Birthday Celebration and Easter Festivities

With Reed being in Taiwan and Shanghai for Ms A's fifth birthday, we decided to celebrate it a bit earlier. We went shopping for ideas a couple weeks before and the only thing Ms A wanted was a pair of roller skates. I told her she needed to learn how to skip (I figured it would help her with her balance and coordination) and then mommy and daddy would think about it. She practiced quite a bit with the skipping those two weeks with her end goal in mind. As a special bonus, Aunt S and her children came up for Easter. She was SO EXCITED to spend the weekend with her cousins! I love her expressions as she opened the present up and saw her skates!

Happy FIFTH Birthday my SWEET PEA!!!

Our ward, church group, had a Spring Fling with an Easter Egg Hunt and other Easter games. The party was great and the weather was perfect. Ms A loved hunting for her eggs and counting them as she gathered them. She and Ms E partnered up for the Egg Toss and Egg Relays. Ms A was devastated when she missed the egg in the toss. :(

Easter Sunday was perfect. I finally got to dress up my sweet little girl in a YELLOW dress with a little white cardigan. (She always wants to wear pink and never a little sweater) Aunt Sara braided her hair and Ms A was tickled to pose for mommy and the camera.

Digging for Dinosaurs

Ms A's Preschool classes just finished a section on DINOSAURS. She was so excited to bring home her projects and tell us all about Dinosaurs. Two of her favorite activities she and her classmates completed were Dinoland and a 'rock' with a fossil in it. She was thrilled to take me on a tour of her Dinosaur land, showing me the lake for the Pteradons and the forests for T-rex all while singing the song from the Dinosaur Train.

The last day of the section Ms A brought home her rock. She wanted for her cousins to come for a visit so she could break it open with them. Here are a few pictures and a movie of Ms A's dinosaurs.

Spring Break

In celebration of Ms A's first Spring Break, Sara, Ms A and I visited my parents in exotic Idaho. ;) We had a wonderful time. Ms A and Sara were pretty excited to see the snow piled up by the high school. Ms A instigated a snowball fight with her aunts and grandma. She was giggling and having a great time.

We stopped off at my Aunt Melissa's home, which was my grandparents' home when I was younger. She has a hopscotch painted on her driveway similar to the one I used to play on as a child. I loved showing her how do it.

We colored and then had a Easter Egg hunt while we were there. Ms A was rather pleased about her egg that looked like a baby swaddled in a blanket. Searching for the eggs Grandma hid and then hiding the eggs for grandma and Aunt Sara were two of her favorite Easter activities.

The drive home was long and rainy. I was happy that Sara wanted to drive, because I'm not too comfortable driving in inclement weather for that length of time. Sara loved the view of the mountains as we drove past them, so she took a quick picture.

Pictures courtesy of Sara. Thanks!

Baby Chicks

Ms A's Preschool class has been studying chickens and Spring the past couple of weeks. Her teacher brought in some eggs for the children to watch. Last week they HATCHED!! Everyone was so EXCITED! The children loved hearing the cheep, cheep of the little chicks. Ms A talked for quite a while about how soft, small and cute they were. The highlight was holding the baby chick.

Singing in the Rain

Spring has come to our part of the world with trees, tulips, crocuses and daffodils blooming. The sun came out for a few days and lulled us into a 'false sense of security'. That all changed last night when I looked out the window and saw PEA SIZED HAIL! This morning, the sun came out and I thought we were back to the sunshine again. The weather decided to change again with pouring rain! Ms A was SO EXCITED to put on her galoshes and splashed in the puddles with a HUGE GRIN on her face! Then she started dancing and singing in the rain.

Maybe I'll have to introduce her to Gene Kelly

Dinner Tonight

I found a DELICIOUS looking dessert that I HAD to try out. It was calling my name, SERIOUSLY!! Tonight I took dinner over to a sweet friend of mine which gave me an excellent opportunity to share the treats. The Shamrocks were done in green chocolate. It took a few tries for me to finally get the right shape. I opted for whipped frosting, but I think next time I'll try cream cheese. I chose yellow to be the gold at the 'end of the rainbow' and it was! I was so impressed with the way they turned out, I ended up taking several pictures as I giggled and patted myself on the back.

We also had a favorite dish I love to make and eat. Pampered Chef's Cheesy Chicken Tortellini. We had our "St Patrick's Dinner" (not corn beef cabbage, just green food) a week early and it was delicious!

Thank you Pleasant Home for the FABULOUS treat idea!!!