Emma Performs Her First Dance Routine

Last Saturday, Emma's cheer team, the Tornadoes, performed their first dance routine in front of a crowd.  To say the least, it was entertaining to see as a parent.  They had only practiced the routine a few times.  Their squad is made up of all new cheerleaders ranging from ages 4-7.  And their music messed up.  But, we were so proud of her!  She has learned so much and really enjoys cheering with the Upward program.

And probably what makes it even more entertaining is that Walker and Olivia were fighting through most of the video about the phone I was trying to use to record this video.  Walker had been using it when the girls ran out and I had to grab it away from him (although in my defense, I had warned him about 5 times that when they ran out, I needed my phone). And they were also fighting about eating popcorn.  You can actually hear a lot of those conversations in the video.  Oh the joys of siblings!

Emma's School Weather Project

For school Emma had to take a cut-out paper doll (given to her by her teacher) and decorate/color it and then put it in a weather scene.  

She chose summer weather and her scene was the beach.  I love to help her with these little projects because she is so creative and gets so excited about doing them.  I helped her cut out her sand and then she cut out water (with wavy scissors), a pink towel, the clouds and a great big sun out of construction paper.  She wanted to make a beach chair so she cut the "cloth" part of it out of green construction paper and then glued it on and drew the rest of the chair.  It made me laugh that she drew a sand castle and then wrote what it was above it (just in case someone didn't know what it was).  And if you look closely- you can see all the details she put on her cut-out doll.  It has flip flops and little toes and butterflies on her swimsuit.
She is even holding a tiny bottle of sunscreen.  They had to include a thermometer with an estimated temperature for their scene.  It was pretty hot at her beach- 90 degrees!  

Our Little Play-Dough Chefs

Emma and Walker fixed pizza for us this weekend.  And they put all of our favorite veggies on them!  Too bad they weren't made out of real food because they looked yummy!  Olivia wanted to make us a macaroni pizza.  Not too sure how that would have tasted.  They love playing with play-dough and creating things for us.  

Walker's had green peppers, cheese and pepperonis.

Emma's had cheese, pepperoni, olives and green peppers.  And she made us a drink to go with it!  

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Our Little Cheerleader

On Saturday, Emma cheered at her first Upward game!  She had so much fun and looked so cute!  We are so impressed with the Upward Sports program!  She has practice one night a week for an hour and then a game on Saturday morning for an hour.  The program only lasts for 2 months- in our area it is January and February.  She cheers for basketball, but everything is very non-competitive.  The squad cheers for Upward at every game, no matter which teams are playing (As in Go Upward, rather than the team that is playing). And they switch from one ball game on one side of the court to another ballgame on another side of the court at half time.  At practices they learn the basics of cheering- arm motions, simple cheers and now they are starting to learn jumps.  And they also have a devotional at every practice.  We only had to pay $50 for the whole program and it included her uniform, pom-poms and a megaphone!  And two months of practices and games to cheer at.   Every time they show up at practice they get a new sticker for their megaphone.  And when they lead cheers or do other things that show enthusiasm or leadership, they can earn more stickers.  Such a neat program!

 Every 5 minutes when there is a break, the girls get to go out and perform a cheer.  They are so funny!

Here they are practicing before their game.

They also have a devotional in the gymnasium at half time!  We are so thankful that our kids are getting to do fun activities like this that have a focus on the most important thing- God and His Word!

Here is a link to the Upward Sports Program world-wide.  Upward Sports Link

Geometric Shape Fun

My kids tend to find strange, but creative ways to entertain themselves.  The other day they pulled out our geometric shapes boxes (my mother-in-law is a teacher and gives us great teaching tools) and started building things.  Emma made an awesome little girl and flower:

And Walker made a monster that he said was one that the Power Rangers fight.  (And if you have ever watched Power Rangers, you know that there are some pretty crazy creatures on there!)

I am always thankful that they have the ability and desire to find creative entertainment!