Self Admiration

On the way home from the Children's Festival, G wanted to see her face paint.  I didn't have a mirror to hand her, so I gave her Daddy's phone with the camera flipped toward her.  She loved it.  And took many.many pictures of her face paint.  And has looked at the pictures about ten times since!


 

What a silly, happy, beautiful girl!

Dino Zoo and Festival Fun

A while ago we got a mailer for the Pittsburgh International Children's Festival.  I took the kids last year and we loved it.  This year they were offering a play called Dinosaur Zoo (advertised as a dino petting zoo).  And, well, how could I NOT get tickets??  Turns out we could go on a Friday that Daddy was off, so that was even better!

As usual, we didn't tell the kiddos our plans until the last minute (like at breakfast that morning).  Oddly, Colin said he didn't want to go, he wanted to stay home and play Legos with Daddy.  We convinced him to come along anyway.

We drove into the city, parked in the parking garage, went to the wrong building first, and then found our theater!  And waited, rather impatiently, for dinosaurs.





Then it was DINOSAUR TIME!  What a fantastic play! As soon as the main actor said they were from Australia, Colin was HOOKED.  Then they brought out "baby" dinosaur puppets and let ALL the kids pet them and we were ALL sold.

These were Colin's favorites.  They were spunky and naughty and spilled water!



Then they brought out their DIVA. A juvenile t-rex!  She was an impressive puppet!




Colin volunteered for every audience participation opportunity, but he was never chosen!  Poor kiddo!  When they announced the end of the show, Gillian told me, "NO!  I want MORE dinosaurs!!"  So, yes, we really liked it!

After the show, we wandered over the Schenley Plaza for the rest of the festival activities.  Gillian immediately got in (the long) line for face painting.  She missed it last year and remembered.  Of course she did.  Colin didn't want to face paint, so he and Daddy went off exploring.

After a long wait, G had her turn.  She chose a crown in pink and purple.  Of course.




Daddy reports that Colin found the Boy Scout tent and built and raced car after car built of Legos.



We met back up for some tattoos.  Pigeon tattoos.


And G needed to try some Lego racing.



We grabbed some lunch, found a giant diplodocus and moved on to the petting zoo.








Daddy and G then went off to the "Balloon House."  They had one last year at the festival, it's a big, inflatable house full of color and music.  Colin didn't love it last year, so he declined a trip through it this year.  So we went back to the diplodocus for a while! Daddy and G saw this:







After we met back up, we grabbed some Ritas and headed for the car.  We stopped off at Matt and Rachel's place to drop off some goodies and meet our new cousin John!  So, dinosaurs, perfect weather, festival fun, family, and a new baby! PERFECT Friday!

Last Day of School. Boo.

Last Thursday was C&G's last day of Three Year old preschool! They both has such great years.  I can see how much each of them has grown and changed.  And they both had WONDERFUL teachers.  We could not be happier with how the year went!

I convinced the kids to grab a few pictures before school started!  The results were hilarious.  I'm not sure if their eyes were sensitive to the morning light or what.










Oh boy.  That's a lot of less-than-stellar pictures!

Anyway, parents were invited to the last 45 minutes of school for a bit of a party.  The teachers arranged it so I could be at both parties for the most important parts of the day!  They are so wonderful!  We started the party with some outdoor play with both classes.

This is Gillian's lead teacher, Mrs. K.  She is AMAZING.  If you could order up a perfect preschool teacher for your child, you would have Mrs. K.


And this is Mrs. L.  She is just the nicest, kindest lady.


Crazy Cozy Coupe time.



This is Colin's lead teacher, Miss L.  She "got" Colin and loved his quirky little self. Good thing too...Colin invited her for a playdate this summer.


And this is Miss D.  She was the quiet, calm presence in their room, I think.


After we came in, Gillian's class handed out their end of year certificates.  So, I joined them first.  For each child, Mrs. K had asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up.  And then Mrs. K and Mrs. L thought about each child, their personality and skills, and picked what THEY thought each child would be when they grew up.  Gillian told Mrs. K that she wanted "to be a craft maker" when she grew up.  (OH BOY) Mrs. K and Mrs. L thought G would make a FINE microbiologist!  Once G asked what that was, she wasn't too happy. I think, "Ew. Blech.  I don't want to do that" were her exact words.  HA.


I set G up with some fruit and ice cream and left her with her good buddy Casen and his Mom, then I headed down to Colin's room for more partying.  Colin was enjoying his ice cream and snacks with his buddy J.D. (not pictured).


Then Colin got his certificate and got pictures with his teachers and his very proud Mama!
 


So, another year done.  Wow.  It went so fast.  Such a good year!  I am BUMMED that the year is over, but we'll be on to the Four Year class soon enough!