First Recital and Messy Food

Both of my girls LOVE my turkey spaghetti. I have to say that I love to cook it for them too! Their confidence in my cooking makes this my go-to when cooking a meal for other families as well. If you get a meal from us to help you out...it's gonna be turkey spaghetti.

Ava has always been a pretty neat little eater. We had no idea how neat until...
...Miss Elizabeth came along! For this child, every meal is an opportunity to moisturize every exposed area of skin and hair in the food being served. You know she's finished when she starts grabbing handfuls and slinging them as far as she can. She'll also grab a big swig out of her sippy cup and then launch it across the floor.

Oh, but how could you be even the slightest bit upset when she grins at you like that?!

Ava's first dance recital was about a month ago at the big, historic theatre downtown. We didn't really know what we were in for until we arrived and saw the hundreds of people who had come to watch their little darling(s) dance. The place was packed.

We weren't allowed to take pics during the actual performance, but Daddy took Ava to the dress rehersal earlier in the day and snapped these:

Ava and her fellow "bumblebees" wait offstage for their turn in the limelight. Please note the adorable friend with a broken arm. During the "basket leap" move, this precious girl was directed to change her move to simply picking up the basket and taking it to the dance teacher.

Here you see the dance teacher reminding the girls where to stand. She was on stage with them the entire time reminding them of the moves.

Adam and I weren't really sure how Ava would do on stage with the spotlights and all of the people watching. She just smiled and did her little dance with no shyness at all! Big breakthrough!

Ava looks down on the stage from the mezzanine floor.

Ava waves to Daddy outside the theatre after dress rehersal.

Adam couldn't help himself and stopped at the Arboretum on the way home to snap some shots of our "bumblebee" amid the spring flowers (he knew it was killing me to have to stay home and recover from being sick during her rehersal so he wanted to bring home some amazing pics).

Both sets of our parents, my brother and his girlfriend, our sister-in-law and cousin Caleb, and Auntie Michelle and Uncle Jeff (pictured below with Ava) came to see our little ballerina perform. We were all so proud of our tiny dancer!

Here I've included a couple more messy food pics. I just can't resist taking these!