Community

Chase with his fellow sheriffs.

Chase's class had their opera performance last night.  At my kids' school the classes have the opportunity to participate in a youth opera program.  The classes come up with the concept, the script, the costumes, props, backdrops, and the music.  A musician comes in and listens to the words and tunes the kids come up with and then writes the music for them.  I've loved every opera I've seen so far and it always makes  me laugh when ninjas slip in to each one of them.  This year Chase's class did a particularly exceptional opera in my opinion.  The theme was all about living in a community and what it means to be a community.  The cast consisted of ninjas, billionaires, wizards, robbers, and sheriffs.  The plot centered around a gold mine where the robbers stole the billionaires gold.  Everyone pitched in to help each other and in the end they were all a part of a wonderful community of friends.  Chase got to be a sheriff and Grandpa Larry loaned him one of his dad's old cowboy hats.  Chase did such a great job, I was so proud of him.  I love this program they work with, I think it is such a great experience for the kids.

iphone hijack

Laina LOVES playing with my phone.  She can find it no matter where I put it.  I often find lots of pictures of her toes, but on the rare occasion I find classics like these.  

These make me laugh so hard.  This is her in all her bed head glory.  :)

Pretty Pretty Princess

Laina is starting to love dressing up in all of Aria's princess dresses.  One day the kids brought Laina up for me to see. 

She was so excited and you could tell she was in heaven twirling around in the pretty pink dress.  I just can't get enough of that smile!

Skiing Buddies

 Last year was Hunter and Michela's first year of skiing.  They really seemed to enjoy it, so we decided to get them Ski Passes to Sundance this year.

Michela in her ski gear.

Hunter is all ready to go.

Laina loves to steal their ski poles.

They've gone a few times and are loving it.  They've gone with friends, with Chase and Dad, and just the two of them.  We got them bus passes so they can ride the ski bus back and forth.  I felt a little hesitant about sending them on the bus by themselves.  When we were in California, riding the BART over to San Francisco, I started thinking about all the times I rode the bus and BART around when I was their age.  Sometimes I think we try to coddle our kids too much and don't let them have any life experiences of their own.  They are perfectly capable of riding a bus that drives only back and forth to Sundance and is pretty much full of other kids just like them.  It's hard to put my worries aside, but if I want them to grow and take on responsibilities of their own I need to let them try things on their own sometimes.  Love that they are still such good friends after all these years and love doing things like this together.

I Don't Want to Get a Shot!

While looking through the pictures on my phone I found this lovely one.  This is Laina at her 18 month check up.  She was perfectly happy to be running around in her diaper and Aria's sparkly shoes.

This reminded me that I never blogged about our trip to the doctor that day.  It was Laina's 18 month check up and Aria's 5 yr. check up.  When we pulled into the parking lot at the doctor's the crying began. Aria kept repeating over and over, "I don't want to get a shot!"  As we got out of the car and I had to drag her across the parking lot to the building it turned into a scream, "I Don't Want to Get a Shot!!!"  In the waiting room she burst into tears and clung to the chair as I tried to reassure her that everything would be okay and we didn't even know if she would need a shot or not.  Of course her crying freaked out Laina and I had two crying girls on my hands.  Thankfully they got us back to the exam room quickly because the other little girl in the waiting room was starting to get stressed out.  Every single little thing we had to do became the biggest headache.  Stepping on the scale, measuring her height, taking a vision test, ...  they were all over shadowed by the thought of the dreaded shot.  We were there for over an hour and a half because it took so much coaxing to get anything done.  And the lovely peeing in a cup for the Kindergarten check up, I won't tell you how much fun that was.

When the doctor came in, without any shots in sight, Aria began to calm down a little.  After her checkup I gave her my phone and she was happy to sit there and play while Laina got checked out.  We were very careful in discussing the shot issue and Aria seemed oblivious to our discussion.  When the doctor left the nurse came in with the tray full of needles.  One for Laina and two for Aria.  When Aria saw the tray she went into hysterical mode.  She jumped up from her chair and started pushing the chairs in front of her at the two nurses.  Her screams of, "I DON'T WANT A SHOT!" had reached new levels by now and I was sure the entire office building could hear her.  Oh how I wished I had recorded the craziness because it was actually quite funny and I think it would have been a You Tube sensation.  I finally had to hand Laina off to one of the nurses and I scooped up Aria, kicking and hitting me, and wrestled her down on the table.  She screamed at the top of her lungs the entire time and I felt so sorry for that poor nurse.  When it was finally over I held her hand as she whimpered out of the office.  We went and got her a cookie for her trouble and thankfully drove home.  Good thing she won't be having to get anymore shots for a while,  I'm exhausted just writing about it.

Aria's 5th Birthday

Aria loves having her birthday in California.  It's fun that we can spend at least one birthday with my side of the family.  It has become tradition to go to Fat Apples for her birthday dinner.  She loves getting a "burger sandwich".  After dinner we went home for cake and ice cream.  She requested a cake with sprinkles.

After we ate she opened up her presents from the family.  She got a giant princess coloring book, play doh, a jump rope, a princess song book, a cute purse, and a fashion Barbie doll.
I can't believe she is already 5 years old and will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall.  She is getting so grown up and continually tells me that she is no longer a Little Girl, but a Big Girl.  When we got back home from our trip she told me that she doesn't need to be in a car seat anymore because she is 5.  Sadly I had to tell her that she won't be getting out of that car seat anytime soon.  She is still our petite little girl and she isn't big enough to sit in a booster seat.  I guess in that way she will still be my Little Girl for a little while longer.