The Evolution of the Imaginary Friend

When Amelia first had an imaginary friend she just would borrow her real friend, Alessandra's imaginary friend Cauday. It has progressed since then, oh my, has it progressed. Here is the current layout of all imaginary friends. It changes frequently though.

The friends that are and have been consistent for a while are McCole, Stephanie, and Queen Molalina. McCole is Amelia's best imaginary friend. She often has full conversations with her. McCole had red hair and wears a green shirt and tennis shoes. McCole usually lives with her aunt, although sometimes her mom and dad live there too. Stephanie has pink hair and wears a pink dress. She is mainly around in conjunction with McCole. Queen Molalina wears a tiara (of course), a pink dress that goes to her toes and high heels. We often have birthday parties for Queen Molalina, she most often is turning 10 but sometimes is turning 64-82. Sometimes we use a fake cake and sometimes we have to bake real cupcakes or other treats for the party.

There is also Emma and Vanna. They are usually only around when we are having a birthday party for Queen Molalina. Sometimes they also like to go swimming. Emma and Vanna are sisters. One of the newest friends is Nya. I don't know much about Nya except she likes to go shopping with us and has horse named Princess. Amelia will ride Princess through the store.

The funniest friend is Daa-Daa. Daa-Daa is her naughty friend. He is also the only boy. He is the one that makes messes and has a bad attitude. Daa-Daa is always convincing Amelia to do naughty things. Amelia will even tell you "Daa-Daa is my bad friend." You really have to watch that Daa-Daa, he is bad news.

Thanksgiving

Today we are heading up to Cripple Creek to enjoy a delicious dinner with a wonderful family. There are many things I am thankful for. At the top of the list, of course, is my family. I would be lost without Philip and Amelia, everday I remember how lucky I am that I get to be Amelia's mommy. I am also thankful that Philip and I both have good jobs and they allow us to not put Amelia in daycare. I am thankful that I always have and have had a roof over my head, clothes on my back and food in my stomach. I have a great life and I am very blessed to have it!

Well without further ado here is another post about Amelia (surprised?). Tuesday she had a Thanksgiving program at her school. They sung two songs, one about being special and the other about thanking the Lord. It was very cute and brought tears to my eyes. It made me realize Amelia is a big girl now, she is growing up so fast and if it is possible, I love her more everyday. Philip was able to take an extended lunch break and be there, Grandma Patty was there too and even Cyan came. Cyan even helped cook the feast, she helped with the stuffing and the vegetables.


Singing "I am special"

What a cute little indian

Eating her feast

Amelia was so excited to have Cyan at her program

The Next Dara Torres

Here is my little swimmer. She is always asking to enter a race.

Amelia's November Verse

November's character trait is goodness. Here is their saying: "Do not forget to do good and share with others."

Amelia's First Field Trip

Since I am so far behind in my blogging I am going to do 4 posts today and probably more to come tomorrow or so. Last Tuesday Amelia got to go on her first field trip. I went with her class to the Ecumenical Services food pantry. All the kids brought in food to donate and we got to walk it over there with the 4 year old class. First the director sat them down and explained why we brought the food and how some people don't have any food. They talked about Thanksgiving and the kinds of food you like to eat. Amelia's favorite was pumpkin pie, she definitely is my child. My favorite part was getting to see all the kids walking in a line, it was so cute.


Waiting for the other class


Listening the the director


Putting all the food up on the table

Walking back to school

Playdate at the Park

Last week, with the weather in the mid 70's, we celebrated by spending the whole morning at the park with our friends.


A train slide, which is different from the Electric Slide.


Amelia gets to be the caboose now.


You would think each girl would use one slide but there is where you would be wrong.

Zoo

In preparation for the cold and miserable weather that we are having this weekend, we had a playdate at the zoo on Friday. It was relatively warm and we had a great time. We spent nearly 4 hours there with our friends. The kids all had such a good time together.


Feeding the giraffe puppet


They insisted this was a rhinocerous ride


Alessandra, Marco and Amelia

The girls were hiding

They held hands through most of the zoo, it was pretty cute.

Glow Golf

I bought a certificate to the glow in the dark golfing online for way cheap. Amelia is always asking to go in there everytime we are in the mall so since Philip had Wednesday off, we decided to go. It was pretty fun. Amelia's favorite part was putting the balls though the glow machine so they would glow brighter.

Kites

Today at school Amelia learned about the letter K. Mrs. Bradley had such a cute idea to make a kite out of a plastic produce bag. Amelia was very excited to show everyone how it flies.

Trick-or-Treating

This year Philip took Amelia trick-or-treating and I stayed home and handed out candy. Amelia came back with a pretty good haul. She was excited because Grandma Patty even went with them.


My little dalmation

The after picture

Patience

October's character trait in Amelia's school is patience. I know I could use a lesson in this sometimes. Here is their little saying they learned.

Pumpkins

This year Amelia could not decide between painting and carving a pumpkin, so since pumpkins are cheap and pumpkin seeds are delicious, she got to do both. They only spooky thing I can vaguely draw is a ghost (although help from a preschooler makes that decidedly more difficult) so one is a ghost and the other is a scary pumpkin. Although the scary carved pumpkin has a heart shaped nose, so I don't know how frightening he actually is. Amelia is looking forward to trick-or-treating with her Daddy on Saturday and I am looking forward to staying home and handing out the candy. She is going to be a dalmation and it is a pretty cute costume. Amelia also gets to have a pumpkin party at school and wear her costume and they trick-or-treat around the church offices. She is pretty excited about that.


Amelia's 1st "scary face"


Amelia's 2nd "scary face"

Saturday Fun

Saturday morning Amelia and I woke up and drove to Cripple Creek to meet Rammy. Amelia loved Rammy and now all she talks about is when she is getting a "baby puppy". Lodie gave Amelia a little teaset when we went to visit her. Amelia then convinced Grandma Kitty to have about 100 tea parties and go on a bear hunt. Amelia was so tired after playing with Rammy, she fell asleep in the car, which is a very rare event.

After visiting Cripple Creek, we went to a birthday party for Amelia's best friend's little brother. My friend Kathryn even offered to let Amelia stay after the party so Philip and I could celebrate our anniversary.

Philip and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster. We were having a nice meal when suddenly a waitress walks by and gets bumped by another waiter and spilled 4 drinks right down Philip's back. I laughed until I had tears streaming down my face. In fact, everytime I think about it now I still laugh. I just wish I would have remembered that I had my camera and take a picture. It was the best anniversary present I could have hoped for.


Amelia with Grandma Lodie


Playing tug-o-war with Rammy



Finally, Rammy is calm (it lasted about 2 minutes)

Tea Party with Grandma Kitty

On a bear hunt (pouring tea on a bear keeps you safe)

We Are Proud of You

I have not been very good about keeping up with my blog lately so I am just going to jam everything into one post. Today we had parent teacher conference with Amelia's teacher, Mrs. Bradley. She had nothing but good things to say about Amelia. She is doing very well in class. Their grades are 1, 2, or 3. She mostly 3's, which mean she consistently does the task that is being measured. She got some 2's and only a couple of 1's. She needs to work on drawing shapes counting objects to make sure she is counting each one and arriving at the correct number. Mrs. Bradley said Amelia has the academic part of school down and is progressing very quickly in the social development. In fact, she said when she starts teaching patterns, Amelia is going to be her helper because she was one of the only kids who understood patterns. She also complimented Amelia's speech, which is no shock since she has been talking this way since she was 18 months old. She is doing great in school and we are very proud of her.

In other news, Amelia is also doing great in swimming lessons. She has moved up to the 3rd level in the Preschool group. This is really the last level until the Youth group and she has to be 6 to do that. Hopefully, we will be able to put her in it even if she is too young because she will probably be ready when she is 4. She can swim 20 feet doing the front crawl. She can also back stroke for 20 feet. ALL BY HERSELF. She is doing an amazing job in swimming and we are very proud of her.

Philip and I are very lucky to be the parents of such a smart, beautiful, kind, and funny little girl. Here are some pictures that really have nothing to do with this post, other than that I have not posted any in a while and they are cute.

Swimming

I am a little behind on my blogging so I don't have any pictures today, soon though. But I am so proud of Amelia I had to post this. Amelia can swim 20 feet unassisted, without floaties or teacher helping!

WHOO-HOO AMELIA!

P.S. She can also spell her name all by herself now, next task is writing her name.

Knee Socks

Since Amelia won't wear pants, our compromise right now is knee socks. She loves them and I figure they keep her at least a little bit warm. She does have some tights for colder days and I have already told her that some day she will have to wear pants under her dress if she wants to leave the house. It is going to be a fight all winter, I just know it.

Amelia's Artwork

Everyday Amelia brings home at least 1 piece of artwork, sometimes 3. She is just so proud of them. We decided to hang them all up on the wall just like real paintings.

Fun with Buddy

This morning Amelia and I baked cookies and then she played with Buddy. Buddy is such a good sport. First she put the camera on the table, push the button and run around to get in the picture before the camera went off. She actually did surpisingly well there, I didn't think that method would work. Then she decided that Buddy needed clothes so that he could join her tea party because "you can't have a tea party naked." So Buddy is wearing a shirt. He doesn't seem to mind it actually.


Almost made it


Getting closer


Finally she got her whole body in

Buddy is dressed in his finest

Can You Guess Amelia's Favorite Color?

Watch Out Mia Hamm

Amelia had her first soccer game this weekend. She had a lot of fun and did a lot of running. That pretty much sums up the entire game but at least she enjoyed herself.