First Harvest!

Ok, so maybe not so much a full on harvest, but our first grape tomatoes were ready to pick this morning! The started turning red earlier in the week and Alex asked to go outside and see them about 500 times a day. She's been itching to pick and eat them. We decided today was the day!

We first planted our little grape tomato plant in April. He wasn't very big. Now he's several inches taller than the trellis!

Sweet little hands picking our first tomato!

Daddy and Alex showing off their tomatoes!

Enjoying the first tomato of the season!

Now Josh and Alex can eat a 2 pint container of grape tomatoes in about 3 days. Our little tomato plant looks like it's going to have about 3-4 tomatoes ready at a time. Maybe next year I'll have to plant several grape tomato plants to keep up with the demand!

Dance Portraits

We got the disc from Alex's dance portraits today. I LOVE them! I've posted them all, more for the grandparents, so they can see which ones they want us to print for them! Grandparents, let us know!!!

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!