Olivia's Bike Parade

Today Olivia had her bike parade at Spanish Schoolhouse. The afternoon before Olivia and I decorated her bike "Princess" after she decided she wanted to ride "Princess" over her scooter "Disney." She loves all things Disney and princesses, obviously. Originally when I told her about the bike parade and offered to decorate the bike, she didn't want to do anything to it. But, once I found some balloons and pinwheels, we decided to decorate it and she was really excited. It really only took a few minutes to do and she loved it, especially the pinwheels that spin like crazy when she rides her bike. Of course, she had to test it out in the house since it was raining outside.

The bike parade started at 10:30am and I returned to her school after running a few nearby errands. I arrived and Olivia and the other 3 year old kids were in the play yard playing, drawing with chalk and running around waiting to get their turn on their bikes. When Olivia saw me, she was a little shy and seemed sad, and wouldn't really talk to me but rather just looked at me. Soon, it was time for all the kids to get on their bikes and off they went. Part of the parking lot was turned into an oblong bike track with a "car wash" that the kids rode their bike through. Since it was a little chilly and windy, only one teacher, Mrs. Lisa, held a squirt bottle and would mist kids with water if they wanted it. Olivia was so focused on riding and barely cracked a smile. Plus, she was so determined to stay in the line and ride through in an orderly manner. It was funny because other kids were zipping past her and the other rule followers on her left and right but she stayed in line and took their turn. She was very focused and I was able to get a few cute, although very serious pictures, of her riding her bike. Luckily, none of the balloons popped either!

After the kids were done riding their bikes around, it was time for them to go inside to enjoy popcorn and lemonade while the four year olds got a chance to ride their bikes. Olivia still seemed either sad or distracted, so I decided to give her a hug and head out. I suspect she gets a bit sad when I'm at school events and has fun and is her normal self when I'm not there. At least I hope that's true. It was really fun to watch her ride around at the bike parade and I hope she had fun.

Off she goes!

Going through the "car wash"

The balloons on the back

Getting a little spray of water from Mrs. Lisa

Riding

With Mrs. Carolina

Olivia is very focused on riding

Sweet girl!

Harry Potter Crazy!

Sofia is officially a "Potter Head" and can not get enough of Harry Potter! It all started when we visited Washington D.C. and we spent our first evening at Karina and Dave's house. Their daughter, Annalise, carried a Harry Potter wand with her everywhere and had read most, if not all, of the books and was a huge fan. Sofia had never heard of it before and asked me at the end of the party if we could look into this Harry Potter character. I told her once we were home, I'd get the books for her to read. I actually read them when they first came out, but only read the first four books and never continued through the seventh. I kept the four books and had them on the top shelf in Olivia's closet, waiting for the day when Sofia would be ready to read them. I remember when I was in my early 20s, single, living and working in Washington D.C. and reading the Harry Potter books. I would stay up until 1am nearly every night reading "just one more chapter" and then waking up at 6am to go to work. The books were so hard to put down!

After we returned from Spring Break, I forgot about the Harry Potter books until Sofia brought it up a few weeks later. I got them down and she started on The Sorcerer's Stone....and has yet to put one down! She reads her Harry Potter book while eating breakfast, on the drive to school, at school, on the bus ride home, while she walks to the house from the bus, on the couch after school for at least an hour and then before bed. We've caught her reading at 11pm or later, although now we limit her reading to "the end of the chapter" which she's been good at doing. She is completely hooked and finished the first book in under a week! She's now almost done with book 5 and we've watched the first two movies, which are a lot better than I remember when I watched them years ago.

The only down side to the books is that she often has detailed questions for me which I can't answer because it's been over 15 years since I last read them. The other down side, is that she's now officially scared of using her bedroom's bathroom and goes downstairs to use the guest bathroom. In the Chamber of Secrets, the second book, a large evil snake gets into Hogwart's School by way of the girls' bathroom sink. I think she's convinced that it could possibly happen in her bathroom while she sleeps.... She also had elaborate stories about the snakes and the adventures they go on once she's asleep. Apparently the have an old wand and set up a magic, soundproof barrier so no one in our house can hear the dance parties and hide-and-go-seek games they play. She's so creative and I have no idea where she dreams up these things. I'm hoping there aren't other things in the later books that are scarier!

I've now started reading the books and they really are quite fun and very imaginative. It's been fun to be able to "talk" Harry Potter with her, although I'm only on book 2. I'm also finding that I can't stay up reading it like I used to and am usually fading to sleep after just a few pages. Yesterday, she said "No offense Mom, but you're kind of a slow reader. I mean, you've had the second book for almost 2 weeks and I read it in 4 days." She really is an amazingly fast reader!

She and I decided to host a Harry Potter birthday party for her in July for her 8th birthday and have found a ton of great ideas on Pinterest. In fact, there are so many great and relatively easy ideas that it's hard to decide on what to do and how much will be too much. Of course, other than our 10-year old neighbor, Brandon, no one else will even know who Harry Potter is for the party, but it will be awesome! We decided to make our own wands with dowels, hot glue and paint and added marbles to each top. Sofia has really gotten into it too and has made some great wands. She also "aged" the envelopes using a tea bag and then addressed them to Harry Potter, which we will string up as if they flew through the fireplace (a scene in Book 1). We've printed out containers for Honeyduke's Chocolate Frogs and are planning on making the chocolate frogs with a mold found on Amazon. We also plan on painting the Platform 9 3/4s on a drop cloth and that will be the entrance to our party. I've saved a few old pickle jars and other condiment jars, painted them with some leftover black, brown and bronze paint and will attach the free printable labels I've found on Pinterest. There are so many ideas and it's been such fun being creative with the many ideas. I know my Mom would just absolutely LOVE getting involved in this party and would have so many great ideas. It's really been inspiring to find my creative side and wish she were here to brainstorm with on this project. I can't wait to see what all we do for the party and know it will be super fun!

Sofia starting on Book 1.....

It's pretty much all she wants to do. Took this a few minutes after her soccer game one Saturday

At lunch

At the Arboretum

Better than eating ice cream.....

Heading home from the Arboretum

While eating breakfast before school

Walking home after the bus drops her off

Reading and more reading!!

Aging and addressing envelopes to Harry Potter

Letting the envelopes dry - they really look great although you can hardly tell in these pictures

Addressing envelopes to Harry Potter

The wands...so far!

Bluebonnets!

Yesterday after Meeting and lunch, we headed to the bluebonnet fields in Grapevine to capture a few pictures of the girls with the beautiful flowers. We really wanted to visit Ennis this year on a Saturday but our weekends just seem to be filled up with something (soccer, flying, tennis) or it's been raining. We've had so much rain this spring and yesterday was a beautiful day for photos.

Once we arrived and parked, we realized the fields weren't as full of bluebonnets as they were last year, but we did find a good spot with trees as a backdrop and no other families in our area. The soil was very muddy and all of our shoes were soon caked with thick mud. The girls had a ball running through the fields and halfway listened to us as we instructed them on relaxed poses of them together. CK took a few really cute pictures of me and the girls and I got a few of him with Olivia, since Sofia was off chasing butterflies. Just as we were ready to leave, Sofia realized she'd dropped her silver butterfly headband and CK and the girls spent 20 minutes carefully climbing through the field looking for it. Amazingly, they found it and we headed home. First, we had to try to clear off some of the mud that was all over our shoes. CK ended up washing all of our shoes once we got home since it was very stubborn mud. The bluebonnets are so beautiful and I was glad we were able to visit a small field of them even if we couldn't make it to Ennis this year.

This morning, after dropping Sofia off at school Olivia and I decided to swing back by the bluebonnet field to get a few of Buddy with the flowers. We parked on the opposite side of the field in a hotel parking lot and walked through the tall grass to go to the area that I took the girls a few years ago. It wasn't as full of bluebonnets, but it was a shorter walk and I could park legally. It was great to be there first thing since no one was out so we took Buddy off his leash and let hi wander around so I could get a few cute and natural pictures of him. He's such a ham! I love when he looks off in the distance.....He also "watered" the bluebonnets. After we captured a few cute pictures of him, we headed to Spanish Schoolhouse to drop Olivia off for class.

Sweet girls

Love this picture!

The girls and me

Great picture of the girls

Getting a close-up with the bluebonnets

Sofia searching for butterflies

Olivia!

Papa and Olivia

Bluebonnets

Semi-posed picture...while looking for the hairband

The hairband has been found!

Sisters!

Buddy looking over the fields

My favorite picture

"Watering" the flowers

Let's go, Buddy!

A Day In the Life.....

Thursday is my day with Olivia and it's my very favorite day of the week. I usually play tennis or have tennis matches on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so both days that she's at school I spend a portion on the court. I've really loved getting back into tennis and the ladies I've met on my teams, but it also fills my days more than I should let it. On Mondays and Wednesdays we usually go to Kimzey park after dropping Sofia off at school and walk Buddy while Olivia rides her scooter, if the weather is nice. We also bring bread to feed the ducks and turtles and sometimes Olivia will play on the playground for a few minutes before needing to "go to the bathroom." The park doesn't have a bathroom, so we go to Scooter's Coffee Shop and she goes potty and then has an apple juice. However, this Spring we've had a lot of rain, so we haven't gone to the park before school as often as we'd like.

On Tuesdays we usually run errands or do things around the house but it's a completely unstructured day. Thursday is different. Olivia has "gymnastics" (I think its technically called tumbling) followed by a chemistry class - both of which are offered through the City of Hurst. They offer a ton of classes and they are all very reasonably priced, so it's fun to try different things and not be financially committed. Her Gymnastics/Tumbling class starts at 10:30am and finishes at 11am followed by Chemistry that starts at 11:15 and ends at noon. While Olivia is in her classes, I actually bring my computer and sit in the lobby right outside her class room and get to blog or surf or answer emails. I don't often get on my computer so it's a nice break for me too. Between classes, Olivia usually eats a banana I've backed or some similar snack since she really gets to run around with Mrs. Tammy and works up an appetite. If it's nice enough weather, we pack our lunch and walk across the street to the park for lunch and a little play time. After, we head home and before we know it it's time to meet Sofia at her bus.

The pictures from today were actually taken at Parr Park, another favorite park that we haven't visited in ages. It has a great nature path and I wanted to visit a different place for a change. We had Buddy with us and he was so excited to explore some new paths and meet other dogs. We parked and walked to the nature path and headed over the bridge that crosses the creek. The creek is really full because of the incredible amount of rain we've had lately. We walked down to the edge of the water and explored. Of course, every rolly polly had to be held and a story assigned to it's life. We found spiders, beetles and Tent Caterpillars as well as ladybug larvae. It took awhile to walk down the path and we finally turned around so we'd have time for Olivia to play in the playground.

After Olivia had a chance to play for a bit, we loaded back into the car so we could drop off Buddy before heading to her classes in Hurst. She enjoyed her classes as usual and I enjoyed hanging out with my computer. Once we got home, Olivia and her buddy, Giraffy enjoyed a snack before Sofia came home. We met Sofia at the front entrance where the bus drops her off and the three of us checked on all the ladybug larvae that have hatched all over the rock, bench and outdoor light in the middle of the HOA island. There are so many larvae and we like to find aphids in our bushes for them to eat. It's amazing to watch them actually grab an aphid and eat it! Sofia will sit and watch them for an hour while Olivia prefers finding rolly pollys and holding them.

Once we're done exploring our front yard, we go inside for a snack and so Sofia can practice her piano, read her Harry Potter or play with Olivia. Olivia looks forward to Sofia getting home so they can play together and it's a great ending to my favorite day of the week when they are busy playing together and are happy to make up stories and games.

Riding her scooter "Disney" at Kimzey Park before school

Holding a rolly polly

A much needed Krispy Kreme donut break after dropping Sofia off one day....shhhhh.

At the creek at Parr Park

A rolly polly!

Exploring the nature trail

The beautiful, if destructive, Tent Caterpillar

Playing at Parr Park before class

Climbing

With Mrs. Tammy at Gymnastics/Tumbling

Snack time between classes

Mid-afternoon snack with Giraffy

Finding aphids for our ladybug larvae

A very hungry ladybug larvae

Olivia and her rolly polly

Lady bugs in various stages of development

Lots of ladybugs and they are all HUGE!

Sofia watching them after school

Ladybugs