St. Patty's Day!

What a beautiful day! The weather was warm and the sun was shining... for most of the day anyway. It started raining during the evening, but it was so nice having some early spring weather. I could not stay indoors today! Alaina and I went for a walk with my friend Jenny. Alaina has been to Jenny's house before. Alaina frequently talks about Jenny's cat, Bixby. When I told Alaina we were going to Jenny's house she got so excited and started screaming "Kitty Bix!" As you can see from the pictures, Alaina loves Bixby. In fact she loves all animals. Too bad we couldn't take the cat on the walk with us. I'm sure Alaina would have loved that. Instead Jenny and I took Alaina to a nearby park. It won't be long before spring is officially here and we can go to the park more often! Hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Shedd Aquarium!

Watching the penguins swim by!

We took a family trip to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago last Saturday. Alaina absolutely loved it! I as a little nervous about going on an all-day adventure with her. I thought she might get crabby without her nap, but she did great! She loved looking at all the fish. Her pointer finger was out all the time, pointing to everything she saw. She kept saying "Hi fish, hi fish!" It was so cute. Her favorite part was the penguin exhibit and watching the beluga whales swim in their giant tank. We also watched a dolphin and whale show at the end of our day. Afterwords we bought a mini stuffed animal dolphin for Alaina from the gift shop. She's been taking a nap with her dolphin since our trip. Below are some pictures from our fun day at Shedd.

Watching the penguins walk on the rocks

Alaina wanted her face right on the glass of the penguin tank so she could get a good look!

More swimming penguins, Alaina's favorite

"Look, Momma, more fish!"

Some friendly turtles

Mesmerized by a school of fish

Valentine Concert

My preschool students at our Friendship Concert!

Last Tuesday night my preschool students had a Friendship Concert in celebration of Valentine's Day. We invited all pre-k parents to the concert and had an excellent turnout. The concert was short, only 6 quick songs, but the kids did a great job! We practiced for our concert for a long time. All their hard work paid off with their wonderful performance. They looked so cute standing on the risers in their red and pink outfits. Alaina normally has her music class on Tuesday nights, but I thought she would enjoy coming to the Friendship Concert. We skipped music class and instead I brought Alaina with to watch the concert. She loved watching the kids sing! Nate and my parents watched the concert with Alaina while I helped the children perform.

Chaos in the classroom... waiting for the concert to start with 40 preschoolers!

Alaina and Papou watching the concert

Another picture from the performance

Horray for Warmer Days!

Mommy and Alaina on the bike path

Today was such a beautiful day! The temperature reached 45 degrees! That's super nice weather for mid-February in Rockford. The sun was out and the wind wasn't too bad so we decided to take a walk down by the river. Zoe has been dying to go for a walk all winter and we all needed some fresh air. A lot of snow melted today so the path was wet and slushy, but we had a great time. As you can see form the pictures, there is still a lot of snow left on the ground. I realize that spring is not here yet, but days like this make me feel like it will be here soon!

Ready for a walk! (Not sure why Nate's making that face)

Some pictures of the Rock River. I like how you can see our shadows in this picture.

The Rockford symbol, in all its glory. I still don't get it.

Snowmageddon!

I can't remember ever having this much snow in Rockford! We got about 15 inches of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday. Combined with the snow that was already on the ground, we were completely snowed in Wednesday morning! School was cancelled on Wednesday because of the blizzard and also today (Thursday) because of temperatures below zero. Even City Hall closed on Wednesday so Nate, Alaina, and I were able to have some quality family time at home. Nate spent almost 2 hours outside snow blowing our driveway and helping out some neighbors.

Watching Daddy shovel the sidewalk

Nate's first job was to clear off the 3ft drift on our front step

Shoveling down to the sidewalk

Snow blowing the driveway took a long time!

Today Nate went back to work, but Alaina and I had another day at home together. Although it was very cold out today, we decided to brave the weather and take a little walk outside. Alaina put on her snow gear and ventured out into the cold! She loved walking in the snow with her new pink boots!

All suited up and ready to play in the snow!

This little cutie doesn't mind the snow

Notice how the snow comes up to Alaina's head!

"It's getting too cold out here! I'm going back inside!"

Taking off her wet boots

To end this post, I'd like to add a picture of one of my favorite beaches in Karpathos, Greece. It's a beautiful beach, but during Snowmageddon it looks even more fabulous! Hurry up, summer. I'm getting impatient.

Teeth Brushing Time!

"Look, Mom, I can brush my teeth!"

We bought a toothbrush for Alaina a few weeks ago. At first she wasn't too sure about it. She needed some encouraging to brush her teeth. We bought a cute book about teeth brushing and showed her how to brush properly. Now she loves her toothbrush! She asks for it almost everytime she's in the bathroom. Most of the time Alaina brushes with just water on her toothbrush. We bought some toddler toothpaste, but we like to supervise when she uses it. :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We have had a busy start to the New Year. I was off work for two weeks around Christmas time and started back the first week in January. Spending that time with Alaina at home was wonderful. It was difficult to get back in to the work routine. Now we are back to our regular, crazy schedule.

We finally got around to putting away our Christmas decorations today! Usually we take them down right after New Year's but I guess we were busy with other things this year. Of course, Alaina was eager to help us pack away our Christmas decorations. She helped take the ornaments off the tree (two broke in the process), fold up the tree, and put away the manger scene. She kept saying, "Bye-bye Christmas tree!" We hope that 2011 is a happy and healthy year for all!

Alaina helped gather all the holiday decorations

Daddy used the mini vac to get the pine needles. Alaina thought it was funny!

Putting away the tree topper

Taking apart the tree

Helping Daddy box up the tree