Dance, gymnastics and licking glass

Reese and Ella have recently begun a gymnastics class (Reese’s class is half dance, ballet & tap, and half gymnastics). They both love gymnastics and it is so much fun to watch and participate with them. Reese’s class is 1 hour. The first 15 minutes of the class is tap dancing, the second 15 minutes is ballet and the last 30 minutes is gymnastics. During the first half of the class the dance portion is done in a smaller room next to the large gymnastics room. These rooms are separated by a glass wall.

 

Reese is not particularly fond of ballet or tap while her sister is within eye shot having a blast in gymnastics. She will sometimes participate in some of the ballet. During the tap portion she sits against the glass wall and stares at her sister while she is doing gymnastics. Recently she has begun licking the glass while wishing to be in the gymnastics room. So Neal or I will be sitting on the other side of the glass in the viewing area instructing our child to stop licking the glass wall. This seems to be rather amusing to all of the parents sitting around us. I have no aspirations of my daughter being a dancer if she does not want to be but I think we will stick with it for a few more weeks to see if she likes it any better because she begged to be in ballet for weeks prior to the start of this class. If she is still licking glass at that point we will switch to an hour long gymnastics class.

Coco Key resort year 2

This winter has been the coldest winter I have ever experienced with the most precipitation. I am ready for spring more than I ever have been. Last weekend we had a bit of a break from the cold by going to an indoor waterpark in Kansas City. This was our second year to go to this waterpark/hotel and we again had a blast. Last year we went with Reese’s friend Reagan’s family. This year we went with 2 of our neighbors and good friends. We all had a really good time but I think Reese would have more fun with a little girl her age to play with so if we go next year we are going to try to make that happen for her. The weather the week of the trip was terrible. We had multiple snow events and we really weren’t sure if we were going to be able to make the trip until the day before. There was still a lot of ice and snow on the ground but the main roads and freeways were clear so we decided to go.

 

This hotel has an arcade, an indoor pool, waterpark, small store with ice cream bar and a restaurant. The waterpark is definitely the main attraction. The girls had so much fun playing. How cute is Ella with her little baby bff?

The restaurant is pretty good and just so convenient so we ended up eating all of our meals there. The waitresses are so good with kids and one morning Coco the bird stopped in to visit. The girls loved this part. We weren’t sure if Coco was going to visit or not but Reese remembered him from last year and the trip wouldn’t have been complete if she had not seen him. Neal had to have a talk with the front desk about when he would be making an appearance because staff kept telling us times he would be there and he wouldn’t show up. I think the front desk nearly asked Neal to get into the bird costume because no one really wanted to do it. Luckily they realized the importance to our little group. Reese had been telling everyone about him and the other kids really wanted to see him also.

Reese was really daring this year and did all 3 of the really big slides. 2 of which you go down in a tube and one you go down with no tube. She did them over and over. Ella did the medium sized slides, which for Ella is pretty daring. They both had so much fun and were really worn out.

 

Neal’s cousin took care of Barkley for us. I know Barkley loves her but I think she worries about when her family will be home when we are gone and may not sleep as well. She always sleeps so hard when we come home and snores so loud you can hear it from the next room. I adore this sweet dog.