Today we went to Cedar Point. Mommy and Daddy help out with middle school UMYF, so we to go to Cedar Point with them every year. This year, I was tall enough to ride some of the big roller coasters. So I rode this one: Iron Dragon. It was pretty scary and I definitely didn't want to ride it more than once, but I did it. My Grandma came with us and she rode the Iron Dragon, too, even though she doesn't usually ride roller coasters.

Hanging out in Camp Snoopy was more my speed. I loved riding the Lolli Swings, the Camp Snoopy Bus, and the Red Baron Airplanes.

I liked riding the Woodstock Express better than the Iron Dragon.

(we're right behind the "engine" car)

I went it twice and would have gone more, but Daddy said no, and Mommy didn't want to ride it. She did go on the Junior Gemini with me, though. While we were in Camp Snoopy, I got to have my picture taken with Schroeder.

I talked Grandma into riding the Tilt-a-Whirl with me after Daddy said he wouldn't go again. Two times was enough for him. One time was enough for Grandma. She was ok until just before the ride ended when we got spinning really fast. I couldn't talk Mommy into going with me at all.

I liked riding the Sky Ride and the Giant Wheel, too. It was a hot day, and they were up high enough to catch a really nice breeze. We could also see almost everything in the park from up there.

Later on I rode the bumper cars. I had a little trouble getting them moving, but it was still fun.

Later on, after our second check-in, we ran into Snoopy, so I got my picture taken with him, too.

By supper time, I was getting pretty tired. I wanted to put my head down on the table and rest, but Mommy wouldn't let me, so I sat there and sulked until my food came.

After supper, I rode on a few more kiddie rides while Daddy tried to get on a big roller coaster. I think he wanted to ride the Raptor, but the line was too long. He did end up riding something else though. When it was just about time to leave, it started to rain. A lot of the rides shut down, so it was a good thing we were ready to go.

I really had a lot of fun at Cedar Point. It was a long day, though, and we weren't far into our trip home before I looked like this:

I can't wait to go back next year!

Today my kindergarten class had its end of the year party. I can't believe that in two days, school will be over and I will be done with kindergarten. In September I will be in 1st grade!!

We had a lot of really good food.

After we finished eating, we got to go outside and run around and play with bubbles.

Then it was time to line up and go inside for....

....ICE CREAM!!!

It was a really fun party and I had a really great time in kindergarten. I will miss having Mrs. Prout as my teacher, but I am looking forward to first grade

Today was Memorial Day. We got to Grandma and Grandpa's house last night and this morning we went to the parade. It was a lot of fun. We saw old soldiers,

soldiers families,

bands,

boy scouts,

girl scouts,

old cars,

some floats, animals (rescue dogs, horses, a bunch of Golden Retrievers)

and fire trucks. Lots and lots of fire trucks. Did you know that where my Grandma and Grandpa live, the fire trucks are yellow?

That is really cool. Where I live, the fire trucks are red, and they have some red ones there, too, but the city fire trucks are yellow.

After the parade, we walked down to the cemetery for the service there. It was ok, until the guns started shooting. They were very, very loud and I really don't like loud things like that. After that, we went home and had a picnic.

Before we left Grandma and Grandpa's to come home, we went to Uncle Paul's new house to see how it's coming along now. While we were there, he showed me some baby birds that were in a nest right outside his front door.


We had a really busy weekend but tomorrow I have to go back to school.

My aunt got married today. We came all the way from Michigan to Virginia so we could be at the wedding. It took us two days to get here. We stayed at a hotel in West Virginia Thursday night. It was a really nice hotel and it even had an indoor pool. That was really cool. I love to swim. Our hotel here has a pool too, so I've gotten to do a lot of swimming.

We haven't been to Virginia since I was two. Everyone was surprised to see how big I've gotten. I was very excited to see all my cousins and meet my new step-cousins. The wedding was really nice and my aunt is very happy, so that makes us all happy, too. I had a lot of fun playing with all the other kids. I did a little bit of dancing, too, but mostly I just ran around outside with the boys.

My uncle kept trying to talk us in to staying for an extra day and coming out to the lake with them, but we have to leave pretty early in the morning to go to my (other) grandma and grandpa's house. I have to go back to school on Tuesday and trying to make the whole trip from Virginia to Michigan in one day is way too much time in the car for me. Hopefully we'll get to come back to Virginia, and be able to stay for more than two days, sometime really soon.

Yesterday was a very busy day. Not only was it my dance recital, but also the Youth Musical at church. So I got to sing in the morning, and dance in the afternoon. Actually, I got to sing in the afternoon, too, because we started out our routine by singing along with the music.

We didn't do anything fancy for costume, just black skirted leotards and white tights. We did our hair up in a curly pony tail and my teacher gave us black hair bow to wear, too. I was excited because Daddy agreed that I could wear some make-up, too.

(I'm the one on the right)

I had practiced really hard for this recital and I knew my dance well. I sang really loud, loud enough for Mommy to hear me all the way in the back of the room (she snuck in to see me because she was supposed to be waiting for her class's turn to dance). I was dancing really well until almost the end when I stepped back funny and fell. Oh well. Everyone was so proud of me because I just popped right back up and finished up the rest of the dance.

Mommy's class did a really good job, too. Mommy was really nervous because she doesn't like to be up in front of a lot of people, and there were a lot of people there yesterday. Me, I love being up on stage and performing for a big audience. The bigger the better, I think.

I had a great time yesterday and I can't wait until next year's recital

Today, mommy took me to the Butterfly House at Dow Gardens. I love when we go to there. The butterflies are so beautiful and there are so many, and so many different kinds, to see. Our first stop, though, was to take a picture in front of the waterfall. I was wearing my butterfly sunglasses, since we were on our was to the Butterfly House.

It was a nice sunny day, so the butterflies were really out and flying around.

I think it's really cool to go and look at the chrysalises and see if there are any butterflies "hatching" from them. Today I got to see a couple do that. Every year I say that I want to have a butterfly land on/climb onto my hand. But butterfly feet are so tickle-y and I get afraid just as they are about get on my finger. Today I kept saying I wanted to hold one and pulling my hand away just as I was about to catch one. Mommy caught a bunch. She even managed to take pictures of a couple of them, even though they were on her right hand and she had to use the camera with her left hand.

The batteries in the camera were running low, so Mommy turned it off because she thought I would never catch a butterfly. And wouldn't you know it, I actually did catch one this year, but I freaked out and flung it off my hand just as Mommy got the camera turned back on. It landed on my shirt, but I didn't like that either, and flipped it off just before Mommy could snap a picture. So there aren't any pictures of me with a butterfly on me again this year. There's always next year, right Mom?

It was "Chicken Day" at school today. At the beginning of the month, Mrs. Westervelt, our principal, said that if we filled out a paper egg for every book that we read and if we read enough books/filled out enough eggs to circle the school, she would dress up like a chicken. Well, we read 3,877 books this month, so today Mrs. Westervelt dressed up like a chicken! (She didn't wear the head, though, because she couldn't see with it on.)

Today was Easter! I got to get all dressed up, like a princess, in a new pretty blue dress. My shoes were white instead of glass and I had to wear a sweater because it was cold, but I still felt like Cinderella. I even had little white gloves to wear.

The Easter Bunny came and left me an Easter basket on the dining room table, and he hid one under Uncle Paul's desk. That was a tricky one to find. I went all over the house, even looking under the couch in the family room before I saw it. Daddy forgot to take pictures with Grandma's camera, so they re-hid my basket and I had to find it again. Mommy said they would hide it someplace different, so boy was I surprised when I found it in the same place!

We went to church, where I did a pretty good job of being quiet and not too fidgety (an hour is a really long time to be good, you know), and then came home and I got to watch tv while Mommy and Daddy got our fancy lunch ready. We had ham, which is one of my favorites, and corn and sweet potatoes and scalloped potatoes and broccoli. The best part was eating black olives off of my fingers. Daddy and Grandpa think they're yucky, but Mommy and I know that they're good. I ate so much that I thought I was going to pop!!

I was really sad that we had to leave Grandma and Grandpa's house today and come back home. But I have to go to school tomorrow and my teacher would miss me if I weren't there.

Easter is coming up on Sunday. Tonight, mommy and I decorated Easter eggs. It was a lot of fun. I got to help get the colors ready and then carefully put the eggs in. Mommy used a white crayon to write names on some of the eggs. I did one for me, one for Daddy, one for Mommy, one for Grandma, and one for Grandpa. We let the eggs sit in the colors while I took a bath and when we took them out, they were really nice and bright.

Tomorrow, once they are dry, I'm going to put some stickers on them.

Our Irish Cinderella
Originally uploaded by alidoodle

Today was St. Patrick's Day. Mommy found a lot of green thing for me to wear today...green pants, a green shirt with a big shamrock on it, and green socks with leprechauns on them. I got dressed up like Cinderella and then put on the green crown, boa and necklace that mommy found for me and became the Irish Cinderella. :)

Today we went to Chippewa Nature Center for Maple Syrup Day. It was a lot of fun. There were some craft projects to do. Mommy helped me make a mokuk (a birchwood basket). After that, she helped me stencil a leaf onto a small white bag. That was fun, and the lady running the project said it was one of the best ones she'd seen yet! After we finished the projects, we went and had applesauce, sausage, and pancakes with real maple syrup for lunch. They were really good. My pancake was shaped like Mickey Mouse and had a yellow M&M for a nose. After lunch, we went outside and took a hayride back to the Sugarhouse. Once we got there, we learned all about how they make maple syrup.

Then we went out into the woods to see the buckets hanging on the trees and I got to taste some sap. It pretty much tasted just like water. After that we went to the old school house and learned about how trees are tapped for collecting sap. While we were outside, I rang the big bell. Then we walked over to where the barns are, but it's still too cold for the animals to be there. Hopefully I'll get to go back and see them in the summer. After we walked through an old cabin, where I worked an old washing machine, we walked back to the Nature Center and found our car and came home. I had a really good time and I'm glad I got to go to Maple Syrup Day.

Got my face painted at the school carnival
Originally uploaded by alidoodle

Tonight my school had a carnival. It was a lot of fun. There were all kinds of games. I really liked the Banana Toss. Getting my face painted was a lot of fun, too. I had them paint me as a rainbow bird. I tried all the games, and at a lot of them I just got a piece of candy for trying, but I did win a few gold tokens that I got to cash in for prizes. I even got to see Lou E. Loon. That might have been more exciting than anything, except getting my face painted. I can't wait until next year's carnival!

Today is Valentine's Day and we had a party at school. It was a lot of fun. We each got to decorate our own cookie. I was doing pretty good until I dumped a whole bottle of red hots on mine. I never tried one before and it really burned my mouth. I had to run and find a trash can so I could spit it out!

My teacher had us take all of our Valentines and glue them on to a big piece of paper to make a collage. Then I got to bring it home so I could hang it up in my room.
We had a lot of good food to eat, too. It was a great party and I'm really glad that Mommy got to come!