ICE CREAM

Last Saturday, Nana and I took the kids to Happy Hollow Zoo for an ice cream social fundraiser. I had forgotten how bad the parking can be there so I ended up dropping the kids off with Nana and then spent another 20 minutes looking for a parking space. The kids were fine in my absence, eating their first of many ice cream cones and Gina got to ride the merry go round.

The ice cream was definitely the highlight of the trip for the kids. I think they had at least four each. We toured the zoo and saw a presentation on some of the animals. Gina and Andrew were quite impressed by the boa and the alligator.

Dylan had fun hanging out in the stroller.

Graduation Day

Friday evening was Gina's graduation ceremony for Preschool III at Whistle Stop. She had been looking forward to it all week, especially since she would be able to wear her new dress.

The photo above shows 10 kids (one other boy refused to be up with the other kids and stayed with his mom) and six of them, including Gina have been at the center since they were infants.

The kids walked into the garden and then sang four songs with the music teacher. It was very cute. Then the director Laeh handed each kid their certificate, with a hand shake.

One of the moms gave a little speech about how much she has appreciated the care that her kids have received at the Whistle Stop over the years. She is another 3 kid mom and Philip is her youngest (She also has an 11yr old girl and another boy in the middle, and she is 50 years old!). She also had some of the girls hand out flowers to the teachers. Gina got to give flowers to Lynne, her favorite teacher.

Afterwards, it was time to have food and cake. Andrew filled up on watermelon, his favorite food, and then had fun making bubbles.

Every so often, Gina mentions that she is going to miss all her preschool friends. They are all going to different schools next year, from Palo Alto to San Jose. Hopefully, she will enjoy the two months that she has left there before the start of kindergarten.

Friday was also the day that the class list for Gina's new school was posted. It turns out that I know the moms of three kids in her class.

Dylan at 7 months

Dylan is now 7 months old. He started solid food slowly, but now eats everything I have given him so far. He is now sitting up pretty well on his own, though he still has a tendency to fall backwards.

He loves sitting up and playing with toys, or just watching big brother and sister play. He is still a very mellow, easy going baby. When he cries, it is because he is hungry or tired, though it isn't always easy to put him down for a nap.

Often in the morning we are off doing something with the big kids so he gets short naps in the car on the way to the park or swim classes, not the 1 to 2 hr that he really needs. But he does sleep well at daycare in the afternoon. He is starting to occasionally sleep though the night, none too soon for me. Sleep is one thing I miss with having a baby, but it won't be that long before he is no longer a baby.

Show Time

On Sunday night Gina finally had her big show for dance class. She was so excited about wearing makeup and wearing a tutu in the show. She had a dress rehersal Sunday morning and then the big show in the evening.

I had planned on taking Andrew to the show as well and he said he wanted to go. Gina had been showing him parts of the dances. But once Denise showed up to take care of Dylan, all Andrew wanted to do was stay and play with Denise.

The show was very cute. The girls looked so tiny up there on stage. When Gina's group came on stage for their Broadway Baby number, all the girls were looking very intently at their teacher giving signs of the different steps they were supposed to do.

In between each Tiny Tots number they had dance numbers by the junior and senior performing groups. They were very good and fun to watch. One of the girls had started out as a Tiny Tot at age 4 and had been dancing with the studio for 14 years.

After the show we collected Gina from the dressing room looking a little shell-shocked. She got flowers from her preschool teacher who had also come which she loved but wouldn't let us take any pictures of her. Once home and after a little pizza she was back to her old self, dancing around the house and smiling.

Future Scrapper?

Gina got a scrapbook kit from Uncle Steve for her birthday. She has been diligently decorating the cover and one page with stickers and drawings but today I finally got some photos that she could use, various photos from her birthday. She spent the morning carefully cutting the photos, gluing them on the page and then adding stickers. I tried to subtly offer suggestions which she mostly ignored. She definitely had her own idea of what she wanted and was very proud of the results. She already raids my scrapbook supplies for her art projects; I guess I'll just have to buy more.

Rancho Hike

Today I decided to take the kids on a hike at Rancho, the hike I used to do twice a week with the kids in the stroller. Now it is two kids in the stroller and one kid walking. Gina was game to walk up the hill but started getting tired half way up. So Andrew took a turn walking up the hill while Gina rode in the stroller. At the top of the hill the kids pointed out an old tree that looked like a dragon.

They liked seeing all the animals at the farm but past the farm they were both very tired and each wanted to ride in the stroller so they were switching every five minutes or so. It took awhile but eventually we made it back to the parking lot.

Later in the evening the kids wanted to go outside and make bubbles. If you look real close at Gina you can also see that her bangs are missing. While I was changing Dylan and Vic was occupied, Gina found some baby fingernail scissors and decided that she really didn't need to have bangs anymore. I walked into the room to see a small pile of hair on the floor. Thank goodness she didn't try to give Andrew a haircut.