Cohen's Dance Recital

Cohen's dance recital was on Sunday the 18th.  She was so very excited to get to perform on stage!  In fact, before the recital started she had noticed the spot light and was like, "Mama, look at that light!"   I told her that was the spot light that would be shining on them as they performed and she just started dancing around saying, "I get to be in a spot light, I get to be in a spot light!"  Its so funny to watch her.  There was no hint of being nervous at all.  She performed with the competition girls first during the opening number so I thought she might be nervous to be up there by herself for so many people but she wasn't phased at all and did a great job!  Next was her group baton routine and they all did a great job too.  I couldn't believe how well they remembered their routine.  The whole recital was a Disney theme which I loved.  It was so cute and Amy did a fabulous job with everything as always!  We were leaving from the recital for the beach so we actually had a leave a little before it was over but Cohen didn't fuss or anything so that was nice.  I hated she missed the end but she actually got shy about doing the daddy/daughter dance.  I think she was more shy to see her daddy get up there and shake it!  haha!  Of course he didn't protest either so we headed out and started our drive to the beach.  Kelly didn't want to be driving late either so we left the cold, rainy weather and gladly headed to some Florida sunshine...or at least got there to wake up to it!

I took a few pictures of Cohen at the recital with my phone and here are her dance pics for this year as well.   Of course I take a lot of my own child!!  

Her competition awards minus what she won at Savannah regionals

We love our competition family!

Saying Goodbye to Kindergarten

I cannot believe that our first school year has officially ended.  I have a harder time with the last day of school than with the first.  Cohen has had such a fun year in kindergarten and it has been AMAZING to watch her grow and learn.  I couldn't be any prouder!  She had FABULOUS teachers and made so many new friends.  While I'm so glad that summer is here, I am going to miss all the fun that came along with kindergarten.  I can only hope that she will love and enjoy 1st grade as much.  On the last day of school kindergarten has their end of the year picnic at Tugaloo Park.  They get to play on the playground and have a picnic lunch and then can go home.  The bad part this year was that it was down right cold!  Dawn and I had to go back home for sweatshirts it was so cold.   After lunch we headed home.   It probably made goodbyes a little easier :)

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 1st Day and last day pics!  You would think it was winter!!

That afternoon it did warm up and the kids had fun tearing down Dawn and Westley's deck.  Its nice when kids help out and think its fun!   Now how would you like to have this construction crew show up at your house :)

Awards Day

We were on our first vacation last week so I'm continuing to catch up on all the things that went on the week before!  With all the activities that come along at the end of the school year, its hard to sit down and write about them all!  The Wednesday before school was out, May 14, was Cohen's kindergarten awards day.  I think she had reminded me everyday that week when I picked her up that I needed to be sure to be there at 8:15.  Of course I had it on my calendar for a while now but I thought it was precious that she wanted to be sure I didn't forget.  She received 3 awards--the Champion's award for learning all her sight words, a reading award for reading the 100 books, and she got perfect attendance.  Its hard to believe we made it a whole entire school year with no major sickness!  She was very proud of her certificates and we were very proud of her as well.  She really loved kindergarten so much and enjoyed learning so I hope that trend will continue for many more years!  My friend Sheri had a front row seat so she took some pictures of Cohen for me...a big thank you to her for that.

I love this picture because I think its funny to see her shaking hands with her left hand instead of right.  

After the awards ceremony she was free to leave with me and I wasn't sure if she would want to or not but she did.  We had to pick up Kate and then get ready to go to the library for the last day of story time.  Cohen was so excited to get to go too.  She had asked several times throughout the year if she could go and never seemed to understand that story time was during school hours.  I was glad she was getting to go too because she always loved going so much.  I think of the library as a special place because she was my first to get to go to story time and we always had so much fun going.  Since it was the last day, Miss Jordan had planned to have some outside fun with chalk and bubbles.  She read one book and then everyone went outside to play.  I know my girls enjoyed it.  They are and have always loved bubbles!

trying hard to make the bubbles blow out

Southeast Regionals-Savannah

We spent our weekend in Savannah for the Southeast Regionals baton competition.  This was the big competition for Cohen.  Because this competition was so big and everything was held on one day, we knew going into it that it would be a long day on Saturday.  Kelly was not thrilled about sitting at a gym all day so he opted to stay home with Kate.  My mom went down with me and Cohen and we enjoyed our Mother's Day weekend together :)  We left Friday afternoon after Cohen's school field day and drove down.  We met some of our friends from dance on River Street for dinner.  The girls loved being able to eat together and after dinner we made a stop at the candy store so they all really loved that!  Its so fun to be able to have fun with friends on these overnight competition trips.  I feel like we have a special little dance "family" and I'm so glad Cohen has so many sweet girls to be around and look up to.  

Meeting up with Baylie

The girls were fixing each other's hair

After we left River Street we had to get settled in and go to bed.  We had to be up and at the competition at 7:30!  It was definitely a long day but it was amazing how much fun the girls have together and how they occupy their down time.  The first thing was modeling, then we had a break for the team competition.  We left for lunch and took advantage of our time outside of the gym!  Cohen and Mya loved playing at Chic-Fil-A!  Before we left for lunch the open modeling results had been posted.  Because there are so many in each age group, (Cohen had 10-14 in hers each time), only the top 5 are posted.  Cohen had gotten 4th place and Mya 5th so they were both so excited and so proud of their medals.  You can see that Cohen had to keep hers on while she ate lunch :)  

After lunch we were at the competition for the rest of the day/night!  The marching part of the competition was first.  Cohen has been strong at marching all year and she kept it up at this one too!  In open marching she was 3rd place and in the Regional marching she was 1st!!  We were so excited for her and she was so excited over her trophy she got for the 1st place finish.  After marching was the solo events.  Cohen had to do her solo 3 times, open solo, title solo, and regional solo.   She did some of her best performances.  I am so proud of how much she has learned this year and how well she has done!  These girls are so brave to get out there in front of these judges by themselves!  Every single girl there was so extremely good!  I was so impressed.  The competition was definitely the toughest it has been all year.  Cohen has worked so hard on her 1 turn and she caught it 2 out of 3 times in her routines!  She came out with 3rd in the regional solo and won 4th in the overall title!  Mrs. Amy had told us that to come to the regional competition and get a top 5 finish was awesome!  I was so excited for her and Cohen was too!  She had performed her last solo at 11:15 at night!  I couldn't believe that she could function after such a long day but it was her best one and the  one she won 3rd place with.  It was a good finish for her indeed!  After we got her changed she wanted me to hold her which I knew meant she was crashing and about to fall asleep, and I was right.  I woke her up for a quick group picture.  Looking at the picture you would never know she was asleep right before it and asleep again as soon as it was over!  I know one thing, carrying bags and a 6 year old and being pregnant is not easy!  It was a fun day at competition though and I can't thank my mama enough for going with me and sitting with me all day in the gym.  Other than listening to baton marching music for 9 hours straight it was pretty bearable :)

Cohen & Mya!  

Cohen & Mya loved spending time with Taylor

Late night, or should I say early morning group picture!

one tired out little girl

We slept in Sunday morning and it felt great!  When Cohen got up she had one thing on her mind...going swimming at the hotel pool.  She had asked me all day on Saturday if she could swim and I couldn't back out of my promise.  I took her down for a 30 minute swim and she was in heaven!  I'm so ready for summer and having a lot of pool time.  We have an early beach trip coming up next week with Kelly's family so I know one little girl who is going to be a water baby all week!

We had to pack up and leave and head back home.  I was definitely looking forward to seeing my sweet Kate!  I am blessed to be a mama to two wonderful, amazing little girls and they are definitely my 2 little sunshines!  I love spending time with both of them and soaking them up.  As this school year comes to an end I'm being reminded how fast the time flies by and how each minute is so precious.  I'm always one who wishes time would slow down and my girls wouldn't grow up so fast but I love each minute of watching them grow.  They are my world.  My sweet hubby too!  He grilled out for me, my mama, and my sister that night which was so sweet.  When I got home I had a sweet card from each of the girls and a beautiful new purse.  I am one lucky mama!  One funny story, I found out that Kate had missed her mama especially when it came to getting ready for church.  Turns out Daddy had put not only 2 different white shoes on her, but each one was a different size and they were both left foot shoes.  Bless his heart, he tried!  I love him!  I hate I didn't get a picture with both the girls or with my mama for mother's day.  I can say that pictures of me while I'm pregnant are few but maybe we will get a decent one soon :)

Field Day!

To say that life is busy right now would be the understatement of the year!  These last 2 weeks have been so busy and on the go, but its been filled with so many fun things and we have loved every crazy minute.  I'm just now catching up on the blog but I don't want to miss out on some of these special events so like everything else...better late than never!
Last Friday was Cohen's field day at school.  She was very excited about it and had reminded me several times that she was going to be on the red team and needed to wear a red shirt.  Not too hard for Georgia fans :)  I was so glad to get to go and be apart of the fun with her.  I really enjoyed watching and cheering everyone on.  The kids seemed to love every game they played.  When I asked Cohen what her favorite game of all was, she told me tug-of-war.  That was a fun one!  After lunch they went out for more games and then everyone got to eat snow cones.  We had to leave after snow cones because we had a drive to make to Savannah but it was a fun fun day and I know Cohen loved it!

You have to love their faces as they get squirted with water by their CAMP teachers

Ready for games!

Nothing like being wet from the start

Mrs. Kellum's class