Bubbles!

We've been spending more and more time outside. Alex's #1 activity is blowing bubbles. For her birthday last year, she received a 3D bubble set. We are just now starting to play with them because she has sooo many bubble sets! The wand thing it came with blows the best bubbles. It was a windy day so Alex didn't even have to blow, the wind made all the bubbles.

If you click on this pic, you can see the hearts on the bubbles! The pic was taken through the 3D glasses that came with the bubbles. Not an easy task! lol After blowing bubbles, Alex turned the wand into a magnifying glass and became Detective Alex looking for clues! I love this little imaginative girl!

Baby Ballerina

Saturday afternoon Alex had her big end of the year dance recital! Both sets of grandparents made the drive down to see our girl dance. She did such a great job! When the recital started, Miss Suzanne handed out a few awards. Alex was the recipient of the Baby Ballerina award! She was only one of 2 girls to receive an award at her recital! The girls did such a great job on both of their performances!

Alex, checking out her trophy!

waiting her turn in the dressing area

our little dancing poodle

little lambs the rest of her class left before the finale, so Alex was the only tiny tot taking her bow at the grand finale! (with her teacher, Miss Darby)

Alex and Daddy with all of her flowers and Minnie balloon!
We are so proud of our Baby Ballerina! She loved being on stage. She was such a big girl and never cried for mommy to be there. As soon as she was done, she was asking to get back on stage!

Card Shark

The Easter Bunny brought Alex a pack of cards to play Go Fish and Old Maid. They are Disney Princess cards, so she loves them. I'm afraid we've created a card shark. We play Go Fish every night before bed. When she wakes up in the morning, she crawls in our bed with her deck of cards so we can play again. She is getting very good at Go Fish. I love it because she is learning to recognize her numbers and is sorting the cards into pairs on her own. She ask for a card by the number and princess name. We don't play Old Maid as much because well, Alex isn't fond of the Old Maid. It's Ursula the Sea Witch from the Little Mermaid. If she gets it, she puts it back or starts crying. Josh and I can't help but laugh. Last night we made her play it, but she and I were on a team together. I was trying to show her the Old Maid isn't that bad. Just because you start off with it, doesn't mean you will keep it. I think she is warming up to the idea! We are working on holding the cards so other people can't see them, she tends to lay all her cards on the table face up! She will try to get anyone to play with her. While we were at my parents she had Josh and Popi playing with her, then Shannon and Neal. When Mandi and Nathan came over for game night, we all played Go Fish first!

First Trophy

Alex had her last day of soccer a few weeks ago. (Yes, I know, I'm so far behind!) By the last 2 weeks, she was over soccer. She would look for any excuse she could find to sit in my lap. The only reason she went to the last class was to get her trophy. She decided she HAD to wear a tutu with her soccer shirt, shorts and tennis shoes. Alex loved her trophy, she didn't even care that it said Alexander Stafin! Now we get to wait for a new name plate to be printed!

Right Out of a Movie

...A Disney movie that is. We were out looking at plants one day and Alex spotted some birds. She started talking to them. She called them and called them, but they never came. She came to me a bit sad asking why the birds would not land on her hand. It was at that moment, we decided maybe she's seen a few too many Disney movies. Namely the princess movies. We had to explain to her that birds and animals really don't land on your hands. I was worried watching Enchanted a few weeks later would confuse her, but she seemed to understand it was a movie and not real life.

I don't think it helps that the squirrel and birds that are almost always at our feeder are getting used to us and rarely leave when we go to the window. Our new friend Sunk the Squirrel (as Alex named him) has become a regular guest at the bird feeder. It is nothing new to go to bed with a full bird feeder and wake up with it pretty much empty. If we open the blinds he just looks at us. One day he even hopped up on the window ledge and just looked at Alex. Today I glanced out and saw Sunk making a move for the food. I opened the blinds and he ran away.

A few minutes later I looked out again and spotted him lounging on a branch, watching us. I guess he was trying to figure out if he should make a run for the food again.

I guess he decided it was safe so he hopped back up and went to town!

At any given time I can usually see a male and female cardinal and now 3 little birds. With the new addition of a hummingbird feeder I'm expecting more traffic around here. I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird having a little taste when we got home! I looked out earlier and saw 3 birds and a squirrel. Like I said...straight out of a Disney movie!

Birthday Celebration(s)

Yesterday on my actual birthday, I woke up to a kitchen decorated with balloons and streamers, gifts and a hot cup of coffee! Alex and I met Josh for lunch, then Josh came home early and made me a cake! We went to dinner then came home and had cake. I had 4 birthday cakes. I loved it because each one was different. Chocolate/chocolate, chocolate/vanilla icing, white cake/strawberry icing and white cake/white icing! I really don't have a favorite type of cake, I love them all!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My delicious white and pink cake Nomi and Alex made!

The yummy chocolate and white cake Terri made!

I didn't get a picture of the gorgeous cake my cousin, Mallory, made on Easter!

I was totally spoiled for my birthday this year! I had 4 cakes over the span of a week! I usually have no idea what I want for my birthday, but I actually thought about it and put together a little list this year. I got everything I wanted!

My super sweet husband ordered me a MomAgenda! (I may have provided specific instructions for color, inscription and inscription color! I have the aqua with my name in silver!)

Green Thumb

I've never had much of a green thumb, but lately I've been really into planting things! Our house was fully landscaped before we moved in and we planted a few flowers each year for some color. We did a few things the last few years like plant 2 crepe myrtles and line the beds with stone, but plant wise, we didn't really do much of anything. I was sick of one of our main beds in the front so a few months ago I ripped everything out and cut the rose bushes down. I dug up the roses and moved them back.

You can see in the picture below they were planted at the front of the bed which left a gap behind them. (the bed to the left in the pic)

Here is what it looked like for at least a month. It was almost empty, except for the rose stumps I moved in front of each trellis. They didn't do anything for a few weeks. I picked the wrong time of the year to chop them down!

About a month ago my mom helped pick plants for the bed. Here is what it looked like the day it was planted, before I mulched it.

Here is what it looks like now! Everything is rooting and growing! The roses are coming back and there is great color in the bed now! The potato vines will continue to spread and the Mexican petunias will end up being a few feet tall!

This is one of the other beds. I love how it looks when everything starts coming back! My new trellis for the grape tomato plant. We have a great little space behind the Mexican petunias so I use that space to plant a few little herbs and veggies. I have pot in the back yard with basil, dill and cilantro. They started out in the front and I guess the wind carried some of the seeds because I now have sprouts of all three in the flower beds! In addition to the grape tomatoes, I also have a few jalapeno plants!

Our porch stays pretty shady so I get to plant a few shade plants too! We have a pot on each side of the door. Each one has caladiums, coleus and fox tail ferns!

We found some wall planters while we were at Crate and Barrel yesterday. We've been talking about getting some for the front and we happened to run across these on sale! I planted them while Alex was napping. These have a spike, caladiums, coleus and potato vine. I love the little pop of color they add to the porch!
My next project is the back yard! We have a total blank slate to work with and I'm excited to get to work back there!