Papa surprised Hannah on Sunday by brining home a sheet of bubble wrap. She hadn’t had one of these to play with in a long time and had a ball! Many of the pics are blurry but they were too cute not to use. Check out that height!!
Even Nana and Papa got in on the fun!
Bubble wrap….a guaranteed time of laughter and entertainment!
(I pause from the cruise posts to share this with you.)
This morning as we drove to Ange’s I glanced in my rear-view mirror and started to howl! This is what I saw!
Yes, the date on this post is correct. It’s March 26th but we’re still in ‘deep, deep, deep, deep snow!’ (Couldn’t resist the ‘Frozen’ reference!)
The good news is that temps are supposed to begin climbing tomorrow and I’ve convinced myself that we’ve seen the tail end of winter and spring is on it’s way! (Yes, I’m in denial!)
Anyway, Hannah and I will soon have an extra 10 minutes to ourselves each morning when she doesn’t have to put on: snow pants, her winter coat, hat, 2 scarves (the second is a Hannah addition as it’s really windy where she waits for her bus with Ange) and mitts.
So long winter. Don’t hurry back!
Hannah visits with Mom and Dad on Thursday evenings while I teach piano at home. Last night when Mom and Hannah got to the house dad was working on a puzzle.
Hannah walked over to check out what he was doing and he mentioned that there was an unusually shaped piece that he couldn’t find while he pointed to the gap. Hannah looked around the table for a bit, reached across dad and then popped this piece into place.
Mom called me at work laughing telling me about it while Hannah found another piece and put it in too! Heh.
The puzzle? Check it out. 1000 pieces of van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’.
Probably beginners luck but it still makes for a great memory!
Dad called me at work this morning and asked what time Hannah’s lunch was. He was wondering if he could sign her out so that she could go help him with is puzzle?
I think almost everyone has seen this but just in case you missed it I wanted to post it here.
This is a Canadian airline and a surprise they offered to 2 flights recently. I’ve seen it a number of times but still get goose bumps each time I view it! Love stuff like this!!
Enjoy!! Merry Christmas!
After the fun of party prep and playing early into the morning of July 4th, we decided a quiet day at home was the perfect plan. Hannah first woke up shortly after 7 but was easily convinced that it wasn’t time to get up yet and promptly fell back to sleep until 9ish. Ah yes, that’s more like it!
We came downstairs to find that sadly the post-party clean-up fairies had not shown up while we were sleeping so we had a big job in front of us!
Grasping this fact we did what we excel at….we napped! Even Dusty was exhausted from the previous night’s festivities.
The girls were also in quiet moods and we suddenly realized it was eerily quiet upstairs. K2 went up to check and quickly called for photographers and we came running. How sweet is this? I love that all 5 girls enjoy reading. Well – 4 read and one enjoys the pictures but reading is beginning and that’s something exciting happening in our home!!
Shortly after this K2, Hannah and I hopped in the van to pick up a few last minute groceries. As hoped Hannah dozed off almost immediately and K2 quickly offered to stay in the van with her while I shopped. Thanks K2! We picked up the last ingredients to make delicious Chicken Enchiladas for supper (or dinner as my west coast friends call it.) Regardless – they sure were yummy!
After supper it had cooled off enough that a trip to the pool was in order which is always something the girls enjoy. This time I went in with Hannah and she spent a lot of time without her water wings. She’s doing so well and with a little more strength she’ll be swimming up a storm! She has the confidence and now her strokes just need to catch up with that.
We came home and ended our day with a wonderful treat for the girls – a sleepover! Hannah stayed with me as normal and the 4 big girls shared the twins’ room. They did great and quickly fell asleep.
A good night’s sleep was in order because Friday we were heading to San Francisco for a day of exploring the city together. Fun!!! I was there briefly one time about 5+ years ago and have always wanted to go back! Tomorrow is the day!
Nana was recently away on a business trip so Hannah and I hopped into the car and went to visit her for a couple of days. My silly girl was in rare form as you can see!
Checking out her ice cream that was served on a bed of dry ice. Cool!
Little Miss Personality ready for a swim wearing her ‘google goggles’
25 mins in a car with stickers = adorable!
We may only have been away for 24 hours but you can see she made the best of it! Hannah and I are both excited that soon we’ll be on vacation together! Can’t wait to spend lots and lots of time with my amazing girlie and visit precious friends too!!!
What a cutie! Miss-matched socks, princess crocs, purple pants, pink top, yellow sweater and a jewel in the middle of her forehead! She was stylin’ when she walked into preschool last week!
We tried this one other time and the results were quite cute. Last night I dampened her hair and put socks in it to create soft curls.
The results were fun springy curls that will last for a few days. I just finger combed them out so that they didn’t get too fuzzy.
A fun little change for a few days!
This is just one of those neat things that happened that I don’t want to forget.
On Hannah’s birthday I wanted to take a few pictures of the two of us together. We set the camera up and set the timer. Photo shoots are much better these days than they were even a short time ago, but it’s still helpful to take the ‘silly shots’ to gain better cooperation for the others.
The timer was set to snag 5 pictures, about 3 seconds between each picture. We didn’t look at one another or say anything other than talk about this being a bunch of silly pictures and having fun.
When we looked at them I smiled and thought, ‘Wow! Look how many similar poses we chose!’ The thought that went through my mind was, ‘Like mother, like daughter’ and oh how that made me smile!!
All this without a word spoken between the two of us.
Pretty cool, eh?!
I’ve seen these candles online but had never found them in a store. Last November that changed when I found one in a little store in The Villages, FL. I tucked it away for Hannah’s birthday and brought it out for her party as a special treat for her.
Her little face was so sweet as everyone sang to her and her response at the end to the help her little friend Noah offered was absolutely precious!! (Benjamin, you may want to avert your eyes. ;o)
More birthday party fun to come in tomorrow’s post.
This morning as Hannah and I were on our way to church she began to sing and I couldn’t grab my camera fast enough! I didn’t care where we needed to be or when we were supposed to get there. This moment was all about the beautiful concert Hannah was offering and I wanted to soak up every single moment. Love her ‘creative’ wording and rap style of ‘Twinkle Twinkle.’ I’m sad to realize that by next Christmas her creative words will be left far behind so I was thankful to catch this and appreciate it today!
I love 3!! Even though babyhood has been left behind there is so much to enjoy about 3! I’m sad that 4 is quickly approaching even though I know it will be just as wonderful and hold it’s own new moments to love and embrace. I like to tease Hannah right now that it’s ‘Four and no more! You can’t get any older than 4!’
Last week she surprised me and had me in splits when she said. ‘You’ll have to talk to God. He made me that way!’ LOL!!
I love the way her little mind thinks and the adorable things she says! Some of the ones I’ve remembered to write down are:
‘Noah, you have the very best friend in the whole world! You have me!’ (Heh, cute and humble too!)
‘Mommy, I need a Kleenex. My nose is running out!’
When we left Disney World last summer I realized we’d been there a while when we sat down to supper at home and she said to me, ‘One moment please. Your server will be right with you!’
Tonight we were praying for her friend who has the flu. I prayed, ‘Please be with Noey and help his tummy not to be sick.’ and was gently corrected when Hannah said, ‘Mommy. It’s not Noey’s tummy that’s sick. It’s his mouth!’ LOL!!
The final one happened after tap last week. There are twins in her class and Hannah said to me, ‘Mommy, those girls are twins like Ro and Ree.’ I asked them how she knew they were twins and she replied, ‘Because they were born from the same lap!’ Hehe!! I guess that’s how she interpreted what was happening with my co-worker. She met Miss Tracy recently and she’s having twins in a couple of weeks so I mentioned that she has 2 babies in her belly. Voila - 2 babies born from one lap!
I love 3 and I love my 3yo SOOOO much!!
The idea began slowly and then within a matter of hours the plan was formed!
Wednesday when I was folding laundry Hannah asked, ‘Mommy, When will it be summer? I want to wear my short clothes!’ 
Thursday Hannah brought home a list of special theme days that she will be celebrating at preschool.
Thursday night as I headed to bed a plan was formed. Saturday was going to be a pretty quiet day for us once we returned from gymnastics graduation so I decided we’d have a theme day of our own.
Today was, ‘SUMMER DAY!’ at our place!
I pumped up the heat and we dug deep in our dressers to find summer clothes. What fun we had! We started by baking sugar cookies together and decorated them to look like watermelon.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch on a blanket in the kitchen
which looked normal…until you looked at all the snow outside!
Hannah enjoyed her ‘spider dog’ but since she’s not a fan of spiders we changed the name to ‘octopus dog’ and all was right in her world once again!
We enjoyed a great day together and were joined by Uncle Dave, Auntie Trish, Makenna and Kallen for supper. We made pizza for supper and although it’s hard to tell from this picture, we were on our way to the local community centre to go swimming! Hannah and I hadn’t been swimming since last summer but it’s safe to say that my little fish took to the water like we’d never left! It will soon be time to sign her up for lessons again and I know she’ll do well.
It was fun to switch things up a bit and welcome even a few hours of summer!
Hannah has loved to dance since she was a little baby! This first video was taken when she was just 11 months old. I can’t believe how little she was, and how clever! I can’t wait to show her this video when she wakes up tomorrow morning!
Hannah loves hearing about when she was a baby and looking at videos and pictures. Playing ‘Baby’ is something she enjoys doing and I love indulging her and remembering what it was like. I can’t believe she’s almost 4 already!!
I like to offer her a variety of activities to try so when I saw an 8 week tap dancing class being offered at a local community centre I signed her up. It’s casual and tap shoes are not needed but I knew my little girl would love the sound of tap shoes so I searched on Kijiji and we found a used pair that works perfectly for her! It’s hard to catch her standing still (ok, nearly impossible!) so here’s the best I could do.
(Taken through the classroom door)
Here they were working on their ‘tap, tap, clap’ step. Heh! Love how hard she’s concentrating and the effort she’s putting into it!
This final video was taken during free dance at the end of the class. (Note, Hannah was involved in a little crash at the end. All were okay but she felt AWFUL!!) This free dance captures my little girl to a ‘T’!! She’d be happy to do this all day and when you see her in action this is much how she loves to move!
I love my little dancing girl and seeing the changes as she grows!!
Last week Hannah and I went to Auntie Deb and Uncle Scott’s for our annual Christmas dinner. This year we were excited when Uncle Scott could spend the entire evening with us! Hannah wore an adorable little outfit purchased when we were in FL last month. I realized when we got home that I had purchased 4 different dresses/outfits at 3 different stores that were all by the same designer, Rare Editions. The top of this fun little snowman outfit was a bit long but she still looked adorable. Hannah wears a size 5 pants for the length but size 4 fits her in tops.
Hannah can stand still for only so long before she has to jump and leap and shout!
I think this outfit captures Hannah’s outgoing personality perfectly! I sure hope it still fits her next year!
