Everyone at Wesley's ball game that night got to enjoy the blue-handed bandit in person (April 12). It didn't all come off until the next day. Carigan is part bandit but still ALL monkey these days. Whenever she overhears Michael or me calling her "our little monkey," she goes, "OOH-OOH-AAHH-AAHH" as if on cue. Most of the time we don't even realize she was listening to us.
Wesley has really enjoyed spring ball. He has his last game this coming Saturday. It's been a fun season!
Please disregard the following shameless bragging... it's just so it will make it in the blog book at the end of the year! This is the third time Wesley has brought home a perfect report card this year and I realize we've done little more than give him a hug and a high-five and put the report card on the fridge. Thought this time I'd put it on the blog so that he can read in his book one day how much he rocked Kindergarten and how proud we are of him.
Saturday afternoon we celebrated Ainsley & Ethan's 1st birthday in the family life center (my friend Shondria had a surprise pregnancy after having her daughter and then having her twins and DOUBLE SURPRISE! It was twins... again). They were so stink'n cute but the only pictures I have of them at the party are on my phone right now. I had my camera in the car though so I did manage to capture this - it took me awhile to gather up my things and when I got back to the car where Wesley had been watching the girls, Carigan was wearing my heels (which I'd kicked off in exchange for flip-flops), standing at the driver's seat exclaiming, "Mommy, Mommy, I'm drivin'!" This is why she gets away with blue-handed fiascoes and the like... her cuteness if pure self preservation!
Sunday evening (April 15) I got to meet Dallas, my friend Sarah's newest little beauty queen. They had just returned home from the hospital. Sarah had Reese the February before Wesley was born in August, so we spent nearly every day of her maternity leave together, going for strolls in the neighborhood and shopping for our babies. Maison and Anna Kate are only two weeks apart and Sarah and I were even thrown a joint baby shower. So exciting that she has another beautiful little girl for big sisters Reese, Maison, and Ava! Tony is completely surrounded by beautiful women! (And YES, as my Aussie friends say, this absolutely makes me feel clucky!)
I had the right connections for Western Day this year! Last year the best I could do was send Wes to school in jeans and a green flannel t-shirt (on a hot Florida day!) with his school-issued bandanna. This year I asked my friend Melissa if her son Mason had some boots I could borrow. I hit the jackpot with boots, a cowboy hat, vest and even chaps! Wes was giddy. Michael took the pic below before taking Wes to school (April 19). Wesley insisted on stuffing the bandanna in his pocket instead of wearing it around his neck. He said it's what real cowboys do. Love that Wesley's hair is all ruffled from the hat - makes him look like Curly in Oklahoma! And someone was feeling left out so Daddy took her picture too:
This is how I found Carigan when I came back in the room from putting away laundry the next day. :o) Wesley has been taking piano lessons for two years (LCS has a program where he can take lessons at school during a "non-instructional time" like recess and it's one less place I have to drive my kids! Woohoo!). Last year's big piano recital was the week we were on the Disney cruise, so Friday was his very first piano recital after two years of lessons! All the Kindergarten boys performed one song and all the Kindergarten girls performed another song, but since Wesley & Hyatt had both taken lessons before, they got to perform their very own song. Can you guess what it was???
Yup, he was VERY excited (and Mrs. Fung said all of the other kids were super jealous that Wesley & Hyatt got to play Star Wars). For two years I have been well aware of the fact that students are asked to wear their "Sunday best" for piano recitals. So when Wesley came home telling me he wanted to wear at Star Wars costume I said no. When he insisted that Mrs. Fung said it was okay, I said, "Well she's gonna have to send me a note." Well the next day I got an e-mail from Mrs. Fung asking if I could send Wesley's Star Wars costume and light saber. :o) I think it's safe to say that stage fright isn't going to be an issue with our firstborn. He got to explain to the audience how a piano works (with each hammer hitting a string that makes a sound). -BELOW- Forget piano ~ we need to get this kid in drama! Check out that unsolicited pose! He was WORKING it on that stage!
Somewhere in the midst of all that dramatic flair he managed to play his Star Wars piece. He's actually been able to play the Star Wars song since he was 3 years old... Grandma put masking tape on her piano, numbering the keys, and wrote out the succession of numbers you push to play Star Wars. To this day Wesley has that number code memorized! If I called him in here now he'd spout it out without hesitation. But for the recital he had to play reading the music (and it was actually a little different) and he had to play at a specified tempo, in sync with Hyatt. He didn't make a single mistake. :o) We're so proud of our little performer! We recorded his recital on the camcorder and Wes has been asking to watch it again and again, but the good part is all his on-stage antics before and after his actual piano-playing.
Wesley and his posse... Hyatt & Jacob (with Mrs Fung). Repeating Kindergarten was definitely the right decision. He made friends easily last year and would have done fine socially moving on, but he was always trying to be like the bigger boys. This year his friends are like Wesley clones. They're so much alike in personality and interests it's a little scary! It was definitely worth it to hold him back and let him be with kids more his age. Love these boys!
