Digital Project Life - best app purchase ever!!

I've been using Blurb for years to turn my blog posts into scrapbook for the girls.  After each birthday, I download the posts pertaining to them and rearrange where needed and then print the book.  I LOVE how they turn out.  Well I had gotten a little behind and just finished Caitlin's 10 turning 11 book and went to order and saw a message that they no longer support Blog to Book options.  So I would have to start doing it manually.  Ugg, I didn't really want to do that so I started looking for other options.  I tried 4 or 5 to see how they created the book and none were that great.  Plus, I still really wanted the book to match the others I have.

One I saw was a Digital Project Life app.  It got good reviews and seemed easy but who wants to create pages on their iphone or ipad?  So I delayed.  I finally spent the $2.99 yesterday and tried it.  OMG, it is so easy and quick and makes the cutest pages!!

Yesterday I did 15 pages, all while at lunch or watching TV at night.  It was SO easy!!

They have all these templates and you just click a square to add a picture or a filler and some text and you're done.  It comes pre loaded with lots of templates, fonts, kits, etc.  Or you can buy extra kits, templates and fonts too.  It's the bomb!  Best part is I can still use these pages and print it as a book with Blurb!

Here's some pages I made yesterday.

Best Mail

I received some cute mail over the weekend.  What a sweetie!!



New Glasses

Caitlin's school did some free vision checks and one of her eyes "failed", even with glasses on.  Of course, that's probably because she is bad about wearing her glasses.

She claims that if she got to pick frames she actually liked this wouldn't happen.  So we agreed to get her eyes checked and let her upgrade her frames.

These are what she picked (they look very similar to what she had, just a little bigger shape).  But she loves them and I haven't had to tell her once to put her glasses on.

Medal

Last night at gymnastics, towards the end of class, I noticed that Alaina wasn't doing what she was supposed to.  She was just sitting pouting.  I went to go talk to her and asked her what was wrong.  She started crying.  One of the girls in her class had gotten a medal during class for completing a hard task.  Alaina was upset because she wanted a medal too.  I asked her what she needed to do to earn one and she didn't know.  Her coach asked if she was okay and I told her what was going on.  She said that the next station she was supposed to do was a medal station.  If she could do a pullover, unassisted, she would get to ring the bell and would get a medal.  (When anyone performs a hard task by themselves, they get to ring the bell)  Alaina was DETERMINED to get that pullover.  She had never done it by herself before and it looked tough.  But she listened to her coach and she FINALLY did it by herself.  She got to ring the bell and she got her medal!

And if you're wondering what a pullover is, click here.

Birthday Party

Alaina was so excited to go to a birthday party for one of her friends at school.  And it was at her gymnastics place, so it was even better!

These are all kids from her Kindergarten class.

Waxing

Caitlin has been complaining about her "unibrow" for a while.  She's asked me to pluck them and I usually just end up pinching her a million times with the tweezers.  So we agreed to let her get them waxed and shaped by someone who knew what they were doing.  She couldn't wait!!

Before:

After:

Eyebrows on fleek - per Caitlin!

And here's the video - she was so nervous it was going to hurt.

First Costume Fitting

Yesterday at rehearsal, Caitlin got to try on her costume for the first time, with her crinoline and boots.  She looked SO cute!  And she is so glad she didn't live in the 1800s!

Report cards

Alaina got all good marks on her report card!  She loves being able to read things now.

Caitlin's report card was good considering what her grades were 4 weeks ago.  We have to hound her to keep up with everything.  I feel like I'm back in middle school!

Tom Sawyer performances

Here are the dates for the performances of Tom Sawyer that Caitlin will be in:

Friday, April 8  9:30am

Saturday, April 9  7:30pm

Friday, April 15  7:30pm

Saturday, April 23  7:30pm

 

Click here for more information!

The little actress

This girl has made us all SO busy lately!  Rehearsals 4 nights a week will do that.  She is loving this play so much.  She's already made some new friends and is learning even more how a staged show is performed.  I love the theater where this one is done.  It's part of a church and the people are all so nice.  They say a prayer before every rehearsal and it's just 5 minutes down the road.  It is the PERFECT situation!

And yesterday Caitlin found out that she made a lead in the Spring Middle School play as well.  She starts those rehearsals today.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Gymnastics

Alaina is LOVING gymnastics.  Every Tuesday when I get home from work, she runs out to the garage all dressed in her running gear (she hates the leotards because of the wedgies HA).  We even practice at home.  She has a little mat that she practices her cartwheel and hand stands on.  And we make a game out of how long she can hold a handstand against a wall.  So far, she's up to 45 seconds.

Last night she did a back handspring for the first time and for the first time didn't look like a beginner!

And here she is on the high bar - one of her favorites.



Selfie girl

This one loves to steal my phone and take selfies of herself.



Emma

Caitlin and I at the Emma play.  Caitlin will be in the next play at this theater!

Some good news, though

Yesterday, we did hear back about the play Caitlin auditioned for.  This is the email I received:

Caitlin, 

Thank you for coming to audition for Springhouse Theatre's production of Mark Twain Presents: the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I am pleased to offer you a non speaking role and the understudy for Becky Thatcher & Mary Sawyer. 

Because of the strong turn out for these auditions I am going to double cast this role in the play (and many others roles as well). Your Cast will be performing the evening show(s) on the 8th, 16th, 22nd, and the 3:30 performance on the 24th. The decision to double cast will also require some adjustment to the rehearsal schedule you were shown at auditions. Your rehearsal requirements will not be any heavier than you saw, but we will probably need to work in a couple of different days to accommodate two casts. 

Please respond to this email indicating if you will accept this role, and I look forward to working with you.

Caitlin wasn't as thrilled as I was.  She only saw the "non speaking role" part.  I asked her how many girls tried out for the female teen roles.  She said probably about 50.  Once I pointed out that with the double casting, 4 girls were cast above her for Becky and Mary and that she came in 5th out of 50 girls, when she was one of the youngest that tried out (and not even a teen), she felt a little better.  For her 1st community theater audition, I think she did amazing!  She was even joking about how to take out one of the leads so she can take over.  She kids, she kids!!

Sad news

Yesterday, Caitlin had a hard day.  She found her beloved Percy dead and was heartbroken.  She went to school in tears and was sad all day.  Because school was 2 hours late, I was already at work when she found him.  All I could do was talk to her on the phone and cry a little with her and tell her I loved her.

After school, Rusty took her to get ice cream and helped her through her grief.  He even buried Percy in the backyard.  When I got home, I laid with her on her bed and we cried a little.  I sure do love that girl.  I can't stand to see her sad!!

Audition

On Jan 30, Caitlin had an audition for Adventures of Tom Sawyer at a local theater group.  She was auditioning for 1 of 3 teen female roles.  At auditions, there were a ton of girls there and Caitlin looked SO young compared to them.  Last Tuesday, I got an email that she got a callback.  They wanted her to come back and read again.  This is her text to me while she was waiting to read. They had her only read for the part of Becky, the lead girl. No matter what happens, I am so proud of her.  She is fearlessly going after what makes her happy!

Another one bites the dust

Alaina came home from school yesterday with a surprise.  She had pulled another tooth at school.  This one was only a little loose so she must have worked on it all day to get it to come out.  So in 7 days, she has lost two teeth and Caitlin has lost one.  Tooth Fairy is going broke!

Gymnastics

Alaina had been asking to do gymnastics for quite a while so I finally did some research and signed her up for a free trial.  She absolutely LOVED it!!

Saturday

Saturday we went to see Matilda.  It was so so cute!  It is now Caitlin's favorite musical ever.  And she is even more decided that she will be doing musicals one day as her career.

Also, on the way to the musical, she was eating some chewy candy and a tooth (that was NOT loose) came out!