Saturday, July 31, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Goddard Tiger Room in June-July

Here are pictures of Larkin at school. I gave her teachers a disposable camera so they could take pictures of Larkin whenever the mood struck. I love getting a "sneak peek" into her school day.

These first couple of pictures are Larkin with some of her Tiger Room classmates. First pic (l-r): Ms. Michelle (teacher), Anisha, Carter, Reagan, Larkin. Second pic (l-r): Anisha, Reagan, Carter, Larkin, Cameron, and Hailey.



Larkin loves art time! Aside from loving her "look" - art smock and frog rain boots - I just adore watching Larkin doing arts and crafts. The kids makes lots of individual pictures, but they also do whole class projects too. Here's Larkin painting her share of the class painting, and the photo below it is the finished project. Isn't it great?! The photo below that is another whole class art project with their hand prints and I love that one too.




Nap time! Larkin and her classmates have been napping on cots since the Penguin room. They each have their own cot that is covered with a sheet. They are required by the state once the kids are 18 months old, strangely enough. The kids actually really like them and sleep quite well on them.



Larkin's hair is just getting long enough to put up in ponytails and pigtails... and she loves it. She likes to look at herself in the mirror when she has a fun 'do like the ponytail she's sporting in these pics. Larkin's teacher Ms. Kaylee is really good with hair, so Larkin often comes home with all sorts of cute hairdos.




Water Wednesday! Here are more pics of Larkin enjoying the water time the kids get to enjoy during their summer. From the sprinkler to the water table, even the hose, Larkin loves it all.




The kids all sorts of special treats during different outside times. They go outside twice a day. Sometimes they play with normal toys (like Larkin and her lawn mower), but on special days they have things like a bounce house or a petting zoo, like the one shown in the pic below. On this particular day, they hosted all sorts of animals: goat, ducks, rabbits, pig, etc.




These last few cute group pics are of Larkin with the some of her Tiger Room friends. It's a great class of kids. In the first pic below (l-r): Larkin with her two best friends, Carter and Ella. Second pic (l-r): Madeline, Cici, Anisha, Reagan, and Larkin. Bottom pic (l-r): Duncan, Hailey, Larkin, Carter.




Monday, July 12, 2010

First Kiss!



This may not actually be Larkin's "first kiss" with a boy, but it's the first one caught on film! These two love birds even closed their eyes. :) Larkin is smooching one of her best friends from school, Carter. The second pic is of Larkin and Carter playing outside together. They are too cute, aren't they?!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Karen and Larkin at Deanna Rose Farm

I took Larkin on a "Mommy and Me" trip to Deanna Rose Farm since Brian was traveling. It was really hot, but we had a great time together. It was just me, Larkin, a back pack with drinks and snacks, and a camera. We didn't get far - we were still in the parking lot - before I took our first picture.... of Larkin and a school bus! As previously mentioned, Larkin loves school buses which she calls "lellow be-busses" (for yellow big buses). She was really excited to go up and touch the bus, as you can tell. The other picture is of Larkin and me on the horse-drawn hay ride. I loved it and Larkin really enjoyed it too. It's an absolute highlight. I can't wait to go on it again, just maybe next time we'll go with Daddy too.



Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July



Happy Independence Day! Our friends - Matt, Robin, and Gage - hosted their annual 4th of July party on the 3rd of July. We had a blast and Larkin had so much fun that by the time we got her home (9pm, which is an hour+ past her bed time), she was punch drunk!


Gage was such a gentleman by taking all of his lady friends on drives around the property. Larkin loved the rides and Gage was a great driver. Isn't that picture of Gage smiling such a cute one?




I think Larkin's favorite activity was the bounce house. She LOVED it and kept wanting to go back for more.



Larkin loves her Nama so much and enjoyed playing with her on the swing set. And I love our impromptu family pictures too. Happy 4th of July everyone!



Fire Truck



We had the fortune of coming upon a real fire truck with real firefighters while doing errands during the day. For those of you who know her well, you know that she loves helicopters, airplanes, buses, trucks, and fire trucks too, of course. So this was such a perfect treat for Larkin on the 4th of July! The fire fighters let Larkin poke around inside their truck and she LOVED it! She felt so special and knew it was a rare treat.

First Watch Brunch


Here is our family breakfast at one of our favorite Sunday brunch places, First Watch. We meet Brian's parents there nearly every Sunday (occasionally we go to Cracker Barrel instead). This time we were also joined by Jenny and Sierra since they were visiting.

Some of our favorite breakfast traditions while we wait for our food include:
1) Making straw worms - this game is when you scrunch up the paper that comes around a straw and then put drops of water on it to watch it grow and wriggle like a worm)
2) Papa draws Larkin "scrolls" - the paper scroll that comes around the silverware and napkin becomes his canvas and he draws her all sorts of surprise scrolls that she loves to roll open - helicopters, animals, school buses, whatever she's really into that day, etc.

Larkin always gets (as it's my choice) a pancake, a scrambled egg, and a serving of strawberries and bananas or yogurt. She really enjoys it, although she always steals some of my Floridian French Toast (which has lots of fruit on it) too. Here she is enjoying her pancake (she had already wolfed down her egg)!


Saturday, July 3, 2010

At the Pool with Family and Floaties


While Jenny and Sierra were in town, we were able to enjoy a morning at our neighborhood pool. In the upper pic it's Brian with Larkin and Jenny with Sierra. Both of the girls had fun swapping floaties in the big pool and chasing our swimming penguin toys in the baby pool.

The water was plenty warm enough for me to enjoy going in too! Yes, I was a lifeguard for 8 years, but I rarely went in... the local kids knew that I don't like cold water so they'd better not do something stupid that would require me going in after them! (Legitimate life saves were okay... stupidity and poor behavior was less tolerated). And the tactic actually worked - the kids (which at times could number over 60) - were really pretty well behaved.

Larkin and Nama spent some time playing around and practicing good learning-to-swim techniques. Brian's mom was a swimmer and passed that down to all of her kids, so we are excited to get Larkin swimming. Jenny is a swim instructor at her local Y, and since I haven't taught swimming for 15+ years, Jenny gave us some good pointers for getting Larkin started. (One of them is to hold onto the side of the pool and walk with her hands around the edge, which she's practicing with Nama in the pic below). We look forward to getting her into a swim class next summer.