Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! With a name like Dawson O'Hara, one couldn't be more Irish! (not really but, we will always pretend she is a little!) After work today, we came home and went right to the garage to get out our toys. Dawson was like a kid in a candy store. She looked in and said, "my bike, my scooter, my water table, my wagon, my stroller!" You should have seen the smile on her face! So what did we do? We did everything you could imagine with all of the toys. Here are a few of our afternoon activities.....

By far the most used toy in our life...the water table. She has used this since the day she came home! A great investment for us!!!

Time to take Strawberry Shortcake for a ride!

Time for a scooter ride! I had someone cut the handle bars down and reconstruct this scooter so she could reach! Works perfectly!!!

She can really make herself go on this scooter!

Rock climbing....

And a little ride on turtle...What a fun afternoon. We are anxiously awaiting more of these beautiful spring days!

Fancy Nancy

Have you ever been to a Children's ballet about Fancy Nancy? Our Children's Theater Company put on a Children's ballet show of Fancy Nancy this weekend. It was so popular it sold out for two days and nights in a row! If you don't know who Fancy Nancy is, here's a little background. She is a girl that believes that MORE is always better when it comes to being fancy! Nancy believes French words sound so fancy that she loves to use them. She even has a dog named FRENCHY! From the top of her tiara down to her sparkly studded shoes, Nancy is always fancy!

Here we are, Fancy Dawson...dressed and ready to go to the ballet. Notice our dog Frenchy and our cool shades.

We met our friends Lynn and Grace at the ballet and they gave us a new Nancy book. We are looking forward to reading it tonight. I wonder how Fancy Nancy is going to make Easter fancy?

Dawson and her Posh pup Frenchy reading our new Fancy Nancy Easter book.

Taking an intermission walk.....I think Dawson really enjoyed Fancy Nancy. She never took her eyes off the stage the entire time! I love my Fancy DAWSON!

Feeding the Birds...

We took advantage of one of the Spring like days last week to go to a newly renovated park to feed the birds. Yes, it's a well known place that you just bring your own bird food, put your hand out and the chickadees come and eat right from your hand. I have been to this park a million times and didn't know you could do this until I made friends with this avid bird watcher who so kindly showed us what to do and shared his food with us. He also happens to be employed photographer for all of the National Parks...as you can see, he took this picture of the Cardinal that was right in front of us! Beautiful!

The park created new walkways with lots of animals, plants and flowers molded into them. We stopped at each one and talked about what they were. The great thing about them is that they repeated as we walked and so we were learning along the way.

Dawson would walk past each one and tell me what they were. I was impressed when she told me "fern." One time she came across a chipmunk and said "Chipmunk." and then she continued, "that must be Alvin!" I got a good laugh out of that one!

Feeding the birds...or at least waiting. They didn't land on Dawson's hand because she would not keep her hand flat. I would put my hand near hers and they would land on mine.

On our way back home!

Roadtrip

We headed up to Ann Arbor this weekend to catch another couple of my nephew's hockey games. It's so nice when he is playing so close, only three hours away! Well, as you can see, Dawson is getting the idea of these games and the snack bar. She wants popcorn EVERY time! What's better than a bag of popcorn and a great hockey game!

YUM! YUM! YUM!

Snowy Day AGAIN!

No school again last Friday...oh do I love to have a Friday off! We really just laid low all weekend playing, drawing and eating a little Dora ice cream. Nothing too exciting but, the two of us had a lot of fun.

Eating some Dora ice cream....

These are the Crayola window crayons. They are awesome like all of the Crayola products. It only takes a wet paper towel to clean them off. Just so you know..it's very easy to get off!

Hard at work!

Just my happy, smiling girl!

Year TWO of....Sesame Street Live

Yes, we made it through another year of Elmo on stage. For some reason, we keep going back for this show. It's not only Dawson and I that are crazy...we had our friends Lynn and Grace with us too! The show was full of songs, dancing and good old Sesame Street humor. I have to admit I liked last year's show better but, the kids didn't seem to mind at all. The story line was a little more complex this year with the idea of shrinking and growing. I'm not sure any of the kids got it! The background grew and shrunk, not the characters.

Dawson wanted to sit on my lap the whole time. She was not scared but, maybe just needed to see a little better. As usual, she took everything in and told me all about it on our way home!

One of the best parts of the show was when Telly came walking down the aisles beeping his nose. We were right on the aisle so you could only imagine the looks on Grace and Dawson's faces! They loved it!

One of my favorite things about this show is that they always sell the music to the show. Dawson carried it to the car and wanted me to play it immediately. It's not bad to listen to and I know it helps Dawson reflect and upon what she just saw on stage! We have been listening to last year's CD almost every day in the car so I'm glad to have something new!

As always, Sesame Street puts on an entertaining show for kids of all ages. I'm wondering Lynn...are we going to do this again next year??????

The Year of the Tiger

Happy Chinese New Year....2010 the year of the TIGER! On a last minute decision, I decided to head out to our local Chinese restaurant to join in a Dragon Dance. I have never been before so I decided Dawson is the excuse to go now. I also drug Papa and Grammy with us! Not sure if they wanted to go but, they were good sports! I started the day telling Dawson we were going to see a Dragon Dance. Silly me...her response...I'm scared! Quick thinking on my part...I found a book at school showing that the dragon really is a big puppet. We quickly read the book and things were cleared up and she was then ready to go! WHEW......She keeps me on my toes!

After we were seated, we were quickly giving red envelopes. You are supposed to fill them with money and feed them to the dragon for good luck. HMMMM...wish I would have thought of this idea.

In China, the children and single people are given the red envelopes with money for good luck! Every person at the table feeds the dragon! Even Dawson did it but, it was kind of a toss into the mouth..the dragon was much bigger and wilder than I ever thought he would be...

As we waited, the balloon man stopped by. Of course, Dawson asked for something pink.

Here's an up close picture of the dragon and the hand that comes out to collect those red envelopes!

Waiting to feed the dragon....She was a little nervous but, I was surprised how much she really got into it as the night went on!

The dragon goes to every table in the restaurant while the music continues and continues and continues. It's a lot of drums and tambourines.

At the end of the ceremony the children gather around the dragon. He puts an orange in his mouth and tosses it up into the air. The child that gets the orange will have a very lucky year ahead. He did this a few times and then stuck the cabbage in his mouth. He chewed it up and then spit it at the kids. This is supposed to bring luck too! YUCK. With all the luck in the restaurant, I should have a wonderful Chinese New Year ahead of me! It was a really neat cultural experience! I'm already looking forward to next year!