Little Miss E turns 5 on 4/25!

Supposedly turning 5 means 5 birthday celebrations. Elena had her 5th birthday party at Jump Planet. She invited all her classmates, friends from gymnastics, and of course Aubrie.

It was a strawberry theme party with cupcakes in the shape of and decorated like strawberries - yum! Everyone had a great time and Elena loved all her fabulous gifts which included a flower press, Barbie, and pony figures.

On her actual birthday, cousins Ruby, Nattie, and Tate came to celebrate. We had a weekend of fun which included a sleepover on Elena's floor, trip to the children's museum, chicken and french fry dinner with Auntie, Auntie Terry, and Walt, and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

At school, Elena had her celebration of life. A candle is lit to represent the sun and Elena holds the Earth ball and walks around the sun for every year since she was born. Pictures and interesting facts are shared from each year of her life.

Everyone sings and they share a special treat. Elena brought in strawberries and kitty Warrick!

Elena also celebrated being 5 with Grandma and Grandpa and her own personal pizza! Alfy's Pizza honors birthday girls and boys with a free pizza on their birthday. Elena got plain cheese and we added the candles and sang Happy Birthday.
Elena got a Nintendo DSi for her birthday from Mommy and Daddy. She loves that it is blue and can play it in the car on trips. Her favorite game is Gardening Mama which Auntie gave her as a birthday gift.
Happy 5th Birthday Elena! Wishing you many more wonderful celebrations!

Where a kid can be a kid...

Grandma took me to Chuck E. Cheese. I had to show her how to play all the games. The penguin game (seen here), the bowling game, the monkey game, and the water game. This is where you can win an ice cream or cotton candy. When I went with Mommy I won some dinosaur money!
Look at all my tickets! Sometimes I use them to get special prizes for Zachy too.

I won an ice cream and didn't have to share with Grandma. We had lots of fun because it's fun there!

Love, Elena

New Swimming Lessons

Elena took public swim lessons with Molly at the pool in Bothell.She practiced front and back floats, side breathing, diving, and the backstroke. After a little bit of hesitation, her favorite swim lesson activity became donning a life jacket and going to the deep end for jumps off the diving platforms.
The kid loves jumps though and has fun even when they are in the shallower area of the pool. Elena finished her swim session and passed level P-3. She isn't signed up for another session though, she's going back to lessons with Teacher Patty.

Buca Di Beppo!

Nana and PopPop came to visit and we went out to dinner at Buca Di Beppo. Elena had crunchies, bread, and hot fudge sundae for dessert! Ah, heaven! Zachy got his first taste of ice cream and chocolate too. Elena was willing to share since it was GIGANTIC, and they both really enjoyed it. Delicious!
Who won the game of tic-tac-toe? Probably Elena.

Country Village, Bothell

At least this year they didn't swarm us at the car... We were too early to see any babies, good thing we saved some bread for next time. Elena emptied her bag of bread pieces in 5 minutes. Take pictures fast, Mom!
She still loves riding the playground horses. There is a new pirate ship play structure so she had fun pretending Tinkerbell and Peter Pan were there.

Then we went to the tea shop for some hot cocoa. And to admire their tea and pastry selection. Note to self: take Grandma!

Easter 2009

Hippity hop, here comes the Easter Bunny! This year the Easter Bunny filled the eggs with... necklaces? Actually, Elena practiced being the Easter Bunny and filled some eggs with necklaces and candy. The Easter Bunny was too lazy to empty those out, but he did hide them! And lots of other eggs too! The eggs were filled with candy, dinosaurs, itty bitty ponies, and stickers.
Elena's Easter basket filled up fast, so she used her bike basket to collect eggs in. When that filled up, she used the shopping cart. Soooo many eggs! But boy were they fun to find and open!

The Easter Bunny brought Nana and PopPop too! Those must have been some giant eggs...

Hoppy Easter!

Rehabbing Rainey!

Auntie and Elena took Rainey to Mega-Dogs in Woodinville on several occasions to try and get her to use her leg after her crazy tendon-slicing-in-a-splint-for-almost-four-weeks injury by making her use it in the water first. (Check out a healthy Rainey competing in agility at Mega-Dogs June 17, June 24 and July 1, if you're in the area.)

Elena became an old hand at removing the cover from the pool. By the last trip she was yelling out instructions while Auntie did all the work!

Well, she helped at the beginning of the swim time so she could get in the pool faster and then oversaw the closing of the pool. I see management in the making!

So, who is getting the most swimming practice out of this session? Rainey or Elena? (Luckily it turned out to be Rainey and she is fully recovered from her freak injury.) But, Elena got a special shower each time Rainey swam by.

At the end of each session Rainey was given her freedom (to rest) and Elena had free reign to practice some of her best moves!