Ice Castles

 Alyssa and I headed to Midway today to see the Ice Castles.  They were SO cool!  Unfortuantely, due to the "heat wave" ("heat" apparently being defined as 38 degrees) we couldn't walk through the 2 or 3 great big ones.  You could still get close enough to see in them though.  Way fun.

 Most of them are smaller, can't exactly walk through the castle.  But there were a few of them that were HUGE!!!  The one above was my fav.

 Alyssa loved them.  She also loved picking up "ice babies."  She found a hole next to one of the ice walls and put probably 10 or 12 little babies inside so they could rest.

 Since we were there during the "heat wave" the icecicles were dripping.  One managed to drip right down Alyssa's shirt.  Brrrrrrrr!

And what's an afternoon out without a little tooshy dance?!

Tender Moments

I don't believe there are words to adequately describe the tender experience I had with Alyssa last night, but I'm going to do my best so that I can remember that night.

I was backing up photos from 2010 and pulled out a dvd my dad made me of Alyssa's first year.  He took several snapshots and put them to the perfect music.  Now, of course, I cry every time I watch it.  Through the entire thing.  Every time.

The opening line is "Alyssa - we have been waiting for you and we are so glad you are here."  You can see the reason for the tears.

I pulled Alyssa on to my lap and we watched it together.

After only 7 or 8 photos, I noticed she was tearing up.  When I asked her if she was ok, she told me she was just crying happy tears.

After sharing a movie filled with "happy tears" I wanted to talk to her about how she was feeling.  She told me she was just so happy.  We talked about what a special girl she is.  How our whole family waited to have such a special girl come in to our lives.  That everyone loves her and we are all so grateful that we get to have her in our family.

We called Tim to come up from the basement and have some family time with us.  She told us that she loved us and was happy to be in our family and we told her, again, how much we loved her.

She truly is a special little girl.

And we are the luckiest parents to have such a special girl to be our daughter.

Bed Time

Tonight went as follows. 
9:00-ish - Alyssa in pajammies, Tim reads her bedtime story.
9:15-ish - drink of water
9:30-ish - "nightmare"
9:45-ish - potty
9:50-ish - STILL washing her hands.  I let her know she has 5 seconds to be back in bed before I put her on the porch for one of the deer to take her back in the forest for a sleepover.
10:00-ish - "MOOOOOOOM I have some to TELL you NOW!  I have an owie. See it?"  Um.  No.
10:15-ish - her leg hurts (while dancing in to the family room)
10:30-ish - Alyssa - I just need to sleep somewhere else.  Like your bed.
                  Me - Well sweetie, good luck with that.  Go take a look and let me know where you're going to sleep at.
                  Alyssa - Ok!

My bed around 10:30

Alyssa at 10:45.  Good thing she's tiny.

Field Trip to the "Chapel"

Alyssa's preschool class took a field trip to the state capitol building last month.  She kept saying they were going to the "chapel."  Such a funny girl.

 

Her teacher printed off a bingo card that had pictures of things inside the rotunda.  The kids had to find the different items and mark them off.  

Alyssa, Isabel and Torrey.  Such cute little girlies.

First Day of Preschool 2010

As you can see, Alyssa has made the first day of school picture posing a tradition. 

 At least until she feels I have taken enough pictures.  Then she's done.

Being that we recently relocated, she is in Miss Alby's preschool this year and is loving it.  She has two little friends she talks about, Torrey and Isabella.  Then of course the boy who chews on scissors... not quite sure about that. 

So far, so good.  It's a little weird for me not calling her teacher 5-6 times a week and getting the preschool recap like I did last year.  (Thanks Kaarina!)  So I'm left with Alyssa's rendition of the day's events.  While entertaining, sometimes details are left out (or added) that leave me wondering.... 

And while she spends two hours a day, three days a week at school, it's left me with some lovely me time.  I get a lot of errands done, and have been able to work on some projects.  But it's not so much time that I'm left feeling lonely.  It's gearing me up for kindergarten next year I suppose.      

And the cat gets a point

Poor kitty has had to get used to living in a rather confined space in our new residence.  She was used to being able to saunter through the upstairs at our old house, then be turned loose to go crazy in the basement.  Well she just doesn't have that here.

Every now and then, she goes a little nuts.  She'll race through the family room and make the loop through the kitchen/laundry room area like there's a mountain lion trying to eat her for lunch.  A time or two, she has run right in to my leg.  Once I remember tripping over her, trying not to fall to the floor.  The other time I believe it was her who took a little trip into the wall.  

Alyssa was the unfortunate one to encounter crazy kitty today.  I was having her come in the bathroom to do her hair or something and here comes kitty from the opposite direction.  The cat went racing through the door way that Alyssa was coming through, took her out at the knees and left her sprawled out on her little tummy.  Poor Alyssa!  Dang cat!  Needless to say, kitty got a major time out from her Alyssa.

Side note:  Today as we were walking in to the grocery store, another mom was walking out with a screaming toddler (poor mom).  Lately, when Alyssa has witnessed a screaming child she has informed me that "they are just having a bad day."  Today?  "Mom, is that baby having issues?"  Ha!  Indeed!

Buford

Last week when I was painting Alyssa's soon-to-be room, we were having a little chat.  I love her endless chatter.  She always have something fantastic to say.  That day was no exception.  The discussion went a little something like this.

Me:  Hey Alyssa, who are we painting this room for?

Alyssa:  Um... my boyfriend.  He lives with me.  We live together.

Me:  You live with your boyfriend, eh?

Alyssa: Yup.

Hmmm....

Then her grandpa came in.  Apparently they had a similar conversation.  Alyssa told him she was going for a ride in the back seat of his car with her boyfriend.  (I'm sure she got quite an expressive look from grandpa.)  And an even more shocked one when she later ran by and asked him to babysit her kid for her. 

Oh boy!  The best part of the story?  Her boyfriend's name is Buford. 

Never a dull day with this one.