Star Loves The Beach

Ears blowing in the wind, water and sand in the fur - life can't get much better!

Itsy-Bitsy Akavish

Ella was singing in the car the other day and I could tell she was mostly singing the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, but something about it sounded weird and I thought that she was just mixing up songs or something.  Then Addy chimes in and tells me that "akavish" is spider in Hebrew and that Ella was singing the version of the song that they learn at school.  It is mostly English, but they change a few words.  Addy sang the whole song for me and it goes like this...

The itsy-bitsy akavish went up the waterspout
Down came the geshem and washed the akavish out
Up came the shemesh and dried up all the geshem
And the itsy-bitsy akavish went up the spout again.

 

It was super cute to hear Ella sing this rendition, and it was equally as cute that my 5 year old was translating for me! 

 

Slip-n-slide

These are still as fun as they were when I was a kid!  Addy loves it.  And despite the "no adult" warnings, I did it a few times and it was lots of fun.   I was mildly afraid I'd hurt myself, so I didn't do it too many times - didn't want to push my luck.  But Addy has mastered it and the jury is still out for Ella.  She likes to lay on it and you pull her along, but no running and sliding yet.  In due time!

Growing Up

Our tadpoles are really growing up.  Addy has pretty much dropped out of caring for them, but Michael wins the tadpole owner of the year award.  He was on his way to a conference in Vegas and before he boards the plane, I get this message...
"The tadpoles appear to be fine. I put some extra rocks in there today in case any of them want to "emerge" while I'm away. If you think of it, they probably could use some lettuce in the next day or two. Their water is probably fine until I get back. "
Well, take a look at what I saw when I got home from work today...

I am so proud of the little guy, making his debut as a big kid out of the water!  He still has a tail, but he appears to be quite content up on the rock.  Now I'm starting to get a bit worried because they are all getting big and their current home is quite little.  Pretty sure it is going to start getting cramped...I'm not sure the process for releasing them into the wild exactly, but if there is any weaning involved or something, might need to start coming up with a plan!  Maybe we'll just take them back to live in the pond at Dad's house!!    

The Beach

I promise I won't document every single beach weekend, and maybe if I do, I'll just be sure to just cover the highlights!

 

One of the main highlights from this weekend was fishing.  We went down to the water on Saturday with the casting net and Addy and Michael's fishing rods.  The casting net was pretty successful, with this guy being the most exciting catch.  No clue what kind of fish it is, but I called it an angel fish and that stuck with me and Ella at least.  She kept on asking to see the angel fish after we'd thrown the fish back.  

Here is cute Addy fishergirl!

We took the car down to transport all the fishing gear and when Michael 1st got there, Ella wouldn't get out of the car.  I walked down with Star shortly after and Ella was still in the car and wouldn't come out.  Once I sat down and basically ignored her, next thing I knew she'd gotten out and was on the chair next to me.  Shortly after she was running around.  Still shouting "no ocean" when the water came up close, but she was not afraid of the seaweed.  Unfortunately it was still there this weekend, but Saturday it was bearable.  There wasn't a barrier of it between the sand and water.  But when we went down today, it was back with a vengeance and smelled.  Fortunately, Addy accepted the idea of skipping the beach and heading back to the house to play in the kiddie pool.  

 I'm really not sure what is going on here, but Ella was just sitting there reading her book like it was totally normal to be her sister's foot rest.

 Ella is convinced that this is the proper way to wear sunglasses.  

It is somewhat mean that Michael took this picture, but because he did, I'm going to be somewhat mean and post it on the blog b/c this is such a cute face!  Ella leaned back on what she thought was the lounge chair and she found herself on the deck.  She made this face for about 2 seconds and was back up and climbing on me a second later.

Here is the proof, this is seconds after the mishap above.  A rare picture of me, a.k.a the mommy jungle gym.  Why is it that the girls can both be ignoring me 1 second, then someone sits in my lap (this time Addy was first) and all of a sudden both want to sit with me, but they don't want to touch each other.  Next thing I know there is kicking and fighting.  All I know to do is to resort to tickling, hence the giggles above!

Trip to PA

Rewind a bit to the weekend of May 4-7.  Addy and Michael headed off to Pennsylvania to attend Michael's cousin David's wedding.  Why only Addy and Michael you ask?  Think 2 year old on a plane for 3 hours.  Yeah, very early on we knew that Ella would not be making the trip, so in the end Michael and Addy decided to go.  Ella and I missed seeing everyone, but it was for the best.  As I was not there in person, the camera was not there, but thankfully Grandma took plenty of pics for us to document the occasion.

Here is a cute pic of Addy at the wedding (sorry Michael, your eyes were closed so I did a little cropping!)  Michael said she did great during the ceremony, was super excited to see a real wedding.  We both expected her to love the reception, but nope, she had fallen asleep in Michael's lap before they cut the cake and the DJ really got started.  So, it was an earlier night than planned, but still a good time!

 A very exciting part of the trip was getting to see Susan, Jon and most importantly Heidi!  I'm not sure Heidi has an iPad at her house, but no doubt after this trip she wanted one. 

You can't have a trip to Pennsylvania without a trip to the school house.  The last time we were there it was November, and not really boating season.  Weather was much nicer this time and Addy and Michael went for a boat ride.  This 1st picture is Addy getting boating 101 lessons.  By the look on her face you can tell she isn't 100% sure what is going on!

And in no time she is cruising around the pond like a pro.

One of the activities was building a little foot bridge over what is a consistently muddy/wet spot along the pond.  Uncle Bob found this little bridge kit and used some of the extra hands around to put it together.  Addy had fun with this project.  

But this might have been one of the highlights, for multiple reasons.  I'm not sure what this big disk is called exactly, but we'll go with frisbee, although it is big and soft and made out of a foam like material.  Addy had great fun playing with David and Suzanne.  And kudos to them for playing frisbee with Addy - I wasn't there to witness this, but I don't imagine Addy is the greatest frisbee player and David and Suzanne were likely running around quite a bit.  But the highlight was when Addy got hit in the face/mouth with the frisbee.  And normally you wouldn't expect the word "highlight" to be part of a description of getting hit in the face by something...it could have been a complete coincidence, it could be from the frisbee, but after this incident Addy discovered a loose tooth.  Big excitement!!  Granted, it is about a month later and it is still barely wiggling, but the tooth fairy must have us on the radar screen at least.  Now, imagine my excitement when I talked to Michael while they were still in PA and he told me Addy got hit in the face and has a loose tooth.  I envisioned the little tooth barely hanging on, ready to fall out any minute.  Initially I didn't share in Addy's excitement, but fortunately it wasn't nearly as dramatic as I originally imagined!

Beginning of Beach Weekends 2012

We are starting our every other weekend at the beach routine for the summer.  Memorial Day weekend was the first, so it was a nice long break.  It was very relaxing and I even got a little touch-up paint work done in one of the bedrooms.  It was a great weekend except for all of the seaweed.  It was OK the 1st day because it seemed to be really fresh.  Not so fresh the 2nd day, so we only made it to the water twice, but that was fine because there is tons of fun to be had on the deck. 

 While I was totally creeped out by the seaweed, Ms. Addison had no issues and dove right in.  You had to basically clear a path from the clear sand to the water, so here she is throwing the seaweed out of the way.  Yuck!

 Double yuck, yet impressive.   She built a tower of seaweed and climbed on top (as I type this, I am just squirming at the thought of having to walk through it much less climb around in it!)  This tower was literally as tall as she is.

 Ella on the other hand was not a fan of the seaweed, although she still disliked the ocean more.  She didn't scream "no ocean" and try and run back to the house like she did last time.  And she would play around and didn't have to sit in my lap the whole time, but there was no frolicking in the water.  I'm sure she'll warm up to the idea right around August when our beach weekends start to taper off!

 I say I was productive with my little painting project, but Michael was super productive and built a picnic table and bench!  We had leftover wood from the beach railing we replaced, so Michael just whipped it into a picnic table.  The table was just a naptime project that Addy helped with.  I was pretty darn impressed and we put it to use that night - works great for dining al fresco.

 This picture doesn't do the sisterly love justice.  This was after a trip to the beach when we were wet and drying off before going inside.  The girls just sat and snuggled for quite a while.  Ella's eyes are closed in the pic, but I don't think that she was actually asleep.  Although she was calm and still for quite a while.  That is a very rare occurrence.

Here is the table and bench, with the woodworker and his two cute models.  Ella is not a fan of clothes these days, so at the beach she is usually just sporting a diaper.  This likely won't be the last diaper pic of the summer. 

PRE-K GRADUATION!!!!!

We'd been waiting for this for months - the pre-k pandas class of 2012 finally had their big night!  I'm not going to lie, I was totally anti pre-k graduation nonsense until I had a kid in pre-k.  Yes, it is over the top and the caps and gowns might have been a bit excessive, but it was the cutest stinkin' thing I had seen in a long time.  You could tell that both the teachers and kids put A LOT of work into the event.  There were close to 30 kids on the stage that they arranged into small groups so that all of the kids had a chance to come up center stage during one of the songs.  They showed off their sign language skills, sang in Hebrew and Spanish.  Addy even had a solo speaking part that she worked like a champ.  She came right up at the beginning of the night and asked everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance.  Then she held the flag and started the room in the pledge. 

The best was probably all of the songs they sang.  Each kid was sitting up on stage, singing and boppin' to the song.  I had not heard Addy sing a single one of the songs at home, so I didn't even know she knew the song, but she was singing along.  Ms. Laura had put together a slide show with pictures from the year, so the kids came off stage and sat in the seats to watch that.  It was cute hearing their reaction to the different pics that popped up.  All around cuteness! 

 Here is Addy accepting her "diploma"

 Everybody on stage.  They practiced for weeks in the class and then moved into the auditorium. Even had a dress rehearsal with the gowns - very well executed production.

 Cuteness!

 Addy with Ms. Bari.  Ms. Bari was her teacher when she was 3 and she LOVED Ms. Bari and Ms. Simone's class.  

 Addy loved all of her pre-k teachers, but Ms. Vera was extra special.  

The family 

(minus Ella who had just finished cake and wouldn't sit still for the picture)

Visitor's Day at Dance

It was a wild and hectic day with dance from 4:30-5:30 and then Addy had to be back at the JCC for graduation at 6:00, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her do some ballet and tap.  With her headed to Kolter next year, I'm not sure what her after-school schedule will be.  Fortunately the JCC will pick her up from school and bring her to the J for any classes we sign her up for.  So lucky to have that as an option. 

Our last dance experience was the recital, so this was much more low-key which was nice!  If you ever get an opportunity to go to watch 5 and 6 year olds do ballet and tap, I'd suggest you go, even if you have no connection to the kids.  It is just fun to see the wide range of talent, mixed in with 5 year old attention spans.  Addy did great, especially considering she wasn't feeling 100%. 

 Why-o-why won't you look at the camera and smile normal my precious girl!

A little shuffling leg in motion action

Last Day of Pre-K

It was hard to believe that Addy was about to go to her last day of school at Bertha Alyce.  It has been 5 great years!  There was a big graduation celebration display outside the pre-k class.  I made Addy stand by her pictures - it was early in the morning and she was half asleep and not excited about it, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Mean mom.

Little Gym

With the end of the school year comes the end of gym for Ella.  We've been taking classes for a year now and I think we are both a bit burned out.  Here are a few pics to commemorate our time at the Little Gym...

 No question, the beam is one of Ella's favorite activities at gym.  She even got brave towards the end and would try and walk on the lower beam without any assistance.  I'm not sure she ever made it the full length, mainly because she'd get distracted and start looking off and not paying attention to where she was walking, so I'd have to swoop in! 

A close second to the beam was jumping on the spring board.  She could kind of make it bounce herself, but the fun typically involved me jumping with her.   This picture was right after she'd jumped up and she was on top of a mat wanting me to help her jump down.

Third on the list of her favorites was swinging on the bars.  At the beginning she would never hold on to the bar, would grab it for a second and then let go.  But she got to the point where she would hang there and swing for a bit.  Her least favorite thing at gym was anything that was a group activity.  Fortunately they encourage "exploring" and there were plenty of other explorers like her.  Oh, and maybe the all-time favorite was getting stamps at the end of class.  She always wanted one on both hands, both feet and her tummy.  Ella was always excited to show Addy her new stamps when we'd pick Addy up at school. 

Our New Pets

I'll admit I was not a fan of the idea when Dad scooped these out of his pond and said we could bring them home.  But Michael and Addy are great tadpole parents and are taking great care of them.  I figured they wouldn't last a week, but they have and they are growing, and I'm kind of excited to see if we actually end up with frogs/toads from this little science project.  Addy claims that one of them has legs now, but pretty sure that is not the case.  Hopefully the next update will be that they are ready to hop off into the great big world.  We will not be keeping them once they have legs!!

Let The Summer Fun Begin

We've been spending a lot  time outside the past few months, enjoying the nice weather, but now it is time to add water to the mix.  This particular weekend we had backyard splash fun one day, swimming at Grandad and Meme's the 2nd, and topped the weekend off with a swimming birthday party at the JCC. 

 This pic is one of many I think we'll see over the next month or so (or until Ella decides to get wet).  I thought that Ell would be more excited about the squirty ball this summer.  Not yet.  She stayed clear from the water, until something happened and the ball squirted right at the climber.  Then there were shrieks that you could hear down the block!

 Not exactly water related, but we are having lots of fun with the bubbles that Cousin Betsy gave Ella for her birthday.  Lots of fun "bubble pipes" that work really well.

 Addy was one happy camper once she got on Sally the float at Granddad's house.  

 Here is Star standing guard, ready to jump in and save Addy should she have trouble jumping off the diving rock.  Star hates it when anyone jumps off the rock!

Ella didn't get wet this day either.  She hung out with Granddad on the swing watching Addy have fun in the pool. I found the water to be quite chilly, so maybe that is why she didn't want to get in...she loved the pool last year, so imagine she'll be jumping in before the summer is over. 

Mother's Day

We had a nice and relaxing Mother's Day.  I was honored with a yummy pancake breakfast and all kind of handmade goodies from the girls.  Addy always manages to find good ways to use the chalk board and this was what she put together for Mother's Day.  I like how she leaves a spot for Ella to add her own touch.  I think that Addy actually ended up doing most of the "scribble scrabble" in the Ella section, but Ms. Ella just isn't into the arts as much as her big sis! 

Bathroom Update

No, it isn't fully functional, but we are in the home stretch.  Main holdup right now is waiting on the glass shower surround, but it is hopefully in fabrication as we speak.  All the pretty stuff is done though, so thought that I'd post some pics. 

As a reminder of what we started with

And even though it has maybe taken longer than we would like, the end result is going to be so fabulous.  Coloring is kind of quirky in the pics, but here it is!

Helmet

Ella is an official rider now.  The helmet looks huge on her head, and I remember thinking the same thing when Addy first got hers.  Also want to note that she can totally pedal on the tricycle now, but won't even try when we are out on a ride.  I've seen her do it on the patio though, so I know it is possible!

My Baby is 2!!

Ella's official birthday was the Monday after her party. Addy's allergies were bothering her, so I felt it was the perfect excuse to keep her home from school and we headed to the zoo.

Granted, there is food in her mouth, but she is looking at the camera smiling!  

Note quite sure why the concerned looks/

If you'll recall, the last carousel experience was a the rodeo and Ella screamed the whole time.  I was surprised she even wanted to ride the one at the zoo.  All started out great, she got a bit frightened when it started up, but eventually was OK.  Just a moment of screaming instead of 3 minutes!

On Friday we went for Ella's 2 year check-up.  And we were back to the screaming.  As soon as we got called back by the nurse, a look of fear set in her face.  She tried to be tough, but did a good amount of screaming.  And there were no shots involved.  She broke down in tears when the nurse asked her to step on the scale so we could weigh her.  The nurse had to leave the room before she'd step up.  Goodness!  But we survived and she is healthy and growing like a weed.  She is around the 69th percentile for height and 91st for weight.  She weighed in at 31 lbs - no wonder I can only hold her for a little while before I start hurting!  

Here is a little about Ella at 2 years old...

• Favorite color - yellow
• Favorite song - Baby Moses, her teacher told me that sometime they'll ask the class what song they want to sing and Ella is always the 1st to answer and she'll shout "Baby Moses".  I'd say the baby bumblebee song is close 2nd and sometimes we even get a mashup of the 2 which is always entertaining.
• Favorite playtime activity - playing with baby dolls, and most recently she is into changing the baby's diaper (even though they aren't wearing diapers) and she goes into her room and gets wipes and starts cleaning baby up.  Then she'll start wiping the floor and the tables...next thing you know she has 15 wipes out.
• Ella is crazy feisty at diaper changing time these days. 
• Favorite past time - giggling and making other people smile with her big smile
• Favorite tv show - Dora
• If given the option, Ella could play outside all day.
• Favorite food - chips and queso and she is getting into the salsas too, mostly the green sauce, but she is known to eat some of the red sauce too.  Not much the girl won't eat though. 
• Ella can put her shoes on like a champ.
• She is super curious about noises and when she hears something she'll put her finger up to her ear and say "listen"
• There is not really 1 favorite book, she loves all books and pretty much has Brown Bear memorized and a couple of others she knows good chunks of the book. 
• Ella loves to run.  When she does run, it looks like she is going to fall any second, but remarkably, she doesn't fall that often.