Joy of Dance

God has been gracious, and we were able to enroll Annabelle in ballet 1A with "The Joy of Dance" this Fall. She has had 1 class so far with Miss Tasha Irwin as her teacher! It is really so cool, because Tasha and Danielle Irwin are now running "The Joy of Dance" studio and I got the privlege of seeing The Irwin girls grow in their faith and ballet skills while attending Hinson Church and working with them in the youth group, and they have grown up to be beautiful, talented, God-fearing girls who dance for the Lord, and glorify them in their everyday lives. This is why I chose "The Joy of Dance" for Annabelle. My hope is that as they teach her she will see the benefit of using her talents and gifts for God's glory.

Annabelle's first day

Annabelle had her first day of first grade at Walnut Grove Elementary School yesterday! She was so excited, she was up at 6 am, reading in her room cause she couldn't sleep. This girl lives to learn and be social, two things that going to school provides. Her favorite thing about this year...well two things: she got Mr. Peterson (her favorite teacher), and she gets to eat lunch at school. She was so proud of herself, the first thing she said to me when she got off the bus, was; "Mom! I ate all my carrots!". You give them a little independence and they prove you proud! I am hopeful that this is the first of many good decisions this little beauty of mine will make :)

Camping in luxury

Annabelle with two of her buddies, Isaiah and Mikayla

All of the kids (minus the 3 Sweeney kids who left a day early)

The whole group

I just followed in suit with Ella...

Kristen, Jenn and I

The Curry family went camping for the first time together as a family over Labor Day weekend. It was a really great time "roughing it" at the Thousand Trails Campground in Chehalis, Wa. If you have never been to Thousand Trails...while yes, we pitched our tent and made our own food, we also had access to a pool, a hot tub, mini-golf, and other fun things for the kids to do. Not so serious camping, but FOR SURE the way to go with kids! We went with our lifegroup and had a grand total of 17 kiddos, 12 adults and one large group campsite, where the kids gleefully rode bikes together, swam, and ate lots of other people's food. Kinda a dream for a kid. It was really a lot of fun, and we really couldn't have asked for better cohesiveness within a group. The kids did fabulously. We even got a compliment from the older couple staying at a campsite across the road from us. Not too shabby!

Daddy's little Lakers fan

Thanks to the brightly colored clothing options at Children's Place, Ella can root for her daddy's basketball team, and look stylish. And yes, Ella picked this outfit all on her own too, that is the beauty of it all :)