Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Random Happenings-Part 2

So a funny thing happened. I told you I keep borrowing my mother-in-law's camera, well, she went to Walgreens and printed out the pictures and had them wipe her card and didn't get a CD. I was pretty much devastated because I keep all of my pictures digitally and was now going to be missing all those lovely pictures. Well, I have the most awesome mother-in-law ever, and she called Walgreens who still had the pictures in their system and had them make up a CD for me! YEA!!This is Ally and Natalie in their coustumes for Copelia, they were "floppy dolls". Ally sort of audits Natalie's pre-ballet class at the request of the teacher, because the kids in there are 3 and 4, she likes having a bigger girl to be a helper.
This was Ally in her "fan doll" costume. You may have noticed that they didn't have shoes on in either of these pictures and that is because Allan took them over while I finished getting myself ready, and in all of the confusion their ballet bag got left at home...oh well.
My kids love their cousins. They have 20 of the best cousins they could ask for, ranging in age from 10 months to 18 years old. The older ones are all amazing, talented, wonderful examples for my kids and the younger ones are great friends to play with! This is Hailey and her cousin Anna.
Here is Natalie swinging with her cousin Ty.
Here is Hailey and Ally with Anna and Asa. Below is Lilly after getting her bucket for the easter egg hunt.
Here are all of the "little" cousins getting ready for their Easter egg hunt. Easter is a very fun holiday at the Staker house. There are 3 egg hunts, a younger kid one, an older kid one, and a "really older kid" one for the moms and dads! I know I have mentioned before that after the hunts we go into the "store" in the basement and pick prizes and toys!
Hailey hunting for eggs.
Ally hunting for eggs.
Natalie hunting for eggs.
Lilly hunting for eggs.
Brayden's easter basket.
This next one is Natalie helping her cousin Josh find his eggs, my girls all love Josh!I have a bunch more pictures of the egg hunts, I should really make a slide show of them all, but for now, I'll call that good. That day we also celebrated Allan and Jenilee's birthdays.
Allan and his sister Jenilee have birthdays eight years minus one day apart. Allan likes to tell everyone that when he was born his sister cried until her birthday. You see, I guess he must have been born pretty late in the evening, and the doctor told the family that HE was going to be a SHE. Jeni is the only girl and was pretty upset to find out that she got a 5th brother instead of a sister! I think she got over it, although I hear stories about her taking Allan to church in a dress!

4 comments:

James and Tricia Thomas said...

I love Allan's story of his sister!! You have been BUSY!!

Jamie said...

I agree. That's an adorable story of Allan and his sister.

I have a question for you. How do you guys handle the cost of dance and everything? It isn't the classes so much it is all the costumes and recital fees that make me want to weep. How do you keep it manageable? Or is it just something that you guys decided was important enough?

The Staker Family said...

Hey Jamie, first I negotiate the price with their teacher because I have so many girls. It's still expensive, but instead of paying $45 a month for each kid I pay $30. The dance studio that they go through does the same performances, every Christmas they do Nutcracker, and in the spring they do Copelia, Wizard of Oz, or Hansel and Grettle, so instead of having to buy costumes, she just charges a $25 family costume fee for cleaning/repairing costumes. It all adds up to still be a lot of money, and the one thing that drives me crazy is that they do their performances in an actual theater that she rents out and for Nutcracker she pays professional dancers to come and play some key roles, so we have to pay $8-15 each to attend their performances. Basically we budget in for that, and piano, soccer, volleyball, swim lessons, and t-ball depending on the season because I want my kids to try different things. Sometimes I feel like it's a big waste because my kids aren't very athletic, but it builds their confidence and they make new friends so it's worth it to me. Sorry that's not some big revelation, I try to save money in other areas where I can cut back.

Layton Mom said...

I want to know where Hailey's ballet picture is! I am still trying to find a dance place for Stacy. Would you recommend yours?