They grow up so fast.

Her first (and temporary) "tatoot"

No kids!

Aunt Kerri is here with no kids! This is what she does?

Sasha's Last Day of Being 3!

One more day until her birthday!

Independence

Sasha dressed herself yesterday. She couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror. Isn't she beautiful? And, yes, I did take her out in public looking like this! By the way, the pants were velvet. It was 80 degrees yesterday.

Mine!

Or as Sasha would say, "Mines!"

Any way you say it, this is FOR ME!!!

I also got a letter from the Room Mom today asking for donations for Teacher Appreciation Week (which is May 8-12 if you didn't know). Yahoo!!! It's my turn.

Beach trip #3

Another beautiful day in sunny Florida!

More Pictures here

Social Butterfly

Sasha had ANOTHER birthday party the very next day!




This was on our way to dinner that night. 2 birthday parties in less than 24 hours is a lot for a little girl!


This party was at place where she could build a stuffed animal. She chose a doll that looks like Mommy but she named her "Dog". I just don't know what to say about that!

First Birthday Party

Sasha attended her first birthday party on Friday night. The Birthday Girl was her friend, Sasha who was also adopted in Russia. Believe it or not, we got her a Cabbage Patch Doll named....Sasha!

So What!

Just because I have to use the wall to balance myself does not mean I'm overweight!

Murray weighed in at a whopping 18.5 pounds yesterday! The vet is researching different foods to help him lose weight. He's allergic to the protein in regular dog food and he has a very sensitive stomach. His current dog food is duck and potato. Our dogs eat better than we do!

Beware of Dog

Murray "Vicious" Khas decided that he is the boss of the street. This is the blind at our front door. He attacks it when any other dog walks by. Unfortunately, our trash can blew by the other day and now the blind is hanging by a string.

Fortunately for us, the company that installed the blinds has a free lifetime replacement (No questions asked). Our neighbors had to have their blinds replaced 1 week after having them installed because their dog (a large lab) chewed them to pieces during a particularly bad thunderstorm.

Dogs! You gotta love 'em!

Success!

Daddy took Sasha to school yesterday. He did everything right and Sasha was not traumatized in any way. In fact, when she saw me waiting for her after school, she started crying, "I want my daddy." Mommy=chopped liver

My Buddy

A picture is worth a thousand words.

A few of her favorite things

One of them is playing in the sandbox!

Family Resemblance

This is Mommy.

This is Pap.

Sasha drew pictures of Mommy and Pap (Mommy's Daddy) today. We look so much alike!

Child Labor

Who knew it would be such hard work getting a sandbox prepared for sand? Right now, it's filled with mulch. Before we started to clear out the mulch, Sasha had to be properly attired. She also had to have the proper (and cutest) equipment: dragonfly shovel, and a butterfly bucket hat with matching gardening gloves! She's like my life-sized Barbie! Do they make a "Gardening Barbie"?

When I was paying for the sand at Lowes, the cashier said, "She looks JUST like you." Not that it would matter either way but I was flattered because Sasha is adorable!

Fun!

She actually wanted green whiskers.


This is what happens when you don't accompany a face-painted child to the bathroom. Warning: Prior to face-painting, specifically explain how the paint will be removed.


Taking a break from bouncing.

Sasha's gym had an Easter party yesterday afternoon. They had two bounce houses and she bounced her little heart out! They also had an egg hunt but there were too many older kids and way too many competitive parents so Sasha only found one egg. Much to my delight (and my inner competitiveness) Sasha's lone egg contained first prize: a $10 gift certificate to the gym store! *Sticking my tongue out and singing, "HA! Nanny Nanny boo boo!"

Brown

Happy Passover. Sasha was very well-behaved for her first Passover Seder. The 5 month old puppy who lived there helped occupy her time. We went to a Kid's Seder at a friend's house for the 2nd Seder and that was short and sweet.

She is not a big fan of matzah. After swallowing her first bite, she said, "It tastes like brown."

What is Passover? click here

More Pictures here

Operation Swingset Complete

Of course, the swingset arrived 5 minutes before naptime. I thought it was going to be a problem until I found myself saying, "You need to take a nap so when you wake up, the swingset will be finished!" Sasha fell asleep in a matter of seconds!

When she woke up, she was so excited and with her wild hair, walked outside with the biggest grin on her face. Tom (the swingset engineer) said the best part of his job is seeing the smiles. He was a very nice person and allowed Sasha, Murray and Dudley to help finish building the swingset.

I have a problem though. My hips just fit on the slide. I guess I'll have to hold off on the Cake Batter ice cream for a few weeks!

More pictures here

Eleventeen

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, firteen, fourteen, eleventeen, 16, 18, 19, 20.... We're almost able to count to 20.

Eleventeen minutes is how much sleep I think I got last night. Trust me, that's not very much. We thought Sasha's cold was ending but she was up most of the night coughing. Of course, when she (and I) finally fell asleep around 2AM, a thunderstorm rolled through! Sasha's not usually afraid of them (living in Florida, you really can't be) but since she was only 1/2 asleep, it woke her up and made her want to come "sleep" with Mommy and Daddy. When I got up to go to the bathroom, Sasha decided to roll sideways and take up the whole bed. So...Mommy and the dogs went out onto the couch (Dudley, by the way, is also afraid of thunderstorms and needs to lay on top of me at the first sound of thunder.) As I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the pitter patter of little feet. Sasha wanted to sleep on the couch with me---and Murray---and Dudley. Yawn...... So, we all went back to bed with Daddy. Around 3Am, Sasha was ready to go back to her bed and everybody got a few hours of sleep, except Mommy, who spent the rest of the night COUGHING!

Another Refrigerator Moment

Sasha's first birthday invitation!

Each time we deliver an invitation to someone, she wants to open it, saying, "That's mine." "Yes, Sasha it's your invitation FROM you. It's not FOR you." If I had a dollar for every time I've said that in the past week....

Sasha's First Easter Egg Hunt

Matt's boss' wife has an Easter Egg Hunt every year at her house. Sasha had no idea what to do when she saw all the eggs. In fact, she put her baby doll in her basket, not realizing that she needed to start with an empty basket. Then she saw all the other children picking up eggs and putting them in their baskets and the doll was quickly forgotten. I thought she understood until she ran over and started taking eggs out of another child's basket! Fortunately, it was a very young child who didn't realize what was going on so there was no drama! Once Sasha realized there was a little treat inside each egg, she was more interested in opening them and eating the candy.

More Pictures Here

Phase 1 of Operation Swingset

The landscapers came today to move the sprinkler heads and mulch the play area. With all of Florida's rain, we thought it would be a good idea to have mulch around the swingset. And, we want to make sure Sasha stays safe!


Starring Murray Sunshine

Taking Advantage by Making Them so Cute!

Sasha's gym just started a "Fairy Tale Princess Ballet Class". We went to a trial class today. Of course, we joined the class! These little girls looked absolutely adorable! Sasha rather enjoyed watching herself in the mirror. (Please excuse her hair, we're letting her bangs grow out.)

Beautiful!

I have been waiting sooooo long to be able to hang a "Snack Calendar" on my refrigerator!

Please Daddy

Mommy napping with Tommy and Chai

We want a kitty! Didi's new kitties (that's a good name for a band) are so sweet. Sasha and Mommy both fell in love with them.

PA visit

Sasha and I left on Wednesday to go visit my family. We stayed there until Friday and then journeyed to Lancaster to visit Matt's family. It was a crazy weekend and our visit was much too short but it was nice to spend time with family.

It is so wonderful to see Sasha and her cousins get along so well. I know my sister and I were (still are) close to our cousins growing up. It's nice to see that the distance hasn't affected that. And, for those of you who know Kristopher, well, he chooses his friends VERY carefully and it seems as though Sasha is going to be a good one!

Mom's pictures
My pictures

Bubbe and Zayde--Please send us your pictures, too!

Sasha's First Tastefully Simple Party

I had a Tastefully Simple party for my mom when we were home last week. Sasha "helped" (she did a lot of taste-testing) us at the party but didn't do her part when it came time to cleaning up.

She fell asleep during Elmo. Please don't tell him. She NEVER falls asleep during Elmo!