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.

My Very Own Mastercard Commercial

Preschool Tuition - $140

School Clothes - $100

Hearing what Amelia learned at school - Priceless

Homework

Amelia has completed her first homework assignment. At her school, all of the kids are given buckets instead of backpacks. It is an easier way to carry home artwork and nothing is ever lost in the hidden depths of a backpack. They get to decorate them anyway they want to. Amelia and I headed to Wal-Mart for some crafting provisions and on the way home Amelia was looking through her bag os stuff and decided that she wanted to make her bucket a happy face. So we got out the hot glue gun and went to work. Amelia came up with the whole design all by herself. She insisted it had to have bangs because she has bangs. She also wanted it to be wearing a dress. We went back to the store and she looked through all the fabric until she found the "ballerina" fabric (tulle). She made a happy face ballerina bucket. She is very proud of it and I think it is the best design in the class, and clearly the only one with no parental input (other than glue gun operator).

My Little Preschooler

Amelia has completed day one of her preschool career. I am so proud of her. I went to wake her up and she got right up (something that rarely happens, we are night people), she had a good breakfast and we were off to school. I took the mandatory thousand pictures and dropped her off. She went in, sat down, and started painting a picture, never looking back. I had to ask for a hug and kiss. When I picked her up she was so excited to show me what she had painted and the book Mrs. Bradley let her borrow. She said her favorite part of school was playing with the rice table, painting, circle time, and playing dress up. I think that pretty much covers most of what she did today so needless to say she is loving school. I even picked her up a special bouquet of purple daisies for a surprise. After school she got to pick a special lunch of Kid Cuisine (yuck) and is now relaxing before soccer practice. I can't believe how fast the last 3 1/2 years has gone by. I am now the proud mother of a preschooler, not a baby or even a toddler, but a full-fledged preschooler.


Amelia and Spot heading off to school. Spot got to go to school in case she needed him but he stayed in the bucket the whole time, I am proud of that.


The classroom entrance, it is a marine life themed room.


By her name tag, she found her name all by herself. She gets extra points because she knew which Amelia she was.

Amelia and Mrs. Bradley

"Goodbye Mom" I was chopped liver by this point.

Sky Diving

Today in the car, Amelia told me that she wants to go buy a parachute so she (and Spot) can jump out of an airplane together. I told her you have to be 18 and she said "but I am only 3 and that is too many years to wait." So I told her that they don't let you jump from an airplane unless you have a drivers license. That seemed to satisfy her so I think I am safe until she turns 16. Hopefully by then the driving age goes up to 18. She is my little daredevil and I love that about her.

Open House

Philip and I took Amelia to her open house at preschool today. She is going to First Presbyterian Preschool, downtown on Weber. She was so very excited this morning. Her day at school will start with Free Choice/Centers, then Circle Time, then Playground/Gym, then Chapel or Music, then Show and Tell or Mookie (a monkey puppet) and Play-Doh. Throw in a couple of bathroom breaks and a goodbye song and that is a day of preschool. They are also going to start an ant farm for a science project. They will also study a different Bible story each week and every month they will have a new character trait to concentrate on, first is God Made the World and being kind and compassionate. Every week they will also have a new theme, next week is Ants. I think she will really enjoy this. She was already having a great time with the centers today during the open house. Here is an intesting fact about her class, there are 12 kids and 2 teachers but there are 3 sets of twins in her class. And something we didn't think we would ever have to experience, she has to go by Amelia C. because there is another Amelia in her class. You would think that we picked a very common name or something.


Playing dress-up. She even accessorized.


Playing moon sand with one of her teachers.


The rice table.

The baby and dollhouse center

Amelia's lovely makeup. She rubbed her eye with the back of her hand that had a stamp on it and this was the result.

The Zoo

Today we got to go to the zoo with Grandma Kitty, Grandpa Ike and Hilary and her girls. It was a lot of fun, especially since Mom and Ike had not seen all of the recent (and not so recent) improvements. We started with a picnic in the parking lot, which sounds a lot more successful that it actually was but I bet the chipmunks feasted after we left. Grandma even bought everyone a treat, ice cream and cotton candy for everyone. We had a great time, even though it rained pretty much the whole time.


Walking in the rain. Hilary got the front view and I got the rear. Both are cute though.

Feeding and petting the baby giraffe. The babies haven't learned not to let you pet them unless you have a cracker in your hand.


Riding the carousel

Grandma Kitty and her girls

The Giraffes

Amelia had her first soccer practice this past Thursday. She did a really great job and listened to everything her coach said. I think soccer is going to immensely more successful than t-ball. They got to choose their own team name. After much, quite hilarious, discussion they chose the Giraffes.


Kicking the ball around before practice starts


Stretching


Stopping the ball

Passing drills

Huddle up

Pagosa Springs

This is my last post in the series. I was a little behind but should be caught up now, except for a video that I can't get to load.

Last weekend we had to take a trip to Pagosa Springs for a funeral. I wish it was under happier circumstances but it was nice to see everyone. Amelia had a good time playing with her cousins for 3 days. She even got to have a sleep over with 3 of Eric's girls on both nights. We were ready to come home though. Amelia is not used to having so much commotion around and kept asking me if she could play by herself. The next morning after we got home, she gathered her supplies (books, crayons, and puzzles) and told me she was going to play elevator. She took a chair and all the supplies into my closet and shut the door. She stayed there for over an hour just sitting by herself. She needed to decompress.


In the hot tub


Hot tub beard


Jamie fell asleep, Amelia and Cecilia turned him into their patient. As you can see, they covered him and gave him lots of nice animal friends to "make him feel better." They also measured him with the measuring tape. He never woke up.



Playing paper dolls

Making a mud pie on the dock while everyone was fishing

Fun in the Sun

We have been taking full advantage of our brand new backyard while it is still warm enough to do so. Amelia played in the sprinkler and on her new tree swing. She loves the swing and was very indifferent about the sprinkler.


One of the best pictures of the summer.

Marshmallows

We recently added an outdoor fireplace to our patio. A couple weeks back Amelia got to roast her first marshmallow. She would hold the marshmallow above the fire for about 4 seconds, then take it off, blow on it, take one bite and start the next marshmallow. She roasted 8 and not a single one was the least bit brown. She needs to improve her technique but really had fun doing it.

Video Games

Well I knew the day would come eventually and it has. Philip has peaked Amelia's interest in video games. He got her a Dora game for the Nintendo DS and she loves it. It, fortunately, is the only game she likes and she has to compete with both Daddy and Mommy for Nintendo time so she doesn't get to play a lot.