material girl

dahlia had her end of the year dance recital today. she did great. i always get nervous on recital days but luckily dahlia doesn't. she loves to be on stage. i was a backstage mom again and it was fun to hang out with her before her dance. her class did a tap dance to material girl by madonna. it was really cute and pretty complicated for a seven year old. very sassy.

after the recital my whole family came back to my house for dinner and dessert. we grilled chicken and served it with salads and corn on the cob. everything was delicious. we sang happy birthday to my dad. his birthday will be on monday so we had a cake for him.

whew! i am so happy to be done with all our school year obligations. this was the last event. now we can really start our summer.

swimming lessons

we started swimming lessons last friday but we were running late and i didn't get a picture of the kids together before class. mason and dahlia are in the same class. they are taking school age level 3. connor is in preschool level 3. the lessons are at the rose bowl aquatic center. i really like it there. this will be our fifth year of lessons for mason and dahlia. connor started last year. mason and dahlia can swim pretty well but i would like them to learn the correct way to do their strokes. i really wish we had a pool at home so we could all practice.

when our lessons were over we drove over to my sister's house in santa monica. the kids wanted to hang out with their cousins. we walked to menchies and got frozen yogurt. we stayed for dinner and jen and rays friend scarlett joined us. she is really fun. i had a great time talking to her. i think i am starting to relax and realize that summer is here.

the bug collectors

connor and dahlia have been collecting bugs. mostly ants and roly polies. they got these plastic bug containers from kira's birthday party to keep their bugs in. they go outside and check under rocks to find the largest roly polies.

i don't love the bug collecting as much as the bird watching but it is cute to have them playing outside and exploring. connor is especially excited about his roly polies. he has named them joey, chloe, and zoe.

no training wheels

dahlia decided today that she wanted to ride a bike without training wheels. i was worried but miles took off the training wheels and after a couple of tries she was riding her bike! all by herself. miles and i were just shocked at how quickly she picked it up. she is so determined when she wants to do something. go dahlia!

color me mine

dahlia went to a birthday party at color me mine. it is a cute shop where you pick a ceramic item and paint it. then you come back in a week after they have fired it and pick it up. dahila picked out this adorable little penguin to paint. it was not that easy to paint this little guy. i tried to help her out a little bit. she was having fun but she soon got sick from the paint fumes. she is really sensitive to smells. i was thinking this would be a nice place to have a party but i guess it is not for us.

we stayed for cake and then headed home. we are all a little under the weather today.

so grown up

dahlia has been begging me to let her get her ears pierced. i have been reluctant but not because i don't want to have her ears pierced. it is more about the fact that i had no idea how to go about this task. i didn't want to take her to a store in the mall where a teenage girl with no training shot an earring into her. what if they did it wrong? i also thought that having the pediatrician do it would be crazy expensive and i wasn't even sure if our pediatrician did that sort of thing. i ended up reading lots of reviews from yelp and finally decided on a place in the mall called the piercing pagoda. the people that do the piercings are trained and they also sell cute earrings.

we all went to the mall as a family today to watch her get her ears pierced. she was super brave. i couldn't believe it. she didn't even cry. they did both ears at the same time with a piercing gun. they gave her a stuffed dog to hold while they did it. she was great. she said it didn't even hurt as much as a shot from the nurse. wow. i totally cried when i got my ears pierced.

after getting her ears pierced the kids all celebrated by taking a train ride around the mall. it was so funny and cute. there was this little train that was not on a track driving around. miles and i could see them cruising past all the department stores. it was a pretty long ride. i was impressed and they loved it.

dance darling

dahlia all decked out for ballet class

student of the month

dahlia was student of the month and the whole family went to the flag assembly to see her acknowledged. it was cute. her teacher just loves her and said that dahlia is such a good student that she could be student of the month every month.

i am so proud of her. she really is sweet and works very hard. it was nice to see her rewarded.

christmas recital

whew, what a busy day we had yesterday. dahlia had her christmas recital. she did great. i was not really worried about her. she loves to be on stage. she did a tap number to shake santa shake. it is kind of a strange song. i volunteered as a back stage mom this time. she likes having me backstage with her. the kids played hide and seek and watched arthur's christmas while waiting to go onstage. she had two performances at 11:00 and 2:00. most of my family came to see her at the 2 o'clock show. it was very sweet. jen and ray brought her flowers and christina and zena gave her a small gift.

i am kinda of annoyed that i didn't get a really good picture of her in her costume. she looked so cute. everything felt so rushed. we had an hour between shows to get lunch and then we had to be backstage again. oh well. i am so proud of her. she was so good and looked beautiful.

dahlia is six

yesterday was dahlia's sixth birthday. my little angel. she is so sweet. she has grown into such a beautiful independent little girl. i can't believe she is six years old. i know i always say this but really, six! it just makes me want to have another one.

we had a mini celebration for her birthday because her big birthday party is coming up this weekend. i wanted it to be special without going overboard. she had school and i dropped off goody bags for the kids. this seemed easier than making cupcakes for the class. her teacher was gone so it worked out great to just sent some treats home at the end of the day.

i went to whole foods and bought her the most beautiful little cake they had. chocolate cake with white butter-cream frosting. it was delicious and very rich. it had a drawing of a turkey and some flowers on top for thanksgiving. it was so pretty.

miles had the day off from work so he helped me make dahlia's favorite salmon dinner. after we were done with cake we set up the movie projector and air mattress in the boy's room. they watched despicable me while miles and i sneaked off to our room to watch world war z. i fell fast asleep about 30 minutes into the movie as usual.

happy birthday dahlia! i love you so very much.

friendship feast

dahlia had a friendship feast in her kindergarten class today. it was so cute. they all wore their turkey hats and sat down for a feast. they were served turkey sandwiches, cranberry sauce, carrots, corn bread muffins, and pumpkin pie.

poor dahlia is not feeling well and tears started streaming down her face during the meal so i just took her home with me. she didn't really get to enjoy herself. she was still soaking wet from the pouring rain this morning. her teacher was super sweet and told me to keep her home if she was still sick tomorrow. they get all of next week off for thanksgiving. it will be so nice to have the time off from school.

ready for halloween

we had lots of halloween activites today. everyone is getting excited for the big day. connor decorated pumpkins at his preschool. they covered them with different colors of glitter. he loved his little pumpkin. they had a huge display with all the different pumpkins and then he got to take his home.

later at dance class dahlia's teacher told them they could dress up in a costume if they wanted to. she dressed up as snow white. connor didn't want to miss out on the fun so he dressed up as indiana jones. there are a couple of little boys that wait outside the class with us and their mom. connor always plays with them. it has become a mini play date. they were dressed up too.

only two more days until halloween. yay. we can't wait.

oktoberfest

dahlia's dance class performed a short recital at the annual oktoberfest celebration in montrose. it was cute. i have never been to an oktoberfest celebration. i guess because i am not really into beer and lederhosen. truthfully we left before the celebration had really begun. she did her dance onstage at noon and the festival was starting then. we left after it was over because it was mason's birthday and i was happy to just go home. miles and her brothers were waiting at home with granny for us.

we had fun. we got there early and decided to get a frozen yogurt because it was crazy hot outside. her dance was short but sweet. she did a ballet routine. she is not at all shy onstage which is a wonderful change from mason who hates to be the center of attention. this is her first year in the advanced class and she is liking it but she thinks it is a little hard. i think it is a little hard too, but she is doing great. much better i think than i could do. i am so proud of her. my little girl all grown up and yes she is wearing red lipstick. she is on stage after all.

wrinkles

this week was dahlia's turn to have the kindergarten stuffed animal "wrinkles" for the week. she was so excited and happy to take him home. every day this week she gets to share something about herself. wrinkles gets to spend the whole week at our house. mason did this with a different "wrinkles" when he was in kindergarten so dahlia was happy to have her turn.

on monday we turned in a poster with pictures of our family and a list of things she likes and doesn't like. she also shared five things that tell something about her. she brought: the movie "blue lagoon", tap shoes, swim goggles, a metal from the little gym, and dahlia seeds.

on tuesday she shared a picture of her favorite stuffed dog "plum."

on wednesday she was supposed to wear her favorite outfit. she wanted to wear her gymnastics outfit but it also happened to be picture day so she picked out a pretty pink dress instead.

on thursday she shared her favorite toy doll named "orange."

today she got to share her family. miles, connor, and i all went to her classroom to meet the class. they asked us questions about our favorite vacation place and favorite kind of car. it was very sweet. i thought it was funny that miles was actually worried about going to her classroom. he had stage fright.

we had a busy week with wrinkles filled with dahlia's favorite things. we took wrinkles with us to the discovery science center, the soup plantation, movie night outside, the mall to buy dahlia's costume, dance class, and gym class. today she had to bring wrinkles back to school and the teacher picked someone else for him to go home with for the week. we were sad to send him back. wrinkles is very loved around here.

school starts

mason and dahlia started school yesterday. dahlia was so cute and put on her easter dress for the occasion. she was very excited and looked adorable. she has the same teacher that mason had when he was in kindergarten. i am so happy to have her again. she is really an amazing teacher. dahlia loved her first day and today as well.

mason hates new things and had a complete meltdown while we were walking to school. he did cheer up a bit to find that two of his favorite friends are in the same class with him. it is nice that they will all be together. he would not let me take a photo of him yesterday so his picture is from today. he was much better this morning and we managed to get him off to school without any tears.

the two separate pick up times is really awful so i am completely exhausted by time we get home. this will only get worse i fear in the next few weeks when connor starts school. we also will be starting our after school activites. ugh. i am tired just thinking about it.

swimming lessons

the kids are back in swimming lessons again. dahlia is in preschool 4 and mason is in school age 2. they are both doing great. i really like their teachers this year. they are super nice. the kids both love to swim and are pretty confident in the water.

i thought i would sign connor up for lessons this year but he doesn't seem ready. i don't think he would be comfortable in the water without me. when i asked him if he would like to take swimming lessons he said "not in THAT pool, i'll drown." so funny. next year he will take lessons for sure.

high heels

can you believe this five year old? dahlia begged me to buy her some high heels last month so of course i did. i told her they are just for playing dress up at home. she loves them and is always trying to wear them places where she shouldn't like grocery shopping or to summer camp.

today she asked me to put her hair up in a bun. she then put on a cute skirt, a bratz t-shirt from her cousin, and her high heels. wow, she does not look like my sweet little five year old. sigh. why are they always in such a hurry to grow up?

swimming lessons

the first official day of summer. we started the day off right with swimming lessons. yay! i made the kids pose for a photo before they got into the pool. this was their second lesson but miles took them last week so i didn't get a picture.

their teachers seem nice. i am so happy to see mason and dahlia learning to swim. now i just need to get connor in a class.

last day of preschool

today was dahlia's last day of preschool. i was so sad to have her school end. she will be starting kindergarten at mason's school next year. luckily connor is starting school at the preschool next year so i don't have to be too sad. i really hope he gets the same teachers that she had. i loved her teachers.

they had a party for their last day and i had signed up to organize it with three other moms. we did kind of a beach/luau theme. i made these delicious fruit kabobs with watermelon, pineapple, and strawberries. i also put together a goody bag to take home that was a sand bucket filled with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a water gun, and fruit chews. the other moms made sandwiches and cupcakes so there was lots for them to eat.

it was really sweet and fun for the kids. they played a shark game where they got to toss bean bags into a cardboard shark mouth. later they took a picture with their head in the shark mouth. it was so funny.

i was so happy to get to be there for the last day. this was the first time i got to watch her in her classroom. miles was nice enough to watch mason and connor for me.

when we got home we did another run through the paper sign to start summer. the three kids held hands and ran through.

now our summer can really start.

dahlia kitty

this was a big day for us. dahlia had her end of the year dance recital. she did a tap routine to the song stray cat strut. her costume is crazy cute. she looked like a little cat. she was just beautiful.

she was worried about being backstage without me so i signed up to be a backstage mom. it was kind of stressful for me. there were fourteen little girls to look after and i had to make sure that their costume stayed nice and help them to use the bathroom. of course every little girl had to go to the bathroom at least once. i was lucky though. there were three other backstage moms for our group. our group was a combination of two classes so it was a large one.

dahlia did great. she was not nervous at all. she did look off to the side to watch her teacher do the routine but she did it right along. i was so proud. i can't wait to get the dvd and see it from the audience perspective. miles came with mason and connor and watched from the audience. they gave her flowers when she was done. dahlia was sad that her other relatives couldn't make it. next year they will come for sure.

whew! i am so happy we are done. all the end of the year performances are exhausting.