Summer School
The preschool that G will be attending in the fall offered a 4 week summer school program. We thought it would be a great intro to the school so we signed her up. We talked it up, read Llama Llama Misses Mama regularly, got her a bright pink Rapunzel lunchbox and then counted down the days.

Well the day finally arrived! G woke up and the first words out of her mouth were "Am I going to school today Mama?" When I confirmed that it was, she got a HUGE smile on her face and squealed "YEAHHH, I'm so excited! I'm so excited about my school!!" over and over. We packed up her lunch which included a butterfly-shaped turkey sandwich, dressed her head to toe in pink and off we went! G chattered with enthusiasm all the way there. She confirmed numerous times that I would be dropping her off and Daddy would be picking her up as well as her plans to get a treat from Daddy later. Truthfully she sounded a bit nervous and since G has had some separation anxiety issues in the past, I was pretty sure this day was not going to end without some tears.

We went in, found her cubbie (where we deposited her beloved lunchbox) and went to check out the playground. G looked around a bit then it was time to go in for carpet time. All the kids were so cute! They went through what must be the usual morning ritual of pledge of allegiance, calendar, counting to 20 in spanish, songs and a story. G had never done the pledge but gave it her all by slinging her left hand up on to her right shoulder (so funny). During the 15-20 mins or so that it took to accomplish these tasks G must have turned around to look at me 50 times. Each time she had this enormous smile on her face. Once she even gave me a thumb's up!!!

After that it was time for me to go. G gave me lots of hugs and kisses then finally said "Love you mama!" blew me a kiss and then cheerfully followed her teacher into another one of the classrooms! I couldn't believe it. I was so, so, so happy. I had been about 99% sure she was going to meltdown but she didn't. I must admit the morning was not tear free --I found myself shedding a few in the car on my way to work for two reasons: first, the sheer relief that G had not cried and second, my wistfulness at the realization that G is getting older. I wish I could make it go just a bit more slowly.

Later in the afternoon, Bobby picked her up and the called me right away with G on speaker. She had a great day! Hopefully this is the first of many happy school days for Georgie.

Ready to go!
Almost there!
G was super excited about her cubbie :-)

Carpet time. The theme for the program is Master Chefs which means that each day they make something like trail mix or muffins or whatever. This appeals to G because as anyone who knows her is aware, she likes to eat! The first week they're learning about grains so they read a book about how bread is made. Kind of interesting actually.

Faerie Day
I love fairies! Not too surprisingly this has managed to rub off on G. My favorite photographer happened to be having a fairy day at her studio and I thought FUN! It was a great afternoon. They had little crafts, lunch, Titania Queen of the Fairies, music and they took lots and lots of pictures. The more professional pix won't be available for a few weeks but I was able to snap a few of my own.

This is G at the ballet shoe decorating area. All the helpers were dressed in costume.
G hard at work decorating her pointe shoe with markers, glue and flowers

G gave the harp a strum. Honestly, she didn't seem too impressed :-)

Titania Queen of the Fairies. You can't tell from my crappy pic but her costume was gorgeous. Surprisingly, she also had a very nice singing voice.

Telling fairy secrets...

G chose to have her painting done on her arm "flowers with leaves, please"

She loved it!!

Fairy princess on her throne

I love her goofy little smile

What a cute little event!

Poser
Almost every morning as we're going out to the car to drive to the sitter's G asks me to take her picture. She loves to do her funny little poses. She's so silly! She's wearing more of the Gymbo flamingo line. I just love it! Thankfully, its finally acting like summer around here so she can start wearing the warm weather stuff I've been buying her for the last 2-3 mos.

Pose #1: I call this one her "sugar and spice"
Pose #2: "My hair, my magical hair"
Pose #3: "oop boop a doop!" Btw, how cute are those shoes? G loves them. She calls them her "flower fancies" They are pretty fancy and terribly impractical. Thank goodness they were on sale. Pose #4: "Watch out world!"

I seriously love this made to match hairbow I found on etsy. Its everything a bow should be: huge, fluffy and slightly ridiculous.

25 years
ago (yesterday), I married my best friend. Twenty-five years later, Bobby's still my best friend. We've been through a lot together. It hasn't always been easy. Life is never all easy. But, I couldn't have made a better choice in the person with whom I'd take the journey. If we make it to twenty five more, we'll be 70 yrs old!!! OMG, what will the next 25 yrs or so bring??

Unfortunately, we both had to work. Bummer. But Bobby was super sweet. He goes to work in the middle of the night but left this for me to find in the morning. Bobby knows me, I'm such a dork --a handmade card and sweet sentiments made from G's bath letters-- love it!!! He also knows I'm a fan of little, satin-lined boxes. There was one hiding under the card.
Yes!!! The heart-shaped earrings that match the bracelet he got me as an early anniversary gift a week or two before!!! I do enjoy a bit of bling!

Then he sent me cute texts all day on my phone at work. Ahhhhh, I know, right? Then I came back from lunch with a friend to find these gorgeous flowers!!! I truly love the lilies.

I got Bobby a new wedding ring. He lost his years ago and had been discussing a replacement for awhile. I picked the wrong size though so we'll need to exchange it. Clearly Bobby is better at gifting than I am :-) We'd already celebrated over the weekend with a nice father's day/anniversary/graduation dinner out for the 5 of us. We even went to a non G rated movie!! Since Brett's home, we were able to slip out after G was in bed. Bridesmaids, too funny!

Great couple days!

Under the Sea
under the sea.... darling its better, down where its wetter, take it from me!!!

The new Little Mermaid ride opened at California Adventure a few weeks ago and I'd been really wanting to take G. My girl is an Ariel fanatic. We hooked up with friends Tanya, Gracie and Kyle and made a Mermaid day of it by booking the Ariel's Grotto princess lunch also.

We got there early and ended up waiting in line maybe 10-15 mins to ride. By the time our short ride had come to an end, the wait had increased to 45 mins, eek!! G loved it!! We were able to get on a few more things then went to the Grotto for some much needed food. G loves her princesses and eagerly collected all their autographs. So fun! Gracie suggested riding Monsters, Inc. G jumped at the suggestion completely forgetting that the last time she rode it a few mos ago she was really scared. I guess hanging out with Gracie--who at 4.5 is much older and more sophisticated :-) --made her feel brave! And, because Gracie was walking, G wanted to walk all day too. Normally she would ask to ride in the stroller or want me to carry her. They were so cute together all day, holding hands and giggling. Adorable!

This was taken right after we got off the ride. G was super happy!
As usual G was super picky about which "fishy" she rode on the merry go round.
At the Grotto. First stop, Ariel!! As you can see, G's wearing her Ariel costume also! She made a little comment to me about hers being better because she had a tail...

Snowy--notice G's "princess hands"

Belle--the same Belle was there in January. So weird that I remember her.

With Cindy. By the way, I've been looking to get G a Cindy costume but none of the dresses I've seen available really look like what she was wearing. I think I'm going to have to keep looking.

Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty. That pointy little crown she wears is so funny. G loves Aurora but the funny thing is that she's never seen the movie although we've read some stories in her princess book.

The whole crew after lunch! I was just amazed I got a pic with everyone looking at the camera at the same time. Yeah!

Overall a fantastic day! Great weather, good friends, lots of fun!

Congratulations
are in order for our family's newest graduate! On Sunday June 12, 2011 I had the extreme pleasure of watching my oldest child receive his Bachelor's of Arts degree! During the two hour ceremony I was happy and also a bit wistful. It sounds so cliche but, seriously, where did all the years go? How can I have a 22 yr old, college graduate son?? I must be really, really old :-)

Georgie, who loves her brothers more than anything in the whole world, was the first to congratulate Brett on his big achievement!
The official family photo
My three beautiful children. One down, two to go...

I really like this picture of Brett with my mom.

G loved Brett's cap and tassel. Don't worry little one, your day will come.

Saturday with Baby Bird

From the day we met Georgie, I think hardly a minute has gone by when she hasn't been hungry. The kid loves to eat. Seriously, with the amount of food she consumes you'd think she'd be a little chunkster. She's not of course. She's 50% on both weight and height.

G eats a good healthy dinner and then gets up and starts looking in the cupboard for food. On days I'm home with her I spend much of the day feeding her snacks: strawberries, carrot sticks, string cheese, gold fish crackers, blueberries, etc., etc., etc. When she was a baby, of course, she couldn't ask for food. She'd just hold her little mouth open and kind of grunt. It totally reminded me of a baby bird begging for food from its mama. So I started calling her Baby Bird. As time went on she picked up on it and started calling me Mama Bird and bobby Daddy Bird. She does it all the time now. Its absolutely freaking adorable!! About 100 times a day "MamaBird, I love you" .... "MamaBird, I'm hungry" ... "MamaBird, can I watch tv??" ... "DaddyBird, will you pick me up?" So cute!

Bobby had to work Saturday so G and I spent the morning together. We're usually super busy but this Saturday was pretty calm. G rode her bike, we looked at the flowers in the yard. Nice! BTW, how cute it G's outfit? Its one of my all time fav's. So pretty!

Pacific Asia Museum
A few months ago I subscribed to Macaroni Kids an online newsletter. Its pretty neat because it lists all sorts of family and kid related activities available in our area that I probably would never know about. I came across a listing for a family day at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. I didn't even know the museum existed. What a find! We had an awesome time. They had lots of crafts and activities for the kids plus martial arts, a dragon dance, taiko drum demonstrations and samples of food. The best part? activities, entertainment, parking, and even food were completely free!

Also neat was that we were able to meet another China adopt family there! They have a super cute and very active 5 yr old boy. They actually live quite close to us so hopefully we'll be able to meet up for some more fun in the near future!

G loves to ride around Daddy's shoulders !
G was fascinated by the Hanbok display. Seriously, could hardly keep her away from them.
This is G doing some origami. I think origami is so cool. Unfortunately I've never had much patience for it. With a little help from Bobby, G was able to create a little kimono.
G sporting her barely colored Thai crown. She must have been going for the minimlist look.

As usual G worked very diligently colored in every space of her shrinky dink project.

Checking out the taiko drums. G is such a gentle little girl. Bobby and I kept telling her to hit the drum really hard but even her most powerful attempt elicited hardly a discernible thump from the drum.

My favorite activity of the day was the clay. G made an "alligator". The turtle on the plate is my effort :-) Sadly, we were only able to spend a few hours there because I had something else to do that night. We never even made it into the galleries. Bobby and I agreed we're definitely going back.

Take my picture Mommy!
We really scored on the latest Gymboree "nothing in the store over $12.99" sale. Wow! So many dresses. I really like their new line with the flamingos. G likes it too! Every morning she wants to wear one of her new dresses and then have me take her picture out in the front yard. Too cute!