Eastmonte Park - Take 2.

Here I am warming up my dance moves to "Up on the Housetop".  Later on, I rocked it out Santa Style with Mr. Richard, as you can see below.

Moms4Moms Christmas Party - Eastmonte Park

Here I am playing a Christmas Tree bean bag "toss".  Or, at least that is what it is supposed to be. I decided it was okay to make it a Christmas tree drop-it-in.

I also discovered this giant baseball and quickly made a new friend out of it. I gave it a Christmas party hug.  I tried to encourage it to come dance with me, but it didn't want to move.

 

A "New" Zoo

Goodbye Preschool . . . Hello Summer!

Mom is just about as organized as me, so these posts are never in chronological order. Here are some pics and video of my preschool graduation. Mom says her favorite part was seeing my little egg-shaped belly make an appearance every time I raised up my arms during one of our little dances.

Here I am with my teachers Mrs. Compton (right) and Mrs. Guariello (left).  Both of these precious teachers were truly hand-picked by God for me this year.  I am so blessed to have had them because this was also their LAST year of teaching. They both retired directly after my preschool performance! :)  Then, as a special bonus for me, I ran into Mrs. Compton at the grocery store later that day.  I was so excited that I was jumping up and down when I saw her.

Here I am (above) marching in to start our performace.  We sang "It's a Small World" and each of us held the flag of a different country.  I held Great Britain's flag and Mrs. Compton held Germany's flag which is ironic because she's actually 100% Irish - direct from Ireland. Mom says I was the most joyful looking student in the whole class.

After my performance we headed to home to start summer! Look what was waiting for me at the front door!  I guess it's official - summer is HERE!

"One" Amazing Little Boy!

To say that March was a busy month for our family would be a gross understatement.  Besides the fact that we have 4 family birthdays during this month, we also had 2 surgeries in our family:  I had my tonsils/adenoids removed and mom had 3D LASIK eye surgery. Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of the month a very important milestone finally arrived:  Wesley had his 1st Birthday!! While I was at school mom and dad took him to Toys R' Us for a little birthday exploration and here are some of the pictures.
"Hey! That animal's nose is awfully long!"

It's as if he's saying, "This guy right here is the one who's gonna get suckered into buying me this huge, red, crayon! Quick! I need to find a white wall to test this thing!" 

Of course, in the end, he spent most of the morning checking out toys with wheels.  Mom made the theme for his birthday party "tires and wheels".  The cake had black icing and looked just like a wheel.  She invited her friend Margo to come take pictures, so some of those will be up later.

 

When my family picked me up from school we headed out to the park to continue Wesley's birthday celebration.  He loves "cruising" around, but hasn't taken any unassisted steps quite yet. We topped off our time at the park with a breakfast-for-dinner birthday feast at IHOP.  Then, in case eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes and bacon weren't enough unhealthy food for one day, we came home and celebrated by giving Wesley his first cupcake ever!  Here's what he thought:
 

Minor Surgery . . . Major Pain!

Some kids spent spring break this year doing fun things like going to the beach, visiting family or theme parks, but not me.  No, my mom decided that since my tonsils and adenoids had to come out that we should schedule the surgery at almost the same moment spring break started so I wouldn't have to miss any school for the recovery.  Yeah, it took almost 14 days to get through the pain and about 15 days to forgive my mom for ruining spring break. I drooled a lot during recovery because it hurt to swallow.  Grandma came up from Naples to help out and boy I was glad she did!  She brough crafts to make, pop beads for making jewelry (see the necklace around my drool bib?), and while she was here she bought me my first pair of clip-in earrings.  They had cats on them, of course.  Mom and dad really relaxed the rules a lot and spent lots of extra time hugging me and snuggling with me to help me get through the pain.  The round-the-clock Tylenol with codeine and the Motrin may have helped a bit, too. 

Dad read me lots of stories to help pass the time and since his birthday came around during my spring break/recovery period we decided to celebrate in a special way.  Mom and dad took me to see "The Lorax" movie in 3D while Grandma and Wesley celebrated at home with a nap in dad's honor.    

 

Easter!

For Easter this year we gathered at Moatsie and Daddy Ron's house.  This will be the last year we celebrate Easter at this house because they are moving in just a few weeks.
We started Easter morning out the right way by having some mini bunny pancakes.  Mom even made dad's waffle into a bunny shape.  She learned this cutting pattern from Moatsie many years ago.  They were so cute I didn't want to eat them.
Audrey helped set the Easter table and put a party favor at each place setting with a name card, too!  We had a great Easter brunch before the egg hunt started. Moatsie had a friend from work who made the 2 Easter cakes we shared for dessert later in the day.  Yummy!  As you can see, Dad wanted one of the cakes all to himself. Please don't worry, he did not, in fact, eat that whole cake.  Before we started the egg hunt we managed to get 1 good shot of 3 out of 4 cousins donning Easter costumes.  Cousin 4 is MIA in this picture because he was trying to start a fire with a magnifying glass and, to be honest, 11 year-olds don't think that duck costumes, bonnets or bunny ears are very cool.  Someday, I hope Wesley will forgive mommy for making him wear the baby duck costume.  In fact, he kinda liked it!  We all found a bunch of Easter eggs on our hunt and Wesley and Moatsie found an egg or two that Wesley could eat while the rest of us found eggs.  The day ended with a great group picture of the grandkids and grandparents.  What a Spring it has been!

First Fridays!

Whenever it works out for everyone's schedule, we try to get together with a small group of the same friends each "First Friday" of the month.  Most recently we got together on Good Friday and had some Good Times. Lots of kids and toys (see above)

 Lots of smiles! (Well, at least one of these faces!) - "But I don't wanna hug Aunt Kimmie . . . She got a moustache!" (That's for you, Kim)

Five Friends For Fun!

Wesley checked out the race car swing in the backyard while . . . .

The Kids enjoyed making Resurrection Rolls with Mrs. April - Everyone was amazed at how that marshmallow disappeared!  What  a perfect Good Friday activity.

Wesley thought the best part was watching Uncle Kenny bounce that ball all night. Pure entertainment, Mom - Pure entertainment! - "Uncle Kenny - do it again!"

As if food, toys, friends and resurrection rolls weren't enough - we died Easter eggs, too! Most of the eggs turned out pretty light in color because, well, let's face it - playing on the swingset is just much more fun than holding an egg in the water in a plastic cup. 

And well . . . . this pic isn't from First Fridays but it's so cute.  It just needed to be included.  In about 3 seconds after this picture, I took that remote control and CLOCKED! Daddy right in the nose.  Ah, good times, Dad, good times.

Flannel Fashionista!

 My mom's cousin Melanie made this blanket for me and I sleep with it every night.  Recently, I decided it would double quite nicely as a dress, so I tied it (with a little help) over my shoulder, added some fabulous shoes and a hat (we MUST accessorize) and VOILA! I was ready for the runway.

All Things Spring!

 We celebrated my brother's first birthday and my Aunt Janet, Grandma, and Grandpa came up for the occasion.  Here I am with Aunt Janet doing one of our favorite things to do together:  ART! I usually like to draw my own thing, but when Aunt Janet is there I like to copy whatever she's making.  We made a lot of rainbows this time.