Tumbling

We signed Elsie up for a tumbling class through the local school system. We have gone to one lesson so far and she did really good job following directions. She tried to do all the things the teacher asked her to do. She liked it a lot and was excited to come home and try out some of the moved here. She learned about her chin keeper...the spot at the base of your neck that your chin goes to when you bend your hear forward. By putting her chin in her chin keeper she is able to do somersaults now and they did not even get that far in class. All they did in class was stretch and walk like a variety of animals. Oh and the ball trick at the end which is what I took the picture of. By the way I bought a new pair of leggings for her to wear there. They are black so I will not have to change her shirt to match the crazy striped ones I already have.

The two of us

It is just the two of us most of the time during the week. So I thought I should take a picture once in a while to document our togetherness. Elsie is such an amazing person and we are so blessed to have her. She makes my days happy and full of intersting things...even playing go fish 3 times in a row is fun with her!

Conducting

One day Elsie took some chop sticks and started conducting with them. She then went to the trash can and stood behind it like it was a music stand or something. It was so cute.

Sledding on the grass

Elsie decided she wanted to go sledding. This would have been a great idea if there had been snow. There was no snow so she carried the sled up the hill and sat down on it and was very disappointed that it did not move. After a minute she got up picked it up and walked it back down the hill! All she had to so was wait a few days and poof there was snow!!

Strait hair

Here is an example of Elsie usually strait hair along with a few other cute shots.

Scripture at Church

Elsie is now in Sunbeams. This is when the little kids start going to Sunday school in our church. As part of Sunday school the kids take turns giving a little talk, a scripture and a prayer. Elsie was assigned the scripture a few weeks ago. Her dad wanted her to memorize it and so we got started early. She did great and memorized the whole thing. Then she got sick and could not go to church and so she did not get to go to the podium and talk into the microphone. It was a sad day for all of us as we were all excited for her to do it. This is what did one night to help prepare.

Curly Hair

Elsie has expressed interest several times in having curly hair. I wear my hair curly at least once or twice a week maybe more if I am being lazy. But Elsie did not get any of my curl. So we got some sponge rollers and put them in her hair overnight. They turned out great but by the end of the day she was done having curly hair. It was funny how tight the curls started and then how they got longer and longer as the day progressed. I think I will have to experiment to figure out where to place the curlers too. But over all it was fun and we might do it again sometime soon.

Spanish Preschool

Will and I are going to put Elsie into a Spanish immersion preschool. We had thought about it last year and I got as far as sending an email about pricing and never got a reply. We also decided that 3 was not the right age to put her into preschool because both of us needed more time at home. Well now we are ready, I guess. We found the preschool at a safe kids fair and they seemed really great. After going to a free trial day and comparing it to other preschools we decided to try it. Elsie starts the 21st of March and will go for the rest of the school year until the end of May.

The teachers speak completely in Spanish. Even when Elsie was visiting the teacher did not say anything in English. Elsie did really well for a first day. She repeated words back to the teacher and followed instructions...mostly by watching what the other kids did. She even has said some words out of the blue since the class but she has no idea what they mean. But we are excited to try it. We plan on seeing how the three days a week go. It will be in the afternoon and it is a little far away from home. So I will have a lot of driving to do. The class is 3 hours long and so if I go home and back again I will only have about 2 hours and 20 minutes at home. But I am sure it will be worth it sometimes. If we stick to it I might join a gym down by her school so I can work out. It will be cool to have Elsie and Will speaking Spanish and hopefully I can understand it enough to not be too far in the dark.

I am not sure if I am ready for this. I am little worried I will be taking too much of her free time away from her. Will pointed out to me that she is awake for about 84 hours a week including weekends and so 9 hours of that in school is not that much. At the school they learn by play anyways. They read stories, play game and do crafts all while learning Spanish. It is a really neat way to learn I think. So I will keep you posted on how it is going. They say the little minds learn it way faster then any of us can.

Spring is coming

Spring is coming to our neck of the woods. The crocuses are starting to come up and the tulip leaves and other bulbs are emerging. We are very excited about this. The days are getting warmer and we are able to walk to the park when we have the time. It has even rained a little bit. These photos were taken a few days ago and yes we did get snow recently but it is mostly melted by now.

The dentist

The dentist is old hat for Elsie. I think this was her third visit. But I realized I never took a photo of her there and if I take a photo I have to put it up here! The first time she went she cried, would not let go of me and hardly let the girl clean her teeth. But the second time she was a dream. She has had lots of x-rays taken of her teeth and so far no cavities. I am still hoping she has her fathers teeth as mine are not that great!

Valentines Day

Our valentines day was fun this year. Not very eventful but fun. Elsie and I hosted palygroup that morning. Then I had a few appointments so Will's mom came down to watch Elsie for me. Elsie decorated Will's valentine card some more. We had already sent one out to all her cousins and a few aunties the week before. Elsie and I had been shopping for gifts for daddy for valentines day and she did not understand the holiday so I told her sometimes people buy gifts for each other to say how much they care. She immediately pipes up "then you and daddy should go buy me something...grandma can come watch me and you can go to the store". Or something like that.

I wanted to give the gifts to Elsie with Will there but I waited as long as I could. Will got home late that night. I hid her gifts and we played the hot cold game to help her find them. It was fun she really got how it works. Will finally got home just as Elsie was going to lay down so she stayed up for a minute more to watch him get his presents. He did not give me anything but I did not expect anything. His gift was a very practical laundry organizer and a fun game I just happened to come across at a local thrift store! I was really excited about the game because it is probably not made any more and it happens to be a trivia game on one of Will's favorite TV shows M*A*S*H. He likes it a lot. We did not go out to eat or anything but we did mail order some of our favorite BBQ in from Kansas City!

Feb 13th car ride

Well the weather was nice on the 13th of Feb. It got all the way up to 60 so Will insisted that we go for a ride with the top down. Elsie complained the whole time that she was cold. We of course had on light jackets and we put the windows up but there is no window by the back seat to go up. So she had a lot more wind than we were getting so I can understand why she was cold. Will did not want to put the top up but he did so Elsie would be happy and warm!! He loves his car so much.

Dancing

Elsie loves to dance. She also loves to dress up in her wedding dress!! Yes every since her aunt got married she has called this dress her wedding dress. Here she is with a crown on dancing away. She often insists we dance in that one spot in the kitchen/dinning area. She likes me to play her little piano too so she can sing and dance to the music. She is just too cute.

Valentines Party

Here is a shot from the preschool party while they were playing some games. They also did a few crafts and ate a lot of heart shaped food. We had a heart shaped fruit pizza which I made. We had heart shaped pink bread also homemade by me and then just some heart shaped bologna and cheese. We almost did not go to it since Elsie was a little sick but the other moms told me all their kids were sick to so it made no difference!! I hope she did not infect anyone.