Sweet Girl

I just walked in Amelia's room (it's about 7:30 a.m. on Friday) and Amelia was just quietly laying there.  I went and layed down by her and asked her what she was thinking about.  She said, "I was just talking to Grandma."  I asked her what she was talking about and she said, "Oh, I had two questions for her.  What is her house made of?  Like is it chocolate? and I was wondering if she wanted to come get her nails done with me and Olivia today."

Drama Camp

I've spent a busy week before school starts Monday teaching drama camp to 4-12 year olds.  Since that is a HUGE age difference, I try to enlighten the older kids in the group while keeping the 4 year olds from getting paint on the walls while running around the room backwards.  So, I happened to mention famous poets and playwrites of all time to all three of them that I THOUGHT were listening.  However, I found out last night, that maybe more of them are HEARING, but not quite UNDERSTANDING this former 9th grade drama teacher. 

This was the conversation that happened on the way to gymnastics last night:

Mikayla:  So Mom, who is this Jake Spears?
Me: Jake Spears, what in the world are you talking about?
Mikayla: You know, Jake Spears, that you talked about in drama.
Me: SHAKESPEARE????
Mikayla: Yes, Jake Spears.
Amelia: Mikayla, Mom was talking about Jake Spears, who is Brittney Spears brother.
Me: GIRLS, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT ANYONE NAMED JAKE SPEARES, WHO IS NOT EVEN A REAL PERSON.  I'M TALKING ABOUT SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.  (I then proceeded with a lengthy lesson on the fabulousness of Shakespeare from the front seat of my car that I won't bore you with here and probably went right over my girls' heads, but it ended with a synopsis of Romeo and Juliet.)
Amelia: I get it!!!  So this Shake Speares is friends with Taylor Swift and they write about Romeo and Juliet together.

I give up....

Wish me luck teaching drama camp tomorrow!!!!

Learnin' in South Carolina

As all ten of you that are invited to read my blog know, my girls are one year apart in school.  When I used to blog regularly, there was something that bothered me so much one day when Amelia brought home her first grade reading book.  Then, I stopped blogging and didn't think about it again...until this last year when Mikayla was in first grade and came home with the same story in her reading book. 

It reminded me that I really wanted to blog about it back then, so I'll do it now!

Most children here know NOTHING about the Western part of the United States.  I would even dare say that most will never even visit the west in their lifetime...so when I saw how it was depicted in their first grade reading book, I was shocked!  Amelia had already PROUDLY announced to the class that she is FROM Utah, even though she only lived there until three days after her second birthday.  Well, the kids remembered that, and had LOTS of questions for her when this reading came up:

So now it's official:  every kid in Indian Land, SC (ironic name, I know) officially believes that everyone in New Mexico and Utah lives in clay homes and hogons.  And the craziest part about it is that my dear grandparents have a hogon much like this in front of their Red Canyon Indian Store (for fun), so Amelia got confused by it all and finally just told them that yes, they do indeed have hogons in Utah, and yes, people live in them.

I don't know why I don' t have a picture of it, but when they showed Las Vegas, it was a picture of a pink trailer with a hot pink flamingo in the front yard.  However, when they showed homes in the South, they were beautiful colonial homes...too funny.

Fish out of Water

Isn't it great when your kids pick up on a sport that the parents didn't participate in?  I think swim team is fabulous for the Marsh fam.  The girls are great and get better and better....but do you know what I like best????

When a random dad from the team catches the girls with SMILES like this!!!!

2010? What happened to 2009?

Okay y'all, I had every intention of keeping up on this thing, and then something got in the way...life!  Anyhow, I'm ready to update!  Are y'all ready for some Marsh Ramblings?

January 2010

Nothing exciting ever happens in January!  We flew back from Utah on New Year's Eve after watching my dearest little brother get married to perhaps the awesomest girl alive, so we couldn't even get mad that we had just flown the four of us there four months before for his homecoming.

And Amelia did turn 8 1/2....and when you have a summer birthday, that's kind of a big deal at school.

February 2010

The Marsh girls were ready to rock the night away at the big elementary school family dance.  They picked out their outfits and were ready to DANCE!  However, as soon as they saw their BFF's, the mom and dad were forgotten, and there was no "family dance" about it.

                                                                                

 March 2010

My dancers are making the BIG TIME....they audtioned for the talent show and MADE IT!  I forgot to take photos, but here are a couple of the girls I grabbed after the fact.

Okay, so I have no BFF's in SC, like I did these gals in ATL.  This was Jen's going away party...they are leaving the ATL for Amish country, PA.

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Toga Party for 8 year olds????

Of course not!  This is Thinking Day, and Troop 42 is presenting GREECE to y'all!  OPA!!!!

And seriously, the month wouldn't be complete if I didn't add the fact that I am able to accompany every field trip this year, since I moved all the dance classes to Tuesday nights, instead of a couple on Friday mornings.  This was the Columbia trip to Edventures....and it was totally Fab...just look at Mik's pose, and you know it's true! 

April 2010

The FAMILY photo!  

And yes, I did say "FAMILY."  Dave was so good at the Easter Bunny last year as the substitute, that it is forever his job....and who better to calm those kids who are scared to death???  And this year we surprised the stunned audience with a rendition of the Bunny Hop...the likes which had never been seen.

The Brownie troop was featured in the Fort Mill Times with this sunny/shady fabulous photo.

SPRING BREAK in CANCUN, baby.

The Mayan ruins were super cool   And here's to child #1 for tossing her cookies in the bus on the way there but still having a fabulous time!

Has it really been 17 years since I met this man.  Am I really that old?  We are celebrating 14 years in August...rock on!!!!

And Child #2 is just like her mom...sun and a good book, and life is good!

Mia made it all the way to Cancun when the girls were admonished to not bring any expensive items to Mexico...she was a stow-away in the luggage.

Jet ski fun on the Pacific...Mik was afraid, but was a trooper.

Marsh girls were FIRST on the dance floor....TANGO, baby.

Mikayla is 7, Baby!!!

7 years old, and a super cool pirate girl party with 16 friends.

And a super cool mom and dad....who can figure out how to do a "girly" pirate party when asked.

And when my dancers were invited to perform at the spring festival, I did not know they meant on the back of a TRUCK.  I just couldn't do it...and we settled for the road...even in Indian Land.

Giraffes Don't Dance...and Amelia's 2nd grade class is ready to rock that fact.

And Nancy IS Fancy in this 1st grade class...especially with the castle that you can't see in the background, but took lots of time on this mom's end...and very good driving skills for the dad involved who had to figure out how to transport it all.

This mom loved it when all my 1st grader really wanted to do was camp for her birthday...so we met the friends from Georgia half way and did just that...tornado warnings, down pours and all!

And the moms survived it all...maybe thanks to the stuff in the background....or maybe it was the circa 1990 sweatshirt I was wearing...who knows?

K and A are braving the rain, mud, and craziness of it all!

Or maybe it was preparing these girls for the beauty of UNPREDICTABILITY!!!! 

May 2010

And May brings dance recitals....and all that this new adventure brings!  Thank goodness for my mom and for 33 sweet girls that made the recital a GREAT success!

And this is me...pumping up my 33 dancers before the SHOW!  We're small, but oh, we're good!

And would any 1st grade school year really be complete without "CAREER DAY"?  M wants to be a make-up artist when she grows up, and so this mom had to be the person that the make up was put on.

And thank goodness for good friends that keep kids over long weekends so the parents can go to Charleston and party it up (on behalf of Tammy's birthday) with Dave's buddies since he was 10.

June 2010

And the Marsh girls are tearing it up in the pool...EAT MY BUBBLES!!!!!

And let's bring on the 2nd half...and hopefully a better blogging effort on this mom's part!

Back at it...

Has it really been almost a year? This is the problem: I'm so behind at this point, that I feel like I have to go back and document EVERYTHING, which is impossible....SO I'm going to start right now and keep this as the little journal it was intended to be and hope for the best.

Also...I set my security settings to private and I only invited ten people to read it and now I don't even remember how to change it...

So here's to the best of 2009 in photos: (and apparently I don't know how to arrange photos, so they are in reverse order:

December: My little brother's wedding--it was nice to be back in Utah and it was nice to be reminded of those vows Dave and I took 13 1/2 years ago. When Josh's new wife's dad spoke at their dinner, it took me back all those years ago because we were so much the same...no money, "college jobs" and full time students...but we were in love...and we made it work. It was a great time!

November: Doug's wedding...a great time with friends and one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I've ever had...not the food, but the people and the feelings of thankfulness.

October: I HATE for warm temperatures to go away, but we had a lot of great family time. My little dance studio is rockin'. This photo is of my jazz/hip hop class. I also teach ballet, and pre-ballet.

September: Okay, so cheerleading was fun, but do you know what was REALLY fun??? When we found out some of our games were on Tuesday nights (which is the night I teach dance) and no other mom would step in, so guess who did???? That's right...Dave did. My dear sweet, manly, hates everything girly, husband did. I love that guy.

(oops, just deleted the photo...and it's not on my laptop...I'll replace later)

August: Two photos...the first one...well, summer isn't summer without camping.

The second photo: My little brother is home from his mission (and yes, he is that tall...6"6' or so). We were so happy to be there for him. You know how you take those "mind photos" of things you never want to forget???? Well, Josh coming down the escalator after serving for two years on his mission is a mind photo I'll never forget.

July: Our Sweet Girl turned eight! We celebrated with a party at the ice skating rink....and most importantly, she found a sport that she is seriously good at...watch out Michael Phelps!

June: Edisto Island, Baby! Who know SC had so much to offer??? We met the Georgia friends, plus two nannies and vacationed for a week in a beach house....fabulous!

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May: My sweet Daisies all bridged to Brownies...and school is almost out!

April: I loved the fact that when the Easter Bunny wasn't able to make it, Dave stepped in...so this is actually a family photo.

March: Georgia friends who will drive the 4 hours to see us...and nicknamed our house "Fort Marsh" because we never needed to put on make up, go out, or even shower! We were too busy catching up and hanging out.

February: My little Daisy troop is going strong! We have a great group of girls and are meeting great friends.

January: The Utes rollin' over the Tide (but it was nice to be back in Georgia.) Funny to write that now seeing where Alabama just ended up, BUT Utah DID beat them last year.