First Day of Summer Camp!

Laina started summer camp this week! We're very excited about camp. She will be going 5 days a week except for those weeks where I decide to keep her home for a Mommy/Laina day. They program has so many fun activities and field trips that are scheduled and Laina is just so excited about every last one of them. Her camp is for children who are entering kindergarten, first and second grade in our town. We have 2 elementary schools so half the kids at camp will end up at one school and half will end up at the other school. The camp itself takes place right at Laina's elementary school. She will become so familiar with the building that by the time kindergarten starts, there should be no problems with the transition. A lot of her daycare friends have also transitioned over to camp so she already knows a handful of kids there. They were these bright yellow t-shirts on field trip days to make the group easily identifiable. So far she is just loving camp and all that it has to offer. What a great program. We feel so fortunate to have this opportunity for Laina.

Strawberry Pickin'

Strawberry picking is something Laina and I had never done before. When Laina was little she was allergic to berries so of course we weren't going to pick them. Then last year when she was finally able to eat them, I didn't realize it was berry picking season until it has come and went. So this year I was on top of things and we had our first berry picking experience. Wow were those berries good. We love strawberries from the store - but once you've had a fresh picked berry its hard to imagine eating ones from the grocery store again! Laina loved being able to just pick a strawberry or two, or three, or four, or five....and just eat them there in the fields. We had a great time and we all enjoyed the 'fruits of our labor' so to speak!

Sprinkler Fun

After a fun outing to the zoo, we spent the afternoon running through the sprinkler at Auntie Di's house. Laina has never been a big fan of water splashing in her face. Baths, showers, the pool, you name it - she has not ever liked it when water has gotten in her face. So after a good half hour avoiding the sprinkler, she finally started running through the water to cool off.

A Day At The Zoo

During our visit to Auntie Di's house we went to the zoo and had an awesome visit. Laina wore her giraffe ensemble and fit in perfectly at the zoo. She got so many compliments on her outfit - it was very cute. We had a nice time walking around and looking at all the different animals. It was a pretty hot day and the zoo has various misting stations which Laina really enjoyed and even Auntie Di got in on the action!

Nicole Graduates from High School

My little niece has graduated from high school! How can this be? It seems like just yesterday she was that adorable little 2 year old that I lived with and loved playing with and buying clothes and things at the dollar store for her (since that's all I could afford at the time!). Now she's a beautiful young woman who is all grown up and getting ready to head off to college.

Dianne and I always commented after Laina was born that Nik would be heading off to college the same year that Laina heads off to kindergarten and sure enough, here we are.

Congratulations Nicole! I'm so proud of you!!!

Cooking Up China

At school Laina takes a cooking class and the session they are currently in is called cooking around the world. The teacher picks a different part of the world each week, teaches the kids about it and they cook one dish from that country. They generally have a sample to take home and share with their family at dinner time. It's a great class and Laina loves it so much. We have sampled pizza and tomato & mozzarella salad from Italy, desserts from Australia and other fun goodies.

I thought it would be a neat idea to try this at home with something I've been wanting to make here for a while anyway - egg rolls! So I found a great web site and printed off lots of fun, kid friendly activities about China. We learned lots of great things about the Chinese New Year and the zodiac. Laina loved learning who was the year of the rat, pig, bunny, etc. She asked me every possible persons birth year and charted out who was what animal and then figured out which animal had the most. We really had a great time.

Then it was on to cooking egg rolls. Laina helped me cook the filling and then scoop it into the egg roll wrappers and roll the egg rolls. We decided to bake the egg rolls to make them a little bit healthier for us. They came out really good. Not quite as good as a good old fried egg roll but...we still enjoyed them. Well Joe and I enjoyed them. Laina did not care for them. But she sure did have fun making them!

Full Dress Rehearsal

It's the day before the big dance recital and Laina and her class have their full dress rehearsal. This is the performance that I like best. I like it the best because I get to actually watch it. On the day of the recital, everything is just way too hectic and I don't feel comfortable leaving the backstage area to go out and watch Laina dance so instead I just watch from the big screen TV during the real recital.

For the dress rehearsal, everything is just a big calmer. There aren't as much people because you only have to be there for your child's portion of the rehearsal. You can get a front row seat and take as many pictures as you want. You can video the whole performance. At the real recital, no cameras are allowed.

Here are a few cute pictures of Laina and her friends getting ready, out on stage, giving big kisses and then afterward one of Laina and her buddy Elle with their teacher, Ms. Nicole.

In Bloom

I love these pictures of Laina. I know I'm her Mommy but I just think she's such a beautiful little girl. And she certainly loves posing for the camera.

And our rose bush, also known as Bonnie, is blooming! Hooray! Joe and Laina planted Bonnie last year and we weren't sure if she would come back this year with the harsh winter but sure enough she did!