Spring Snow

We woke up to 7" of snow this morning!

Elena was very excited to go outside and play.
She didn't build a snowman, but she did build a wall with Jim. She said it was "so Daddy couldn't get out." But Jim said he could just drive his big truck over it.
Afterwards, Elena had hot cocoa and crackers. She spread the peanut butter on herself! And then she wanted honey too, so she got to dip the peanut butter crackers into a dish of honey. She really enjoyed that!
Although it snowed on and off all day, we're down to just a couple of inches.

Swimming update

Elena learned the crawl stroke at swimming on Monday. Pretty funny because when she first did it on her own, her arms went backwards! Teacher Patty says it's a very common occurrence when first learning.

After circling her arms backwards and doing the breast stroke, Elena kind of got the hang of it and got her arms going the right direction and out of the water.

Elena had another first at her swimming lesson last Monday - swimming to the bottom of the pool. Teacher Patty told her the trick is to blow bubbles all the way down, otherwise it can be a struggle.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny came to our house yesterday morning. He was very quiet with his hopping and hiding and didn't wake anyone up! Elena had a lot of fun looking for eggs and opening them right away. They were filled with puzzle pieces, little dinosaurs, stickers, money, and of course, candy. After the video was taken, we did fix her pants so they wouldn't fall down...

Other Easter activities included a party at school,

dyeing Easter eggs (Elena loved this so much we had to buy another egg dye kit and convince Grandma to hard boil eggs for Elena to decorate),

showing off her loot from the Easter Bunny,

and an egg hunt at Sophia's house.

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Spring Preschool Conference

Miss Sarah did a lot of individual testing for the conferences - thanks for your hard work Miss Sarah!

This is Elena's progress report. Things that are circled are things she's mastered or represent the level she's at.

Miss Sarah said she's sure Elena knows more sounds and letters, but noticed with a lot of the kids that sitting for all that testing caused attention shut down. We know Elena has recognition of more letters (mostly uppercase).

M = mastered, P = practicing, N = not relevant

Elena has mastered writing her name (and other things) in uppercase letters and is currently working on lowercase - all those curvy letters are hard! She is also the puzzle master in the classroom and continually chooses puzzle work, including the binomial cube and map puzzles.

Miss Sarah says Elena is a very independent worker and doesn't have any problems choosing a work or receiving new lessons. She's a true Montessori student!

Photos by E

Elena commandeered the camera and took pictures of all sorts of things. Here's the most interesting:

Doodle Pony in the Cinderella Dress Fall Ballet pictures printed for Elena's scrapbook
Mommy spackling the wall
Elena's mouth
Elena's eye

Showing off the poodles

Elena wanted to share this picture of her poodle jammies and poodle barrettes. We picked them up at a Gymboree sale along with poodle shirts, socks, and tights!

Oh Warrick!

We sure get some silly pictures of Warrick... Here he is in the cradle of Elena's baby station (or as best as he could fit). Elena was nice enough to turn the mobile for him.

Recital preview?

Today at ballet class the girls were dancing to "It's a Small World." Perhaps this is a preview of what to expect at the upcoming recital in May? Looks like something to look forward to!

(Elena is the one in the long sleeve leotard and skirt.)

Helping paint

Elena LOVED this activity. We had to wear kerchiefs on our heads so we wouldn't get paint in our hair. We were painting the cabinets in her bathroom because they were looking worn and dirty.
We're all done painting and the knobs and pulls are back on. Next step - the walls!

Swimming lessons are back!

Well, Elena hadn't shown interest in beginning swimming lessons, but when we found out Teacher Patty did private lessons at her home lap tub, we signed up for a session with Sophia. Elena was pretty excited to go today, and thought it was cute to put on Mommy's shoes. Teacher Patty provides nice swim caps and goggles. And she has all the regular fun stuff too - marshmallow sticks, little fish, fruit for grocery shopping, etc.
Elena liked the song about the little bunny... "Little bunny rabbits go hop, hop, hop. Little bunny ears go flop, flop, flop!"
So proud that she remembered how to do her back floats! And she loved gliding to Teacher Patty. Although, she does that in the bathtub at home...


Here's a great video of Elena and Sophia getting the fish off the bottom of the pool. Elena can really hold her breath!