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!

Today Mommy and Daddy took me to see the Doodlebops. It was a lot of fun. I watch them on TV all the time, so it was exciting to see DeeDee, Rooney and Moe up on the stage. I just wish I could have met them and gotten their autograph, like they do on the show. I knew all of the songs they were singing and I sang along with them. It was a little hard to see when I wasn't kneeling on Mommy's lap, but I did get down to dance a few times. During intermission, Mommy got me a cool hat.

We all took turns wearing it.

I'm so glad that I got to go to this concert!

Today was my first day of Kindergarten!!! I was so excited to go to school. Mommy took a couple of quick pictures outside and we headed down to my classroom. I found my nametag, let Mommy take one more quick picture and then I ran in to my class. My teacher's name is Mrs. Prout, and she is really nice. It was an exciting day. The best part is that I get to ride the bus this year. Well, I get to ride the bus home, anyway. Mommy will drop me off in the mornings. I can't wait to go back tomorrow!!

Today was a really exciting day. We are at Disney World!!!

I had to get up really, really early and then Grandpa took Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and me to the airport. We had to wait for a long time, but mommy got me some breakfast and they had some things to play with there, so it wasn't too bad. Finally it was time to get on the airplane. We found our seats and I was ready to go. Unfortunately, it was so cold out that they had a hard time getting the thing that puts the suitcases on the plane to work, so we had to wait some more.

At the airport
Originally uploaded by alidoodle

We got up really early this morning and went to the airport because we are going to Disney World! These are our carry on bags waiting to go. I got to have breakfast while we were waiting to get on the plane. It was very exciting to go down the runway and take off, almost like the Little Einsteins blasting off in Rocket. Even though I had been up since really early, I was to excited to sleep on the plane. Mommy really wished I had...she was pretty tired. But at least I behaved really well, so she was happy about that.

Today was a really fun day, even though it was rainy and cold. Daddy had the day off, so he came to watch my swimming lesson. After that, we all went to Pizza Sam's to meet my friends, Allie and Haley, and their moms for lunch. After lunch, we walked around downtown a little bit, looking in some of the store windows. We even got to go into the bakery and get a cookie. We walked down past the courthouse and looked at all the decorations. And then we went to the Santa House. It wasn't open yet, so we played around in the pretend igloo that was outside and peeked in through the windows to see all the fun stuff inside. We went across the street to my church and went inside for a little bit to get warm. I showed my friends my school classroom and the pictures on the windows that the senior high youth group painted. We left the church and went back outside and got back to the Santa House just as the clock was ringing 1:30. It was time for it to be open! We went inside and Santa was there waiting for us. He said "Ho, ho, ho! Welcome to my house!" While my friends were taking their turns sitting on Santa's lap and talking to him, I went around and looked at all the really neat things in the house. I got my picture taken in a sleigh. I got my picture taken standing next to a big stuffed reindeer. There was a great big huge nutcracker there, and he really worked. I got my picture taken next to him, too. When it was finally my turn, I ran right up to Santa and sat on his lap. I talked to him for a little bit and we posed for a picture. Then he gave me a handful of candy. I wanted it to snow, and he was going to try and make it snow on Mommy and Daddy, but the snow machine wasn't working. :( I was kind of disappointed, but it was ok. We spent some more time looking at all of the things there were to see. My friends and I all sat in the sleigh together for more pictures. We found some jingle bells to play with. We played at the train table. When we had seen everything there was to see, it was time to go home. We made one more trip through the igloo and then walked back to our cars. I said goodbye to my friends and came home for a nap. It was a very busy day!

Tonight we went, with mommy and daddy's church group, to the Holy Walk. We got to ride on a real school bus from the parking lot to the church! That was a lot of fun. When we got to the church, we went inside to sing some Christmas hymns and watch "Mary" tell us about why they were going to Bethlehem while we waited for our groups turn to take the walk.

When it was finally our turn, our "family" went out into the cold and ran into some angels while we were on our way to Bethlehem. They were talking about a very special baby being born that night. As we kept going, Roman soldiers kept jumping out at us and yelling at us. Since our "family" were goat herders, they kept telling us that we stunk. One of the soldiers asked me what my goat's name was and I told him I didn't have a goat. That wasn't the right answer! Luckily, they let me stay with my "family" anyway.

We kept going and eventually came to the city. We had to show our papers to lot of different soldiers. That was hard for me because I kept dropping mine. Luckily mommy was paying attention and kept picking them up for me. We paid our taxes and got our papers stamped and then went into the city. That was kind of scary! It was really loud. People kept trying to sell us things, people were yelling, there was a lot of music being played. It was crazy. I held on to mommy's leg most of the time, so I wouldn't get lost.

We kept going through the city, following the star we saw until we got to the stable where the special baby was. It was Baby Jesus!! (Not a real baby, because it was really, really cold, just a doll baby) There were also some real donkeys there too. I got to pet them!

Afterwards, we went back in to the church for a little bit to have some cookies and some hot chocolate. Then we took a van back to the parking lot and back to our car.

We got to go to Pizza Sam's for supper. I'd never been there before, so it was kind of exciting. They have a place where little kids like me can stand at a window and watch them make the pizzas! The man that was making pizzas threw flour at my friend Andrew and me and he threw some pizza dough at us, too! It's a good thing there was a window there. The pizza was really good.....so good that I ate two whole pieces!

Tonight mommy and daddy took me to the Christmas Walk at Dow Gardens. It was fun. I like to go to Dow Gardens during the summer, so it was neat to see it in the wintertime. The paths were all lit by candles, and I stopped to get a closer look at one.
We went past a whole area that was filled with more of these candles. I wanted to walk around and look at them, too, but mommy and daddy thought it would be better if I just stayed on the path. I guess they were right, but those candles sure were pretty.
There were some choirs there, too, to sing for us. This one was singing songs that I could dance to.
Here I am leading us down the path. The trees were really pretty with all their lights.
We got to go into the conservatory, which is where the butterflies are in the springtime, and listen to a guy playing the saxaphone and a guy playing piano. Mommy said that they go to our church, but I don't think I know who they are. I really liked looking at the decorations in here. They were from "The Nutcracker!"
I'm glad we got to go on this walk. It snowed some last night and this morning and even though the lights and candles would have been pretty by theymselves, they were even prettier with the snow. It was really cold though, so the new coat and snowpants that mommy and I bought this morning came in really handy!

Today, mommy and I got to meet my friends (and their moms) for lunch at Wendy's. And as an extra surprise, Daddy showed up too. After lunch Daddy had to go back to work, but the rest of us went to the Chippewa Nature Center. Mommy and I had never been there before, so we didn't really know what we were going to see.

We headed off down the trail into the woods and ended up at a place called the Homestead. We had to cross a couple of bridges on the way, so we tried to be very, very quiet so we wouldn't wake up the trolls. We saw some old buildings, but didn't get to go inside to see what they were all about because there were some bigger kids there for field trips with their school classes. There were some farm animals that we got to feed. Allie's mom brought apples to cut up and feed the pigs. I liked watching the pigs, but didn't want to get close enough to feed them. There were chickens there, too.

From there we went to see the cows. When we got to their pen, they were all the way in the back. But Allie's mom had brought a big bag of corn with her, too, and she shook that bag so the cows could see it and they came running right up to the fence as she poured it out on the ground. After the cows ate all the corn we pulled up handfulls of grass and fed them that way. Cows' tongues are very rough and very slimy!

When we were all done outside, we went back to Visitor's Center and looked at all kinds of interesting things there. They have a turtle in a water display that looks like it's really real. I thought it was, and mommy did too, for a little while. They had a bunch of things on the counter that we could pick up and look at....from seed pods to animal bones. They also had some things that we could look at under a microscope. That was really neat. We went to the River Overlook and got to watch the river rushing by. They had a telescope set up and we could see into a hole in a tree on the other side of the river. We also went into the Ecosystem Gallery. That was really fun. There is a place in the back where we looked out a window and saw all kinds of birds, squirrels and chipmunks eating and playing. There are all kinds of things to look at and play with.

I had a lot of fun with my friends today.

Today, my class went on a field trip to the Whiting Forest. I had never been there before, so it was pretty exciting. We started out with some stories in front of the big fireplace.

Then we got our coats back on and went outside for a nature walk. We looked for different leaves, pinecones, pine needles and tried to find a squirrel (which is kind of hard to do with 20 noisy 4 year olds tromping through the woods!).

We saw some pretty silly things out on the trail, too. These two trees had faces!

We picked up leaves along the way and then climbed to the top of this tower and dropped them over the railing so we could watch them float back down to the ground.

I picked out a very special leaf before we got back from our walk. We split into two groups and each group got to take their leaf and run it through a laminating machine so that we can keep it forever. After we were all done, we went back outside and had a quick snack...pretzel rods!

Boy, I never knew that I'd get to do such fun things when I went to school!

I got to go on a hayride!!! I love hayrides. We got to ride out into the pumpkin field and pick out a pumpkin to take home. I picked a really big one. Daddy had to carry it for me. I can't wait to carve it! (But I don't want to scrape the gooey stuff out.)
After we got back, I tried to milk the cow, but it was too hard. I didn't get very much water into the bucket. If I get to come back next year, maybe I'll be able to milk the cow.
There was also a petting zoo. I got to hold a baby chick and I got to hold a kitten
I got to ride this really fun zoo train . And I even got to ride a pony!
I hope we get to go back there again next year!