First Jr High dance

Tonight is a BIG night in the Redfern household!  Caroline is going to her first dance.  This isn't the first dance at the school but the first one she has been free to attend.  

It was a busy (as usual) lead up with taekwondo Thursday night and she had to volunteer at a festival as part of being on the Odyssey of the Mind team from school today from 4-6.  With the dance starting at 6:30 that didn't leave much time to get ready, so she decided on a hair do and we did hair on Thursday night.  

 The hair do survived the night and day at school.  I just needed to add some hair spray and bobby pins and voila!!

 She went with 2 other girls from her class.  They both were in 6th grade with her last year and the one in the middle is her very best friend Maddie.

As if we needed more assurance that holding Caroline back was the best decision we could make for her, both those girls are younger than her!!  She's a tad of a late bloomer, just like her mom and dad. lol

I also need to brag on my lovely girl.  She again made the principal list at school for having a 4.0 GPA.  Her math average is almost a 100!  I am constantly amazed at her!!

More Christmas Celebrating

We got up super early to leave Orlando and drive to Raleigh so we could go to the Crissman Family Christmas this year.  It was well worth the 3:50 wake up and 9ish hour drive!!  To see so many of my cousins and family was incredible!  We all left with our hearts and belles full!

Then we stayed with Grandaddy and Mimi and celebrated Christmas with them and the Morris family.  More fun with cousins and family!  It was a short visit, we weren't even at their house for 36 hours!

 Austin is a cuddle bug and Caroline loves to cuddle him so it's match in cousin heaven!

 Will also got his chance to cuddle/play with Austin!

 Such sweet memories being made.

Then we were off back to Kansas.  It was a wonderful Christmas break and we absolutely loved getting to spend time and see everyone!

More Disney!

One of the best things we did was plan an OFF day in the middle of the week.  Time to sleep in and go to the pool.  Although we went to the Blue Man Group that afternoon, it was a lovely morning off.  The kids enjoyed swimming.  I enjoyed the hot tub because it was too cold for me to swim!

 Zoom in on his smiling face!

 For the most part, they played so well in the pool for a few hours.  There were a few moments and stern reminders about safety thrown in!!

 Not sure what they are getting ready to do but they are excited about it!

 That is Hogwarts castle.  It had a laser light show on the side of it set to music and fireworks at the end.  Really cool to see.  The crowds weren't so cool.

 Our blue man group seating.

 My favorite day was our day at Magic Kingdom.  We rode all our favorite rides and even the newish seven dwarfs mine train.

 Justin is still the cool dad that takes the kids on the tea cups!

 We randomly walked into the Christmas parade and had great spots to watch.

 A little(big) afternoon pick-me-up!!  The rice crispy treat was bigger than his head.  He shared with Justin and me, but he ate most of it over the next 2 days.

 This was exactly what I came to see!  The castle all lit up for Christmas was just incredible!  So very magical.

 The laser light show on the castle was spectacular!  So cool what they can do now.

 The giant tree.

Our trip was amazing and we don't plan on going back anytime soon!

Disney and Universal part 1

The first day we went to Animal Kingdom.  We were all excited to see the recently opened World of Pandora.  

The picture below is from outside the Bubba Gump restaurant outside Universal.  We ate there after watching the blue man group and before watching a Macy's sponsored parade.

On the tram heading to the Animal Kingdom!  My crafty neighbor made these shirts for us.  I polled everyone for their favorite super hero, then she made the awesome shirts.  We got so many compliments on them, even Disney employees complimented us!!

On the ride watching animals.

 Busy looking for animals.

 The World of Pandora did not disappoint!  So incredible.  We had not seen the movie until about 2 weeks before heading to FL.  We have since watched it several times.  It's really good if you haven't seen it.  And the way Disney created the Hallelujah mountains was just incredible!

 Eric pretending not to get eaten by some dragon thingy!

 Typical Will!!

 Hogwarts was packed!  Actually everywhere we went was jam packed.  But we expected that.

 Christmas morning smiles after finding a Vikings pillow pet from Santa.

 Excited about his stocking gifts!

More Disney and Universal to come!

December activities

Well, it's time to get all the wonderful crazy things that happened in the month of December documented!!

Caroline promoted to a new belt in taekwondo!  Very proud of her and how well she's doing.  She is really enjoying it still. 

 We went to a KU basketball game.  KU scored over 100!  That place is always tons of fun and LOUD.

 I also had to take 2 tests before Dec. 16th so I could apply for my KS state teaching license.  Found out on the way to the Crissman Family Christmas that I passed them both with flying colors!!  Woohoo!!  Now it looks like I will get my license just before we move. HA!

 My class collected supplies to take to the local animal shelter.  They all love having Miles come to the classroom each week so they chose this as a giving project.  Their smiles say it all.  They had a great time!!

 They got to hold and love on some kittens and named a cute dog as well.

 Will and I made homemade marshmallows.  This boy LOVES them so it's always fun to make them for him!

 My class also made Cookie Caper Cookies (aunt Eleanor's recipe).  They had a blast!

 They did a good job of listening and following directions.

 And of course the best part was licking your fingers!  Caroline didn't have school that day so she came with me.

 Will putting the finishing touches on his marshmallows.  Dark chocolate dipped and rolled in either crushed graham crackers, nuts, or crushed candy cane.  Yummy!

 I am not know for my willingness to do craft projects with my kids.  But I decided the last 3 days of school before winter break and the week before we drive to FL and NC would be a good time to do a multi-day painting project with 10 kids!!  Shoot me now!  I have to say though, it worked out great, was very messy, but the kids loved the final product!  Kandisky circle inspired Christmas trees.

 My kids also got to participate in the school Christmas party.  There were scavenger hunts, stations for different activities, relay races (pictured below), a lip sync contest, and cookie decorating.  So much fun!!

 And I decided I needed/had to rearrange my room.  I got 2 new students after the break and had to fit them in!