Florida 2013–Great Trip!

 

Reading books to Grandma. Walking down to the beach.

Digging a giant hole at the beach. Yes she is hamming up for the camera, not afraid she fell in!

After the beach it was pool time. We had beautiful weather and swam every day. We went to the beach most days, but not every day.

 

Ally requested that we rent a stroller again this year so we could go on morning walks. We do this every year – for 7 years now! I told her this was the last year. But it did get me out to exercise and walk every day. She also collected shells.

One afternoon we went out to the pool and this was the site! It was so comical I had to take a picture. My dad is the one waving with no noodle.

 

Every year we eat at an outdoor restaurant that has lots of birds around. Ally calls it the “bird place” it did not disappoint – I think we saw 9 different birds.  Becky even did an impression of a pelican:

It was so funny!

That night we walked down to the beach for the sunset, another tradition for us.

Ally is getting so grown up. She even started wearing her hair in braids on this trip.

Playing Leapster with Grandma. Eating cereal at the pool.

Becky, all covered up at the pool. A couple of days we were watered and sunned out and so the three of us went shopping. We found a neat bookstore and had dinner out just the 3 of us.

I was pretty proud of the pedicure I gave Ally before we left for Florida – complete with sparkly flower stickers.

Every day Ally watched a movie – and the same movie all week. My Friend To.to.ro. One afternoon we went into town and had mini-donuts. Yes it looks like we got ice cream, but that is not what we actually did. There is a little stand that sells fresh made mini-donuts so we did that, and just had to take pictures with the giant ice cream cone. Then we shopped a little at a fun gift shop.

 

On our last day Ally had a play date with her friend Carly. Carly and her mom were in Sarasota to visit her grandma too. The girls had fun swimming and playing on the beach.

Thank you to Carly’s mom for these fantastic pictures!

On our last day in Florida we said good bye to Grandma and Grandpa and went to see Wi.nter the star of the movie Dolphin Tale.

Valentine’s Day 2014

Aunt Beth came for one night on February 13 on her way to her two week trip to South East Asia. We made Valentine cookies, opened some gifts and were just happy to see her.

Rolling out the dough and decorating with sprinkles never gets old.

We gave Aunt Beth some travel goodies, EmergenC, power bars stuff like that for her trip. She gave Ally a really cute seed starting kit.

Then on Valentine’s Day after school Ally got her bangs trimmed (and long hair braided in a fancy way) and we opened out family gifts. Becky and I got homemade cards and chocolate.

Ally was thrilled with her card, a new stuffed animal and a book.

She also got a watch! Ally has been really into telling time lately. She loves telling us exactly what time it is…9:45, now its 9:46, now its 9:47 AHHH it gets to be a little annoying. But she can also tell time on an analog clock, so we got her an analog watch.

But what Ally was most thrilled with was $5.00 bills from her grandparents. Ally used the money to buy some fun stuff in Florida; a Frozen sticker book and a dolphin necklace.

2nd Tooth Falls Out!

Ally’s remaining lower front tooth had been hanging on by a thread. It was really gross. We skyped with Grandma Barbie and Aunt Martha in Florida to show them how loose it was.

At school the kids all tried to get her to pull it out. But she resisted and said “its not ready yet” well on Saturday morning February 8 it fell out all on its own!

There it is the night before. Then, in the baggie we put it in that morning.

Before bed Ally wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy.  (Dear Tooth fairy I lost my tooth it fell out today. Can you bring me something. Love Ally)

In the morning there was a note and a gold $1.00 coin from the fairy.

Random Stuff

 

Ally drew a masterpiece on her white board.

Just cause I think she is beautiful.

Spelling word flashcards. Spelling in English continues to be a bit of a struggle. I spoke to Ally’s teacher about it and she said Ally keeps defaulting back to sounding things out. Even with words Ally knows. Recently she wrote a sentence and spelled if ef and of ov. Just because she is in the habit of writing like things sound! The teacher suggested helping Ally recognize the correct spelling as a way to help her remember the correct spelling. So I made flashcards with 3 wrong ways to spell a word and 1 correct way on the front, and on the back is the correct one with its #. Ally then tells me which one is correct. I am pretty silly about it and go “ding ding” in a sing song voice when its correct and make a nasty “ehhhh” sound like a buzzer when she is wrong. We’ve only tried it for one week, and I’m hoping it will help. Ally is starting to get frustrated about it, and expressed recently that she is a “bad writer” I had to explain that she is and always has been a great writer, she right now just isn’t a great speller. And spelling and writing are two different things. We’re hoping that we can work with her so that she doesn’t get discouraged about the spelling and then start not liking writing. She takes pride in her writing abilities, and she is great at it.

Her teacher said this is the time in 1st grade when then pick up the pace a bit and the expectations of “rightness” start to come into assessment.

Sometimes being a parent is tough.

But sometimes, like when all your hard work pays off with a huge improvement on your daughter's spelling test, it's very rewarding!

Nice job Ally!

Mother and Daughter Fun

It seems recently we’ve been splitting up with Ally. I have been really busy with work, so sometimes at night I have to do some work, and then on weekends, Ally and I hang out so Becky can get her grading and planning done.

Ally has been getting tired of eating the same things and asked to try some new things. We suggested Ants on a Log – you know the peanut butter on celery with raisins on top. Turns out Ally did not like that, but she did like another creation “Ants on a Table” it’s a slice of carrot, with a dollop of peanut butter topped with a raisin. Who can figure out this palette?


We made cupcakes the day after our 2 birthday parties last month, because none of stayed long enough to get dessert at our parties!

I think its clear Ally loves sprinkles.

I have been trying to get back to the gym and reintroduce exercise into my regular routine. I find its hard to find time. So Ally and I have started going swimming together after school one day a week. It was brutally cold our first day, and Ally complained about going in the car ride there. But I explained about how mommy (and Ally) need exercise and so we should go and do it together. I think she really got the point and then stopped complaining and had a blast. We swam for an hour. The picture on the right is a paper Ally brought home from school. It says in Spanish “I go sledding with my mama” Becky was so touched, and pleased. And that is something Becky and Ally do together.

Ally and I saw the D.isney movie Frozen one Sunday – it was lots of fun, and yes Ally brought her special penguin with us – Snowi is a favorite right now.

An unusual first

Recently I purchased a curling iron. Ally’s hair is getting pretty long, and she still does not like to wear it pulled back much or in braids. Since Ally does not like the hair dryer either, but tolerates it most mornings to do her hair, I thought a curling iron and curling it might be an option.

wiggling her 2nd loose tooth in the mirror while I curl her hair

Smiling in the mirror because she liked the way it looked. I thought it was a huge success. Then I left to go to church, and Ally and Becky met me there, and Ally had pulled her hair back into a pony tail. She asked Becky if it was alright, and pulled it back herself. She told me she “didn’t feel comfortable” with it the curls and asked if next  time I could do it not so curly!
I did not get a picture of the finished do – but trust me it was not that curly. Just long waves and a few long curly-cues.
This beautiful daughter of mine is so resistant to change. Oh well – we’ll keep trying.

Glider Golf

For Christmas Ally got one of those old fashioned wooded gliders in her stocking. She loves it! At first we had competitions to see who could get theirs to go the farthest. But soon Ally wanted something more complex. Becky came up with Glider Golf.

That pink basket was the hole – and they moved it around the house to try and throw the glider into it.

This is the scoreboard from a game they played when Aunt Beth was here – I love that AB (Aunt Beth) and MB (Mama Becky) were Ally’s opponents.
Such fun from such a simple toy.