The Barber of Seville

Intel had a raffle for their employees the other day and Reed won tickets to the Opera to see The Barber of Seville. We decided that Ms A was old enough to attend with us. She was a little unsure about the experience until Reed showed her a short video and we talked about hearing and seeing people sing the songs from her "radio" (Reed's mix of Classical music). Since then, she's been counting the days up to her big night. The day of the Opera, Ms A was telling everyone at Preschool about her BIG night at the OPERA! When Reed came home, we dresses up and I curled Ms A's hair. She was so excited.

Here we are dressed up and awaiting our departure.

As we drove, we gave Ms A a couple of guidelines: ie whispers when the lights are turned off and hold mommy or daddy's hands when we enter the auditorium.

Ms A loved seeing all the pretty ladies dressed up. Reed took her down to see the Orchestra pit and told her about the different instruments. She was a bit shy with the musicians, but had a fun time seeing and hearing the instruments. They even had a harpsichord, which I've never seen in person. Just before we took our seats, a lady informed us that the first act was 90 minutes long. That's a LONG time to sit, but Ms A did a FABULOUS job. Reed and I took turns telling her what was going on and she remembered (for the most part) to whisper in our ears. A sweet lady sitting next to us let Ms A borrow her binoculars, which Ms A LOVED!!! She also smiled when she recognized a few of the songs.

We had a wonderful time and we were so PLEASED with the way Ms A behaved. She did a GREAT job. We did leave after the first act though, we didn't want to push our luck and it was already an hour past our little princess's bedtime. As we were leaving, Ms A turned to us and asked when she could go again! BIG SUCCESS!!!

Transportation

These past couple of weeks, Ms A's preschool has been learning about transportation. This week was pretty full. A neighbor to Ms A's teacher offered to cut and sand 50 paddle boats for all of the Preschool classes. WOW!!!! They painted and raced their boats on Wednesday. She won her race with another classmate, which she excitedly told me as soon as I picked her up. Thursday we raced the boat in her tub. (a great activity for her to do while I was getting ready, a bit wet, but great)

Friday was the day the children had been waiting for since they started learning about transportation - A BIKE RODEO. They closed off part of the parking lot at her school and let the them ride their bikes or scooters. Ms A was so excited, she asked Reed to take of her training wheels the week before so she could be a BIG kid at school. She and Reed practiced and practiced. When I came that afternoon, Reed was there holding my crying little one, apparently she went around TEN times and wanted to stop but couldn't so she fell. We were only able to get her back on her bike with the promise of putting the video and pictures on the blog so her cousins and could see her. :)

Rain is Falling All Around

We arrived home from Preschool just in time to watch a rain and hailstorm. Ms A was thrilled to play in the rain. We don't have adequate rain gear, so we improvised. Who says snow pants are only good from the snow?!?

Splashing and Singing:

The song Ms A is singing is from a My Little Pony movie.

We had fun talking about the rain cycle and what makes hail. Ms A loved stomping and splashing in the puddles, I also pointed out the ripples in the puddles. She loved "skipping" her rock across the puddles. According to Reed, you need to have a big lake or pond to 'skip' rocks, but Ms A had fun with her puddles.

Skipping Rocks

No Training Wheels

With summer quickly approaching (fingers crossed), Reed and Ms A decided it was time to take off the training wheels.
Day One


Day Two:

Mowing the Lawn

Reed has been gone the past couple of weeks doing trainings and meeting customers in Taiwan and Shanghai. While he's been seeing this:

We've been doing this:



I love how Ms A gets a RUNNING start before she mows the lawn. She was so delighted, I had to let her do it. She was closely supervised. After her turn I mowed the lawn, my first ever, (never did it as a teenager, young adult or adult.

More pictures of Reed's trip once I figure out what they are (Thank goodness for Wikipedia and hopefully some help from Reed. :) )

New Tool and Ideas

I love Ms KWerner's blog! A couple of months ago, I saw her video using Marta Stewart's Garden Trellis punch and I fell in love! I HAD to have that punch. I checked out a couple of crafts stores here, at Sara's and my mom's, but no such luck. Finally I went to Michaels (don't know why I didn't try there first) and they had one punch left. I quickly grabbed it as I checked out the other punches. It was SO HARD to reel myself in and not go off the deep end of purchasing punches. She has some fun ones. As soon as I came home, I went crazy, punching all sorts of papers and making a bunch of cards. I was in HEAVEN! Here are a couple of the cards.

Aren't they BEAUTIFUL!!
I'm going to have a hard time finding loving homes for these!!!