Spring Recital 2013

Beautiful Ballerina

This past Saturday Emily had her spring dance recital. She performed in the mini version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She did a fabulous job in both her tap and ballet routines. She was a little nervous at first, but once she got up on stage she did a great job, just like I knew she could! She was a lucky girl who had 15 family members come to watch her performance and support her with positive thoughts.

She looked so beautiful in her costumes for both numbers. I think she had fun and was glad she had the opportunity to perform. My girl really does love to dance!

I was one proud mommy, and loved every minute of her dance! Thank you everyone who was able to make it to her show! She loves all of you as do I. Thanks for always supporting my girl!
Love,
Kathy

All ready for tap

Aunt Pam and Emily waiting for the show

Tap routine

All ready in first position

Sweet arabesque

What beauties

Darling

Sweetie

Getting ready to bow

Ta da

Soooooo cute!

Auntie Heidi and Teri

Aunt Pam, Grandpa, and Grandma

Aunt Carol, Nana, and Jessica

JuJu

Mommy and her girl

My sweet angel girl

Darling dancer

Titi and Belen

Father's Day 2013

Grandpa and Emily - Happy Father's Day

Well, today was our fourth annual Father's Day fun with mommy, Emily, JuJu, grandpa and grandma! We met at the zoo at 9:30 a.m. and headed on in to see all of the wonderful creatures that there was to see. We had our own personal tour guide, as Emily had the map, and was all set to point us all in the right direction!! :-)

We had a great time seeing the polar bears, the orangutans, birds of prey show, lions, giraffes, and of course the elephants, including baby Lily! Oh, that darling baby elephant is precious!

Probably one of the highlights of Emily's day was riding the zoo train to the Washington Park rose garden and back again, a 25 minute ride round trip! Of course, she got a new stuffed elephant and name key chain in the gift shop too! Then we were off to PF Chang's like we do each year for Father's Day.

We all enjoyed some delicious food, wonderful time with family, and we all loved every minute of it! Grandpa loved his new personalized cooking spatula for his bar-b-que. It is a nice stainless steel one that says #1 Grandpa and also his name on the nice wooden handle.

What a great day, and Emily did a marvelous job walking for 3 1/2 hours...her first zoo trip without a stroller...and was in bed ready for school tomorrow by 7:00 p.m.

Enjoy the fantastic pictures from today, some great animal shots, but most of all some awesome shots of Emily and her grandpa!

Love,
Kathy

Emily in an eagle's nest

Emily loved this duck's buns as it looked for food

Sure cougars look angelic while asleep...

Sweet polar bear

Grandpa and his girl

Emily LOVES these orangutans

Sweet Lily with her mama

FUN!

Such a cute girl

Such a beautiful creature

BIG YAWN!!!

So majestic

Cutie patootie

She loves these baby lion statues

Sleeping cheetahs

Darling

This hawk landed right by us during the show

On the zoo train

Mommy's little beauty!

Sayonara Sundaes with Teacher

Emily and her teacher, Miss Jeannette

Last Tuesday we had a fun evening at Emily's school. It was her end of the year ice cream night and my chance to receive her school portfolio of all of her work from the year. She also gave her teachers their end of the year gifts for being such wonderful teachers. It was fun to see her portfolio and see all of the growth she made this year in Pre-K. She went from barely writing her name to writing more than that now. She can write lots of words, knows all the letters, most of the numbers 0-31, almost all of the shapes, and colors. She is also very excited for Kindergarten next fall as well. Emily has had such a wonderful learning experience at the King's Way Learning Center the past three years and looks forward to moving to the "Big School" now. Her teachers over the past three years have educated her, taught her many valuable lessons, and most of all LOVED her with all of their hearts! Miss.Joia told us that,"Knowing Emily has been life changing." How sweet was that?? WOW!!! Thanks Miss Jeannette, Miss Chris, and Miss.Joia for a super year. Emily will never forget you all. Thanks for loving my girl and helping her grow and help her become the girl she is... all ready for Kindergarten!
Warmly,
Kathy

Emily and Miss Chris

Oh how Emily loves her special Miss Joia

Kindergarten here I come!

Emily's Trampoline

Happy girl!!

Well, today was the day...Auntie JuJu and I got the trampoline up!!! Emily earned her 20 good behavior notes a couple weeks ago, but we have had lots of rain so haven't had 5-6 hours straight to get it done. Today Emily had her professional portraits taken for her dance recital, and then after grocery shopping and lawn mowing, we got started. It took us about 5 hours, and after a lot of sweat and REALLY SUPERB help from Emily, she was finally able jump to her heart's content. For the five hours we worked on it, Emily helped a great deal. She helped hang the springs so we could attach them, she helped with the foam on the poles, she handed us screws, etc.

Yes, it took her three months to earn her 20 notes from school, took us two weeks to get it put together, and five hours to get it up, but it was all worth it, and I would do it again in a minute to see that first look and squeal of delight when she got to jump for the first time.
Enjoy,
Kathy

Step one...done

Step two...done

Step three...done

Step four...done and now she's ready

FUN!!!

Such joy!