Piano Recital

While waiting for her sisters to get ready for their piano recital, Dragonfly crashed on the couch for a quick nap.

My beautiful pianist!

Ms. Pam has been a wonderful piano teacher. The girls have learned so much in their two years under her instruction.

Performing: Matt, the Cat.

Performing: Snowflake Rag

Performing: Russian Sailor Dance

Following all the students' performances, there was a reception. I thought the cake was really cool.

The girls each recieved a certificate of participation.

Soccer

For seven weekends, we enjoyed watching all four of our girls learn how to play soccer, interact with their teammates, and improve their skills. The Upward program is such an awesome way to introduce your children to sports. I love that everything is Christ centered. There are devotions during practices and games.

Ladybug and Dragonfly would always jump at the chance to kick the ball in when it went out of bounds.

One Saturday, Dragonfly's team was a teammate short and Ladybug was allowed to fill in. She had already played a game so she was pretty tired but still managed to score a goal for the team.

Dragonfly was so excited when Ladybug scored that she ran over and gave her a huge hug. Dragonfly almost scored right after Ladybug's goal but it hit the side pole.

Butterfly was so exciting to watch. She had so much energy on the field and scored one amazing goal.

MRE picnic in the Croatan National Forest

 To complete the girls experience with eating MREs, we took them to the nearby Croatan National Forest to enjoy a nice walk through the Island Creek Trailhead. After arriving, the girls posed for a quick picture by the trail entrance sign. Each of the girls had their own backpack where they packed extra clothes, blankets, their MRE, and a bottle of water. It was pretty funny that most of them insisted on wearing a light jacket, even though it was beautiful outside at 60 degrees.

 Ah Dragonfly...gotta be goofy.

 On the trail...about 20 feet from the parking lot...

 Plenty of these guys hanging around. Dragonfly loved all the dragonflies surrounding us as we walked along the creek.

 Ladybug was excited to find a snail and was so worried because she almost stepped on it.

 First break and the girls dove into their MREs for a quick snack. Cookies and a muffin were their first picks.

PF had a strawberry/banana "milkshake" in her MRE and enjoyed adding water and shaking the package. The milkshakes are really not that bad at all. They are loaded with calories though (like most MRE food) so you (probably) need to be doing more than taking a leisurely stroll through the forest if you're going to drink one! But it was fun!

I'm really, really glad that this little guy was on the trail...and not one of several poisonous snakes that are prevalent to eastern NC.

 Butterfly digging into her main entree.

Yes...that's coffee...and quite good!

MREs

Joe and I had wanted to get meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) for quite a while so that the girls could experience them. The girls sat (mostly patiently) while Joe explained the contents of each of their MREs. He then showed them how to "field strip" the MRE so that they wouldn't take up as much space inside of their backpacks.  

 Don't let Butterfly fool you...she was being much more "goofy" than grossly intrigued!

 Dragonfly knows when to make her silly face too!

 The girls were really excited to discover what was inside of their MREs.

 Ladybug and PF stuffing the contents back into the MRE package.

Joe, holding up the "field stripped" version of one of the MREs.