Ginny's Birthday

Ginny is 5! Can you believe it? It is such a fun age. She is so excited about everything. Her favorite present was a wooden magnetic ballerina dress up doll. A ballerina, just like her.


Instead of a party, she wanted to go to the "space museum" with Mom and Dad. So we went to the Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake. We saw a movie "Attack of the Space Pirates" in their dome theater. Ginny kept leaning back and ducking down when the space ships passed over head. She loved it! We walked around and saw the different exhibits. Her favorite planet is Saturn, so she was excited to go see that. It was a fun outing with our family.

I do feed my child

Just had to make a quick disclaimer in case any of you talk to Ginny in the near future.
This morning she was pretending that she was Dorothy after we had read stories from the Wizard of Oz. (Great condensed version from the library, beautifully illustrated by Charles Santore). I was Glenda, the good witch. She said she wanted to stay with me because I would feed her. She said her parents don't want her to grow so they don't feed her. She was so grateful to me (Glenda) for being willing to feed her. She also said her parents are so mean. They never play with her and never read her stories. I pointed out that they probable don't snuggle with her or even go to her dance concerts. She agreed and said her parents just dropped her off at her dance concert, they didn't even come in! What cruel parents! But, luckily, Glenda was there to support her. Good thing there are other people out there to help take care of this poor, deprived child. : >

Dance Concert

Ginny had her final "showcase" for her little dance class yesterday. I was very curious to see what would happen. On Monday she sat out the last ten minutes of class, refusing to dance. But the performance bug hit her and she danced the best that I have ever seen her dance!

It's really all about the outfit. She got this tutu for Christmas. She spent most of the time before the concert (and during) admiring the spin factor of her skirt.

Matt captured it all on video. But I got a few candid shots. They somehow managed to all come together for the final bow. At the end, Ginny said "Is it over?". I had to go and get her off the floor. She looked like she wanted to do it again.
Her teacher, Mike, said some final words at the end of all the performances. After he finished saying something about how dance can change the community by building confidence in young people, Ginny interrupted him with "Um, Mike?". He stopped and said "yes?". She said "Look at me" and stood up on her tippytoes and twirled. It was the perfect end to what he was saying. Everyone laughed and he knew to end it right there.
I love my beautiful "Prima Ballerina" as she calls herself.

How to eat a Valentine cookie- By Ginny

1-Take one beautiful valentine cookie from your Aunt Keli. Admire the pink sprinkles, then claim that you helped Aunt Keli make it.
2- Take a few dainty bites of beautiful Valentine cookie.
3- Remove the "curly parts" of the frosting.
4- With your index finger and pointer finger, scrape off as much frosting from the cookie as you can. Feel free to also pick up cookie and lick frosting.
5- Shove frosting in mouth
6- Take a few more bites of naked cookie
7- Give the rest to your Mom because you love her and want to share


Happy Valentine's Day!

Twinkle Toes

Ginny just started a dance class called "Twinkle Toes". It's just a fun class where she can dress up as a ballerina and learn some basic ballet. The most important part to her is the outfit. One day I forgot her ballet shoes. That was a tragedy! She was so mad at me!
This is good for her to be in a structured class. She needs to learn how to follow other people's directions and receive instruction. I'm glad she's learning some basic ballet steps. I'm not sure what to do when she collapses in the middle of class and whines " I can't do it. It's too hard!". When she does this at home, I try to ignore her. It's hard to know how to help when she's in a class setting. Any one have tips on dealing with dramatic daughters? While I'm glad she's learning, my favorite part is watching her when music is put on. She has such joy in dancing her own way. I love the smiles on her face.

Sculptures

I am a strange Mom, but I like when Ginny gets creative. Last week she spent quite a while building "tape sculptures". I had no idea scotch tape was so strong. Here are a few pictures of her masterpieces:






Today she made a "tether ball" pole with a mop and lacing cards. I thought it was pretty clever how she figured out how to attach all the strings to the mop.


I can't believe she'll be 5 next month! She is just starting to get the hang of reading, when she wants to. I'm trying not to push her and just let it happen when she's ready. But it's so fun to hear her sounding out words and reading.
I signed her up for the lottery of a charter school near here, Walden. It is a Montessori style school. I visited the Kindergarten last week. I love how everything is so hands on. I think she would love it there. We'll see if she gets in. I can't believe I have to start figuring out the whole school thing already! Has anyone heard good or bad things about this school. What are your thoughts about Montessori learning? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Best of 2009

I am way behind on our blog. I just wanted to post some pictures of our favorite things this year. I am also including our Christmas letter for this year with updates about our year.

Happy 2010!

It’s been an eventful year for our family. Here are some highlights:

• In February, Danielle was named the 2009 Utah Young Mother of the Year. She got to meet with the Utah Legislature, Governor Huntsman and represent mothers of young children from Utah. She also represented Utah in the National Conference of American Mothers in Portland in April.
• In April, our family also went to Disneyland! We went with Matt’s school’s choir who performed there. We’re not sure which Ginny loved best- Disneyland, the beach, or having so many teenage girls to play with.
• We enjoyed a fun summer full of swimming, mom and me art classes, canning produce from our bounteous garden and fun visits from cousins.
• Matt started his second year of teaching at Karl G Maeser Preparatory Academy- a charter school in Lindon. He and Danielle went to Cedar City in October to help the students perform and compete in the High School Shakespeare Competition. Maeser students won first place in sweepstakes in their division!
• Ginny started preschool and loves it! It’s hard to believe she’ll be 5 in February and start Kindergarten in the fall. She is a happy, active, curious and smart little girl. (Ginny says I forgot singing and dancing.) We love her so much!
• Danielle is the volunteer director of a local preschool near our home. She also does storytelling once a month at the Orem library. She still works very part-time supervising student teachers at BYU who are going into special education.
• Matt had surgery three times in December for kidney stones. He is fine and doing well. We appreciate all the skilled nurses and doctors who helped him. We just hope not to have to see them again any time soon.
• We had a fun trip with Danielle's family to the Homestead at Midway after Christmas. We enjoyed snowshoeing, sledding, swimming in the natural warm pools and being treated to a massage at the spa. Thanks to Danielle's parents for a great trip.
  

We have been blessed to see what good and loving friends we have this year. We are constantly blessed with love and prayers by so many wonderful people. Thank you for your friendship.