Swim Lessons!

Sara's other present from us was swimming lessons.  Today was her first swim lesson and she was so excited about it. She kept asking me if the water was going to be cold and if the teacher would be nice.

A lady in our neighborhood (only a block from her pre-school) has a 75 foot pool in her back yard in a warehouse like building.  It doesn't look like much from the outside but it's pretty cool inside.  There's a nice bathroom/changing room, and lots of deck chairs for Moms and other kids to watch.  She only teaches 2 kids at a time so Sara had her lesson with one other little girl who was 3 years old.

The swim teacher got them both in the water and swimming right away with the aid of a life vest and a pool float.   I was very impressed with the teacher and the way she was so careful and good with the kids so that they would not be afraid at all, everything was fun and games.  She let them be successful on their own and they swam the length of the pool several times.

Sara loved the lesson and didn't want to leave.  I'm hoping we can continue to take lessons there, she has 8 more classes that she teaches all year around and  I love love that it's so close to our house.  It's a major win for everyone.  Even Brennan had fun watching Sara swim and the other Mom had a 7 month old that was born one day after Brennan.  Her baby was 2 pounds bigger than Brennan and she was a very tiny lady!  We had fun getting to know each other and talking babies.

Sara worked up quite an appetite too, she got home and ate like a hound and hopefully now she's taking a nap like a door mouse.

I took a few vids, they are a little dark
Vid 1 
Vid 2
Vid 3

A few more pics!

Ben sent me a few more pics he took from Sara's birthday.

4 year old's wishes are magical

So much fun that day.   I hope Sara will remember it forever and if not, there's the blog.

Sara's Happy 4th Birthday Day

Today was a long and crazy day but I think Sara had a very memorable 4th birthday.  The excitement started this morning.  Sara and Daddy got up and built a set of train tracks.  Sara got to open Nanna's first gift, and she was thrilled to get her new engine Billy, she said he has funny teefs.

Next, Sara requested we go to her favorite place, Cracker Barrel, so she could get biscuits and jelly (her favorite thing to eat there). She said she wanted to order grits, which was odd, and she promised she'd eat them, but when they came she wouldn't even try them.  Guess who loved them though, Brennan!  He ate half the bowl, no complaints.

Then, Daddy took Sara to his bike shop and they picked out a new bike.  Ever since her tricycle was stolen, she's been really wishing for something else to ride.  She came home immediately and began riding it and we had a hard time getting her back off of it.  Here's a video of her very first ride, the training wheels were really helpful.


We had to pry her off the bike to get her to take a nap before her party.  By some miracle, Sara and Brennan both took an hour and a half nap before the party.  I think that's the only reason any of us made it today. 

I took Sara to go pick up her birthday cake in Provo.  A cake artist named Angela made her a special "Garden" cake.  Sara was so excited to meet a real baker (as she called her) and to see the cake with her name on it, she said, "Like a name tag".  Here is the lady's blog site .

 She was so helpful and nice in creating Sara's cake.  Sara asked that it have "lots" of flowers on it, we asked Angela to try and make lady bugs and Sara's grandpa had just read her a really neat book about a grasshopper named Bob.  So we asked Angela if she could make a Grasshopper, she said she would try but she wasn't sure she could.  She e-mailed me back a few days later really excited that she was able to do it.  Sara was happy to go to Angela's house and meet her and thank her for the special cake.  It was all the colors that Sara loves too and it had strawberry filling like she requested.

Next we drove to Kangaroo Zoo.  Sara was so excited to be having her party there.  She had chosen the "Flora" room that has lit up flowers all over the wall prior to the party.  I was hoping she'd choose the stars and planets room but she wanted the flowers so she got the flowers.

When we got to Kangaroo Zoo, there weren't even parking spaces, it was so so crowded.  It was probably the worst day of the year to have a party there because it was President's day.  There might have been 200 kids there.  Inside it was hot and humid.  Luckily we had the little party room to go hide in and the kids did not seem to mind, they happily joined in the madness.  Sara and her cousins and friends were moving so fast that I couldn't begin to keep up with them.   Everyone helped watch Brennan some, for the most part he was happy to be there, he got passed around to everyone.  He even did a little bouncing himself.

We had a guy named Aaron assigned to our party and he was a quick kid that followed them around with a camera and took pictures, like a paparazzi.  It was pretty funny.  I could tell where they were by his camera flashing.  His job was to take care of the kids in the party and keep the party moving smoothly and he even helped them when they were injured.  Once he even went to the top of a huge slide and brought Sara down when she was too scared to go down by herself.

Even Granny KP got in on the action, she slid down several times with Sara.  Sara had been talking about Granny KP sliding with her for weeks so she was beyond thrilled.  Wendy got a great pic of them sliding.   Sara was glad that Granny KP got to be a kid again tonight!  This picture says it all.  Priceless!

Sara's Aunts and Uncles and cousins were all there and we were so very thankful to all of them for coming, it really made Sara's party special!  There were also babies!

The cake was a huge hit at the party.  The kids were kind of trying to figure out who was going to get to eat the lady bugs,  the grasshopper wasn't edible.  Sara got one lady bug and she choose Benny to get the other one, which was a huge honor in the kid realm,  because they all wanted it.  Benny made quick work of it.

 Then Sara opened Presents!  She got lots of Tomas stuff, a cool dino counting book, and even a special butterfly dress from Auntie Lisa.  She sat with her legs cross like a little lady in her dress.

There will probably be more photos to come, we bought the photo package and Ben was going to send me some of theirs.


I think I'll post a Part II, I'm so tired after today :(  To be continued....

Tomorrow she's Four!

We really can't believe that Sara will be four tomorrow, the time went by really fast.  It's a little hard for me to remember her as a baby but we have lots of pictures to help bolster the memories.

Here is a link if you want to look back on her birth story and see some cute Sara baby pics.

We are so thankful for her and I hope tomorrow she has a really good birthday celebration.

Sara Belle

Everywhere about her shines her golden red hair,

her grace and gentle stare. 

Bright and bubbly dreamer, keeping her best dreams 

locked safe behind bold brown eyes.   

Her father and mother welcomed her first with love 

and always with love for their first.

Valentines

For Sara's Valentines breakfast I got up early and attempted to make her a "Pancake Man".  It was tough for me to get up early because I'd spend the night before shopping for and helping to get the valentines ready for school.  I felt really motivated to make her something nice though.  Sara has a book about the pancake man and how he runs away. So I made him sort of how he looks in the picture, maybe a little scarier because he had red eyes (raspberries) and pretzel arms and legs.  I also stuffed him with a raspberry, honey, mascarpone filling that I made.

Sara thought it was funny but she wouldn't even taste it.  I was upset with her, she ended up having just a plain pancake.  So much for that.  I ate the pancake man instead and it was really good. 

Sara was really excited for Valentines this year.  She was having a valentines party at Pre-school that she was looking forward to, also we made some treats for her music class. 

For the valentines treats that we gave away, we made pretzel kisses  which are ridiculously easy to make and taste really good. Sara helped unwrap put all the chocolate kisses on the pretzels and there were a lot to do, we made 60 of them.  She had fun handing out the valentines.  She also got lots of unique valentines from her classmates, clearly other parents have a lot more time and creativity than I do.

Later that night, Daddy took us all to a Sushi restaurant for our Valentines dinner and Sara ate 6 pieces of sushi with avocado, carrot, and asparagus in them.  Not a scrap was left.   I think she had a really good day.

Hiking and Swimming

Sara gets so excited any time we say we are going on vacation.  She likes going to "cabins" as she calls them even though sometimes it's hotel rooms. 

We were so proud of Sara that she hiked 6 miles by herself, without being carried, to Cassidy Arch in Capitol Reef.  Also, later in the day, we did another 2 mile hike where we went through some washes.  I was hunting for rocks and she really got into hunting for rocks.  She wanted to show me every rock she found and Dan pointed out that she was desperate for my approval.  She wanted to hike with me down in the wash looking for rocks instead of hiking with her Dad on the trial above.  I was actually surprised she was so interested in it.

Also, later that night, she got to go in the hotel pool with Dan.  It was the first time she has ever been in a pool. She had so much fun she didn't want to leave.  Dan said we really need to get her swim lessons so I'm going to book her some lessons for the end of February and March at a pool in our neighborhood, only a few houses down from her pre-school.  I've been wanting her to take swim lessons for a while. It will only be a half hour, on M&W and Brennan and I will watch the little fish.  I think she could be an awesome swimmer some day.  The place where she is taking lessons has lots of levels of classes she could take also. http://www.whitneypool.com/

First Day at Pre-school

Sara had her first day at pre-school last week.  She was so excited to go she asked me every hour if it was time to go. She had her backpack ready and wanted to take a lunch box but I told her that she wouldn't be there long enough to need one.  I think she thought she was going to "play school" so I explained to her that she needed to listen to the teacher and do what the teacher says. 

It was a really strange feeling for me to leave her there and go home just with Moosa.  I walked back to get her two hours later with the jogging stroller, hoping to hear about the fun time she had.

When she first walked in some girls came over to her right away and started talking.

Unfortunately there was some kind of incident with the bathroom that kind of marred her first day and she said the teacher was upset with her.  I'm still not clear what happened but I think Sara maybe needs to learn some rules about the bathroom and who can use it when.  I hope that her next week is better.  Mostly she is learning how to interact and how things are different than at home.  I guess the earlier you start the better? We want her to be well adjusted to various situations.

They are having a Valentines party this week at pre-school and she's very excited, we made Pretzel Kisses for the kids and Sara helped.  I'm crossing my fingers that she has a better day this week. We also made treats for the kids at music class, she is going to have fun handing out treats to kids tomorrow.

Fish are friends not food

Sara has gotten really interested in the fish tank lately.  She tells everyone about the different kinds of fish she has and she knows them all by name, Neon Tetras, Guppies, Catfish, and Algae Eaters.  She's been helping me feed them and today she wanted to pour more water in the tank so I let her.  Also, she wanted to read them stories, so she got her books out and read them some stories, she says they like to hear stories.

She has really grown up more all of the sudden as her 4th birthday approaches.  She wants to be more independent and do things for herself more. Also, she has picked up some words that we read to her, she can read the words "the", "Too", "Hello", and, "So".  Also we've been really impressed at her improvement on the piano.  She is able to play, Do, Rae, Me, Fa, So on the piano with the right fingers.  It's nice to see that she's learning and improving and that the music lessons are paying off.

I got her in a pre-school in our neighborhood only 3 blocks away, by the park she likes to go to.  It's called "Little Wizards" and it's been around for 8 years.  The lady has a cute basement room set up like a classroom.  I was really impressed by her curriculum and the comments from parents on-line say that after pre-school and Pre-K there, their kids did really well starting school.  Sara will go for 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I love that we can walk or bike her there.

Sara is so excited to start there tomorrow, she said she wanted to go to bed early so that tomorrow would come faster.   The pre-school teacher, Miss Amber (who Sara has been calling Miss Hamburger) told me that have show-and-tells, they work with a calendar to learn months and days, they tell time, they do math and spelling, and they have a program for the parents at the end of the semester.  Her pre-school follows the school calendar so she'll only go until May 17th.

Another sign she's growing up, she has also been showering us with questions of all kinds.  Today she asks me where does popcorn come from and who makes it, who makes strawberries, and where does yogurt come from and what is it made of.  I try to take her questions seriously and answer them, even though the answers usually lead to about 10 more questions.  She really does want to learn.

I'm excited for her to grown and learn.  I think she's a smart kid, that is very sweet, with a good personality and she will do well in the world hopefully. 

French Lessons and pre-school

I finally video taped Sara doing her French Lessons.  It's so cute when she says the words.  She has trouble pronouncing the word for boy, she leaves out the "r", but everything else she's pretty good at.  We've been working at it ten minutes a day the whole month of January.  She can run the program by herself now too.  If I have to leave to go get Brennan out of his bed or feed him, she can find most of the answers by herself.  We try to speak some French during the day too while we're doing everyday things.
Video 1
Video 2
I've been shopping around for pre-schools for Sara.  She keeps saying she's bored at home and she wants to go to school and make friends.  We found one in the neighborhood that she has an interview with today.  I hope it works out because it is so close to our house we could walk her there.  She would go on Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours.  Next year she will probably go to pre-K.

Sara has been asking us to make up stories for her every day.  She learned the word "imagination" this week and she's been saying, "Make up a story for me and use all of your imagination".  So Dan and I have been making up all kinds of stories and then we tell her it's her turn and she'll make up one too.  Some of the stories she has made up are really funny, I will try to get them on video.

Also, she is getting better at counting from 11-20  and she has also been paying attention to the clock and trying to see what hour it is.