Abbie Won 1st at State Gymnastics

1st Overall!

Bird Feeders with Monkey

Gymnastics Meet

Teaching the little one to shop

Looking at baby dolls

Dance-a-Cross Competition #2 Pictures

Dance-a-Cross Competition #2

So we have our 2nd and final dance competition today at Adventureland in the Palace Theater at noon today!!  Granted we've only had 2 competitions, but the girls are worn out w/ it....Abbie was bemoaning putting makeup on again for this dance, really, is she really a 6 yr old princess????  They have more than loved the challenge of doing more dances, learning more difficult moves and being challenged with the experience overall, but I think this will be our only year in competitive dance:-(.  Awesome friends made, fabulous times had, but just not for the Hilton ladies I'm afraid.  They are super excited to actually learn the other 2 dances throughout the rest of the season until our recital in June, they've begun the ballet dance, and I don't think they've started jazz yet, our competition dance is tap, so they will be encouraged and challenged these next few months, but will be just happy to go to gymnastics meets and that's it, competition wise.  We are hoping for another 1st place day today, but will be very happy with whatever we receive, as long as they tried they're hardest in the end!!!!

We have 2 gymnastics meets in March and another 2 in April, I'm sure a few in May, and then Nationals are in June, which if either girl places well enough all around, from what I understand, an invite will be extended for Nationals.  We are loving getting the girls into the competitive end of sports and I'm glad they are having as fun of a time as we are!!!  Well, time to go finish getting everyone ready, then we're off!!!  Will update tomorrow on how we did!!!!  Happy Sunday!!!

School Conferences!!!

We had the girls conferences tonight and they are both soaring thru 1st and 2nd grade w/ flying colors!!!!  Austyn is finally up just above 2nd grade reading level and she's mastering her math skills like a champ and has a deep love of anything science related!!!  She's finally opening up in class, I know, really, I'm talking about Austyn, and she's just an absolute joy to have, teacher's words, not mine:-)!!  Abbie is literally exceeding at all things 1st grade and doesn't show signs of stopping:-)!!  She's always quiet, but excited to learn anything she can.  She's very friendly/social but knows that school is priority numero uno:-)!!!  She's having some issues w/ counting money, but let's be honest, we can all have some issues with that now and again, even as responsible grown ups:-).  All in all, she is thriving and making excellent headway towards 2nd grade!!!
Today, the whole school of Hillside got to go to the Iowa Energy Basketball game, a 1st for the girls, and they had such fun!!!  The Iowa Energy won and the girls now get to check going to a "professional basketball game" off their fun things we've done list!  I just love how our school has such exciting and wonderful opportunities for the students to see/do that a lot would of otherwise never had the chance to!!!

One last thing.........................we have a major success for our household this week, and it's the getting along of 2 doggies!!!!!  Oh yeah, we got another dog, Marley, a 2 1/2 yr old Chocolate Lab, last Friday from some friends who had decided that 2 grown labs was plenty:-).  The 2 of them wanted nothing to do w/ the other at first and Peanut was not okay with another puppy invading her space, but something clicked last night and they are now the best of friends!!  You know how hard it is trying to keep 2 dogs from fighting like cats & dogs:-)....our house is not near large enough for their playing of swords, but we love that they are now getting along like brother and sister:-)!!!  Praise the Lord for the little things!!