Momorial Day Pictures.

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Pictures taken just before we went to the Memorial Day Parade in Waxhaw.

I love the pictures of the two girls next to one another, always shows the growth, as much as we look at Jade and see how quickly she is turning into a young lady, we look at Amber and see how much she is catching p to Jade ... yep Jade better watch out coz one day, one day Amber is going to get her back for all the times she beat up on her.

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Ambers 4th Birthday.

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Can't believe Amber just turned 4 and this was her first real birthday party, Jade really got spoilt rotten and Amber shame, really has gotten the second child treatment which everyone talks about.  Anyway it was very last minute since with the visitors we just had, we did not have much time to plan anything more than this but I think everyone had fun.  We had the party at Fiesta Plaza which Jade had a party at a few years ago, great value for money party, you have pizza and cake in a party room, have at least an hour to play in their huge climbing play zone, mmmm I have pictures of that from Jades party but not Ambers, and then you get 20 odd minutes in their computer game zone which of course every kid loves too, the parents too ... it was such fun.  

Here are some pictures from her party.

Actually this one was taken at home just before the party.

Showing off her birthday shirt.

OMG, yep what are we in for right ?

Her fairy room ... at the party place.

Her Tinkerbell cake which she chose herself.

The entrance to her party room.

The entrance to the party place.

With her beautiful smile, that is all she could come up with, the chipmunk look ?  This is a new thing and it is driving me insane, gosh !!!  Oh well there will hopefully be many more more natural birthday pics in the future.

Hope you had a fun birthday baby girl, we love you.

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Tiana & Jessica's visit.

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In April we had a visit from Tiana and Jessica, it was the first time that Jessica had visited us and we were so happy to have her, she was all grown up, gosh it's when we see the kids all grown up like that when we realize how much time has passed since our last trip to South Africa.  It was like having two adults and not a mom and daughter if you know what I mean.

Anyway they came to visit after their skating competition in Boston and they were here just short of two weeks if I remember correctly.  Tiana took all the pictures and I just realized I don't have much of them at all so there won't be much added here as far as pics go.

We took one long weekend trip up to Gatlinburg, Tennessee which was fun, we did all the touristy stuff, I love that area and the weather was perfect, it was not too cold at all and actually it was quite warm walking through all the towns.  We had planned on leaving Amber with friends so that the trip would be an easier one but sadly their family came down with a tummy virus so we took Amber with us which just meant more hard work for me and a less enjoyable trip for me but oh well these things happen I guess.

One of the two things I enjoyed most up there but again would have enjoyed it so much more if Amber was not with us ... poor Amber but these things are just so much more fun without her, not long and it will all become easier and she will enjoy everything more and be able to last through the day more, she is still so little, she is  my energizer bunny but a trip like this is just too much for her.  Anyway we did Dollywood which was such fun, would have been more fun had I not been stuck riding the Dumbo rides with Amber but enjoying the adult coaster with the rest of the group but oh well :-( I did get to see one or two shows without her, Dave is so not a show kind of guy so that helped a bit.  And we did Dixie Stampede which we have seen a bunch of times but still love, thought Amber would enjoy that too but it was too long a day for her and she actually fell asleep in the end.  I guess as much as she is my energizer bunny, she too runs out of steam every now and again, I mean she was 3 at that time.

We also got to celebrate Tiana's birthday while on this weekend which was nice.

Other than that, we tried to show them as much as we could of Charlotte and how we live here, hopefully it gave Jessica insight to how our lives are here.

Here are two pics of them here withe the kids.

What was really nice for me was to be able to take Tiana and Jessica to Jades cheer classes, it was right at the beginning of her classes there so there was not too much happening but it allowed them to see her do some of her stunts which she loves to show off.  She has come so far since they were here, she probably cannot wait to show them all she can do now :-) my only worry is those terrible spiky thorns that are often on the Cape grass, can't imagine doing stunts onto one of those, ouch ... we don't have those here thank God, they are terrible.

What was also cool but might have been boring for them, but they got to see Jade get her medal at their end of year cheer banquet, I know that meant a lot to Jade because sadly that is one of the things my kids will miss out on here, family cheering them on in the audience, so that was a treat.

Here are some pictures after the banquet.

The sun was so bright and she has such sensitive eyes that these are not great pics but at least we have the memory :-)

Oh and of course Amber has to get in on it too.

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Easter !!!

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Sorry can't remember any details ... here is a picture of our indoor Easter egg hunt.  

You have probably seen these baskets over and over again over the years, they are just the same ones I bought for Jade years ago, we have so many we try and use different ones every year.  Probably should buy one or two new, more up to date or Jade appropriate ones, we will see.

Amber dressed up later that day, I think ... sorry :-( but she looked so cute, I love those pants, Tiana do you remember those pants, they were my absolute favorite of anything we got handed down from you guys, she will probably be out of them this  year though but we got tons of wear out of them between your two girls and mine :-) good value for money those were.

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Some cool cheer pictures you might not have seen, sorry can't remember !!!

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These are pictures that other moms have taken at competitions that I wanted to share with you, some are really cool action shots.

This was at the cheer studio after one of their competitions, look at all those trophies.

Jade center front.

Jade to the right with one of the little girls on her shoulders.

Jade center front.

Jade center front.

Jade in the back center, about to tumble.

Waiting for her chance to tumble.

These are all in a crazy order, this should have been the first one, but anyway just wanted to show you these as I thought some of them are really cool.

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Some pictures from Jades last cheer competition with WAA.

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Our last cheer competition this year was at Myrtle Beach again, a friend watched Amber for the weekend which allowed us to concentrate on just Jade, can't wait till she is old enough to enjoy these competitions, actually she does enjoy them but they are just soooooo long that it's too much for her when she is so little, I actually think they are too much for Dave too sometimes but I totally love them :-)

Anyway they did great on the first day, yes it's a two day competition, the first days points, mmmm I can't remember now but think the first days points count for say 25 % of the their final score and the rest is made up on the second day.  Well our girls had done amazingly all season, we weren't sure of a first place but we were hoping for one of the top two spots for sure but sadly as well as they did on the first day, the second day was disastrous :-( they had never dropped a stunt but that day they dropped their pyramid which is so bad, Jades base team actually held their flier up and they did so well but this big error in their routine threw all the girls off so much that even when it came to the running and tumbling pass, Jade messed up, she still did all her tumbling perfectly but left out one of her back handsprings which would not lose the team points but it might have helped them pick up a few more where they had lost it in the pyramid stunt.  Anyway they didn't make first or second :-( but the girls had an amazing season together and as parents we are all very proud of them all.

This competition was bitter sweet for us, we were excited to move onto CAC (Charlotte Allstars) and bigger and better competitions but we had been with WAA for two years and we loved our coaches and well it was our first cheer team, we had fun with them, that was for sure.  We will miss them all.  Most of the girls moved on too but none of them landed up in Jades new squad this year.

Here are a couple of pictures from this last competition.

Think this was taking on the morning of the second say ... sorry deals will be a little vague when I am writing all this from so far back.

These three girls have been together the past two years, Cadey is sadly not doing cheer anymore but Laurin is with the same gym but in a different team to Jade.

Some sassy cheer faces :-)

Jade and Laurin both lifting their flier, Kaley is also with CAC now but all three girls are on different teams.

Some sassy moves ...

See if you can find Jade ...

 Last few team shots with their coaches.

All three coaches.

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Spring is in the air ...

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Just some random pictures I took this Spring, most of them on my cell phone so they aren't great quality but still, you can see just how pretty all the colors are here.

 It's so hard to get the full effect of this picture but there are so many roads that just have rows and rows of trees that look like this, too much pollen to deal with really but still, you can get an idea.  Then a few weeks later when  the leaves come in all those blossoms blow off the trees and the roads look like they have a layer of snow on them, all very pretty even though Spring is a tough season with my allergies and all.

Up close this is how the cherry blossoms look.

This was outside where Amber did her swim lessons.

At the Church where I work ... lots of pretty blooms.

In the parking lot ...

More bushes at the church ... I love these, I want them in my garden.

And the red version of them.

This one is pretty too, reminds me a bit of honey suckle but it's not, in fact we don't get too much honey suckle here at all which is weird but when we do get it, you can smell it a mile away, I love that smell.

This one was actually taken up in the mountains a month later but still pretty.

And that was just a bit of the color we experience here, I really need to take more next year to show it to you better and of course I need to take a decent camera with too.

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St Paddy's Day Parade !!! Representing for Gavin & Gigi in Ireland !!!

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We had never been to the St Paddy's Day Parade in the city so were excited to go, we had heard it was huge which of course it was, there were hundreds of people there all dressed up in the traditional green and all but the parade was super, super long, not sure we will go again because of that, or if we do, we will be way more prepared, will have chairs, and blankets if it gets cold and refreshments of course.  I think the only way we will go again is if Gavin and Gigi are still in Ireland next year at the same time, then just maybe we will go represent for them, one last time.

This is the girls dressed up before we left the house ...

Jade looks so grown up doesn't she ... she really is becoming a young lady way faster than we thought it would all happen.

One of the random groups coming by.

We thought these guys were funny but Amber wanted nothing to do with them, just another one of her crazy fears, she is not hugely into any sort of characters at the moment, on the TV yes but in real life, nope ... as long as they keep their distance she is ok.

Gavin, I totally forgot about this :-( it would have been so cool, you can take a tour of Charlotte while you cycle this trolley with a group of people, drinking of course LOL ... oh I so wish I remembered this, although it would have been hot, hot, hot !!!  Next time right ?

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Been forever since I posted last ... not sure if I will ever catch up !!!

Gosh the last time I posted was in March, can you believe that ... for those that follow my family on here, I am sorry but really I just don't get much time to sit down and compose much anymore, life is just too busy so for me to try and catch up here, well that would take too long but I am also trying to keep pictures posted here that if anything ever happened to my computer and we had not backed up that at least my girls will be able to pull some pictures from here, even though I only started blogging in 2007 and I don't think my good old website that I used to do even exists anymore but still ... something is better than nothing.  It is such a sad state of affairs to me that I don't have hardly any pictures from my childhood to look back on :-( so just trying to avoid that ever happening to my girls.

I am going to start posting a lot of pictures, most might be pictures you have already seen but as I explained in the paragraph above it's mainly a back up for me too ... they won't have all the detail I usually post monthly or at least more often but at least the pictures will be here for them and hopefully their memories are still good and they can remember what was going on at the time the shot was taken.

Anyway ... first things first and this seems so old now but here is the video that I am sure you have all seen by now, the one of Jade doing The Cup Song which she still does all the time, she looks forward to showing all the South African family in December ...

This took forever to video as you can imagine, every time she messed up we had to do a redo ... but thankfully it eventually got done.  I love this song, Amber and I know all the words too but I am so uncoordinated, it's too funny to watch me try and do this ... the kids think it's hilarious !!!

Ok one post down ... many to go, hang in there.