Swimming Lessons with Miss Stephanie

Emma was so excited to start swim lessons with Miss Stephanie again. Allison, on the other hand, not so much! For each lesson she was sad and didn't want to get in the pool. I thought it was crazy because she loves to swim, just not when you called it a "swim lesson."

Emma got in the pool to help her feel more comfortable. They would start with big kicks on the side of the pool. They would play Red Light, Green Light, Yellow Light, Purple Light, Orange Light. The extra lights were different kicks, such as frog kick. Allison liked that game.

After about 5 minutes she was totally fine and enjoying her lesson. She was the master negotiator with Stephanie though. She would work it so she would only have to swim a set number of laps before they would do something Allison wanted to do. They would swim back and forth gathering coins and negotiating for the 30 minute lesson.

Stephanie shows just how well Allison did...one-handed swimming!

Check out all those coins she gathered!

Time to dry off...lesson's over!

Sydney helped her count the coins she gathered while Emma started her lesson. 22 coins! Wow Allison! That was swimming 22 laps!

Emma worked on her breast stroke.

She also worked on back stroke (one of her favorites).

Her other favorite was the butterfly. Miss Stephanie told her, "Wow, Emma! I think you learned that in like 3 seconds!" She was so proud of herself.

Time to practice dives too!

June 30, 2010

Recital Time Again!

Recital hair...BEFORE!

Recital hair...AFTER! Much better :)

Do we have to do recital hair again???

I love me recital hair!

Annie came to have Auntie Mo do her hair along with Emma, Allison and Sydney. Thanks so much for all or your help Monica!

Our beautiful girls are ready to DANCE!

One of my favorite pics!

Let the show begin! Allison, Emma, Sydney and Jenna are ready to head back stage.

When we sat down to watch the show Ms. Deborah came on stage and said there would not be a formal video made this year. She said we could video our own shots. I was disappointed because I wasn't prepared to video. I had my camera to try and capture a few still shots, but that's it. As a result I don't have any still shots of their dances, but I do have the follow videos, that aren't the best quality, but show the girls in action. Copy and paste the links into your browser because they aren't linked to go directly to the site. Enjoy!

Emma's "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa5w4r9PxCs

Allison's "I've Got Something to Tell You" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnuxCIP1Oo

Emma's "Finding Alice" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu8bXO1kuDw

This was a fun "caterpillar" dance during the show. The girls costumes even glowed!

Curtain call! The girls come out for one last bow.

A stage full of dancers.

Allison's amazingly wonderful teacher, Ms. Barb along with her assistant, Miss Alex.

Emma's ballet/tap teacher, Ms. Michelle.

The dance studio's owner, Ms. Deborah and Emma's jazz/hip hop teacher, Ms. Holly.

Fun photo with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Carl. Grandma Judy made the girls lollipop bouquets!

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Rex's fun photo turn.

Allison, Annie and Emma

Emma, Jenna, Allison and Sydney show off all their new little trinkets and treats.

I was so proud of my little dancers. They looked so beautiful up on that big, bright stage!

Grandma Sue gave the girls a recital gift...books and a chocolate covered rice crispy treat. Yum!

Night #2! The girls were showered with more gifts from teachers and friends.

That bouquet is almost bigger than Jenna!

Allison was so proud of her flowers from Daddy. He came to the 2nd show for Allison because he was working the day before. He brought Emma to watch Allison's show in the afternoon and then he brought Allison back to watch Emma's show in the evening. I was back stage for both of the Sunday shows. It was a weekend full of recitals!!! The girls were in all 4 shows! Allison was in the 2 matinees and Emma was in Saturday's matinee and Saturday and Sunday's evening shows.

Emma's special flowers from Allison and Daddy.

The girls were exhausted after 2 days of dancing and 3 recitals later! Whew! They were really just pretending to sleep here :)

June 26-27, 2010

Last Day of 1st Grade!

How can may baby girl be all done with 1st grade? She is growing way too big way too fast! We decided to take a few last day of school pictures in the backyard before bringing the 2009-2010 school year to a close.

My beautiful baby girl!

At Unity they gave all the kids that stayed on green all year long a "great green" bracelet. I was able to catch a quick picture of Emma as she walked up to accept her bracelet from Mrs. Woods.

When Unity was over, we headed back to the classroom. Shortly after we presented Emma's teachers with their end-of-the-year gifts. We asked each of the parents for a small donation to purchase the gifts. The response was overwhelming. We collected over $500 and were able to give all the teachers very special gifts.

First, the kids presented cards to each of the teachers they had all signed. Then we presented them each with a pedicure. Next, we gave each teacher a leather bound book I made with all the kids' pictures and their most favorite kindergarten or first grade memory. Emma presented her book to Mrs. Quintana.

Mrs. Walker shared one of the book's pages with the class. It even happened to be the page with Emma on it! Her favorite part of 1st grade was going to P6 for Sneak Peek!

The next gift was a box handed to Mrs. Walker. She pulled the "pull me" tab and out came dollar bill after dollar bill. It was an endless amount of pulling that resulted in over $100 in cash for the teachers to spend on their classroom. Every 10 bills there was a piece of paper in the shape of the bill that said something like, "to use on Lola supplies," or "to purchase craft/art materials," or "for science experiments." It was such an amazing gift idea that Lora put together. The kids absolutely loved how the money just kept coming and coming and coming!

Check out that excitement!

Emma and Kaitlyn

Emma got a hug from Mrs. Adams. After the teachers opened all their gifts, they had a gift to give all the students. Lora made DVDs of pictures throughout the year for the teachers to give all the students. The students each got to walk up, receive their DVD and give all the teachers a hug. So sweet!

Next it was on to center time. Lora planned out the gift ideas and I planned out the center ideas. The kids played Bug Bingo (Emma won, can you tell?!), made red, white and blue star decorations, made buggy hats and made red, white and blue bread and jam stars.

Mrs. Walker

Mrs. Adams

Mrs. Quintana

Mrs. Magana

Cute buggy hats!

School's out! Time for pictures with more of our favorite teachers! First stop, Jenna's dad, Mr. Kirchner who teaches 5/6.

Off to see Mr. Hepner, the amazingly wonderful Facilities Director. Jessika joined the picture parade here.

Mrs. Powers teaches 5/6.

Emma was beginning to melt and whine about her feet on our picture parade. Lora took a quick moment to give her a pep talk and then we were back in action. Thanks Lora!

Back to smiles again!

Mrs. Stewart, TLC's Director.

My partner in crime, Lora, helped put together a very memorable day for our girls and their teachers. Thank you for all of your tireless efforts! You're the best!

When school was over we were invited to Lora's house for an afternoon of swimming with the kids! First they all ate lunch on their towels. I purchased a special Baja Fresh lunch for Emma, Allison, Sydney, and Camden.

Splash time! The kids loved eating watermelon while swimming in the pool too!

Sydney S., Sydney H. and Emma

Allison decided to finish eating her lunch by sitting on my lap and making me all wet!

Emma and Jessika

Jenna and Emma

When all their friends were gone, Camden, Sydney, Allison and Emma had a bit more swim time with just the 4 of them.

Time to wrap up the day. All clean, in jammies and reading a book. How much fun did we have today?!?!

June 25, 2010