July Fourth

For July fourth we went to a parade! It was so fun and Elsie got a ton of salt water taffy...a lot of which I have just thrown out. I can't remember but I think Will went to play golf with his father and brother while we were at the parade with grandma. Elsie made the hat she is wearing in Spanish preschool, which she was excited to wear, but it soon came off. We saw lots of bands and floats as well as some military veterans. What an amazing thing to live in a country that has so much freedom and has been that way for so long. 

We left a little before the parade ended and headed over to the pool at grandma's condo. Elsie loved swimming and we had a great time. I honestly don't recall what we did for the rest of the day I guess just hung out. This is the problem I run into when trying to blog a month or two later but I have a good excuse this time. The external hard drive that we had out photos on crashed and we did not have all of them backed up so we had to send it away to get it all back! It was sad but they did a great job and to my knowledge they got it all back.

Swimming lessons

Elsie has taken swimming lessons from 3 different teachers this summer. First we had her in a small group lesson and then we arranged with two different teachers inexpecive private lessons. I only have pictures from two of the teachers but I guess that will have to do. She also got to go down the slide at the end of one of her lessons. It was funny because she was actually quite terrified to go off the end but she kept doing it so I guess it was not that bad. Oh and she can swim!!! All those lessons paid off and she can swim now!

Girls Hike

A group of ladies I know got together at the beginning of the summer to go for a hike. It was a fun hike until the end and then it got steep and we had to take a lot of breaks. But I still liked the work out. The waterfalls were so pretty at the top. After we were down we went to get some lunch together too. A great morning activity. 

Summer music camp

At the beginning of the summer Elsie took a music class for 2 weeks. It was a fun little camp and she learned some fun songs and some basic scales and rhymes. She loved it. But sadly she can not do it this fall as the teacher is doing it when she will be in school!

Is that grandma??

Will's mom invited us to her work summer cookout and it was really fun. She was in charge of game and so when they did the pie eating contest she got to participate!! It was so fun to watch and she almost won! She was definitely got the sliver metal.

The friend Birthday Party

Elsie had such a fun friend birthday party! At least we think she did I hope the kids went home happy too! She wanted to do a royalty party. So Kings, Queens, Princesses, and Princes were all at her party. That is to say a bunch of little kids came over and had crowns and robes and lots of fun stuff like that. We had a royal treasure hunt, a castle pinata and cupcakes. And this time I let people bring presents. I figured that she had been to enough parties where kids got presents so I should let her have a turn!

Elsie's Birthday

Elsie had a fun birthday...she got 3 small gifts at intervals throughout the day and one more after dinner. Will would call or text and tell her to look in a certain room or area to get her to hunt for the next gift. She loved it! Will's mom and brother Levi met us at Chick-fil-a (Elsie's choice or course) for dinner and then we went home for cake after. She loved playing in the play area. To top off a great day she got to decorate her own cake with as many sprinkles are she wanted! 

My baby is five!!!!

Yes my little girl turned FIVE today!!!!

Florida

We had so much fun on our trip to Florida last week. It was just Elsie and I as it was a girls plus kids week!!! We hung out a lot in our PJ's, we went to the the beach and swam and played, read scriptures and books together at night, the moms made crafts after the kids where asleep, we went to the pool, we made a cake, and we went to the beach again!! There were a few other things we did like go to a cool playground and discovery center. But mostly we just hung out and had fun. Unfortunately Kharin's girls got a quick fever bug and each had a day of laying in bed but so far only her third has gotten it (the baby which is sad) but Lehilina's two and Elsie have not gotten it. We miss our friends and the fun but not the humidity!!

That is Mandy O on the ipad she was there in spirit with myself, Lehilina and Kharin.

Los Seis Cerditos

Los Seis Cerditos or the six little pigs, is the name of Elsie's preschool play for this spring. It was very cute. They took the three little pigs and tweaked it a bit. Elsie got to be the mother pig or Mama Cerdito. She had 4 or so lines she had to memorize and did a great job with it as usual. She even helped a few of the shyer kids with their lines too. She gets in to the songs they sing and she dances and does the actions for the words too. It is very cute. Spanish preschool is going great. She is making great progress and even talks more at home now!

teacher gifts

The school year has ended. Here is the cute teacher gift we did this year. I used a tomato past can and a box of 24 crayons. After I emptied out and cleaned the cans I glued the crayons on with a hot glue gun. I think they look cute and can be used for a pencil holder or something after the candy is all gone. 

Cinderella and the glass slipper

Daddy was out of town for the weekend a few weeks back at a management training so we took advantage and went to see Cinderella and the glass slipper. There is a small children's theater here and they put on shows for kids. This one did not have any children in it but I guess some of their other productions do. Elsie sat very still and seemed to like it. I only thought last minute to tell her it was not the Disney version with the mice and birds and all the singing but I still think she liked it. The Fairy Godmother part was pretty cool so that helped. After it was over she said that the mice that they had were not real...I said how do you know and she did not respond. I guess she was thinking it over. For the record they were not real at all. They were in a cage to start with then the Fairy Godmother took them out and placed them by each side stage door so the coachmen she turned them into could jump out of the curtains as soon as she said the magic words! It was cute. But the mice did not run away when she was backing up and saying the spell so they were obviously cat toys. It was a fun night and afterwards we went to Costco for pizza one of Elsie's favorites!

Gymnastics

We have been hosting a gymnastics class at our house for the last several months. Elsie first took it through a local community education program but then we found enough kids to have that teacher come to us one morning a week. It has been great but all great things must end right?? Well maybe not but this has ended and may or may not start again in the fall. 

Golf

We went to the driving range together one cool spring evening. Elsie loved hitting the ball with her mini club her dad made for her. Daddy gave her a little lesson too. I just stood back and took lots of photos!

Photo shoot

We had some friends take some photos of us as a family...because we are applying to adopt through LDS Family Services and need to have some good images. We are done with most of the paper work but now are waiting for the background checks to come back and to have the case worker compile out home study. We are very excited!! (Sorry if we have not told you previously but life has been busy for us.)