Easter happenings

It's a gray day in our half acre woods...we woke up to thunderstorms this morning. Good thing the Easter Bunny left Parker's basket of loot on the patio. He left her the standard stuff....a stuffed animal, assorted candy, etc. Her favorites so far are the Polly Pocket Princess dolls. Apparently they're pretty progressive for princesses, since she's about to take them for a soak in her Polly Pocket Hot Tub.

Since today's weather is damp and yuck, I'm glad we frontloaded our Easter activities. Kids were off school on Friday, so I had some friends over for egg dying and lunch. We glazed ceramic eggs, dyed easter eggs and had a lunch with seperate tables for moms and kids.

Outdoor egg dying

Holly in an egg glazing trance.....

Kids lunch table....

Mom's lunch table. I caught Allie with her eyes shut, sorry Allie!

We had roasted veggie and goat cheese sandwiches, cucumber/tomato salad, and a mixed greens salad, fruity iced tea, and fizzy wine.
Afterward the moms hung around and visited while the kids played. It was a great way to burn a non-school day.
I wrongly assumed that Parker would be an exhausted tv zombie the rest of the day, but she just kept going. After all the friends left, she jumped on her trampoline for an hour. I was able to get her off the trampoline by suggesting a bike ride. She can peddle UPHILL now without assistance. She's getting stronger and stronger.
I got her off her bike by suggesting an "easter bath"....a bath in the big bathtub, with bubbles and plastic easter eggs thrown in. I drug a bean bag chair in the bathroom with my laptop and surfed the web while she played. She's thrilled with the idea of a holiday bath, and has planned one for all major holidays in the future.
I got her out of the bathtub with the suggestion of making pizza and watching the Dancing With the Stars that I had taped. Bob had to work late friday night, so we were on our own for dinner.
Parker had the idea to sit on the kitchen barstools while we ate, so we did. She loves all the glitz and glamour of DWTS and asks of the girls wearing light dresses "I wonder if that's her wedding dress?". We watch the dances, and then fast forward right to the scores. She has no interest in the judges comments (thank goodness).

Parker also attended the neighborhood easter egg 'hunt'...where they scatter plastic eggs filled with treats out on a field and the kids stampede to get them. She went with her friend Ava, and I'll post pictures of that when I recieve them.

Easter Question

I could google this, but I'd rather get personalized answers. An article in the Dallas Morning News about eggs got me thinking.....what are the German easter traditions? Same as we do here, or different?

Sous-chef

This 'helping' in the kitchen thing is getting better and better. Parker volunteered to help peel shrimp (really just remove the tails) and she did a great job! I got her all set up, and she was able to do it all by herself.
She's also becoming quite skilled at folding towels and dishclothes....but she recognizes that those are a chore, and she requires compensation.
I wonder at what age it will be safe to 'let' her chop onion. THAT will be a great day.

kickball

One of the greatest things about daylight savings time, and about living here, is the impromptu games that erupt in the evenings. Usually it's a bike and scooter rally in the cul de sac, but this day it was kick ball. The kids stay out a little later than normal, and the grownups stand around and chat. Fun times.
The girl in the black shirt has hit that golden age where she's nearly old enough to babysit, and enjoys supervising younger kids, but before she turns into a teenager with a social life. She led the kick ball game. It was very organized....they would sit down in line to kick (where the boy in blue is) and there are existing rules for pitching to and throwing at the little kids. Parker has NEVER shown any interest in playing, but this night, she tried it, and loved it. She kicked the ball and got on base many times. That's her in the drk blue dress under the tree (on 1st). Hopefully this will be one of many fun spring/summer evenings to follow.

Recent artwork

This is a picture parker drew today at school. They've been talking about weather, and this is supposed to represent the weather. She pointed out that the colored dots on the side represent the different weather extremes...good, bad, terrible, etc. Maybe it's a code like the radar uses? She is full of information about lightening and thunder and how to be safe in bad weather.
Speaking of weather, there was bad weather in our area last night, but it missed us. Good thing...they were showing people on the news holding baseball sized hail.

Garden Party

This past weekend we had a "garden party", which was really "garden box building party"...but Garden party sounded more fun and spring-like. Holly and Allie, and their husbands and their kids all came over on saturday, and then men built planters to be used for raised bed gardens and the woman and children sat outside and visited and played and enjoyed the perfect weather.

Building in progress

After the building was complete, we had a potluck dinner, with grilled chicken sausage (grilled by Allie), mango salsa (Holly), beans, coucous salad and deviled eggs. Holly takes deviled eggs everywhere she goes. I guess that's why she's invited to a lot of stuff.
The kids had their own table set up (a cardboard box w/ a table cloth), but they had already run off to play more when I did this picture.

The completed boxes. (They won't always live in the driveway, we're moving them this weekend.)

I didn't get many good pictures of the kids playing together (maybe someone will forward some to me), but they all had a great time and were worn out by evening. Isn't that the best part of a Garden Party?

Get Well Soon Norma!

Parker's "aunt Norma" is under the weather, so we're sending her a get well wish via the blog and the scanner. Parker made this drawing and I scanned it. Parker bestowed her highest honor...hearts drawn around the name.

We hope you are on the road to recovery soon, Norma!!

Oh, snap! She can whistle!

After many months of practice and frustration, Parker can whistle! And when she's really showing off, she snaps and whistles at the same time.


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Next milestone will be either skating, doing a cartwheel, tying her shoes, or losing a tooth. Stay tuned.

Note to CDC:

Perhaps going outside when it's cold and wet DOES make you sick after all. I always thought it was a virus. This is the first time since Christmas that she's had fever.

Today when Parker woke up, she refused breakfast and none of her toys would play right. Sure enough, she had a little fever. She's had an easy day of lounging and watching tv and seems to have recovered and is full of energy again....just in time for bedtime.

More rain pics

This picture was just too cute not to post. This another one i took on Friday when she was playing in the puddles and enjoying her umbrella.

You know it's wet when ducks start to visit. A duck couple strolled through the yard today during lunch. I think they mistook our neighbor's backyard for the lake.

Rainy Day

We've been getting some much needed rain the past few days. I think we're up to 4 inches. And it's cold too, I don't think it's been over 40 since Wednesday. Nasty weather, but it's worth it for free water.
Parker has been a total grump this week, I have no idea why. Maybe the time change has thrown her off....there has been lots of fits and sassiness and attitude and tantrums and crying and attempts to overthrow the ruling party. Not the kind of behavior I was hoping for with spring break coming up. It might be a LONG week next week.
I was done battling over little things, so today she played in the puddles with her umbrella (in 40 degree weather) and then came in and had a nice hot swim in the big bathtub, and then wore her pajamas over to her friends house to play. And we all had a lovely afternoon that hopefully won't result in pneumonia.

Elizabeth Fairy Princess Outfit

I think this might be all the Elizabeth outfits. I'll have to count them up....I still might be missing the Longhorn cheerleader one. This isn't a great picture....next time she wears this I'll try to update. It's an organza-like material over satin, with matching shoes, and a fur accented crown and magic wand.

Jeans and a haircut...2 bits!

Who knew wearing jeans would be photo/blog worthy? It is when it's the FIRST TIME in years. Parker is a liiiitle sensitive about her clothes..how they fit and feel. At the beginning of fall I bought her a pair of jeans, even though I doubted she would wear them. Everybody needs at least one pair of jeans, right? Well finally she gave them a try, and the likes them! She can get past how they feel since she likes how she looks in them, I guess.

She also got a haircut. Just a trim, really, but I had the hair lady blow it out straight, and she was thrilled with her straight hair. She was not a big fan of the "kid cut" salon I took her to though. She cried all the way there and let me know next time she'd prefer to go back to the place in the mall. (across town, of course).

Happy Goforth Day!

I nearly forgot! Hope everyone had a great Goforth Day!

Homeschool Yoga

Last week Parker went off on a yoga tangent. She started doing stretches that she sees bob and I doing, some which resemble yoga poses, and I told her the names of some of them. She really like the idea that they have names.....cat, cow, mountain, etc. She can remember most of them too. I got her a kid's yoga book from the library and she used that to fill in her knowledge gaps.
Since I had not yet acquired the yoga outfit she requested (strappy tank top, fitted shorts), she improvised with her ballet clothes ...and tap shoes.


The next day I dug out her summer clothes and she was thrilled to have a proper outfit. Several outfits actually, which is a big part of the fun....changing clothes.

Notice that all these pics are in the kitchen....since they were taking while I'm prepping and cooking dinner.

Here is the commentary that goes along with the pictures and poses:
"Mom! Look at me! Look! Look at this one! Look! Take a picture! Watch! Watch me! Are you ready for this one! Take a picture! Look! Mom! Mommy! Look"

I have the outtakes uploaded here (click the picture):

Yoga

washing dishes

This would be cute....washing dishes in her ballet outfit, except that she was supposed to be sitting at the dinner table eating.

Here's another one:


It's gotten to the point where I have to wash dishes when she's occupied, or else I have "help".

More Elizabeth outfits

While we were skiing, Bob's parents (Parker's Gigi and Papa) came to stay with her. Gigi brought a tote back stuffed with material and patterns to make Elizabeth more outfits. Parker took a break from ballet-ing to check it out.

The results:
A Party Dress in plaid taffeta with matching headband, and matching shoes. I had to crop this photo because Parker is wearing red glittery high heels along with her nightgown.

A Cow Girl Outfit - With a denim printed top and denim skirt w/ leather (suede?) fringe and glittery red rickrack and matching boots and hat. The hat was 'store bought'...Gigi is such a slacker.

And yes, for those of you scoring at home, I still owe you a couple pictures of outfits from Christmas. I'm hoping these will hold you for a while.

More reading - still photo

Here's another reading picture, her reading to Car Baby, who is clearly a captive audience. She's really loving reading and being read to....we're doing "chapter books" now at bedtime. The Magic Treehouse series is a family favorite. The ironic part is that she HATES going to the library. She prefers that I be her personal shopper for books.

Parker reads Bob to Bob

Here's a little video of Parker reading. These are little books called Bob Books, and they have short sentences with mostly 3-letter words. She's really super proud of herself that she's able to 'read a whole book'. The teacher also sends home little "take home readers" from school and she's doing great with those too.


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EDIT: sorry the first video didn't work, I can't seem to make the Blogger video upload. Hopefully this one works using Dropshots.

Ski Trip

We've just returned from our annual ski trip. This year we went to Steamboat Springs with a group from Bob's work. It was a great trip - Bob and I could really tell that we have improved our fitness levels. I even skied down a Black slope (the hardest) with out getting stuck.
We had Texas-like weather...in that it changed frequently. The first day of skiing it was sunny and relativly warm, but with high winds. The next day there was about 6" of new powder (see trees in background) and it snowed most of the day, with VERY poor visibility and much colder. The third day started out like the day before, but ended up sunny. On the day we left, the temperature at the base was 10F....I'm glad we missed that.

I still haven't mastered smiling with ski goggles on. They smush your cheeks down.