Free Range Family

We finally celebrated Aunt Ariel's birthday this weekend. It has almost been a whole month since her actual birthday, oops! We took her to Geyser Park for a little party with Alan, Anna, Grandma Melanie and Uncle Kalvin. It was a lot of fun, Aunt Ariel and everyone had a blast! We played in the arcade, rode on the bumper boats, drove the go carts, played in the tunnel system they have for littler kids and even played some games of lazer tag. There was so much to do! Alan, Aunt Ariel, and Uncle Kalvin all won a lot of tickets and each picked out several prizes. We had pizza for dinner and I spoiled the kids with scoops of ice cream for dessert. I bought each kid one scoop of ice cream for $1.50 and the ice cream filled the cup! We got so much more for our buck! The kids could barely finish theirs so Grandma Melanie and I had to help them finish. :) It was definitely a good deal! Three kids in cars lol. Classic! Uncle Kalvin doesn't look too impressed. ...

Life has been hectic lately but good. Finances are still an issue, that will always be a problem in this world. :) We have been focusing on the positive and loving our family. The kids have been growing up in leaps and bounds lately! Anna is all about standing and she wants to walk soooooo bad. We are preparing for Alan's preschool, which starts a month from yesterday! He is so excited! Teething has been rough on this household this month. Anna has been teething pretty badly, she hates it so much! Her and I have lost sleep because of it, she wakes up every hour in the night and right at the crack of dawn. Crazy girl! Thankfully, I found an authentic baltic amber teething necklace for her at our local consignment store. To say that I was excited is an understatement. I am one happy mama!! She loves it too, it doesn't bother her and I think it has done wonders for her. We don't do medicine here, so this was a perfect option. Look, she went from an angry baby in the mornin...

Today is Grandpa Kevin's birthday. Happy birthday Grandpa Kevin! We love you so much! My dad is seriously the coolest. He is one of the strongest men I know. But his heart is sooooooo big, he has so much love for his family. I have quite a bit of respect for him and his hard working ethic too. My father has his own drywall company that he started from the bottom up. I would love to someday do that with my own business! We have a lot in common too. My father is soooooooo stubborn about most things and usually refuses to go to the doctor even if he is sick. I am a terribly stubborn person myself, just ask my husband lol. Just one of the many traits I picked up from my dad! I have picked up a lot of his crazy notions throughout my life. :) He has always been a great teacher. The things he teaches me are different then the things my mother has taught me too. They are valuable in their own ways. :) My father has taught me how to ride a bike, how to fish, how to ride motorcycle...

I mean, of course, its July. In my huge family, we have like 325,482,926,454,824,863 birthdays in this month only lol! Just kidding of courseThis weekend was Grandma Melanie and I's birthday party at the Reef Waterpark and the kid's friend Carly's birthday party at Kids Klubhouse. We all had such a great time! First are the photos from our birthday party at the Reef! I only was able to take so many because it is ONE WET PLACE lol, I mean obviously. It has several kids slides, two bigger kid slides, a basketball pool, a obstacle pool, and a wave pool. Very, very cool! Here are the pictures: One of my presents to myself was this Chicco baby carrier. Anna has looooooong since grown of her Moby Wrap and we passed it down to Baby Benton. However, she has become quite needy as of late due to teething and our attempt at weaning. This carrier has been a lifesaver! I love it so much! We have seriously used it at least once a day since I bought it! She sure lo...

Dance has always been such an important aspect of my life. I have been dancing for almost 20 years now and have shared the gift of movement as a teacher for 2 years now. I live for dance, think about it all the time, and apply a lot of dance notions to real life. Dance is just the greatest thing ever: its communication without a voice. I have always believed that you can be a dancer without any training. Dance isn't only about technique, its about the feeling you get from it and the passion. Today is National Dance Day. Unfortunately, I did not have any of my dance classes today. But I did teach my gymnastics class this morning. We did our regular routines but finished up dancing to "Cha Cha Slide" for NDD. The kids were so silly and they loved it! I told my dance students about today earlier this week, and reminded them that no matter where they are, they should dance! :) I cannot wait until Wednesday so we can share our National Dance Day stories! I thought I had a ...

Tomorrow is National Dance Day!! I am so excited, I have a tumbling class in the morning and we will be learning a mini floor routine and I am going to play "Cha Cha Slide" at the end of class. I cannot wait, wish I had a dance class tomorrow. I will have a breakdancing class on Saturdays in the fall though. And I told all of my students about Dance Day and cannot wait to hear how they all celebrated it! I finally figured out how to get onto My Little Life's blog on my phone! I can participate in her weekly blog hop Five Question Friday finally again! I am so excited, I used to really enjoy participating and am glad I can once again! Yay! Here is this week's Five Question Friday! What is your best cleaning tip? Use old fashioned cleaning supplies. With all the cleaning brands and products out there these days, its easy to forget how far plain old bleach can get you. We use bleach, baking soda, rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide for cleaning in our household way...

Alan has done so well this past month in his swim lessons! Lon and I are so proud of him! He has learned so much, Lon says that Alan can probably swim better then him now! :) Yesterday I was able to take an awesome set of photos with my phone, the photographer in me was soooooooo happy lol! Here is a continuous shot of Alan jumping into the water: This top one is a running shot of them all, so you can get an idea of the jump. :) It goes clockwise, starting at the upper left corner. The next few are the photos enlarged. :) Love it, love it, love it so much! Love my camera phone! Today, he had his last swim lesson class most likely for the summer. He did not graduate the Sunfish Class but he had a fantastic time today! The last class of the session usually involves a safety presentation and a special little treat for the students: they get to run out and jump into the pool. Alan loved doing it, like he does everytime. He did so good! We are s...

There are only a few more classes left in our summer hip hop program and every one of my students has improved so much, in each their own artistic way. These classes, like all of my classes, are dear to my heart. The kids are great and they perform very well together! I am so lucky to be their teacher! Today I had my birthday party in my hip hop classes. We had oatmeal raisin cookies and each student received a YMCA bracelet as a small gift from me. In my younger class, we played a lot of games. However in my older class, we learned how to Moonwalk and some basic locking steps. We performed a little dance (my favorite five minute choreography I've ever done lol) to Justin Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me". We had a great time in both classes! Two of my students gave me little gifts for my birthday! They are all such sweethearts! One student made me a little Happy Birthday card and the other student gave me a smiley face ball with a birthday card. I als...