The Winklers come to Texas

My sister and her kids came to visit this past week. We don't get to see each other nearly enough, so I was really glad to have them come for a few days. It was loud and chaotic at times, but it was well worth it. Ethan and Ellen have grown and changed so much since we saw them last summer. The cousins played like cousins do - with a lot of laughing and a little aggravating. They're figuring each other out. And the goodbye wasn't much of a goodbye this time because we know we'll be seeing them again in another month or so when we travel to Kentucky. I know the trip wasn't easy, especially for you, Elizabeth. But we're SO glad you came!

 Evie reading to Ethan and Ellen before bed.

 Simon and Ellen playing with bubbles. Ellen knows exactly how to push Simon's buttons. And Simon is going to be a really good soccer player one day. He can throw himself on the ground and act like he's been injured like you wouldn't believe! But I really think these two will be good playmates someday soon. :)

 Ethan!

 Simonster.

 Lining them up for a picture.

 And then Ellen runs off.

She's back. Now for the impossible - to get all five of them to look at the camera and smile. Evie's face is my favorite in this one! The face she's making perfectly describes her mood that morning.

 This is as good as it's going to get. Not bad!

Disney's The Jungle Book Kids

Nate and Evie attend a charter school whose focus is on the arts. They take dance, theater, music, and art in addition to their core subjects. Each semester they work toward a performance to show the skills they've been learning in dance, theater, and music. Grades Kindergarten-2nd perform together. This semester they have been especially excited to be preparing for Disney's The Jungle Book Kids. Evie was a flower and Nate was an elephant in the elephant troupe.

Their arts teachers do an INCREDIBLE job preparing for these performances, and I've been blown away by each one we've seen so far. So, I was really looking forward to seeing The Jungle Book. Nate and Evie have been listening to the music for it and singing the songs all semester (so of course I have them all memorized too), and they've even been acting it out for fun at home. The performance did not disappoint, and we were especially proud of Evie. She has improved tremendously since the fall semester performance in her confidence on stage and in her ability. She was comfortable on stage, and it was such a gift to watch her perform so confidently. And she LOVED every minute of it! Needless to say, we are proud of both of them!

 It was difficult to get good pictures of the performance, and I really just wanted to watch and not worry about pictures anyway. This one turned out okay. Evie is the flower in the front row with the black leotard and green tutu.

 My little flower holding her flowers. :)

Nate with his elephant ears.

Evie is six!

Evie turned six last week. SIX! I'm not very sentimental about my kids growing up, but every once in a while I'm surprised by how time has passed. Evie was born on Memorial Day, and her birthday fell on Memorial Day again this year, so we had fun reminiscing about the day of her birth. It was really nice that everyone had the day off and we got to spend the day together celebrating our girl. We played putt-putt golf and arcade games in the morning, followed by lunch of her choice - tacos at Rosa's Cafe. I made cupcakes in the shape of a princess dress (which didn't turn out as nicely as I'd hoped), and some neighbor friends came to eat cake and play outside for a while in the evening. Even though she was disappointed not to have a party (I'm holding fast to our decision not to throw birthday parties, but to spend birthdays as a family), I think she really enjoyed her day!

Catching Up

Here are just a few random pictures from the past few weeks. Life has slowed down quite a bit for me since my classes ended. I took two classes for the first time this past semester, and I finished them four weeks ago. I took two so that I could take the summer off, and I am SO EXCITED to have the summer without classes! I'm looking forward to just being with my family without having assignments in the back of my mind.

School will end for Stephen, Nate, and Evie on Friday, so it looks like summer break is actually going to come. I had some serious doubts about whether or not we would make it this far a few months ago. :)

Here are those pictures I mentioned:

 Evie's reading has taken off in the past few months. 

She enjoys reading to Simon even though he doesn't always enjoy it back.

Simon has made this ball his official seat for choosing a book. 

I guess bending over to see his choices was too hard.