Daddy/Daughter Dance and Mystery Dinner

So, every year around Valentine's Day, the parks department puts on a dance for dads and daughters.  Every year, Emmy looks forward to it for weeks.  She talks about it, picks out her dress and how she wants her hair.  She just loves being able to spend time one on one with her dad at this special event.  Kenna and John come too and they have a blast together!  

Her hair is so pretty!

These girls have been loving their American Girl Dolls.  And what a surprise, they both picked out the same shoes to wear!

I decided to do something different for Valentine's Day this year.  Matt and I try to go out for dinner. (This year we went to Jesus Latin Grill...yummy!  I didn't take any pictures!)  But we wanted to make it special for the kids too.  I found on Pinterest a Mystery Dinner.  You assign all aspects of the meal a number and then everybody randomly chooses numbers and they are given what they order.  It was a lot of fun and we had some interesting appetizer, main meal, and dessert options.  Luckily we had a snow day on Feb. 12th so we had extra time to put into making the meal.

3 of us ended up with a hamburger as an appetizer and no drinks.

Everyone had plates for the main course, but Landon was still waiting on his drink.  Em and I both got cookies and raspberries for our main meal.

Here is our dessert course. 

It was a fun way to spend the evening, but it took a lot longer than a traditional dinner.  I love making memories with these guys.

Flooding, Daddy Daughter Dance, Date Night

At the end of February,  we had some weird weather.  We had so much snow, which turned to rain.  There was nowhere for all of the water to go, so several areas flooded.  Roads were closed, parking lots flooded, and many problems with houses having too much water.  We even had school cancelled for a flood day!  It was crazy.
This all happened the day before the Daddy Daughter Dance and Emmy was upset thinking the dance would be cancelled.  Thankfully the waters receeded enough that the girls could enjoy this special night with their Dads. 

Matt and I finally got away for a date night too.  We had tried 4 times to go.  Between sickness, weather, and sitters having plans, we had to call Kankakee Grill and reschedule so many times.  We were so glad to finally get a night away together.  We went to the new casino in South Bend.  The meal was yummy!

Mother/Son Dance

Landon and I finally got our chance to dance the night away.💃  Matt and Emmy went back in February and when Landon heard about this one in May, he made sure I did NOT forget to get tickets!  And that is quite unusual for him to remind me of something! 😄  We got to have a fun night with Jessica and Greyson too!

The dance was space themed and all the boys got treats to take home: a star balloon, cup, pencil, stickers, sucker, and the favorite...a light up sword!🌟

Jessica and Greyson breaking it down

Landon LOVED dancing all over and singing.  He wasn't too interested in the choreographed dances (Macarana, ChaCha Slide, etc).

We had hot dogs, potato chips, a punch fountain, and ice cream sundae bar.  It was a great night for a small price (only $12 a ticket!)

Greyson wanted a picture with the DJ so Landon got in too!

Landon LOVED this night.  He said it was perfect and the best. night. ever!  He danced to the slow dances with me and had a smile on his face all night.  I love being able to spend special time with him.  He is growing up so quickly and I love making these memories with him.

Matt and Emmy got to spend a special night at Steak 'N Shake and Target picking out some Lego Friends to put together.  They had a nice time alone as well.

Catch up from January/February

Well, yes...apparently it's been 2 months already since I last blogged about Christmas time!  My, how time flies!  Here's what we've been up to:
We finally got around to decorating  gingerbread houses on Jan. 1st.  A little late, but it still tasted just as good. 👍

We've been reading Harry Potter, so you may notice Emerson's lightning🗲 scar in these pictures!

Emerson has been taking gymnastics lessons and she's made some great improvements over this school year.  So when a cheer camp flyer came out, she was super excited!  The girls got to work with the NWHS cheerleaders, learned some cheers and a dance, and had the opportunity to cheer at a basketball game.  Unfortunately on the night of the game, Emerson was sick and missed school that day.  But, she did enjoy the day at camp.📣

Kenna came to camp too!

 Landon played Vertical Basketball instead of Upwards this year.  It wasn't much different, but was less expensive and the coaches also acted as refs.  Matt coached Landon's team and I helped out when needed.  He loved the game and really improved over the season.  He got more confident with the ball and scored several times a game.  We had games every Saturday and every other Thursday, so it was busy, but he loved every minute of it.  He was number 3 (and it's totally hard to get a good, not blurry picture during a game).🏀

Front row: Matthew, Karsten, Cole, Wesley
Back row: Carter, Landon, Miles, Brennan, and Coach Matt

Emerson has a huge giving heart and definitely loves to give (and get :)) gifts.  This year, she surprised us by making chocolate mint cookies by following a recipe all by herself.  I helped her bake them and they kind of melted into one big cookie, but I definitely think she did a great job for her first time following a recipe on her own. 

 We don't usually get the kids gifts for Valentine's Day, but I know how much they like gifts and candy, so this year we did. :)  Landon looked at the package and said, "Wow, Russell Stevers gave us a gift?"  No buddy, but Russell Stover did make the candy you're getting. 💗

 Matt and I got tickets for the Purdue basketball game versus Rutgers that happened to be on Valentine's Day from Mikel and Jessica.  We had originally planned to take the next day, Wednesday, as a personal day and spend the night in Lafayette.  But the 2 weeks before, we had all been sick and missed a lot of school between us and the kids.  Then on that day, I didn't really feel well and almost didn't go to the game.  The game was a lot of fun, though and seats were great.

 Lastly, Matt got Emerson tickets to go to the Daddy/Daughter Dance a few days after Valentine's Day.  She was excited for WEEKS!  And John and Kenna got tickets too.  They had a ball and the girls enjoyed every minute of it.  I took Landon out to Steak 'N Shake for dinner and played video games with him.  It's so nice and important to spend time one on one with the kids.

Loving our time together and hope we are over all the sickness that's come our way!  We've had a really crazy winter with little to no snow and lots of warm days.  I don't remember any winter where we've left our coats at home so much!  Looking forward to what March will bring.

Emerson's Dance Recital

Emerson had her first dance recital at the beginning of June.  She took ballet and tap this year.  She LOVED being in the recital, but I don't think she was much of a fan of dance class.  She told me she didn't like practicing the same songs over and over.  I tried to explain to her that was how she got good at something, but I don't think I convinced her.  :)

The week of her dance recital was crazy busy.  She had a technical rehearsal on Tuesday which took about 3o minutes, dress rehearsal on Thursday (we didn't get home until 10 pm that night), I volunteered to hand out programs on Saturday, and then her recital was Sunday.  So, we had a lot of driving to Warsaw to do, but it was a fun week.

She danced in two numbers:  First for ballet was "A Little Yelp from My Friends", where the girls wore dog ears, and second was tap "I am a Rock and Roll Kid."  She did great in both and it was so neat to see her up there on the big stage.

ready for tap

ready for ballet

Emmy and her buddy Vivi

Showing off some new "dance moves"??

 After the recital everyone wanted their picture with the dancing star (who was super excited about all the make up she got to wear!!).

Landon was feeling a little left out so he got a picture with his cousin, Caleb!

Afterwards we went out to eat at El Arrerio in Warsaw for some yummy Mexican food!  Thanks to Gma, Papa H, Memaw, Papa B, and Aunt Kristina for coming to support Em! :)

Soccer and Dance

This year, the kids wanted to try soccer.  It met for 5 Saturdays July through August and the kiddos learned basic skills and scrimmaged against another team.  Emerson wasn't too thrilled with it.  She is pretty unaggressive so she needed a lot of prodding to go chase after the ball.  Landon on the other hand was really into it.  He scored 4 or 5 goals in their last game (I lost count) and says it's his second favorite sport after football!

Emerson had been taking gymnastics and she really liked it, but when I asked her to choose between that and dance class, it was an obvious answer for her.  She is taking a tap and ballet combo class in Nappanee and had her first class last Thursday.  She is always very excited to try new things, until we actually get there and she gets really nervous.  There were a few tears, but she made it through her first practice and liked it.  All of the girls looked so adorable in their leotards and dance shoes!  It is a closed practice until the last few minutes when the parents got to come in and see what they learned.