Tea Time

One of Tessa's friends convinced her mom that she needed to have a party, just because.  How cute.  So we went to her tea party and had a great time.  The girls made hats for their favorite dolls and then posed for this picture.  You can almost smell the sugar and spice and everything nice when looking at these sweet girls.  Then we all sat down to tea and they acted like such little ladies.  It was a lovely afternoon.

How Many More Days?

Party prep starts early around my house, partly because I mail order lots of things and need to allow for shipping time and partly because I just like planning parties.  Tessa kept asking how many more days there were until her party.  So, to get her to understand the concept of time, we did a paper ring chain.  She helped me count out strips of paper, one for each day until her birthday. Then she decorated them with stamps and, with only a little help, stapled them all together.  We hung our finished craft on the fridge and now each day she gets to use her scissors to cut off a ring.  She loves to count the rings to see how many days are left until it's time for her party.

Happy 4th of July

Swim Team

I was thrilled when I found out that Tessa was old enough for swim team this year.  They have a division called Guppies where the little ones can compete on their own level.  They focus on learning to swim and having fun.  The meets have events like noodle relays and kick board races as well as freestyle and backstroke.  It is fantastic!  At practice there are several coaches in the water which takes me back to my own coaching days.  Then, at the meets, the coaches help them swim the long 25 meters as much as is needed.  I am proud to say that, by the last meet, my baby swam freestyle the whole way all by herself.

We had a total of three meets and they had practice every morning in June.  We didn't make all the practices but we made all the meets.  Here is my swimmer lined up for her very first race. 

Swimmer take your mark - isn't that just too cute?!

This is a group shot from the first meet.  Tessa is totally in love with Marshall the cute coach on the back row.  She would usually position herself in his lane at practice so he would help her.  The child knows how to swim but, when he's around, she bats her eyes and acts helpless.  I swear I don't teach her these things!

Since I have already posted a version of freestyle I thought I would post a video of Tessa doing backstroke.  This was at a home meet and Gampa came to watch.  Tessa would swim and then look around for applause and then swim some more.  That's Emily Blake, the head coach, in the water with Tessa.  EB did a fantastic job with all the swimmers, I hope she is back next year.      

Tah-Dah!!!  Part of the fun of Guppies is that they get all kinds of silly rewards like leis, water guns, flip flops etc.  It was a great season and we look forward to our future swim team days.  

Playgroup

When school let out for summer we revived our playgroup.  I had missed this time of chatting with other moms while the kiddos play.  Our SS teachers have offered the use of their backyard pool which is great.  The girls wanted to see if they could all three fit on the baby elephant.  The answer is not for long but they kept trying!

 

Girl's Getaway

In June, the girls had a refreshing and relaxing girl's getaway sans kids.  Our wonderful Sunday School teachers have a beautiful lake house which they graciously offered to let us use.  We were positively giddy on Friday as we packed up and caravanned to the lake.  My child offered no protest at all when I left for which I was mostly grateful.  But, wasn't she going to miss me at least a little?  Ryan had her so pumped about their special daddy-daughter time that she was as excited about this weekend as I was.  Here is a group shot of the girls before we headed out to enjoy our kid free dinner.    

We stayed up late talking and giggling, slept in (like 8:30!) and then soaked up some sun while lounging on the floating dock.  Totally my kind of activities.  We cruised around the lake and even went tubing.  I don't think I have tubed in ten years.  I was laughing hysterically while we bounced around behind the boat.  Having a friend in the tube with you makes it even more fun.  In my head I am still 22, but my sore muscles begged to differ.    

We had such a great time we plan to make this a tradition. 

Father's Day

 Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy! 

And Happy Father's Day to the best Gampa!!!

We kept things pretty low key this Father's Day.  Tessa helped me make a chocolate pie on Saturday.  And on Sunday morning her first question was "Where is the black pie?"  She makes me laugh.  So after church we visited Nanny and all had a piece of our favorite chocolate pie.  Father's Day was a good excuse to buy the new Disney Princess Merida toys including the little bow and arrow.  We like the new books but will not be seeing Brave in theaters, the bears look way too scary for us.     
The real gift was tickets to a baseball game to see the Drive play the Braves.  Get it - Brave and the Braves? 

We like to go to Friday night games because they always shoot fireworks.  We have been having a major heat wave and it was hot, hot, hot at the game.  Tessa was like a little jack-in-the-box popping up every half inning to do something.  First it was to get ice cream, then it was to see the Chick-Fil-A cow, then it was a trip to the playground, then we had to find Reedy Rippit.  We had a blast.  Happy Father's Day!!!

Summer Spectacular

Our church chose the theme "Amazing Adventures" for this year's Summer Spectacular (aka Vacation Bible School).  The kids loved pretending to be aviators flying all over the world.  Every day was jam packed with worship, Bible stories, music, crafts, missions, recreation and the all important snack time.  Tessa had a blast. 

One of the great things about volunteering is that I got to hear the same thing Tessa heard each day.  So when she would come home singing a new song, I could sing along too.  I would also get a peak at my baby in the morning worship time, she would smile and give me a big wave from across the room before I herded my K3 class to their first station.

Each room had a different amazing wonder of the world and the music room was the Matterhorn.  This made an awesome talking point with Tessa because I told her how my grandpa climbed the Matterhorn a long time ago.  I explained Gamma wasn't even born yet, that she was still in Nanny's tummy (opened up a whole can of worms with that one).  While my grandpa was on the mountain, Nanny was worried so she went to church and prayed.  Her prayers were answered because my grandpa made it to the top of that mountain and back down safely, if a tad bit hypothermic.  Tessa's version is "he climbed a big mountain and then Nanny told him to take a bath."  Close enough.

Check out the video Summer Spectacular Highlights, if you look fast around 1:07 you can spot me in the pink shirt playing the sticks in music.  We had over 700 kids attend this year which is incredible.  Our preschool and youth ministers are wonderful and the week was a huge success.  My highlight was when Tessa's missions teacher told me that Tessa would sit quietly and listen each day.  I know she is absorbing what we are teaching.  Just the other day at the pool she would shout "Jesus is AMAZING!" each time she jumped into the water.  VBS was spectacular!

First Dance Recital

Dance recital week-end had finally arrived and I don't know who was more excited, me or Tessa.  She would be dancing to "Lollipop" and I just loved her costume.  For Friday night rehearsal I did her hair and make-up and took pictures before we headed downtown in full costume.  I dropped her off with a kiss and a snack and waited in the lobby since parents were not allowed to watch rehearsal.    

There was a little bit of a scramble when we realized that our class had no backstage moms.  Of course we didn't find this out until after dress rehearsal was over!  I had seen the sign-up sheet at dance class and carefully avoided volunteering to be the adult responsible for our eleven preschoolers.  Apparently all the other moms had the same idea.  Thankfully, two brave women agreed to be the backstage moms for Saturday night's three hour performance.  Next year I will not take any chances, I'll just plan to be the backstage mom.  Tessa loves this idea and I tell myself it can't be that bad.

Tessa had to arrive an hour before recital time and we figured that would give us adults enough time to eat downtown.  We left Ryan and my dad at the restaurant while my mom and I walked Tessa down to the Peace Center.  Oh boy was she excited. 

I really think I was more nervous than Tessa.  Would her hair stay up in it's bun?  Would her bow stay in place?  Would she still have any lip gloss on by dance time?  Would she get stage fright?  But most importantly, would she have fun?  Of course I didn't say any of this to her and we only had one moment of pre-show tears.  She was fidgeting with her costume and complaining about the tight straps.  I don't know what I said or did but she got over it real quick and I breathed a sigh of relief.  After that she was all smiles and excitement as she headed backstage with her friends.   

 

Her number was about half way through the recital and I couldn't wait to see my baby on stage.  She did so good and I was so proud of her.  Please ignore my shaky video and loud cheering, I was holding the camera in one hand and waving like a maniac with the other.  Tessa is the fourth dancer from the left.  The best part was seeing her huge smile, she was having the time of her life up there. 

After the show, we met her in the lobby with flowers and presents.  Even though it was coming up on ten o'clock she was bursting with energy.  We took more pictures, she glowed with happiness and  basked in all the praise and attention.  We are all very proud of our little star.

We have several friends who dance at the same studio and it was fun to see them dance too.  The girls were excited to find each other in the lobby after the recital. 

I love that she loves dance and can't wait for our next year of fun.

Dance Pictures