First Day of School

Enjoying the last few moments of sleep before waking for the first day of school.

How cute is this little girl. We measured her before the first day of school and she is 46 inches!
All dressed and ready for school. I thought it might be a little cold out, so I put a sweater on her. Even at 7:15 am it was to warm for a sweater. She shed it on the way to school.
1st day of school mug shot. We thought we had a nice walk to school last year, but this year the less than a block walk is great!

Can you tell she is excited for school?

Sea World - Backyardigans

Shamu's splashin' Beach Party. Emma loves it because you get to dance with the characters. Then they have a conga line. She's been rotating through, but she's gotten to hold Dolly's, Shamu's and Seymore's hand for the parade.

Here is Emma in the conga line with Clyde.

Here is the Shark, Emma thinks he is hilarious.

Seymore and Clyde. Emma loves the show they do (The real sea lions).
Waggin' Tales is a cute show done all with rescued animals. It was great and both the kids loved it!
You get to meet all of the animals afterwards. Nate loved it. At the dolphin tank you can pet and feed the dolphins. Nate thinks this is great, except his arms are to short and they won't let you dangle the babies over the water (go figure!) He reaches with all his might to touch them, but has yet to be successful, so it was nice for him to have some animal interaction.

These whales have squirt guns on their heads, so that as you rock they spray. They have a teeter totter that does the same thing. Nate loved the teeter totter and the whales. As did the rest of the family.

Jake's whale must be from Texas.
There she is, the Lady in Pink!

Nate loved Tyrone and kept pointing at him the whole show.
Its Pablo! I have never seen Sea World this crazy. There was a big line waiting for them to open the park and then a mad dash through the park to the theater. I sent Jake ahead and I came through the crowd with the stroller. It was insane. We made it in to the first show, which a lot of people didn't. We hit it again later and 45 minutes before the show started they theater was at capacity. Crazy!
"We're backyard friends the backyardigans..."

Sea World

Jenny came and visited this last week and it was a blast. We haven't touristed much (I'm sure touristed is a word). So it was fun to get out an see the sights. We hit most of the top 10 list of attractions to see. We visited the Alamo. Really cool. Way cooler than I thought it would be. We had driven by several times and it doesn't look that cool from the outside, but there is alot to see and alot to learn. Emma really liked it. It was a little confusing for her, but then I think its a little confusing sometimes too. It took us quite a while to figure out all the events in the right order that took place there.


One of our favorite stops was the El Mercado and Farmers Market. Ok, its not a farmers market, but its just like visiting a Mexican tourist town. You know - everyone speaks english, American tourists all over, the same souvenirs in every shop, great food and lots of fun. Trip to Mexico without the passport and paying for the gas.


We also took her to the Wildlife ranch. Which is the number 1 attraction in our books. This time I got licked by a chinese cow! He dropped his carrot in the car and I was reaching down to get it and he licked me. Luckily he got my shirt and not my face that was 2 inches away. We found a donkey that liked to have you throw the food in his mouth. It was alot of fun. Never the same experiance twice. If you come to San Antonio we promise we will take you.


We finished of a very short week at Sea World. It was a first for all of our family and we all had a blast. Everything involves alot of water which is good in the Texas heat. Emma loves the lazy river. She kept asking if we could do it again or if we had to get out when we made it around. She is an animal in the wave pool. She loves it. The shows were great and we can't wait to go back.


Sadly Jenny left. Not before we made a stop at the bread shop (Great Harvest). One of the things I think Emma misses the most is the lack of bread shops selling pumpkin bread. She was very sad that Jenny left and kept asking why she ahd to go back to school. We tried to show Jenny how great Texas was. We even spent a day looking at houses. Yesterday morning Emma asked me if dreams really do come true? I told her you can make your dreams come true. She said good, because she dreamed that Jenny lived with us forever. Wasn't sure how to break the news that it probably wouldn't work out.

Here are the pics of Sea World:

Nate putting on his huge life jacket. They wouldn't let him in without it, but it was to big to do any good. It seemed more like a hazard. SO here he is putting on the same size life jacket as Emma wore. Oh well, he looked cute.

There is Shamu. Emma loved it. She had just watched Free Willey, so she was in love with killer wales.

Nate loved the whales too. He kept pointing at them. Which is his new skill. He loves to point at everything. He also has started signing back which is a huge step (and super cute!)Jenny and Emma in one of the many water areas. We spent the whole day in swim suits. Between wet rides, wet shows, and the water areas it turned out being a great idea to wear swimsuits with shorts so we could dry out faster.

Jenny, Emma and Jake on the Journey to Atlantis ride. Emma gets off and wanted to go again. I'm not a big plunge ride lover, so I was happy to play photographer.

Yes, this is a walrus doing sit ups. The thing is huge!

Haircut

It may look like he is quietly sitting waiting for me to finish, but what you can't see is Jake sitting in front of a closed bathroom door so there is no place for him to go and Emma dancing and singing trying to keep his attention so he would sit still. Lots of snipping while he crawled around and a few swipes with him sitting.
He was thoroughly enjoying it at this point, can you tell?
But it was all worth it in the end. He was very proud of his new do.
I think it is even better in profile.
Least you think I did some really crazy stuff to my baby's hair. Here it is the next day when it isn't styled. We think he's pretty cute.

The riverwalk

Here we are downtown at the river walk. Its pretty and there is alot to do down there. We got there a little late and teh Alamo was closed, but it was still fun.

Grandma with the kids downon the riverwalk
Emma and Grandma in front of the Alamo. We really need to brush up on our Texas history. BEfore we read the small stone out front all I knew was that we needed to remember the Alamo. Now I know it involved Santa Ana and them all getting massacred and the bodies burned. So before Emma gets old enough to write a report I should learn all of the facts.

Playhouse

Emma just saw something out the back door.... Can you see the excitement! Yup, she's 5 so she's moving into her own house. Thank you grandma and grandpa. She loves it. I need some new pictures now that it ahs the roof on. She also started painting the inside pink. I have some pink grass now too, but that will mow and the experiance was worth it.

Emma's birthday

Your mission if you choose to accept it is to throw a Backyardigans International Super Spy birthday party. Featuring the Lady in Pink. Emma loves her. I think it is because she has the coolest theme song. She is the bad guy, but becomes good so we figure it is ok.

I love this picture. If your not familiar with this episode, the Lady in Pink always wears stunning sunglasses, so I found some online so everyone could be in on the high fashion. I loved Brooklyne's take on these - high fashion with a 180 degree twist.

This was the first Uniqua cake we made. We had it on her birthday and I made another one for the party. The second one I made the glasses out of white chocolate, so they were more 3D. Grandma made it for Emma's birthday. At 11:00 pm we got back from the airport and had ice cream and cake. We decided it was appropriate, since that was what time Emma was born. She blew out the candles almost 5 years to the minute (if you don't take in time zone changes, her being a pacific time zone baby and now lives in central time).
5 candles don't take to much breathe.
Luckily we were able to find all 3 vials and save the world. The chocolate milk we made with them was delicious. (you'll have to watch the show) On the scavanger hunt Jack "ran out of run." It was tough work keeping up with all those girls.
So now our baby is 5, she starts Kindergarden in 2 weeks. Its crazy where does the time go? We are so glad we get to have her in our family she is the greatest and sweetest little girl.