A Little Violin

Mary received the sweetest gift this last Sunday. Rich's mom got back from Oklahoma and she had something for Mary that was from her great aunt, Harlean. It was a toy violin. It plays a selection of songs and plays as the child touches the bow string to the violin strings. They don't need to worry about the tone, just the timing. Mary was so thrilled with this gift. She loves music and it gave her the joy of playing a instrument. She carried it around all day, playing it and dancing a jig as she played. Here is a picture of the violin. It is powered by 2 AA batteries.

Here is a short video of her playing it.  Her tempo is a little fast but she is so thrilled.  Her little tongue just cracks me up:)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ballerina Dreams

Mary has always loved to dance and is thrilled every time she gets to dress up like a ballerina. Yesterday I took her to a little dance studio where her little friend is taking ballet lessons.  She just loved the idea  and wanted to take lessons too.  So I signed her up for the beginner class.  I bought her a special pair of ballet slippers.  She wore them around the house and just danced away.  Like I said from the time she could walk she has always loved to dance.  Here is a picture in her outfit:

Here is a video of Mary when she was two.  I had just finished sewing her tutu and put it on her for the first time.  She did all the dance moves without any coaching.  She did it all on her own.  As I watched I noticed how the tutu looked so big.  She has the same tutu on the picture above but she is a little bit bigger!  The class does little recitals.  I think it will be so cute to see her perform with the other little kids in her class!

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Prayers

I had fun this morning editing this picture I took of Mary yesterday.  She blesses my heart each night now as I have her lead out in her prayers before bedtime.  The sweetness and honesty of a child is so precious!

Shelly

Our mama snail is giving her baby a piggy back ride or she is getting a shell cleaning. She can't clean the algae off her own shell so Jr. could be thinking, "Hey, here is tasty little snack:)"

Weekend Fun

We had a great weekend. Mary made us laugh when we went to the bank.  She wanted some money so Rich offered her a $5 bill and she didn't want it!  She wanted real money, coins!  So we got a gold colored dollar coin.  She was thrilled.  We both smiled and just thought of the simple joys of a 4 year old.  On Saturday Rich made a wonderful Rib Eye Roast for dinner.  We ate mid afternoon.  Later in the evening I made bread sticks coated with butter, cinnamon and sugar.  I made the dough in our bread maker, so they were really fresh and really yummy.  I also worked on a couple of pages in my scrapbook.  They were of our Christmas activities this year.  I just love the Smile Box website for doing scrapbooks.  I make a 7 or 8 page electronic scrapbook and then print one page to put in my scrapbook and then burn a DVD of it and make a label for it and put it in the book, so we can play the full length scrapbook pages on the TV.  I also include cards or other memorabilia connected with the holiday or event that I am scrap booking about.  I started doing this when I had filled up Mary's baby book.  I did a scrapbook/baby book for her up until she was three.  Now I just do the holidays and special events that we do as a family.  Here are some of the pages I have done in the last year.

On Sunday after church we went to a birthday party for one of Mary's little friends in Sunday School.  They had it at a local pizza parlor.  Mary really enjoyed the rings in the gift bags that they gave to all the kids.  She also enjoyed playing the arcade games with her dad.  I think dad enjoyed it to!!

Old Fashion Fun

Mary and I had some old fashion fun. We both like watching Little House on the Prairie and Mary loves to watch the little girls coming down the hill in the opening scene. I told her I would make her a bonnet just like the little girls have. She was thrilled. I bought the pattern and material last summer but with all the gardening and other activities I didn't have time to sew. That is what I love about the winter is there is time to sew!

Here is the pattern I used.

I started sewing this morning.

Here the finished hat right after lunch.  She just loves it and it will be so nice to keep the sun off her face this summer.  I might make the little pioneer dress for her this fall, for her birthday/halloween costume.

A back shot.

Have a wonderful day!

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

Mary and I went shoe shopping today.  She had a Kohls gift card that she had gotten for her birthday and I decided to wait until after the first of the year for a good sale on shoes to get her a pair.  All the people that know me well know that I love shoes, especially baby and little tike shoes.  I think I bought all my girlfriends kids at least one pair of shoes.  When I was little and my folks would get me a new pair of shoes my mom said that I loved them so much I would want to sleep with them.  I can remember crying and feeling really sad when I would wear a pair out or break them.  It 's funny I don't have a zillion shoes now and I only have about 3 pair that I wear regularly but I still love shoes.  That is my favorite thing to go and get Mary.  So we headed off to Kohls today.  We had a lot to choose from.  I liked the first pair she tried on as they looked like little maccosines but I found another pair that I loved even more.  They were a great deal.  I saved over 50% and Mary wanted to wear them.  So I paid for them, took the price tag off and let her wear them down to the little play area.  She had a blast playing with the kids there and then we stopped at Wendy's and got lunch and took it home to daddy.  We had such a fun time.

New Beginnings

Mary and I had a butterfly theme going for New Years. We got dressed up to go to Rich's folks house for dinner. Mary had butterflies on her shirt. in her hair and on her shoes. I wore the lovely butterfly pin that my sister hand beaded for me. I feel this year will be new beginnings for us as a family. It is our 8th year of marriage starting into our 9th and we plan on launching our ceramic lamp business this year. Rich has the shop all set up and is busy right now pouring green ware, carving the designs in them. Once he gets enough made to fill the kiln he will fire them. Once we have some stock made up we will publish our web site. I felt really nostalgic about Christmas this year. As I am typing this I am think about packing up all the Christmas stuff and tree. I feel sad that it is over. I guess having a child has brought back many childhood memories and one of them was how sad I felt when Christmas was over. Rich told Mary that we would be packing up the Christmas tree and putting it away until next year. She said, "No thank you!" She loves Christmas so much. I was able to see Christmas this year in the light of her eyes and it was so magical and wonderful! I am looking at this year with great anticipation and I know many changes will occur. Just ten years ago at this date I was looking into a year that held the most wonderful things, it was the year I met my husband and we began to date and fall in love.

Here are a few shots I took on New Years Day.

Wishing you a full and blessed 2011!  Elena