Snow!

A little while ago, it was so cold here that I told Skyler "If it rains, it's going to snow on the mountain!" Sure enough, a couple of days later it started raining and our nearby mountain was full of snow. We decided to head up there to play in it for an afternoon before it all melted.

Here it is, from a distance. We're about 10-15 minutes from the base of the mountain but then it takes about another 20-25 to get up to the top.

We drove up and they had the road closed about 2 miles from the top because of ice on the roads. We parked where we could and got out. Skyler was THRILLED with the amount of snow there was (trust me, it was very little!) but she didn't care. She jumped out and immediately started making snowballs to throw at me!

She was determined to sled down whatever slope we could find. She wasn't going very fast but having a blast!

Then she got the great idea (yeah, right) to walk the rest of the way to the summit of the mountain. Now this coming from the girl who can't walk down the block without asking to be held. I never thought she'd make it but we didn't have a schedule. I thought I'd just let her try and see how far we got. We could always turn around.

Here she is at the beginning of the hike. It's pretty much all up hill and the shady spots were very icy. She stopped every time there was a patch of snow to try and make a snow angel.

or to just climb in the snow

We were about 3/4 of the way up and she got thirsty. Well, I didn't bring ANYTHING with me. Hey, I didn't think we'd get a block, much less 2 miles! I had a bottle of water and snacks in the car but nothing with me. So, I told her to eat snow, only the untouched snow. Nothing that had been touched, stepped on, poked at, or peed on. That seemed to tide her over for a while. But she was determined to keep going!

Notice in this picture that the road is still clear of snow. There's ice in patches but most of the snow is still on the sides of the road.


Then we turned the corner and everything was just covered!

Then we went down our secret little sledding road that nobody really knows about and she really got some good sledding in.

After we were done sledding it was time to head back to the car before it got dark. That is when the real complaining started. She was fine with leaving, in fact I pulled her on the sled for probably 1/4 of the way. After that she CRIED . THE . ENTIRE . WAY . DOWN! She was cold, she was itchy (probably from being a little wet), she was tired, she was thirsty, she HATED the snow, she never wanted to come back to the snow, she's so glad we don't live in the snow...I heard it all. I was so happy to get back to the car! It was a tough day of hiking and being cold but it was worth it!

mystery revealed!

Most of you guessed the "mystery vacation." We went to Disney World! We just got back on Monday. I'm still downloading pictures so I'll post those probably this weekend.

We woke Skyler up at 5am last Monday and of course I had to take a picture! Good morning sunshine!

A friend of ours got her a Disney World sweatshirt a year or so ago for Christmas so after we got her dressed we asked her if she wanted to know where we were going. We put her sweatshirt on her and told her to look in the mirror (remember, it was 5am so she was a little out of it, not at all aware of what we were dressing her in).

She was so excited and couldn't believe we woke her up "IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!" More updates to follow...

mystery vacation

We've been planning a vacation for a while now, maybe 3 months or more, but we've kept the destination a secret from our 5 1/2 year old. At first we just didn't talk about it and she had no idea we were going anywhere. Then, as it got closer, we mentioned it because it was apparent on the calendar that we were traveling in November.

However, we didn't want to tell her where we were going because she'd be so excited, all we'd hear about every day is her asking when we were leaving. So, we decided to do something different.

We are giving her a clue every day (or each day she asks). At first she was trying to guess with every clue and I finally told her that even if she guessed correctly, I wasn't going to tell her. I said she could keep all the clues fresh in her mind and think about how they all go together, then the day we leave she can guess, and if she guesses correctly, we'll tell her.

Here are her clues:

1. It's far away

2. there's wild animals there

3. there's water there

4. she knows someone who lives there

5. we can eat food from around the world

6. lots of people go there

7. mom and dad have never been there (this totally stumped her! She thought for sure we were going to Disneyland but we've been there before. She also wondered how we knew what was there if we had never been there before?)

8. there are pirates there

9. we might go on a boat while we're there

10. there will be lots of walking

11. there are hotels there (and therefore, she concluded that we will be staying overnight)

We leave Monday. Do you know where we're going???

First day of school! First day of school!

Monday was Skyler's first day of Kindergarten! She's been so excited all summer to start. She really feels all grown up now. Going into a new school, a new class, new teacher, and all new kids I would have been a ball of anxiety...not her! She was excited to get in there and meet a bunch of new friends. God bless her!

I swear she's not throwing gang signs already. Does this look like a "k" for Kindergarten??!

She'll probably be the tallest in her class for a while :)

Welcome to your new school!

After school (her first day she only went for 90 minutes), we met up with all of our friends, who were also starting Kindergarten that day, for lunch. The boy to her left she's known since the day they were born and all but one of the others she's known since she was about one. Can you tell they're saying "KINDERGARTEN!"?

It was over 100 degrees and they had all been playing on the playground (and running through the sprinklers) at the restaurant, which explains the red faces.

She, and I, made it through her first week. We've already had talks about not teasing people about their names ("Why would anyone name their kid after a clown fish?" If you need more of an explanation let me know), being gracious when someone else succeeds ("I'm mad at them that they were chosen to be the teacher's helper. I wanted to be the teacher's helper."), and trying to pull inappropriate or "disgusting" jokes out of her ("Why did the lady kiss the toilet?" We don't know the answer and neither does she but this is a joke that someone told her at school.). I can't wait to see what the next 9 months bring us!

new hair cut

This is what happened when I was cleaning the guest room getting ready for an out of town friend. It was her first self-cut and hopefully her last. What was she thinking! She said she didn't want bangs. That's what we were growing them out for! UGH!!

Notice the longer bangs she cut for herself and then the ones that are right at the scalp. Oh yeah, that'll take a while to grow back.

Swim Lessons

Skyler is just finishing up 2 weeks of swim lessons with 2 more weeks to go. She had them last year (private lessons, one on one, 3 times a week for 15 minutes each day) and she was doing really well. She loved her teacher and loved going to lessons. Then this year rolled around and she said she didn't want to go. Her reasoning, she didn't want to put her face in the water.

Well, she was going to go, whether she liked it or not, but where she went was another thing all together. Last year's school is totally hard core. I loved it because they are all about teaching water safety. They want your child to be able to survive if he or she falls in the pool. I don't know about you but I think this is pretty important!

Skyler, on the other hand, sees no importance in this at all. "I don't need to know how to swim. You can just take me around the pool or I'll stay in the shallow end." Uh, I don't think so sister! So, I started to change my way of thinking and started wondering if she needed to see other kids swimming to give her that peer pressure to do better. I also wondered about her not wanting to put her face in the water.

Here are my two compromises: goggles and group lessons! The minute she put those goggles on she could magically swim. It was incredible! She just wasn't liking opening her eyes under water but this has solved that.

And I think the group lessons are working too. There is a little girl in her class that's a pretty good swimmer so that pushes Skyler to try to keep up. Here she is chatting it up with a girl in her class. Such a social butterfly!

No problem! She can even do it with her eyes closed!

She's doing great and today she gets to jump off the diving board into 10 ft of water! Stay tuned to see if I jump in after her or let her teacher catch her...

Daddy Time

This past weekend my husband and 5 year old daughter decided to camp out in the backyard. They needed some good daddy/daughter time and this was just what they wanted to do!

They had music playing, daddy was BBQing, daughter was eating. They were having a blast!

Here's what was for dinner: grilled hamburgers and corn (and Smore's for dessert, of course!)

After dinner everyone changed into their jammies, zipped up the tent, got all cozy in their bed, and watched a movie (Harry Potter). Isn't that what everyone does when they camp?!

They can't wait to do it again!

good things

Taking my 5 year old to her first pedicure (she said "I feel like a new person!")

Fitting in my 24 minute swim for the week

Wrapping up raffle prizes and gifts for a luncheon this Saturday with friends, 2 bottles of wine, and chocolate cake

Life is good!

our long weekend...

My dad came to visit over the holiday weekend. He lives in Oregon, outside of Eugene, in a little town on the way to the coast called Noti. He usually comes down once a year, either for Skyler's birthday or 4th of July. This time it was neither but he made the trip anyway. He brought his dog Riley, who Skyler just LOVES! We had a dog once...I'll save that for another post. Skyler thought it was the funniest thing when Riley would stick his head out of the window in the car!

While my dad was here we took him to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. It's a wildlife rescue place where you can take local wildlife you've found injured or lost and they will rehabilitate them as best they can. If they aren't able to be released back into the wild, they put them on display at this place so everyone can see local wildlife, up close and personal...kind of like a zoo.

This is the Bald Eagle they have. They were cleaning his perch/cage area so they had him in a large enclosure where he was waiting to be fed. They are just so amazing and beautiful. I guess it's because I don't see them in the wild so it's so awesome to see one up close!

Then we went over to my father-in-law's house for a BBQ where he and Skyler played with LEGO's, her new favorite thing to do at his house.

We also went to our local Art and Wind Festival. Skyler loves kites so this was an opportunity to see a lot of them, make her own, and fly it. She had a blast. She also got to walk Riley (which I think was the highlight of the day for her). Here she is with Steve "fishing" in the fountain. She's been begging him to take her fishing so I guess this was her attempt at trying it.

Bright and early Monday morning my dad and Riley piled into his little sports car and headed back up to Oregon. We'll miss them both!

learning to ride a bike, day 1

This weekend we decided to try and take our 5 year old's training wheels off her bike. She was a little leary but decided if she came prepared with all precautions (knee pads and elbow pads) that she would be safe!

She was very nervous in the beginning. She refused to even get on the bike at first but we convinced her that daddy wasn't going to let go and she wouldn't get hurt. Look how sad she looks in this picture above. She does not want to be doing this. This coming from a girl who's favorite ride at Disneyland is THE HOLLYWOOD TOWER OF TERROR!

After a couple of minutes and a few times around our circle she's feeling a little more confident. Look how proud and happy she is with herself!

In the end, she decided to stick with her scooter for now. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow...

Happy Birthday Skyler!

I'm a little late in getting these up since Skyler's birthday was May 1 and it's now the 3rd but I guess they're better late than never!

Skyler turned 5 on Thursday. I can't believe it. She is my little friend now, going off to Kindergarten in the fall, able to carry on full conversations, and just loves life. Here are a few pictures from her day.

We decorated the house the night before her birthday and this is her with her presents the next morning.

This is her new nightgown that she loved!

The next day at school we brought a special birthday snack and I volunteered in her class. They heard the bible story about Martha and Mary and then they acted it out. Skyler got to be Martha (so appropriate, because that's the role I usually portray!).

Then she got to sit in the teacher's chair at the front of circle time and get her birthday sticker, crown, and everyone sang. She LOVED it!

Happy Birthday Skyler!

fun in the sun!

The weather has been SO great the last couple of days that Skyler couldn't wait to get her slip-n-slide out. I don't know how she goes in that freezing water but when it's 88 degrees out, I guess it feels pretty good!

Starting off taking it easy and just casually trotting down, making sure as to not get too wet:

really getting down and getting wet:

She had so much fun on Saturday that she had to do it again on Sunday. Here's her new bathing suit she got from PePa and Sonia for Easter:

Daddy's getting in on the action for a little water fight:

It was a good weekend!

skyler's new skirt!

I don't sew clothes very often. In fact, I've only made one dress for Skyler, with a pattern, that took me about a month! But, I was assured by my friend Carlie that I could make a skirt for her freehand, with no pattern. We promptly made a trip to the fabric store and I let her pick out all the fabric on her own. She chose quite an ecclectic selection, but she was happy with them. She carried them out to the car, into the house, took them out of the bag, and put them in the washing machine for me. She was excited!

So...{drumroll please}...here is how it turned out:

She loved it so much she wore it 2 days in a row and then promptly asked me to wash it so she could wear it again. I even made a matching fabric flower hair pin from this tutorial. It turned out so cute! We have enough fabric (of different patterns) to make 3-4 more skirts so you may be seeing a lot of them in the near future.