Hair-rific

Hooray for Pre-K!

One of the things we have been especially grateful for this year is that our friends, the Mylroies, moved into our ward at the beginning of January.  They were some of our closest friends in our ward in Tokyo, and so it has been wonderful to have them close again.  Savannah would be the only girl her age in her Primary class if it wasn't for the Mylroie's daughter Isabel.  We're grateful to have another girl her age, and they have been having a blast being back together, including going to Pre-K together!

This past Wednesday was Savannah's last day of school in her Pre-K class.  They put on a little program where they said the Pledge of Allegiance

and sang some songs.

Then their teacher, Miss Mandy, presented them with books filled with their projects from the semester.

They were rewarded with a special lunch at the end.

What a fun day!

To Whom It May Concern,

I'm making some changes in the wardrobe department.  The last time I let Daddy dress me, this is what happened:

As soon as I had the chance, I made my escape.

From now on, I will be dressing myself.

Love,
Ella

What Squirrels Do When They Sleep

When I went to get Squirrel up from her nap today, I found her wearing this hood that goes to her snowsuit. She must have been sleeping walking in her closet, because OF COURSE she was actually napping, right?

Savvy & Black

I took some pictures of Savvy today for a project she needs to take to her preschool class tomorrow.  She was hosting a little dog hand puppet, and had to name him/her and do things with him/her.  We were supposed to document the experience and then bring in a show-and-tell page to class.  She decided to name the dog "Black" because it has a black nose.  I thought these three pictures were so cute that I had to share them!

1st Day of Preschool!

The Parks & Recreation department of Corona offers a variety of classes for kids to take.  One of them is a Pre-K class that meets 2 times a week.  Savannah has been on the waiting list until I got a call last night saying that a spot had opened up and they were wondering if we wanted it.  I jumped at the opportunity and Savannah went to her first day today.  The first 5 minutes were rough.  She has quite a bit of anxiety around groups of people she doesn't know.  The teacher was concerned that it wasn't going to work out, but I asked her to give Savannah the benefit of the doubt and let her stay (without me in the room) for 10 minutes and then reassess.  After 5 minutes she quite crying and enjoyed herself (except when they all moved to the rug for story time and she started crying again for a minute)!  To celebrate her big day we made lasagna for dinner, including making the noodles from scratch.  I think I made a good choice:

Fresh Strawberry Carnage

Those strawberries didn't stand a chance.

Sam & Savvy

Last week when we were in Utah we took Sam out for some ice cream at Coldstone.  We loved getting to spend time with him, but I think a certain member of our family really enjoyed the visit.  I think the following photo montage says it all:

Bird Boss

I just experienced one of those moments that causes you to stop and think, "I need to write this down right now before I forget it!"  So I'm doing just that and sharing it with you in the process. 

Nate is currently upstairs doing some work, and Ella is down for a nap.  About 2 minutes ago I was sitting at the piano looking over the hymns for tomorrow and Savannah was sitting at the kitchen table having a snack.  It is a gorgeous day outside and so I have the sliding glass door that opens onto our backyard open so that the cool air can circulate through the kitchen.  Savannah was humming to herself when all of a sudden she stopped.  I could hear the birds outside singing, and she obviously could too, because she said, "No birds, no! Stop singing! I'm singing a song! Remember, when the birds are quiet?"  

Leave it to Savannah to boss around the birds.

Easter in Utah

We just got back Tuesday evening from a quick trip to Utah.  Nate sang in the Priesthood Session of Conference, so we drove up in time for that and then got to be there for Easter.  It was a wonderful trip, despite the wintry weather (including a snow storm that caused us to stay in St. George overnight on the way up so that we could avoid driving through it at night).  The girls had a blast spending time with Grandma and Grandpa (Nate's mom and step-dad).

  Easter was a wonderful day.  The girls loved hunting for eggs and it was fun to have Grandpa George and Grandma Dot come for dinner.

On Monday we headed down to Provo for a quick visit with Sam (pictures coming in my next post) and a quick visit with Alicia (she was one of my Young Women when I was the Young Women's president in our ward in Tokyo) who is a student at BYU.

The girls loved pretending to be co-eds.

Thankfully we won't be worry about that stage of life any time soon!