Our Trojan Idols

Our girls participated in Trojan Idol last night. It was a talent show for the elementary school, and it served as a fund raiser for Relay for Life.
The talent was so good. It included singing, tap, ballet, break dancing, skate boarding, jump roping, gymnastics, guitar, and violin. There was even an appearance by Elvis!

Anna Kate and Emma love to sing, and they love to jump rope, so they decided to do both in their act.

They performed to Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA."

They sang the first verse and chorus...

...including with hand motions. You should have seen Emma shaking her hips. I wish I had a video.

The middle part of the song they did individual jump ropes and did great.

The last part of the song Tim and I twirled the big rope for them.

I wish I had the energy they have. That was a lot of jumping.

Anna Kate did some by herself -- spinning around, touching the ground with her hands, and running out and around and then going back in. Emma did great too.

This was not a competition. Each child received a trophy.

We were so proud of our girls. You are our Trojan Idols.

Oh, here's the conversation Emma and I had on our way home after it was over.

Me: I am so proud of both of you.

Emma: I know. We did great. We rocked it.

Me: Aren't you glad you did it?

Emma: I was real nervous before it started, but I just told myself to believe that I could do it, and I did. So there.

New Softball Player

Emma had her first practice last night for tee ball, and she loved it! So we are no longer a family with just one softball player. Anna Kate and Emma both had practices last night, and the practices were miles apart, so, needless to say, Tim and I split up to be with the girls. I have a feeling this is going to be a very busy spring and summer with them both playing.

I see now that I should have had her hair in a pony tail.

So proud of our little girl. She did great. Of course, she has had a good bit of practice in the back yard over the past month because we have been practicing with Anna Kate. Maybe she will love softball as much as her big sissy and her mom!

Space Museum

We had a great time visiting Huntsville, AL, during our spring break. In addition to finding an extreme geocache (See post below. Be sure to also check out a couple of other new posts about Daffodils and St. Pat's Day below), we also wanted to go to the Space Museum.
There were tons of these shuttles inside and outside the building, including one at the main entrance that is 363 feet tall.

The girls had fun checking everything out.

I was sure the girls would get bored, especially with Tim wanting to stop to read about all the stuff, but they did fine. By the way, the picture of me was taken by Emma. She loves taking pictures of me.

Tim and Anna Kate rode on the Space Shot. She was real nervous about doing it, but she did great.

Emma was so disappointed that she couldn't ride on the Space Shot because she is too short, but she was super excited that they had a kid version of it. I think they both would have done this ride all day if we had let them.

Another fun part of the day was the rock climb. Of course, Anna Kate flew to the top in record time. We were also proud of Emma for doing it. She did great too.

It was definitely a lot of fun and something I hope they will remember for a long time.

Another Extreme Geocache

We spent the end of our spring break week on a mini vacation to Huntsville, AL. One of our main goals was for Tim and Anna Kate to get an extreme geocache located on top of an old train bridge pillar located in the middle Flint River.
Emma and I spent over three hours watching them accomplish this huge feat. To occupy our time, we sang songs, played video games, threw rocks in the water...

...and had a mini photo shoot.

Anna Kate rode in a kayak while Tim wore hip waders. It took an enormous amount of time for Tim to get all the ropes set up. The water was pretty deep in places and the rocks he was walking on were slick, not to mention there was a pretty fast water current.

He shot the temporary rope over the pillar with this nifty sling shot he made.

After a couple of hours of prep work, the climbing finally began. Tim had to help Anna Kate get all hooked up and start climbing straight out of the boat so she wouldn't get wet. Then he started climbing too.

Tim made it to the top. Then Anna Kate worked on getting there too. They both did great, but I sure was nervous watching them.

They finally both made it to the top!

And found the geocache. Only six other people have actually climbed up to get this cache with three others also logging the cache because they helped from the water.

They took these pictures of each other with Tim's camera while on top of the pillar. Then Tim had to work to get Anna Kate back in the boat without her getting wet and get all the ropes gathered back up. He was so tired, Anna Kate got a little sunburnt, and we were all hungry and ready for a little rest.

By the way, here's a picture of my van loaded down with two kayaks. You should have seen the inside. We laid down the third row of seats and had that area loaded with tons of equipment, not to mention our luggage. Tim said we just about took everything but the kitchen sink.

Love the Daffodils

I just love all the daffodils blooming everywhere. Spring is on the way. We are so looking forward to warmer days and all the fun things that come along with that. Here are some pictures I took last week of the girls at a daffodil patch at a neighbor's house.

St. Patrick's Day

Here are some pictures I took of the girls last Wednesday night (St. Patrick's Day) before we headed to church. They enjoyed wearing their St. Patrick's Day shirts and beads.

Geocaching

Tim and Anna Kate did a bunch of geocaching in and around Tuscaloosa on Saturday. They found 80 caches, including one at this old strip mine. I can't believe how big this thing is.