Adventure Away 1st Grade Music Program

Jewell has been counting down the days until her school music program. She has been coming home and practicing her songs almost every day. She was so excited to show us what she has been learning.

The 1st grade music program was called Adventure Away. All about taking an adventure around the world.

They were supposed to dress up like they were going on vacation, and she was supposed to bring a pair of sunglasses, but she wanted no part in that, lol. She was like only one to not have any sunglasses, but she did it her way. She kept saying "No mom, I don't want them".

She looked so cute up there and we had great seats in the front. She was a little embarrassed and shy because she was on the end of the row but she still did great.

She kept talking to the boy next to her.

Proud of my girl :)

Allie was there and I Facetimed Justin during the program so he could watch too since he was working.

Jewell and her friend Ada Grace. 

After her program we went and ate at the pizza place.

Spotlight Twirling Competition

Friday Jaina and I headed down to Jen's house to stay the night. Jolee and Jewell stayed with Justin at home. We stayed at Jen's house and got up early Saturday morning to head to Westlake, Louisiana to attend the Spotlight Twirling Festival competition.

Jaina was in several categories including 1 pageant.

She was in marching, parade marching, military marching, presentation, strut, modeling, 1 baton and 2 baton

She is judged individually for each category and wins a placement for each one.

She is scored by several judges. There are 6 different judges. She is in a different lane for different events sometimes going back and forth to two different gyms. 

She also has to change her costume several times depending on what category it is. She alternates between a solo costume, skirt with sleeves and a strut costume. 

She ended up having a great contest this time. She won 4 1st place trophies, 2 medals and 2 ribbons. Medals are for 2nd and 3rd place and ribbons are usually last or participant ribbons. 

She was after the big trophy. To win the big trophy you are up against other girls in the pageant, to beat out and win 1st place in strut, solo and modeling. She did not win but came in 2nd place. 

Although she didn't win she still had a great day.

Overall, it was a win win! She was really proud of herself. After the contest we were starving. We headed to Derricks in Lake Charles and had the best Po boy sandwich. Then we headed back to Jen's in the pouring rain. 

 

Jolee’s Spring Dance

Look at my little Jolee all dressed up and looking beautiful and grown! 

Friday Jolee headed to her spring dance at school. For weeks this child was telling me that she was absolutely not going to her spring dance. I kept asking her and she said no. Then once we realized she had to stay home for her theatre UIL competition she decided she was going to the dance, so I took her to Dillards and she picked out this dress.

She tried on several different dresses and decided to go with this one. The theme was "Back in 2016" She said "mom, I have to get something from 2016, what did they wear back then" Haha! I still wear clothes from 2016, wasn't that like yesterday?!

She chose this blue dress, and she borrowed some of Jaina's shoes. This blue color looks so good on her and made her red hair pop!

She got herself ready and doesn't she look beautiful! Justin had to promise me to take some pictures of her since I wasn't going to be there to see her when she went to the dance. Justin followed through and sent me these. I loved them! 

She said the dance went good and she had fun with her friends and even danced with Fischer. 

While Jolee was dancing the night away Justin took Jewell to eat pizza. Then they went into a little boutique she's been begging to go into and get a few little trinkets she's been wanting then they headed back to the school to pick Jolee up. 

It’s a Monday

We are enjoying warmer weather but I’m afraid we are going to skip spring and jump straight into summer weather. Boo I love spring but it’s already hitting 90 degree weather here in Central Texas. That makes it rough because the mornings are cold so I send her with a jacket and by the afternoon it’s blazing.

Jewell found the bucket of chalk and went to town on the sidewalk. I drew an outline of her body. 

Haha crime scene investigation 

Jewell likes riding the bus most mornings when Justin takes her to the bus stop 

Other then that we are counting down the days until spring break where we can sleep in late and relax

Off she goes

Hard Work Pays Off

I gotta sneak those pictures in when I can. Most of the time Jolee does not want me to take pictures of her, especially getting out of the car in the mornings. Here she is being dropped off for school. They had band UIL this past week. They went out of town one day to Cameron for a practice run and then had the actual UIL in Killeen. Jolee said her band teachers were so excited because they made a 1! She was excited too! She said they did really good and her band teacher put her on the outside chair because she has the best posture out of all the students and the judges would see her better if she was on the outside. 
Jolee said she did great during the performance. They also tested individually and she said she did well individually too. 

Way to go! We are proud of you. We know how much you love playing your flute. Keep up the hard work!

 

Chalk Bluff Ridge Hike

Thursday Jewell's Daisy group went on a hike at Chalk Bluff Ridge Park near Stillhouse Hollow Lake. 

In all the years of Girl Scouts I have never been on a hike that I can remember. Justin is usually the one to go with them or the girls were old enough to go without me. Since Jewell is a Daisy, she has to have a parent with her at all times so both me and Justin went with her. 

We hike to the pond area

They got a quick lesson on all things found in nature like snakes, and speaking of snakes Justin saw one on the trail.

Skipping rocks

Her little group is the best!

Then we hiked to the "waterfall" haha see the waterfall where my finger is pointing, lol. There is actually a real somewhat of a Texas waterfall further back on one of the trails but the bridge that takes you to it is under construction so we couldn't go.

But the baby waterfall was good enough

Once we got down to the water we left the girls throw rocks and play

It was a really nice evening for a hike. I've always wanted to come hike this trail and I'm glad I got to.

Then we hiked back to our car. Now she earned her hiking badge.

January & February

January and February we spent several days selling Girl Scout cookies and we are finally done! Jewell sold all of her boxes except for 3 short bread which I ended up buying so she hit her goal. Way to go Jewell!

We sold to all of my co-workers, family, friends and neighbors. Jewell and I will get to stay the night at Seaworld at the end of April. She is so excited and I can't wait to sleep on that concrete floor again. Ha!

My car blew up, lol Well technically my engine did. I've been without a car for over a month. We had to do a lot of shuffling around. Thank goodness Jaina has a car, there would have been no way we would have made it with just one vehicle. Jaina picked the girls up and dropped them off for us a lot. Justin and I took turns dropping each other off at work. It was a lot, but we made it work even though it was starting to get on my nerves there at the end. 

My car has been a great SUV so far. Although I don't like how narrow my car is, it's been great otherwise. Hardly any problems for a vehicle that has almost 150,000 miles on it. A few months ago, I had a major oil leak which I got that fixed, but then my engine started acting up again. I knew it was having some problems and was meaning to take it in to get looked at but we've had a lot going on. The night Cindy passed away is when I left work early and I was traveling home when my car started really acting up. I had to ride the access road all the way home on a prayer. 

I made it home, then had my car towed to our machinic for him to tell me I would need a new engine. Justin and I didn't know what to do. Although I probably do need a new car, I wasn't ready to buy one yet. Jason our mechanic said there was a recall on engines with my vehicle, and it would be worth a tow over to the Hyundai dealer to see if they would fix it. Justin was thinking that they were not going to honor it because it has too many miles on it but something was telling me to give it a try so we had it towed again to the dealership.

One month later I have my car back with a brand-new engine and several other brand-new parts in it. The dealership said they fixed about $15,000 worth of stuff on my car, and it was practically new again!

Thank you Jesus. I thanked the Lord over and over again. What a blessing! 

One of the mornings when I was out of a vehicle and Jaina had to go babysit. Jewell and I had to walk down to the bus stop in the freezing cold. It wasn't tooo bad. We sat on the bench for about 10 minutes waiting on the bus. 

Riding off into the sun rise to school

.

Other than that we are grinding through the school days until spring break. 

Jewell caught a ladybug and put it in a jar and wanted me to take her picture with it, lol.

The Book of Everything

Jolee got to participate in the Salado Middle School play this past week. She was very excited. They have been working really hard and staying every Tuesday after school and coming up to the school on Sundays for dress rehearsal.

They performed the play in front of everyone tonight. Although she was not in the play, she said she was still nervous. 

The play they performed is called The Book of Everything

Her job in the play was prop manager. She had a very important part in the play because she was the one that rolled the curtains back when the show started and ended, helped the actors with their makeup and got to help move all the props. 

They will be performing Saturday in Dripping Springs for UIL. For UIL I believe they only get 40 minutes from start and finish the play. The first 7 minutes that's counted is setting up the stage. She is one that helps move the props around during those 7 minutes.

It was fun to see her in action. The night they performed for all the parents we got to see the play twice. All the kids did such a great job. 

Saturday Justin dropped Jolee off at school at 5:30am. She had to help get all the props on the bus. They left school at 5:45 and off they went. They spent all of Saturday at Dripping Springs Middle School. She said she had fun. She got home about 8pm. 

They ended up places 3rd place. Way to go!

We are so proud of you Jolee! It was fun getting to watch you on stage.

I really felt like she was in her elements with her friends and loving it. She really likes theatre.

After the show we were starving so we headed to the Pizza Place to eat.