First Day of Pre-K

Sasha is a big girl. She started Pre-K today. She will be going from 9-12:45 every day. After much--very unnecessary--internal anguish, I decided to keep her where she was going last year. Her gym also has day care and pre-school programs. Even though we've been going to that gym for classes and pre-school, she was a little nervous this morning. I wish you could have seen her face when she walked into her classroom. All her fears melted away and she was ready to play, play, play. I do hope she does a little bit of learn, learn, learn, too.

This program is perfect for Sasha because for the first 45 minutes of every day, she has an actual gym class. What a way to get her day started off right. She can get all of her wiggles out and get her brain working.

I keep trying to forget that Pre-K means before kindergarten and that means next year, she'll really be a big girl.

More Pictures Here

Feeling Left Out

Our county started school today. This was the first "First day of school" in 10 years where I haven't been working. I felt a little sad this morning. In fact, after I dropped off Sasha, I went in to my old school to help some of my teacher friends. I have to admit, though, that it was nice to be able to leave after a few hours.

Another fun PA visit

Sasha and Mommy flew to PA last Tuesday (Daddy joined us for the weekend). Sasha just loves her family so much. She and Jakob and Kristopher played and swam and ate nonstop. She fell into bed exhausted every night (and so did I). In fact, she's still recovering 2 days after arriving home.

We had so much fun and even got to help Jakob celebrate his 7th birthday. Why I agreed to go to Chuck E Cheese again, I don't know.

It is so nice to spend time with family. It's nice even when you are babysitting 3 very active (but very cute) children and 1 very poopy (also very cute) baby!

REALLY!
More Pictures Here

A Cowgirl Hat is Totally Unnecessary

but when it looks this cute, you HAVE to buy it!

I beg your pardon!

I got this catalog in the mail today. Take a look at the title!

I don't know what happened...

Ken, you aren't so cute now are you? Barbie's hand, well, part of it anyway.

Sea World Camp Days 4 and 5

Sea World Camp was so much fun. I'm pretty sure the mommies had more fun than the kids!

If I wasn't driving, I would have been in this same position. This was on the way home after the last day of camp.

More Pictures Here

Hurricane Sasha

The "damage" a 4 year-old can do

in less than 5 minutes

Guilty Conscience

Sasha came up to us last night and said, "I accidently scribbled on the refrigerator but it was just a accident." So we went downstairs to take a peek and she had scribbled on the refrigerator with a black crayon but then she covered it up with stickers! I don't know about you but I think she's a genius!

The stickers and the crayon both came off easily.

Roller Coaster

If you click on the picture, you'll be able to see it better.
Sasha LOVES the Shamu Roller Coaster. She screams and laughs the entire time and then asks to get right back on!

So tired

I am so tired. Sea World Camp is great but I'm soooooo tired. Sasha falls asleep instantly everyday in the car on the way home. Lucky duck.

Today we fed the dolphins and we also went backstage to see Shamu and Shamu and Shamu and Shamu....The teacher told us to think of Shamu as a last name. Actually, all of the killer whales that are used at Sea World are from Shamu's family.


Days 2 and 3 pictures here

What Mommies do...

We go to Sea World Camp with our children! I do have to wear a beautiful yellow t-shirt---soooo not my color---but it's worth it.

Today, we visited the alligators. We got to pet a baby alligator (Darth Gator) and 2 turtles (Patutti and Snuffy).

More pictures here

What Daddies do...

They take their daughters to the "Celebrity Mascot Games". I decided not to go. Thank goodness.

Where's Dudley?

Can you spot the imposter?

A special "Hello" from Elmo

We were watching A Capitol Fourth on PBS last night. Elmo was one of the guest stars. He was talking to Vanessa Williams and trying to count all the people that were in the audience. When he realized there were too many to count (Elmo is one smart cookie), he decided to try to say "Hi" to everybody. The first thing he said: "Hi Sasha!" Sasha and just looked at each other and then she started laughing and waving back to Elmo. It was so great.

Fireworks

We decided not to go see any "big" fireworks tonight. Sasha hasn't really liked them anytime we've seen them at Disney or Epcot. We took a walk around the neighborhood and she was quite satisfied with the neighbor's fireworks. Of course she burned her finger reaching for a sparkler AFTER EVERYBODY told her not to. Really though, a sparkler burn is a rite of passage! I can't even remember how many times I burned my fingers (or a cornfield) with a sparkler! By the way, she is fine.

"It's my rainbow!"

We had just returned from walking the dogs on a beautiful sunny breezy evening when it started to pour. (That's Florida for you.) I told Sasha that we had to go outside because when it rains and the sun is out, you can find a rainbow. The second we walked out our back door, we both saw it. Sasha was so happy and started saying, "It's my rainbow."

Blech!

Remember when having sand all over you didn't bother you?

Amazing

We went to the beach today and were so lucky to be there to watch the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery this afternoon!

What a wonderful way to spend the 4th of July. There were so many people there and everyone was clapping and cheering. Even though it was terribly hot, I had goosebumps.

More pictures here (There are a lot of similar pictures because it was so bright and I couldn't see the viewfinder to see if the pictures were good. I just kept snapping away!)

Happy 4th of July!

From Dudley
And Sasha
And Murray

Old Mother Hubbard...

...Cleaned out her cupboards. I had a very funny question for Aunt Kerri today. "How many empty shelves am I going to need for baby food, baby bottles, baby formula.....?

Most of you know that we have been doing research and paperwork to get started on our second child. We have chosen to do a domestic adoption this time. (Russia is still having a lot of problems.)

Our homestudy is almost finished and we've interviewed 2 agencies. We think we have chosen one although we do have a few more questions for both. Once we choose an agnecy, we will need to create a profile for birthmothers to look at and then we will just sit back and wait. We've been told the wait could be 6 months - 2 years!

So keep your eyes and ears open for any birthmother that may want to make an adoption plan for their baby! Tell everyone you know. We're willing to travel within the US if necessary.

Look out Tiger Woods! or 1 Down 6 More to go!

Sasha has her first case of Swimmer's ear. NO POOL FOR 1 WEEK!!! GASP. She was just diagnosed yesterday. :(

This child has an incredible amount of energy so after cleaning all the cupboards, I frantically looked for something to keep her occupied. I remembered that several months ago, I had bought a foam "golf set". The hardest part was making sure she didn't hit the ball across the house!


Pap, I think she might be better than you!

Creativity

I was cleaning out our cupboards in the kitchen this morning.
I needed room for all of my new Tupperware!
Sasha took everything I was going to donate but her favorite was a cozy made to wrap around a dish. She made it into a hat! Of course, it looked very cute on her.