Yes, that's a butterfly on Jim's head

Over the Christmas break we went to one of Helaina's favorite places, the Museum of Play in Rochester.  This time we ventured into the butterfly garden.  We have never taken Helaina in there before because we feared for the safety of the butterflies with our bull-in-a-china-shop daughter.  We decided to risk it this time and told Helaina to move slowly, watch where she walks and not to try to catch the butterflies.  This was one funny result.

Helaina stood very still and tried like heck to get a butterfly to land on her, but they preferred Jim's head.  Guess they thought his hair made good nesting material.

It was interesting, but we wouldn't do it again.  It was about 85 degrees in the garden and I don't know who was sweating more profusely - Helaina or myself.  We were allowed 20 minutes in there but we left after 10.

They also said that there were 8,000 to 9,000 butterflies in the enclosure, but we found that impossible to believe.  I would have guessed about 100!  Butterflies must be good hiders.

Helaina's first exhibit.  She charged through this dizzying slanted house about 5 times, each time running out like the true wild child that she is.  Check out the war cry on her face.  Cowabunga.

I'll say one thing - she gives it her all.  Dancing and jumping trying to keep up with the lighted floor.

A little slower pace at the pint-sized Wegmans.

There are 2 stages/acting/dress-up areas and Helaina had a blast in both of them.  Here she's playing an evil queen.  She sang the songs from her Snow White play and entertained the crowd with her antics.  We had to literally pull her off the stage to move on to something else.

We finally had about 4 inches of snow (all at the same time!) mid-January and this was actually the first time Helaina was out to play in the snow this season.  Good thing she got out that day because it was all melted and gone in a heartbeat.

It's no fun unless you're laying in it completely.

"Look what I got for you, Daddy!"

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy New Year, Chinese style.  Welcome the Year of the Dragon.  Helaina was beyond excited today to head to school in her silky pink Chinese outfit with her hair done in a Mulan-type bun, wearing her adorable Chinese girl earrings and waiting until I arrived at school to bring cookies and goodie bags for her classmates and the Dragon Dance book to read to her class (I was quite excited too).

Pretty in pink.

Red envelopes with chocolate coins, noise makers, mandarin oranges for good luck, fortune cookies, little umbrellas, dragon pictures to color and whatever else we could cram into the bags.

I got fancy with the fortune cookies this year and dipped half of the cookie in melted chocolate then decorated with sprinkles.  Big hit, and yummy too.

Partying in Kindergarten.  That's our girl - seated at the table with all the boys!

I had a captive audience at school today as I entered the room carrying 2 giant bags of goodies.  I got to sit in the teacher's comfy rocking chair with all the little ones gathered on the rug at my feet while I read them the story and talked about Chinese New Year and some of the customs and traditions.  Helaina loves it when I come to school to visit.   She had a great day today ringing in the new year.  After lunch we went to our local library where they had a special craft day and Helaina made a dragon mask and a dragon lantern.  After a quick dinner it was off to gymnastics.  We had a few small cupcakes when we got home to celebrate even more, then it was bath, a little SU basketball on TV and then off to bed for our exhausted little gal.  Wishing everyone a happy, healthy Year of the Dragon.

Christmas week vacation

The week after Christmas Helaina would wake up each morning asking "What we doing today?"  We definately kept her busy - or was it the other way around.

Helaina was obsessed with getting an inflatable for our front lawn.  I absolutely refused to pay full price for one so the day after Christmas we went shopping and found these penguins at Target for half price.  Seems so funny to see green grass instead of the white stuff at Christmas.

A trip to the mall isn't complete without a carousel ride.

Aunt Barb gave Helaina a gift card for Build A Bear.  She selected Brittney from the new chipmunk movie.  It's funny, the place is called Build A Bear but Helaina has never selected a bear to stuff.  "Maybe next time, Mommy."  So of course, the next day we went to see the Chipmunk Chipwrecked movie.  It was cute but yikes, even the matinee is ridiculously expensive.  I smuggled in our own snacks and drinks because I refused to pay $3.50 for a small drink.

Basketball at a bounce house with one of Helaina's friends.

They loved this giant rubber ball.  It had 4 handles and seats and they really got it going.  I had to yell to Helaina to be careful because she outweighed the other 3 kids and at times her weight and enthusiasm almost rolled the thing right over her.  After the bounce house it was off to McDonald's for lunch and more climbing in their play structure.  Never ending energy.

We started the new year off with bowling one morning.  Helaina loves it and has great form!  Her and Jim bowled 2 games each and she got 2 strikes.  I had the video recorder with me but it never failed - each time I set it down for a while she got the strike.  After a while she'd run up to the line with the ball yelling "yabba dabba doo" then would hurl it down the alley.  Too funny.

Helaina's been playing with her Christmas gifts all week.  She loves stringing beads and making necklaces and bracelets.

Scrabble Alphabet Soup was a hit and it also helps her with spelling and reading words.

The big hit was Sorry Sliders.  She was obsessed with this game and thank goodness cousin Beth came through.  We've played it every day since Christmas - many, many, many times.

Play-do Dr. Drill and Fill is hysterical.  You make play-do teeth (Helaina made colorful teeth), then drill them out with a battery-powered drill and then fill them with gray play-do for the cavities.  You can also make braces to put on the teeth and it comes with dental tools.  I even like this one.

Yah, it was a busy week.  A hint for one of our other day trips during that week.  Where can you go and have butterflies land on your head?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, yippee it's all over

It's been a busy few weeks.  Between the hectic last-minute things to do right before Christmas and then Jim's week off after Christmas, it's been anything but peaceful.  We did something just about every day with Helaina and when it was all over Jim asked the question "Whose vacation was this anyways?"  Rewind to before Christmas.

Helaina's stocking was hung and the ornaments she made at school were proudly displayed for Santa to see.

The drawing she made for Santa was on the wall so he'd see it when he came down our chimney.

The reindeer food she mixed at school (oatmeal for eating and glitter to light the way) was sprinkled carefully around the lawn and house.  She checked the chimney to make sure it was safe for Santa, the tree was lit, some gifts from us were under the tree, and finally the cookies and milk were set out.

Fast forward to Christmas morning.  Helaina slept to an unbelievable 8:00am.  Jim and I had a chance to get up, get downstairs and get the camera and video all set up for when Helaina awoke.

Ahhhh, Christmas morning happiness.  The purple ladybug pillow pet that she had been longing for.  Santa delivered - thank goodness.

How adorable does she look in her Smurfette hat.

Santa's got a great memory.  He remembered the singing Mulan doll that the Disney Store also sells.  One of Helaina's favorite gifts.  She has played the Reflections song about a million times and now knows the words perfectly and acts out the scene from the movie as she sings.

Helaina's first ring - a sparkly beauty from the craft store, I mean that the Elves made and put in her stocking.

After our fun morning at home we headed to Aunt Barb's for more fun.

I waited too long into the day to get pictures of the girls.  They were very tired and not interested in posing, as you can see by Anna looking away and Helaina's glazed over stare.

No matter how tired, though, I can count on little Miss Sophia for a laugh and a smile.  Helaina was jumping around and then pretending to fall down.  Sophia thought it was hysterical and did that true baby giggle for the longest time.  She thinks her cousin is a hoot.

More partying, eating and gift exchanging Christmas night.

Helaina and Josh checking out some stocking stuffers.

Christmas night when Helaina was finally in bed, Jim and I crashed.  Little did we know that Jim's vacation week ahead of us would exhaust us even more - let me rephrase - Helaina's vacation week would exhaust us even more.