Pump it Up and Emily's Friends

Here is Emily with Chiara. She had her birthday party tonight at Pump it Up. Her 6th birthday is in July but she wanted to have her party with her friends from Kindergarten. We got her a necklace making craft kit.

Here is Emily Nelli with Emily Machado. We will miss Emily Machado. Her family is moving to California next week.

Here is Emily with Maci Flanagan. Maci is having her birthday party at the pool tomorrow.

And, here is Emily with her very best friend, Rebecca Juranek.

Lia had fun too!

(Emily is dictating again - she talks and I type....)

We went to Chiara's birthday party. We took lots of pictures. I love it! At the end, we took pictures with my friends. When we were leaving, we saw all the lights going around, like blinking. They were like crazy lights. I liked playing with Rebecca J. I lost my balloon.

(me again)

When we were leaving Pump it Up, we walked by one of the party rooms and they had the light off with strobe lighting... it was pretty cool. By the way, Chris took David to a baseball game at Rice tonight. I am guessing they had a lot of fun. Chris took Emily to the baseball stadium on Saturday night. She got a blue snow cone and I think David wanted to get one too... the baseball game may be the next best thing to that.

More later!

Emily and Lia in the Swing

On Saturday morning, we went to the rec center to renew our pool passes. We are all very excited about going to the pools this summer. Bear Branch park is right next to the rec center so we were able to play for a while before heading home for lunch.

(Now I am typing while Emily dictates...)

Emily and Lia were going to the swing sets and Lia is on Emily's lap. Emily wants to put this picture in her room. And I think Lia knows what a swing is.

(Me again)

Lia will walk cross country to swing on the swings. It is her favorite thing to do!

Random Rocking Fish

Some days when we go to the YMCA, this silly rocking fish is out by the entrance. It is usually kept in the daycare playground... but occasionally it is removed. If you look carefully, you can see the day care kids on the other side of the fence. I am guessing they must fight over it and eventually the fish gets kicked off the playground. Regardless, my kids love to see it in their path! They fight over it too... but we just take turns. Each one gets 10 rocks. It is good counting practice.

Budding Artist?

The Neunuebel family passed along this easel to us. It has a chalk board on one side and a marker board on the other. David and Emily have been using it non-stop and little Lia has been watching. She finally got a turn the other day. Big girl!

David's Last Day of School

David's last day of school was Thursday, May 28th. His class was treated to pizza and got to watch the movie Toy Story. I think he was really excited for me to join him for lunch... I was the only Mom who showed up! He really enjoyed school and loved his teachers. Ms. Kristen and Ms. Thelma are awesome!

Reading in Mommy and Daddy's Room

We usually read books after lunch... It is a big privilege to read books in Mommy and Daddy's room. David is reading from the Children's Book of Virtues. He loves the story about the Frog and the Snake, the "Please Monster" story, and the one about the Girl who wanted to touch the stars. I am very pleased with how far he has come in his ability to listen to longer more advanced stories. Little Lia now gets very excited about books. Her favorites are Frieght Train, Tumble Bumble, and Goodnight Moon. If you look carefully, you'll see she's got Tumble Bumble upside down. ;-) But she is certainly reading - just like big brother. If Nana is reading, Lia is wearing the sweet little navy polka dot outfit you sent... it fits better now. She is growing!

Updates - Camera, swim lessons, washer problems, lia and her shoes, lunch date

My camera arrived... yeah!!!! But no pictures to post yet as we figure out how it works, load the new software, etc... I was able to load the batteries and the wussy 32 mb card that came with the camera and took some pictures. I love the 2.5" display on the back. It is a Canon Powershot A470 discontinued from last year (so we got a good price). It has 7.1 mega pixels and all the bells and whistles of our previous canon cameras. This is our 3rd camera since we met. I think we got the first in '98-'99. Anyway, Chris made some interesting observations about the cameras we have owned over the years.

1. The price has gotten lower as the cameras have gotten better! I like this trend.
2. The cameras (and the box they come in) have gotten smaller and smaller.
3. The memory cards have also gotten incredibly cheaper and can store more than ever! My new camera uses a SDHC card... vs the flash card we were using before. I got a 4GB card for $15 at Walmart. Amazing. I think it will hold over 1000 pictures and lots of video. I am very excited about it.

Emily finished up her first round of swim lessons - the may session - and she is doing really well swimming on her own. We are starting up another session in June to build her confidence and ensure she can save herself if she falls in... ;-) Mom needs to be freed up to ensure the smaller ones don't drown this summer - I expect this to be challenging.

Apparently, every holiday weekend one of my appliances is going to break. My clothes washer broke on Sunday... With small children, and the scent of urine... you can bet my clothes washer is very important to me. I was able to get it fixed on Tuesday... for the bargain price of $200... sigh. But we are back in business and things don't smell.

Random thought - Lia really likes her shoes. I mean like a love affair. It is really something with her. In the morning, you can say, "Lia, go get your shoes." She will happily run to the laundry room and ferret out her pair from the big pile and bring them to you. She will not be happy until you put them on her feet and will hold them up to you until you comply with her sweet little grunting noises. You do not take her shoes off at any point during the day or she has a tantrum. Yes, a foot stomping tantrum. The tantrum stops when you put them back on. The pair she is in now are Emily's first pair of sandals. She likes the chinese slippers her Daddy gave her (they were Emily's but we don't tell her that) and proudly wore them around the house pointing to them all morning... but at some point she took them off and found her sandals and wanted them put on. Slippers aren't real shoes you know. At night, she will take off her shoes for bath. I try to distract her when she wants to put them back on since she is clean. She seems okay with this as long as shoes go back on in the morning. Funny isn't it?

On Tuesdays, there is a band that plays at the Waterway fountains (11-1) and there is supposed to be a different lunch venue providing the food each week. I had read that America's would provide the food so I planned to meet Chris there for lunch. We went to America's for our anniversary - it is fabulous. He can walk from his office... it is very close. The band was playing when we got there but America's was not there. Chick-fil-a was. I am not a snob, we eat at chick-fil-a plenty with the kids. But when you are expecting America's and are presented with chick-fil-a you just can't help feeling a little let down. The demographics of the crowd were about 95% Moms with their small children so I am guessing America's didn't want to waste the effort when chic-fil-a pleases this crowd just fine. We decided to try this new sandwich place called 'Wich 'Wich? - cute name - and we could walk to it -even better. We shared an Italian grinder and it was very good. I indulged in a chocolate milkshake and was quite happy. So was Lia - she is quite the little eater.

Memorial Day Weekend

We joined some friends at their campsite on Saturday. I love to be outdoors with my family but have no desire to camp in a tent... so the opportunity to hang out all day on Saturday with the Harville's was a nice way to appreciate the great outdoors. Cagle, is a 30 minute drive from The Woodlands and is situated in the Sam Houston State Forest. This was our second year to join them for the day. We arrived around noon and stayed till 9:00. The kids enjoyed playing in the tent (such the novelty!) and the grownups got to chat and play a few rounds of a domino game called chicken foot. I got stuck with the double blank and 50 points so I came in dead last. Oh well - still fun. I would have liked to go on a nature walk but we didn't manage to do that... so maybe next year. We had smoked brisket and ribs for dinner and left with full bellies. A full day.

Emily had a birthday party to attend after church today. Her friend Maci turned 6 and invited us to a pool party. Unfortunately, some random storms came through with thunder and they had to cancel to party. To make it up to the kids I spread out some craft paper on the kitchen table and let the kids finger paint. Too bad I don't have a camera b/c Emily and David's style of finger painting was radically different. I will attempt to explain:

The kids were given an area to finger paint and 6 colors squirted on the table for them to work with. Yes, I made it a lesson of primary and secondary colors - we had red, yellow blue, and orange, green, purple. Anyway... Emily assigned one finger to each color so she wouldn't contaminate the paint source. The four free fingers were used to mix colors and she made a very interesting creation of colored finger prints on her side.

David's technique was quite a bit different... David took his whole hand and mixed all the colors together... Again a good lesson. This makes brown. Then, he made brown hand prints all over his side.

Aren't they funny.

No camera... excuse not to update?

My camera broke and I ordered a new one but it hasn't come yet... that is why I haven't been blogging. This is silly because I feel it is very theraputic to blog. So let me update:

Let's start with what David is doing:
David starts his day talking and asking questions... and keeps talking and asking more questions till bedtime! He seems like he is on fire to learn as much as he can and I love that! I got a new educational toy called Wikki Stix... I got sucked into the Lakeshore Learning store and wanted to buy everything I saw... I limited myself though and got what I went there for - dry erase markers, chalk, and one inexpensive learning toy (yes that was impulse) and then I made a wish list for the other stuff I wanted. Anyway, Wikki Stix are like sticky pipe cleaners. They come with connect the dot cards so your child can form shapes by connecting the dots... David needed a bit of help but got the hang of it pretty quickly. Then he started saying lots of profound things (for a 3 year old) about how a shape changes when it is turned upside down or sideways... For example, he said when you turn the "rainbow" upside down it makes a "U" and if you turn it again, it looks like a "C". Or if you turn an "E" sideways, it kind of looks like an "M" and turn it again, it looks like a "W". I must say I was impressed.

David loves this game he plays with his Daddy... Emily plays and loves it too. They call it "Daddy Airplane" and they play it on our bed. They decide where they are going to go... like China... and they go through this long routine about getting the plane ready and they all get on Daddy's back and of course there is take off and turbulance... the works. I've got to get a video of it. The kids usually do about 3 rounds of this every night after dinner. I think it is the highlight of their day.

We went to Kid's preschool fitness at the YMCA today too. I forget how much fun it is. David is the perfect age for it now. The 30 minute class is just jam packed with games where the kids run around, they get to use props like scarves, bouncy balls, and beanie baby animals, there is story time, and often a nutrition lesson. Ms. Linda read the Lazy Ladybug today and I need to get it from the library to read again - note to self!

Gotta go get Emily. More later!

Travis's First Communion

Last weekend, Saturday May 2nd, we were blessed to see Travis receive his first communion. It is hard to believe he is 8 years old. Here we are after mass with him.

Emily spent the morning decorating his present. It says Travis, Happy 1st Communion. While I was getting the little ones ready, she drew the rainbow, Jesus on the cross, John the Baptist and his mother Mary... then she added the chalice and the host in honor of Travis's 1st Communion. Well done!

Our gift to him, The Caterpillar that came to Church. Great book!

The QU Wedding

Earlier in April, the Kindergarten classes held a Q and U wedding ceremony. Apparently, the concept of Q and U sticking together has been a tough one for the 5 year old set to grasp... hence the wedding ceremony to really help them remember. Formal invitations were sent out to the parents and rsvp's were returned for the big date. The boys were the Q's and the girl's were the U's and each pair actually processed down the aisle to be joined in matrimony. The girls had veils and corsages and the boys wore bow ties. There are more girls than boys at St. Anthony's... so a few lucky boy Q's got to process down the aisle with 2 girl U's! There was an opening prayer, singing, and instead of a vow exchange... the boys and the girls exchanged Qu words written on slips of paper. So cute! And of course, there was a reception to follow with wedding cake and dancing.