Summer Fun!

Had some fun with some friends that were nice enough to invite us over for a play date. They pulled out the pool and even offered some Otter pops to help cool the kids down. They had a lot of fun.

Day Out With Thomas

So one of our trips this year was that we went to see Thomas the Train. My son LOVES Thomas. He loves the movies, pajamas, clothes, toys, everything Thomas. So since the tickets are fairly cheap as far as the tickets go for riding the train. We decided that this would be a treat for him. My daughter likes Thomas as well but was not as nearly excited as he was.

We got up to where Thomas was and my son was asleep. But not for long. When I told him to look out the window to see Thomas he woke right up. This was his face for about 10 minutes as he watched us drive by and walk by Thomas. I would say that is a better expression than when he opened presents at Christmas.

The Diesels

The Steamies

Sir Topum Hat

The Story Telling Tent. This was a little bit of a let down since the story telling was just nonstop Thomas episodes. Fun but Story telling was a little far fetched.

All Aboard!!

Getting their picture taken with their favorite Train.

All smiles once the ride was over.

An activity tent with train sets, coloring, and mega blocks
We finished the day off at Dairy Keen the Home of the Train. They got train whistles in their kids meals. The theme of the whole place is trains.

They even had a little model train running of Thomas.

All in all it was a good day!

Blog List

Still following all the same blogs just being more anonymous about it. Still love them all and read them religiously just less open about it.

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!