Bowling!

Abby's birthday, and a bowling party.

Stella came too, and slept for most of it, despite all the noise.

The ball-return was by far the main attraction.

Julia hoisting her 7lb ball... nobody got squished feet.

Snazzy bowling shoes.

Birthday girl taking a break from all the fun.

Stella - 3.5 months old

And one of Julia and Ricardo spending a pleasant evening with a big stack of books:

Flying a Kite

The favourite party gift was a kite. Although there was a small breeze today, you had to run to get the thing to fly.

So Julia ran:

...and ran some more.

Hannah's 4th

Julia went to her "best friend" Hannah's birthday party, at a gym. Lots of things for little people to do...

Here is the birthday girl.

Julia and two friends, in 'the pit'.

Some aprés-pit.

Farmer Girl

Julia's school

Julia stared preschool in September of last year (right after she turned 3 years old). Today, Julia's teachers sent home her first progress report. Here are her teachers' comments:

"Julia is a bright, happy, friendly little girl. She enjoys her time at school and has begun to use her time more efficiently. Julia has a couple of good friends in the classroom whom she enjoys working with regularly. Julia can be quite independent when she chooses but often likes to spend time working with teachers. We continue to encourage her to find work that she is familiar with to practice independently.

Julia enjoys the "Practical Life" area of the classroom. There, she is expanding her concentration, refining her small motor skills, and learning to organize her work space in preparation for the more complex lessons that come later. She enjoys pouring and spooning, using tweezers and tong activities, and exploring different art activities. Julia also enjoys math where she is refining her 1-10 skills and beginning to work on teen numbers. Julia knows her letters and needs only a bit more practice with initial, middle, and ending sounds before we can help her begin writing words. She has also enjoyed making science booklets of the parts of vertebrate animals and flowers.

We have enjoyed having Julia in our class this year and look forward to following her progress next year."

Some recent pictures

It's been a while since we posted new pictures, and Stella is changing so much, and so quickly...

So here are some recent pictures. Julia loves holding and hugging her little sister, and now that Stella can hold up her head on her own, it's a lot easier.




Here Julia's tapping Stella's back, imitating something she's seen me doing.

Is it summer already?

It's 30 deg C out today, so we set up Julia's little swimming pool:



Aaahhh, the simple pleasure of eating lunch in the nude...



Beautiful curls and a beautiful smile: