May Day - Review of month 5

The heat finally found us in deep south Texas in May. We melted at Field Day and the last weeks of school activities. We tried to keep cool on the 2nd grade field trip to the Arboretum where I was the lucky parent volunteer who chaperoned. We spent family date night at Market Street and cheered on some of our boy friends in the championship little league game. Olivia baked as expected and played at the park despite the warm temps. We celebrated Grandma's birthday and went bowling on Memorial Day. Again the days ticked by and it was summer before we knew it. Thank goodness for journaling, so we can remember all of these fun days that blaze by at lightening speed.  Hats off to May.

The Busy Bees at Kids of the Kingdom Preschool

Olivia was ready for preschool to end. She had a great year with fun teachers and new friends, but she still struggled to go lots of days. She was fine once we got inside the building and was excited to put her folder away and her lunchbox in its place, but getting her TO school was often a battle. She, just like Isabelle, would rather stay home with mom everyday and go to Target and play. Isabelle is going into 3rd grade and still has not outgrown this....I thought kids loved to go to school?!

On the last day of preschool a mini train came and took the kids on a ride. It was cloudy and looked like rain, but drops never fell fortunately. Livi loved riding around with her friends and loved having a special lunch and dessert after. Every week we got a weekly report of Olivia from school and it almost always said something like this: Olivia is so kind to everyone. She is a great friend and loves to share and push her friends on the swing. She is a great leader and always is first to follow directions. We love Olivia.

Similar to Isabelle also, Olivia didn't really go to school to learn so much academics. She knows her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, can write her name and several other words and is on the brink of reading. Instead, she went to preschool to learn to open her own lunch and eat herself, learn to follow other people's rules, meet new and different types of friends and be without her mama. It wasn't easy for either of us, but we did it!

Olivia gave a quick wave to her teachers and friends the end of May and sprinted out of the building. She is hoping the summer goes by very slowly...and I am too.

The ballet production of Cinderella

Isabelle and Olivia love to dance. They love going to ballet every week and they love to perform. Their Spring production this year was Cinderella and the girls were beyond thrilled. Isabelle danced the role of a Wildflower and Olivia performed as a Garden Fairy. Tara flew into town for the weekend and Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Van drove down from Dallas. The girls looked beautiful and loved all of the makeup and hair buns and costumes. They both had butterflies before they took the stage but danced lovely when their time came and we could tell that they had practiced and practiced. They love watching all of the older girls perform as well and dream about the days when they will be the star of the show.

Listen to the beat of your heart, and keep on dancing. -Barbie and the Pink Shoes

The tale of the scooter

Olivia loves her micro mini scooter that Santa brought her. She is super fast, can turn on a dime and can go more than a mile on just one leg. She often rides it half the way to pick Belle up from school and then when she gets tired, she and her scooter hop in my bike trailer to ride the rest of the way. Olivia on her scooter was a common site around the neighborhood. Until one day...

It was a Thursday. I know for sure because I was following Olivia on my bike and she was scootering towards the school in her ballet leotard. We were about halfway to the school and her little legs were going strong, maybe even too strong. Just as we began to pass Lake Paloma, Livi started speeding down a hill at a high speed. She was going a little too fast and instead of using her brake to slow herself down, she jumped off her scooter as it sped along and it kept cruising and went straight into the lake! It happened so quickly that I could see it happening but wasn't fast enough to jump off my bike and save the scooter before it sank to the bottom of the lake. (Thank goodness Olivia bailed and didn't go under water herself!) A fisherman was fishing nearby and at the same moment he busted out laughing at the scene and Olivia burst into tears. He tried to reach the bottom of the lake with his fishing pole but couldn't reach the bottom so he told me it was at least 8' deep. Just then the school bell rang in the distance and we were late to pick up Belle. I had to throw crying Livi in the trailer and say goodbye to her beloved scooter now buried in the lake and pedal fast. It was such a sad day that Livi has still not gotten over, although I am sure we could have won Americas Funniest Home Videos if we had it on tape. R.I.P. Scooter.

This picture was taken the day Olivia rode her scooter all the way to pick up Belle at school, 1.5 miles one way, without stopping.

When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are.

We weren't sure that we were going to take our annual spring Disney trip this year since we had recently been there over the holidays... but when the cool air turned warmer and the bad memories of type B Flu in California last time still lingered, we began to get the itch. Once Isabelle brought home her mid-term report card and Ben saw that she had missed very few days of school this year, he was convinced that we needed to plan a trip and get out of town FAST. We decided on Mothers Day weekend at Disneyland and quickly got Tara on board and before you know it, were packing our bags for sunny California.

The girls were beyond excited as expected and loved packing all of their Minnie clothes in their suitcases. They have become fabulous travelers and the nearly 4 hour flight was quickly behind us and we found ourselves checked in at the Disneyland Hotel. We spent the next 5 days park hopping, eating fun foods, swimming, shopping and having too much fun. We had plenty of time this trip to take it easy and we took advantage by riding the Disney train and trolley around the park, watched multiple fabulous shows, enjoyed the resort pools and slept in as long as we could.







This was the first trip that the girls were really able to stay up late after that first night or two fighting the time change and most days we enjoyed another trip back to the park in the evening to watch the parade and close the park down. Isabelle really loved riding anything fast, high and dangerous and Tower of Terror, California Screaming and Space Mountain were her ( and Ben's ) favorite rides. Olivia was in love with the characters and would wait in any line to meet and greet them. She wouldn't miss the parade every single day and of course loved riding everything in Fantasyland.








It was a unique place to spend Mothers Day and the girls were so proud to present me with a corsage courtesy of the park. California was experiencing unseasonably hot weather for our visit, but the dry air felt nice and the mornings and evenings were lovely. So far we have lengthened and lengthened our Disney trips and still have not ever been ready to leave when it's time to pack our bags yet again. It truly is the Happiest Place on Earth when you have little girls and we are so glad that we have these memories we all share. When we are surrounded by all of the Disney charm it makes us believe that They Lived Happily Ever After is in fact a reality.