Dana Graduates from Preschool

Okay, so I am about a month or more behind on posting, but that's how life goes. I wanted to post a few of the pictures from Dana's preschool graduation in May. She went to the Presbyterian Preschool here in town, and had an amazing experience. She was devastated by the fact that she was graduating, and couldn't return in the fall. The preschool is really a wonderful one, and usually has a years-long waiting list, but we got really lucky that they happened to have one cancellation last summer, so they were able to fit Dana in. It was pretty expensive, at least by our standards, it cost $220/month for three days a week, when we paid just $50/month for Nate to go to preschool. But that is the Bay Area...more expensive all around to live here. Anyway, they put on this graduation program/potluck that was unbelievable. The kids prepared several songs to perform, and the decorations for the potluck were amazing...the level of effort that went into the potluck was right on par with the effort that goes into the Brush Creek Ward activities...and that is really saying something.

Here is just one of the pictures of Dana on stage performing for the parents. She is the second one to the left of the kid in the bright orange shirt.

This is Dana's plate that the preschool made as a graduation gift for her. It's a picture she drew of her "Fabby-Fifi," which is what she calls her Daddy. Note that she made the picture very realistic by giving Daddy a red beard, but she put him in a dress with puffy sleeves. Too funny.This is just one of the decorations they put up. They hung all these big bugs from the ceilings and each one had a face of one of the different preschool teachers. The kids loved it. This is Mrs. Maloney, the director of Dana's class, and she was hanging directly over our table.

This is Dana's best friend ever, Sydney Wold. Sydney lives right near by and is in our ward, and the girls were lucky enough to get to be in the same class for preschool. They did great, because even though they were best friends before class started, they also never had a problem playing with other kids or letting other kids play with the two of them. The teachers commented to me several times how pleased they were with this.

Here she is with Mommy and Daddy at the potluck dinner. We took a picture of the three of us together, but you will never see it unless I am ever a contestant on The Biggest Loser. It is from a sideways angle, and for whatever reason, it looks like a "before" picture instead of a picture of me at seven months pregnant. Seriously, you can't even tell I am pregnant in the picture, I just look really fat. As Kimmy would say: "it's gigusting!"

Apparently they also used rocks that the kids painted into bugs as more decorations. This is Dana's bumblebee.

Dana Brielle turns FIVE!!

So Dana turned 5 last month! I can't believe my little girl is going to be starting all day kindergarten in two short months! What will I do without her, oh, that's right, I'll have a newborn plus mischevious little Kimmy to keep me occupied. She loves to hold my hand and is always offering to give me foot massages - lotion and everything. She is very empathetic and can just can sense when others are unhappy and goes out of her way to help them feel better. She loves to help around the house with chores or cooking and especially taking care of her little sister Kimmy. She can't wait for the new baby to be born so she can help change it and feed it. Dana's birthday was such a fun day. For her birthday breakfast she got to have french toast with strawberries and whip cream made by Daddy: The she got to open a new birthday outfit:

Then she got to go on a date, just her and Mommy to the mall. We had to make a stop at "her store" which is actually Claire's boutique so she could pick out a new present. I loved this hat, but she chose a diary with a lock and key instead...could she be 5 going on 15?

After the mall, we got to go see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D, again just the two of us. Dana is such a sweet girl with such a sweet heart, I loved having the chance to do something with just her. For her birthday cake, she wanted to get an ice cream cake, and Baskin Robbins had just the perfect one for her. It was pink and shaped like a purse. Too cute!

Of course, Nate couldn't wait to dive into the cake!(She was having a great hair day, don't you think? Kate needs the CHI Jed ;)) After cake, Kimmy had to go to bed because it was already after 8. So it was just Nate and Dana for the opening of the presents. I realize that it looks like from these pictures that Dana got a massive amount of presents, so I feel the need to clarify. The presents in her pile include those from both sets of grandparents and quite a few from Mom and Dad were much needed clothes, which I decided to wrap up to make it look like she had more. Jared said she is going to look back at these pictures next year and say "36? 36 presents? Last year, last year I had 37!!!" (for those who don't know that was a Harry Potter reference).

Of course, her favorite present was this one:

It was a great birthday, we are so happy and blessed to have her as a part of our family. Life wouldn't be half as fun without her.

To quote Dana: "This was the best day of my life. I got everything of my heart's desire!"

What we do for fun

Here are some more amusing pictures of what we do for fun at our house.

Dana and the OTHER Nathan

As some of you may know, Dana has a little bit of a preschool romance going on. The lucky young fellow to have captured Dana's fancy for the moment is named Nathan. They got married at the beginning of the year on the playground at preschool and have been "boyfriend/girlfriend" ever since. Nathan recently invited Dana to come see him play in a Tee-ball game and also to his Batman themed swimming birthday party. Nathan just recently sent her a card in the mail and this picture of them together at his party was enclosed in the middle. Too cute! Of course, who can blame Nathan for liking Dana, he has excellent taste!!

Nate's Walk-a-thon

Every year at Nate's school, they do a fundraiser called the Walk-a-thon. In kindergarten Nate wasn't too into participating. However, now that he is a mature, socially concious 1st grader, he was really excited to do it. The kids get pledges from people they know for each lap that they walk around the track. Each lap is 1/4 of a mile. The day of the walk-a-thon it was close to 90 degrees! Nate was able to finish 17 laps around the track which is equal to 4 1/4 miles in about an hour and a half. Since he only got pledges from Mom and Dad - for $1/lap, he was able to raise $17 for his school. We were very proud of him! Way to go Nate!

Like Father Like Son

Jared likes to get the kids to do weird poses for him to take pictures of. Nate loves to oblige. They both end up cracking up and going nuts. Can you see the resemblances here?

Just a day at the beach

The other day it was so hot here we headed out the beach to cool off, but when we got there it was so cold and windy that Kimmy and I decided to stay in the car. Jared and Nate and Dana had tons of fun running up and down the sand dunes and exploring the beach. I took these pictures with the zoom on my camera from the sunroof of the car. I just couldn't venture out into the freezing wind without a bathroom nearby. I blame it on the pregnant bladder!

This is what Kimmy spent the time doing, watching Disney's Beauty and the Beast on the DVD player in the van for probably the 150th time...no exaggeration! My girls love that movie!