Writing Center

The other day I realized, I need a place for Christina where she can go and just write. It's snowing, so I had to do a garden theme writing center. It was really funny because we were brainstorming together the different parts of a story (story elements) and the girls were raising their hands. They were so excited to answer and participate. For some odd reason, every other answer Maria gave was the Holy Ghost.

The girls came up with different examples of story elements and I wrote them down on each petal. This is just so Christina can get ideas and check her writing to see if it has all the parts of a story. One element is the solution to the problem. I loved that Maria came up with the answers, "Jesus and love." Truly, those are the best answers to any conflict. It was a proud mother moment.

Maria again was flying through her CVC words, another 25 tonight. I guess we'll start working on sight words and firming up letters. I had her write her letters and she got all but 3. We played 4 in a row tonight and she did exceptional!!

I'm trying to find out if she can test for Kindergarten early.

I must admit, Christina has had off for a month. She's worked very hard. I'm proud to say she has mastered counting money... like I could send her to the grocery store and it'd be all good. She also has really taken to addition with carrying. Her time is coming along very smoothly. Every morning we worked for 2 hours. She read Junie B. Jones Dumb Bunny... and as a side note, she was on the last two chapters and was begging to finish. I got her a little flashlight and said she could finish after Joe read scriptures. She was ecstatic. She read both ending chapters by herself and in the morning her first words to me were, "Mom!!! I read Junie B!! You'll never guess what happened!!" I was a little skeptical, but after she told me all about it, I went back and read and sure enough... she even had all the details!! We have that in common. If a book is good, I don't want to put it down either!! I've spent many a wonderful night pouring the pages of great books, to go to bed at 4 or 5 AM. And I'm glad she's like that too!!

They are just jewels. I don't understand why I am so blessed.

CVC- Maria's reading!!

I can't believe it, but really... it's happening. Maria is mastering her CVC (Consonant Vowel Consonant)words and starting to blend really well. We usually play Boggle Jr. or a few other games just for fun. But I noticed about 5 days ago she was able to get 11 words all by herself in the game ping!pang!pong!.

Hooray lil' babe!! Such a smarty.

Happy Spring and Easter!!!

I love Portrait Innovations. The whole process, prints in hand takes 1 hour exactly. The staff is friendly and we always end up with cute shots. Plus it's very affordable. Especially when Yaya volunteers to pitch in. So, look for your Easter cards in the mail soon! It was snowing and I needed to do something spring-y fast. This was the result. I hope it stops snowing soon!!!

True story. Christina had 2 really large bowls of apple jacks for breakfast. 20 minutes before the photo shoot she starts throwing up. REALLY!!! Why are we all such barfers. It's nastiness!! She wasn't sick, she just ate way too much. Anyways, she smiled well. Who would have known she had just been reliving her morning cereal before this photo. Well, now you I suppose.

Thanks Yaya Sofia for the lovely dresses!!

Rally for Education

Let me just say, I am a very "for the people" type person. Mind you, while at BYU I felt the pressure and the mind numbing effects of conservatism... but fortunately we left the state and I snapped out of it. Just thinking about it gives me the willies....

Teaching low income students, making friends with working folk and just good ol' plain common sense leads me to teach my daughters the importance of fighting for what's right. College tuition raises? Cut federal aid grants for students? Cut professors? Cut departments that aren't producing in numbers like social work and the dramatic arts? Yeah... no thanks. PROTEST.

Why doesn't the president of UNR offer some of his $450,000 yearly salary to help balance the budget. I don't see any politicians taking the opportunity either. So boo to them. We chanted. We got cars to honk. We got flipped off. The girls got their picture taken at least 30 times. And we did it. We are for higher education. Today's students are tomorrow's doctors. We need it.

Surprisingly, we were the only children there... except for a little 8 yr. old boy who lost his mother and was crying. Then the police man didn't help him. He wandered off. It was very bizarre. It was "supposedly" one of the largest rallies in Northern NV getting 1,300 people. It was really, rather pathetic. We were in an Immigration march in the bay area with 10,000.... so it paled a bit. NV just doesn't know the definition of protest. We'll see what the immigration march brings in May.

March Art Farts

Various Water Colors.

Caterpillars on a leaf.

Oil Pastel, Black and White image.

Kites.

Self Portraits. I love how Christina broke up her name Christ-ina.

VSA Lake Mansion Art Day

Quite possibly my favorite day of the year other than holidays. The people who put this on are just plain amazing and wonderful!!! I love how supportive the teachers are and how creative and flexible the projects are.

We arrived early and beat the rush... it worked out nicely. We were always able to squeeze in and didn't have to wait for face painting.

From burning men to kites to self portraits, the girls took their time and really worked hard on their projects.

 Downstairs we had glitter fun, painted rock pets and these awesome pastel and black and white image art. We also made clay caterpillars.

Such a wonderful morning!! Afterwards Papa and Yaya spoiled us with a lunch at Red Robins and dessert at Yogurt Beach aka heaven. Thanks everyone for all the fun!! It was also wonderful to have our friend Amyra there too!

A Wonderful Day O' Green!

We woke up hoping to trap some pesky leprechauns, but they were just too sneaky! We were pretty lucky this year because they didn't make a mess and left us pots of gold and skittles! The girls spent a lot of time on their traps and it turned out lovely!

Food for the day included: Lucky Charms, Spanikopita, Green Pizza, Green Smoothies, Pistachio Cream and Rainbow Jello! Yum!

We had to paint our nails green for the day of course.

We made leprechauns. Christina named her's Candy.

It was sunny, so we braved the park for a little bit. We enjoyed a nice evening with Ram and her ladies! And ended the night with Michael Flatley... the one, the only.

Amyra's 3rd Birthday- Dinosaurs!!

The birthday girl did wonderful!! With all the people, stimulation, sugar and fun she was still randomly thanking her mother throughout the party for things like the dinosaur boxes. Where did the time go. How on earth is she 3!! She was so sweet too because at the end of the party she told Christina and Maria how sad she was they were leaving. Miss Amyra is just a really smart and beautiful girl. She's very quick, thoughtful and my favorite- defensive of friends/loyal. Can't wait to see how she grows throughout the years!

The games were fantastic. Everything was themed and just amazing. Ramya did a phenomenal job and it was just wow!! I seriously almost cried because I was just so proud of her. It's so much work putting together a good party, and this.... this was a party. Games included: Pin the teeth on the T-Rex, Dinosaur musical chairs, and a great dinosaur egg hunt where they sorted according to color. (Not to mention a super fun bounce house!!)

The timing on the party was perfect. Everything went totally smooth, not too slow, not too fast. Food was great... especially the mochi dinosaur eggs in nest.

I don't know why, but I just adore this picture of Lateef. Thanks for the great party guys!!

And as a side note, we got home and the girls just loved their party favors!! From the invitation to the take home bags- 100 out of 10. Seriously awesome.