Preschool Graduation 2011

She graduated from her first year of preschool. She actually was supposed to be in the class a year younger but her wonderful teacher allowed us to put her into the kindergarten ready year. Now you may ask why would we put her in that class. Well it all came down to her speech issues. She needed as much exposure to sounds and words as possible and the kindergarten year focuses more on that. Being her mom she really didn't want to work with me. But in Talking time (where she focused solely on speech) the said she was probably their most improved. She is so much clearer and I thank her preschool teacher as well as her talking time therapists for that. She has grown so much and I am so proud of her. She can count to 30 on her own minus 1 or 2 numbers, knows her alphabet, writes her own name, knows colors and shapes, some Chinese, and even recognizes some sight words.

My daughter and her teacher!

For Graduation they did "The Little Red Hen" and she was a Steel Eyed Fox. She rocked it!

Last and only time she got to have a class in school with her best friend next door.

And Last but not least the play they put on for your viewing pleasure. Condensed into songs and special highlights. It is 7 minutes long and I hope that you will find it cute as well. You can tell when she knew a song really well. She was generally the loudest. :-)

Spring Recital 2011

Guess I better get going on my blogging and try to catch up before preschool and dance starts again. To be honest this was not my favorite recital but as always she is my favorite dancer. They did more hip hop this year and the moves were almost the same in both numbers that it seemed to lack originality. Where there were definitely better dance numbers among the other classes. The people who came were her Grandma and our neighbor's family and a good friend of ours. And of coarse mommy, daddy, and her brother. She did great. She was a little obsessed with her shoes but that made me laugh. Oh and my husband thought it would be great to try and record stuff with his phone and our camera so we apologize that the quality is not up to standard. He has promised not to do that again. Hope you enjoy the pictures and video!

Our little dancer so proud of her flowers. Grandma and Grandpa got her the yellow rose bouquet and Mommy and Daddy got the single red rose. She was so happy to have her own flowers.

hip hop baby recital (very focused on the ties of her ballet shoes)

Hip hop baby rehearsal

Chickadee recital (husband trying to get phone camera to record causes a slight break in viewing pleasure)

Chickadee Rehearsal

Finale walk through no music

Finale recital with music (she rocked it)

How you know that you are getting older!

These are the moments you start to realize that you are getting older and dare I say old. We went to my oldest nieces High School Graduation. It was crazy. I still remember this girl as a baby. She is still as beautiful as she was then. It just doesn't seem right though that I am old enough to have a niece graduated from High School. And another one next year as well.

Here is my daughter and son waiting for graduation to begin.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures.

Happy Mother's Day

Ok A Lot behind this time. My excuse is I really had no desire to sit while my ankle healed. I wanted to find any excuse to get up I could and not find things to do while I was down. I learned from that experience that there are a lot of things we take for granted that one tiny brake can remind you how much we can't do if we hurt ourselves. I wont go into details just know that is something I learned. While I was down and out for the count and trying to not get too depressed about it Mother's Day came and went. But not without much love shown to me. My husband made dinner and it was excellent. He also got me some roses to let me know that I was loved and cheer me up. My daughter at preschool made me a plate with a hand print and a cute little book. I felt very loved.

This book made me smile. They answered questions and the teacher filled in what they said.

Here she answered with my name. My mommy is......

I guess while being stuck on the couch sleep was the best thing she could come up with. It's true I do love sleep but was surprised to see this. I asked her about it and she said that she likes to take naps and sleep with me. Well that melted my heart and really who can argue that.

My mommy makes dinner for me. She makes everything I want to eat. It is good that she sees it that way. Makes making dinner much easier.

My mommies hair is brown and her eyes are brown. I was actually surprised that she knew this. Not for any reason other than with all the things she does and notices it touched my heart to realize that she knew what color my eyes were.

My mommy and me. May I always do enough that she will be able to draw pictures of us smiling together. I love her. It is nice to know that she loves me too when she is away from me.

Just a little thought. I am grateful to the Mothers in my life. First to my Mom who loved me and cared for me as a child.

A mother that was there for me for everything I performed in, church activities for mother and daughter she never missed, and to talk to me when I needed a mom to talk to. Some of these things may seem redundant but for a girl without a mom it was hard to go places where others had their moms. You appreciated the wonderful women that stepped in but they never could replace your mom. I hope to be half the mom my mom was.

To my sisters and sister in law who is as close to me as any sister. When we need some mom advice we turn to each other to feel a little of her spirit still.

To my dear Mother in Law who is the only other woman in my life I have called Mom. She loves her children whether they are her own from birth or married to her sons. She has been someone to whom I can trust to love her grandchildren and protect them if needed. She supports us and reminds me regularly that I am her daughter too.

I am blessed to have these women in my life and I wouldn't trade them for the world. Happy Mother's Day!

Sidewalk Art Festival

So we went to a sidewalk art festival close to where we live earlier this year. I was impressed with the detail that I saw in the artwork. There were people there still drawing and finishing up their work. It was nice to see how people start their work and see the process behind the artwork.

This picture is so good that when I cropped out the sidewalk it is almost hard to tell that it was done on the sidewalk.

Some Artists working on their masterpieces.

Ok I thought this one was cute!

My little girl is a fan of "Hello Kitty" these days. Here she is getting her face painted.

Aren't they 2 cute kids!

I was surprised that this was the only 3D picture we found there. I think it also turned out better in the picture than real life but pretty impressive all the same.

The featured Artist of the show

Checking out the Art work

This reminded me of my niece who is quite the artist herself. I have watched her draw dragons for years now and curious to see what she could do on sidewalk with some chalk. Maybe a new challenge for her.

I am impressed but the detail and also the thought behind this one. As a mom you never can take your eyes off of your children. You watch them grow and they always seem little. You never want to see them hurt or sad. You always want to see them happy even when there are times telling them no is the best thing for them. It breaks your heart to know that for their own good you have to tell them no. But it would break your heart more if you did and they had to learn the lesson later under harder circumstances. SO ya this is what comes to my mind looking at this picture.

This is cool because you get to see what the goal is and the outline as well as the detail that is already starting to show up.

Contemplative

We saw minions and couldn't help get a picture of our little minion. Whenever we watch "Despicable Me" and he hears the Minions laugh he does the exact same laugh. It is cute.

After taking a picture of her brother and seeing "Tangled" she had to have her picture too.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

We saw this picture and thought of a Sister in Law who is a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn.

Finding Nemo

Ballerina Dancer

Getting their turn to draw on the sidewalk. There was a section just for them to do this.

He found a rock but that is his finished drawing on the sidewalk.

When it was all over we went to a Hawaiian Barbecue place for dinner. SO YUMMY!

Having Fun!!!