got on, she was the ONLY one on it!!!! So her first ride on it was solo. I told her to get in the front but she declined!
Can you pick her out??? They go up and then down through the loops and up the track to the right. Then they go backwards through the loops and finish!
Here she is going backwards!
Here next ride was a up, down and around ride...
Devon chose the swings...she has been waiting to reach the minimum height requirement...with her pony tail holder...she just made it!
I tried to capture her going around and this is the only one that you can sort of see her! She was grinning the whole ride!!!
Brooklyn was sure she wanted to ride the little bumper cars! Oh how she loves them!
I took a pic of the beach...can you tell how windy it was?
The last ride of the day was the airplanes! It was only them and two other little girls. I recognized the mom as a former student. Well, her little girl...not sure if it was her's or she was watching her, but she started leaning out of the car trying to touch the light bulb while it was going around high in the air!!!! OMGosh, the ride operator started yelling at her to sit down (so did the mom!) and he was hurriedly trying to shut the ride down to get her out. The little girl ignored everyone yelling at her. She continued to defiantly lean out and then tried to climb away from them when they finally "landed". Ack!!! They finally reached her and got her to safety. I had a heart attack. Meanwhile, Devon and Brook have no clue and are just sitting in their plane (see below) wondering if the ride was over. LOL! The operator gave them another ride for free whilst I tried to calm my beating heart.
After the rides, we made our way over to....Lime Rickey's, of course. We found a cool race car to check out along the way....


And an electric chair to pose on! Now who in their right mind would pay money to be electrocuted???? I told the girls to pretend and look at what I got.....hahahahaha...
We finished up with a trip to Mack's Pizza and headed home. Believe it or not, Sarah had another night of the recital (the youngest kids only dance one night). I brought her over at 8 pm and we left at 10 pm totally exhausted!

Mother's Day was up next! I napped and cleaned and did laundry!!! I was on the fence about going out and later in the day we all decided to just go ahead and go out for dinner at the Lobster House. We showered and dressed up....and what better excuse to wear those pettiskirts again than a Mother's Day dinner??!!

Devon was trying to show you she had a matching ring on.....
We waited a little while (people watched) and got a great table in the corner of the restaurant! We had a relaxing meal...and an excellent waitress! We went to school with her and she used to ride horses with me! It was nice to just relax and recap the goings-on from the week!
I have no idea why Brooklyn is making a sad face? But Devon is showing you her ring again!!! LOL
And now we are home watching "Minute to Win It!" and enjoying vanilla milkshakes made by my hubby! What better way to conclude the weekend?

Hope you all have a great week!!!! Back to work but I can see the end-of-the-year approaching. I plotted out what I am doing each day till the last day of school to make sure I have time to do all of the labs I wanted to fit in! I only have 8 more starts of school left if all goes according to plan!!! OK off to tuck everyone in bed!!! God Bless!!!