First Grade

Alayna's first day of "big kid school" was Tuesday. Now she gets to eat lunch in the cafeteria, have PE and music classes, and be ever so much smarter than those pesky Kindergarteners. (Not that she wasn't already smarter.) I don't want my little baby to grow up. Maybe in 12 years I'll be throwing her out the door, but for now, I just want to make sure she's happy.

Her teacher is Mrs. Goei. She seems very nice, and willing to give Alayna all the hard books she is ready to read.

First day riding the bus:

Reading!

Alayna's favorite things are her books. She looks at all the pictures over and over, she will only go to sleep listening to one of her stories on CD, she loves being read to, and she loves reading to others. One thing I didn't know, was that she could read them silently. We were cleaning the house today, and I got caught up with a magazine article. Alayna was supposed to be cleaning up her room, but she got distracted, too. I didn't hear anything out of her room for a little while, so when I went to see what she was up to, this is what I found. She was halfway through a Junie B Jones book, and she said she read the whole thing, she wasn't just looking at it. It looks like all this practice really is paying off. We had to clean up her room together later, but I was glad to see her doing something new.

The Blanket Tent

Alayna worked on this tent in stages for a couple days last week, then she spent the rest of the week sleeping in it. I had to take pictures of it because I just love taking pictures of her sleeping, and because it was such a creative construction. You can't see the internal structure here, but there were tunnels so she could get in, and get out the other side to get to her CD player. You can see how she built it by stinging blankets between the drawers of the desk and her bed, and then draping a top blanket over the stringers.

CHUCC Broadway Show

Our church's incredible choir put on a Broadway show with as many theatrics as possible. We got a bit of musical theater history, thanks to music director Rodney's excellent narration. Many of the choir members had featured parts, which allowed us to hear everyone in a different way. My parents did Do You Love Me? from Fiddler on the Roof. It was really fun to hear them singing in front of people, by themselves. They did great. Mom said she was nervous, but you couldn't tell. Alayna got to have a small role, too. She danced with her Papa to Greased Lightning from Grease. Alayna's friend Haydn also got to dance. They were so cute together. The little greaser and his little rocker girlfriend, dancing with their grandparents. Some of the pictures are screengrabs from the video, so you'll have to forgive me for the low quality.

Mother's Day Weekend

Okay, I'll admit it, most of the time I work, go home, eat dinner and read with Alayna, watch TV, work, go home, etc. But this weekend was too nice not to do something fun. It's been 70 both days, nice bright sunshine. The clouds are coming in a little, now, but it's nice to warm up after a cold, wet winter. To celebrate the sun, Alayna and I had a little picnic on the porch on Saturday. Alayna got a new swimsuit, and she had to try it on, and then she left it on. After lunch, Alayna played Barbies with Maggie keeping an eye on her.

Then it was off to our Saturday night dinner and Wii at my parents' house (till midnight). My dad kicked Alayna's butt in bowling before she went to bed. Then Jen discovered that you can bowl sitting down and over hand, you just can't score much over 100. Today, our neighborhood group hosted the coffee hour after church, so Alayna got to play on the playground for much longer than usual while I helped clean up.

The Holy Trinity Catholic church down the street from our church has a bunch of painted fish on the fence. As we drive by, Alayna will try to count all of them, but doen't usually get past 30. Today, we stopped so she could count them. Turns out, there are 269 fish! There are a few spaces, so there were probably more originally. Here is my favorite, and one of the ones Alayna said was her favorite:

































I think this fish might have been painted by a boy: note the lightning, and the trees on fire.















We stopped at Shari's for lunch on the way home, and I got a rose, just for being a Mom. That was fun. I guess I get payed for this gig, after all.

A Short Spring Storm

We had a very short storm this evening, but it produced the most beautiful rainbow. It hailed a little, too.

Science Fair

It's amazing to me that my little baby is in elementary school, and able to do more than just walk and talk. The latest evidence that she's not quite so little anymore is that she did a project for the school science fair. She was one of about six in the kindergarten and first grade to do a project. She attempted to make rock candy. I suppose she leaned something about patience, as the crytals still haven't grown much. She made a lovely poster for the fair, though.

Easter 2009

The official Easter portrait.



The Easter Egg hunt at church. They held the hunt inside due to the rain. The very tall munchkin is Pierce, one of Alayna's favorite people. He was the high-schooler in charge of the K-2 egg hunt.
Alayna with Papa and Grandma







Alayna and her doll, Isabella. When we went to get Alayna's Easter dress, there were these really beautiful dresses that came with matching doll dresses. Alayna was heart broken when they didn't fit. So I did the next best thing and made Isabella a dress to match.

Ski Trip

It's high time Alayna learned to ski, or at least so says my sister and her husband. My dad works with someone with a ski chalet near Ski Bowl, so we rented his house for the weekend. It was a lovely and comfortable townhome with an outdoor pool nearby. (I forgot to get photos of us at the pool.) Alayna had her first ski lesson, and she loved it. She was just the cutest ski bunny out there. There was one baby (probably 2 years old) that was out on skis, but Alayna was still the cutest.

Alayna and her instructor headed over to the flat part to practice wearing skis.

One of the first trips down the hill.













Mom and Dad and Alayna in the lodge for a break at lunch.












Jen helped Alayna ski after lunch. It snowed pretty hard intermittently, but it was never miserable. Alayna got pretty tired after they were skiing for a little while, but she was a real trooper for a long time.












One of Alayna's favorite things are icicles. And the community had a lot of icicles. The ones on the tops of the buildings were humongous. Here's Alayna with one of the more managable ones.

After we all got back from skiing, and rested a little while, we went snowshoeing around the lake. Looks like something out of a postcard, doesn't it?

Collins Lake:

Hula!

Alayna's hula skirt and coconuts actually came from Hawaii, so dancing to Lilo and Stitch seems appropriate.

Reading to the baby

Introducing Isabella, the baby Alayna got for Christmas. Today, she finally got her back-ordered matching pajamas. Aren't they so cute together? Thanks, Gramma!

The really hard puzzle

My sister Jen is very smart, and a bit of a ham, and so is my Dad (he's the voice you hear). This is from Alayna's second birthday.

Pictures

This is what happens when you give two 5 year olds a digital camera and tell them to have fun.

Alayna's Valentine's Present

Alayna has been bugging me to paint her nails for a while. So I got some special nail stuff for her Valentine's present. It's sparkly purple nail polish and these really cute nail stickers. She's really happy. Alayna says she looks adorable.