Salon

 Ally's babysitter left her sunglasses at her house so we took a picture of Ally wearing them and emailed it to Lauren to le her know. I just think its a hilarious picture.

 Then we decided it was Salon night at our house. Time for pedicures.

For the record I am the nail technician, Ally was the "person at the salon who tells you want to do and makes sure everything is ok" and Becky was the client.

Ally spread out a bunch of tools - bows, head bands, clippies, nail polish, etc. I had to "do" Becky's hair before starting on her toes. Becky is sporting 2 bows and a teeny tiny ponytail.

 Eventually Ally had her turn as a client too.

She chose purple with a top coat of glitter.

But not me, since neither Ally or becky can paint nails without getting it all over my skin I decided I would skip the pedicure treatment.

Then a few days later we went to the hair salon for real and we all got our hair cut.

Surprise Visit

Last week cousin Mandy and Ed were in town on a spontaneous road trip around New England - they basically got rained out at a cabin in the White Mountains so they left and headed towards Boston.

We spent an enjoyable evening talking and playing games with them.

Ed is fluent in Spanish and Mandy knows a lot too - and Ed was very sweet to read Ally a book in Spanish. Ally loved it!

Thanks for stopping by.



Happy Birthday Becky

Becky turned 34 on June 23. It was a Saturday and we had a great day!

Ally worked on her card for mama in the morning after breakfast. Of course it was a picture of the 2 of them together.

We had aa friend over for a playdate - Ally had a blast with Roxie and Becky and I enjoyed time with her mom MaryBeth. After the play date we made the drive to Ikea.

Ice cream cones at the end are a must!

When we got home we decided it was time for Becky to open her gifts and cards. She received so many cards and felt so loved - thank you everyone!

With her card and gift from Ally.

A few weeks ago Ally and I went to a paint your own pottery place with some friends after school and Ally painted this mug for Becky as a gift for her birthday. Ally chose all of the colors herself and did it all by herself.

After gifts it was time for dinner - we went out to eat can you guess where?

Legal Sea.food. Becky got the lobster dinner - it was the largest lobster on a plate I have ever seen.

Back at home for dessert. Becky had requested a yellow cake with my grandma's brown sugar frosting.

I had made the cake the night before.

Ally was pretty excited to put the candle in the cake.

Singing Happy Birthday

Becky was very proud that she blew out all the candles at once!

After Happy Birthday we decided to sing Feliz Cumpleanos (HB in Spanish) So Becky put one candle back in the cake for that and Ally and I sang again only in Spanish  this time.

Ally is wearing a dress Becky made her this Spring.

And our couch is wearing a new slipcover we bought at Ikea.

Yes its white - it was super cheap - so we thought we'd give it a try and see how it works for us.

Becky said she had a fun day.

I know Ally and I did too.

Birthday Party #14

On the hottest day of the year so far Ally attended Grant's birthday party. The party was at the park in extreme heat - high 90s so no pictures from the actual party. But as always - proof of the party is the card.

Birthday Party #13

Last weekend we went to our 13th birthday party of the year and as luck would have it it was a birthday party for a dog!

There she is - Pumpkin. Pumpkin was 2 and her family decided to have a birthday party to celebrate. Pumpkin's family are neighborhood friends of ours and Ally and Olive are in the same grade at school.

Walking to the park.

 

Drew and Lucia and Pumpkin and the cake. Yes we sang happy birthday to the dog.

And as it turns out the cake was mostly consumed by 5 year old girls, not Ally but several others thought the organic dog cake was delicious.

After the dog party at the park we went to Olive's house for pizza and grown up cake. Between the pizza and the cake the girls wanted to try out Olive's roller skates. Above is Olive trying to skate.

 

Then it was Ally's turn.

 

The people cake was yummy.

 

After cake there were parachute games!

All in all a pretty fun party.

Good Bye at School

Last week there was a good bye party at Ally's school. All of the kindergarten classes has a potluck picnic lunch and performed 2 Latin dances.

The event was supposed to be at a local park but it rained all day so the festivities took place in the cafeteria.

Ally with her teacher, Noelle. We feel so fortunate to have had her as Ally's first "big school" elementary school teacher. Every week Noelle sent an email to the parents to let us know what would be covered each week. This helped a lot to create conversation about school and what Ally was learning at home.

Getting set for the Latin Dance

Of course Ally and Alice ended up standing next to each other!

And this one was taken on the very last day of school. We did it! Ally completed her first year of elementary school. Next stop Kindergarten!

After School Fun

We had our final after-school play date of the year with Alice last week.

 beautiful girls stopping to enjoy the beautiful flowers

 braving the fountain

 They each blocked a stream of water with a bucket

 checking to  make sure I saw what they accomplished

(Of course I did - I was taking pictures of the whole thing!)

 Alice was really brave in the middle

 Ally joined her - but got cold really quick and bailed on the fountain. Then she and I watched while Alice put on a show.

 Alice started to do cartwheels in the fountain! Above she has her hands up above her head ready to make the turn on to her hands and below is as she come up after the wheel.

Finally Alice was cold enough to go home.

When we got home the girls took warm showers and watched TV while I made dinner. Eventually Becky got home from a staff meeting and Alice's parents came to join us for dinner.

The girls got along well and it was a fun afternoon.

Friends

Its almost summer which means we're back to having regular picnics at the park for dinner.

Recently we met Stella and her family for dinner. After playing the fountain for a while (and on the monkey bars) we ate dinner and then Ally and Stella found a quiet spot away to color. Stella brought markers, pre-made books for her and Ally and clipboards for each of them.

They were so adorable.

Gymnastics Show 2012

Today was the annual gymnastics show at Ally's gym. She had regular class this morning at 9AM and then we had to be back at the gym at 1230 for the 100PM show. In between we went to our gym so mama and mommy could exercise and Ally hung out in the nursery and then we had lunch at Panera.

 Ally was getting a little nervous about her performance during lunch. At the end of class her coach told us moms that Ally would be performing her floor routine SOLO and she was slated as the last performance of the show!

We decided not to tell Ally that but instead to focus on having fun, smiling and doing her best.

I showed her a video of the routine I had taken earlier in the year so she could remember it and after that she was fine.

 I got Ally all changed in to her brand new show leotard in the bathroom at Panera - she was glowing and I had to get a picture. Her pose just cracks me up!

All of the Stars Program girls lined up. The Stars are the pre-team girls at the gym.

 Each gymnast had a flag to wave - the theme this year was the Olympics

 River had his performance today as well - here he is marching with his flag off the floor

There was a raffle and Ally chose one of the winning numbers! We did not win the raffle but its hard to mind when I feel we won the daughter lottery!

 Soon it was time for Ally's performance. She was all by herself out on the floor. She did great!

No mistakes or anything and she remembered it - she just took a deep breath and did it! We are so proud of her.

I have a video of it if you want to see it leave a comment and I'll send  you the link. It was only about a minute long.

The whole show was over in about 30 minutes.

 After the performances each athlete gets a medal. Here are all the girls in the Stars program that performed today. They are lined up from tallest to smallest. We laughed that the 3 tallest are the girls in Ally's class then there were 4 girls in the lower level and then Ally.

Gymnastics is truly a sport where smaller is an asset!

 Hands up before a bow!

 Ally was so pleased.

I think she was also a bit let down that it all happened so fast. Last year it was well over an hour - too long frankly so I think this year  they scheduled more shows so they were less crowded.

 After the show we let Ally pick out a treat from the bake sale - she chose a sugar cookie with frosting and sprinkle and ate the whole thing on the way home.

When we got home she curled up on her bed and wrote in her journal for a while and now she is watching a movie - a dinosaur one of course!

Later today we are meeting friends for a unique birthday party.