THE Dance

Dance Recital SUCCESS!

Elena had a great time at her dance rehearsal and recital! She was an amazing dancer and loved being on stage (thank goodness). Her classes costumes were super cute and she loved how it was a special outfit to wear just for the show. They danced to "It's a Small World" and "The Mexican Hat Dance." Elena had fun using the entire stage for her skipping and leaping and was very proud of her clapping and marching.
Elena was enthralled by the other dances too. Here she is with her friend Payton, watching another ballet class practice their performance.
After the finale, Miss Sara the instructor handed out medals and ribbons to the dancers depending on how many recitals she had done with them. This was Elena's first recital, so she got a pink ribbon - very special.
Elena is surely looking forward to her next dance class and stage recital and sharing the experience with family.

The video will probably be too large to post to the blog, but we will definitely post a link.

Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie, Auntie Terry, Nana, and PopPop for joining us at the stage performances!

Cute Story

Aunt Amy sent a nice card to Elena in the mail (kitty ladybug card). She wrote that she was looking forward to her visit in early July and asked if there was a name for Baby Brother yet (besides his nickname Beemer). Here's the conversation that followed between Elena and her mommy:

K: What should we name the baby, Elena?

E: Um, how about Anastasia?!?

K: That's a girl name! Can you think of a boy name for him?

E: How about Flower Head?

K: Flower Head? That's silly! But that can be your special nickname for him. Like Mommy calls you Pumpkin Pie.

E: Yeah, Flower Head!

Elena likes to read the baby name books with her daddy. She says no to all the names he reads out loud to her. Guess she's only interested in making up her own names! We've come a long way from the early days when she wanted to name him Prince Eric!

Mushrooming Mother's Day Weekend

We spent Mother's Day weekend at the River House. There are still fun toys there, but no clothes that fit anymore. Elena grew a lot since last time we were there. She really enjoyed making a gate for the ponies in the couch. And she had fun throwing Rai her ball before heading out to get morels.
We didn't find that many morels (but if you asked Elena how many she found, she'd say "lots!"), but there were enough for dinner with Daddy on Monday.
Grandma found a scooter in the woods and she and E had fun riding it around. Now there is a scooter at the River House! Gotta get a helmet to go with it...
Not sure when we'll get to go mushrooming again... Baby brother's arrival is making travel plans last minute. But a late arriving spring could mean a longer mushrooming season - fingers crossed for a bountiful season!

Annual visit to:

Country Village! And there were baby ducks - yay! Only 3, but still that's enough babies for us to get excited about. Elena and Aubrie fed the ducks lots of bread donated from Grandpa's freezer. There was so much bread we even shared with the other kiddos around.
We also saw a bunny, rooster and chickens, the doves, and met Aubrie's baby brother Mark.
Elena went down the crazy slide more than once. Perhaps a new favorite? Last year she wouldn't get off the pony merry-go-round...
Elena had fun on the swing too.
When we move, we'll be very close to Country Village. We better get stocked up on bread for all the ducks!

Elena's 4 year stats

Today Elena's class hosted a Mother's Tea for Mother's Day (next Sunday). Elena said it was a dress-up event, so we did - matching hairstyles, matching glittery lipstick, and spring-time dresses! Her class worked hard cutting strawberries and making shortcake so we could have a tasty snack. They even put on a show - a song about metamorphosis (their current unit of study) and a Mommy song to the tune of "Bingo". M-O-M-M-Y and Mommy was her name-o!
Elena had her 4year check-up! No shots, but there will be four of them next year - OUCH! But she did get weighed and measured: 42 3/4" tall - 95th percentile (those Ruzauskas genes...) and 41.4lbs - 90th percentile (very proportionate).

School Birthday Celebration

Elena was really excited about doing her birthday celebration at school. She took in chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate dipped rice krispie treats! Both were a big hit! Before going to school, Elena was showing off her cute ensemble with some dance moves.
Once we got to school, Elena was too shy to participate in her birthday celebration. Miss Sarah did a great commentary on special events that happened each year of Elena's life - getting her ears pierced, taking an airplane to Maryland to visit Aunt Amy, falling off a pony, etc. But Elena wouldn't walk around the sun to designate her 4 years of life. Maybe next year...
She did curl up with Miss Sarah to get a birthday hug. Cute.

Birthday Weekend

Elena got a Horseland puzzle and figurines from the toy store on her birthday. She took this picture of them together. Because Mommy was so sick, Grandma was called in to help decorate cupcakes. Great job making Ariel tail green and Tinkerbell dress green frosting Grandma!
Playing Disney DVD Bingo with Grandma. Elena likes the cards that have Tinkerbell and Ariel on them.
Playing Disney DVD Bingo with Ruby, Nana, and Nattie.
Sunday we went out to dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie, Auntie Terry, and Walt. It was the fourth birthday celebration in Elena's honor. Elena got her own plate of "crunchies" aka calamari. Poor Daddy still wasn't feeling well and didn't get to enjoy the tasty food.

Birthday out with Mommy & Daddy

For her birthday dinner, we went out to Red Robin! Elena was feeling better and ate a few bites of her birthday pizza and some of her special birthday ice cream sundae. She opened her presents from Warrick, Whitto, Perrin, and Cody - they were all Barbie items. From Mommy and Daddy she got Disney DVD Bingo (already a big hit) and a Cranium Bloom activity.

Elena always says, "Hooray for ice cream!"
After this meal, Mommy and Daddy got very sick. Daddy didn't even make it to Elena's birthday swimming party! Thank goodness PopPop saved the day by taking lots of pictures!

Birthday Party at Auntie's Library

All in all, Elena had 5 birthday celebrations! The first one was at Auntie's library. Lisa read Elena a princess story, then Elena opened her presents and shared her birthday treats. Mary always chooses big hit gifts! She gave Elena some tiny puppy figurines in a blue sparkle purse.
Sorry Elena doesn't look too happy in the pictures. She was seriously sick the day before and still not feeling well at this birthday celebration.

Thanks for the birthday fun Mary, Auntie, Lisa, and Liz!