Honoring Dr. Seuss

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss' birthday, one of my most favorite English children's authors ever. The NEA initiates Read Across America with Dr. Seuss every year in March to mark the occasion. This is the first year we've heard of it and are excited to participate through Ella's school. At Primrose Ella will have a week full of fun things:

Monday, March 1st -Wear mixed-matched clothes to school!Tonda Mahoney with Parkland Hospital Pediatric Care to read to the children NO UNIFORMS REQUIRED for Monday.

Tuesday, March 2nd -Wacky Hair Day!

Wednesday, March 3rd -Crazy Hat Day! Sister Seuss Cat will entertain the children at 10:00am

Thursday, March 4th -Silly Shoes Thursday- Wear mismatched shoes and socks! Mystery Readers will visit the classrooms and read Dr. Seuss Books!

Friday, March 5th -Funny Food Friday- Breakfast for Lunch! Ms. Margarita will serve yummy Pancakes!
**Fireman Jason Darrow will be reading to the children during the week as well!
All week Guessing Game - Throughout the week we will have a goldfish bowl set up in the hallway for everyone to guess the number of goldfish in the bowl. The closest guess   will win a collection of Dr. Seuss books!
I signed up to be one of the mystery readers in her classroom and I'm so excited to share one of my favorite books, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. I can't wait to see her reaction next Thursday!!!!!!! I just love the fact that parents are invited to participate and contribute.

And I love (good) books for the worlds of wonder, imagination, and knowledge they pull us in, making us better in every way. We love to read at home, at school, and at the library, in the car and wherever else we can. Tue nights family story time at the library has become a sweet tradition we all look forward to. Last night as I was sitting there listening to the librarian reading to the children, I could feel a very special quietness filling the room, it was almost sacred... all children and parents neatly strung around the room, all eyes and ears anticipating the next line, the next picture, the next page in the book.

Money, money, money

Our Family Home Evening (FHE) lesson last night was about money. Is money good? What are we supposed to do with it? Spend it, save it, share it? Just some of the questions we answered with scriptures, stories, and role playing. We enjoyed it! This must have been one of the best FHE we've had in a while. This time around again I received the sweet testimony of how inspired and precious the counsel to have family home evening is. It brings us closer together and it's an excellent teaching tool not only for Ella but for us adults too. What made me think money for our topic: Ella started learning about coin denominations at school and she is learning to count pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters so I thought it'd be a neat opportunity to learn about the value of money beyond the counting aspect. We're excited to teach her the principles of tithing and saving. She was very cute last night as after so many tries (using leading questions) to get her to say that if she got $10, she'd spend only a portion of it and save the rest, she would still answer unwaverlingly that if she had $10 she'd spend $5 on a Merry-go-round ride and the rest on candy or a soft toy. It was really funny!

Now for the random portion of this post: we're having a heck of a time getting her to wake up in the morning. She for "some reason" wants to sleep in on weekdays and has already started making up excuses for not wanting to go to school (she's "coughing", she has a runny nose, it's too cold outside, or it's snowing??) So funny but challenging too as we're already a bit late (ok, not a bit more like 20 mins late) getting in to work as it is. She also got her first haircut since we landed in Coppell, really cute! Love it! (I'm just so happy that she's over the "I want long hair" thing!) and love your eyes, baby!

Valentine's Hair (or ear?)-do (by Ella). Valentine is Ella's all time favorite soft toy/puppy

Houston trip

We drove to Houston to visit our dear friends, Anuja and Kalpak. These two have also taken the leap and left the big 'O' behind with all its snow, ice, and wind!! It was great hanging out with them, just like good old days in Omaha. They live in this beautiful place called The Woodlands which is all a wooded area covered with tall pine trees and other evergreens. Loved the fresh pine tree smell filling the air! It was really nice and relaxing to get out of the daily routine and get in "vacation" or "becation" mode, how Ella'd say.  Needless to say that she had a blast playing and hanging out with them and so did we. They took us to this cool boardwalk, Kemah Boardwalk, a pretty neat amusement park right by the ocean. The rest of the time we just talked or strolled around the beautiful lake near their apartment complex. Love you guys, can't wait for your visit in March!

Valentine's day and Snowman

This year Valentine's day was a bit more special than usual probably because we could talk about its meaning and in general about the importance of showing love to our family, friends, neighbors, and every one with Ella. She soaked it all in and she after watching a Valetine's day flower commercial on TV one too many times, she demanded red roses. So I let Hrishi know that's her secret wish this Valentine's day and he conformed, of course. So the pretty red roses you'll see in the pictures are primarily for Ella. We made a ton of sugar cookies and chocolate cupcakes and Ella helped bake them. I have the feeling that she'll do great in the kitchen.

                             

The school party was great, it was lovely to watch Ella interact with her classmates and teacher. They danced and sang and said "I Love You" in five different languages, exchanged pretty valentines. The kids were so cute!! I'll note some of her friends names here: Aurelia, Sydney, Lindsay, Slava, Titus, Shea, Noah, Hikaru. We and a couple of other parents stood by, watched with delight and snapped a lot of photos.


                          

       

It made me want to make each day special for her, for us as a family. Sometimes it's hard to pull yourself out of the routine but I think I can try harder.... to make each day special.

And... here's Ella snowman, the one and only!

                                      

Winter Wonderland

To Ella's delight (and I have to admit to mine too), it's snowing today!!!! Yes, with some huge and pretty snowflakes, already one, one and a half inch on the ground. It's not cold at all so that makes it really nice as you can be out playing and actually enjoying the snow! Ella got to make a few snowballs and stump the slush under her feet; she loves being out there!! She only got in the car this morning on the promise that we'd let her go out after school so she can play some more and even make a snowman. We'll see!

We all like the pretty scenery, especially the trees!! This reminds me that I do love seasons!

Pretty tree right outside our dinning room window:

Snow Aficionada:

I've noticed that lately that pretty much in every single post I "happen" to blurb about something totally random, so to keep with the tradition here goes today's random item: last night we made veggie lasagna (yummy goodness of spinach, toffu, mushrooms, and bacon bits in a yummy organic marinara sauce, Amy's Kitchen.)

Ok, so you noticed what she's wearing when leaving home this morning. A couple of hours later, I get this cute note from her school that they went out to enjoy a bit of the snow and here's what I see... my Ella not wearing her hat!!!! What is she thinking? She's miss Nebraska Freeze and Cold Accustomed but still....

Dentist, random, and upcoming Valentine's Day event

Ella went to the dentist the first time last week. Although she was very anxious for some reason, she did good. Unfortunately we need to go back to put some caps and I know that won't be fun for her. Especially because they'll sedate her.... I'm not excited about that. Anyway, here's the certificate (as she LOVEs any kind of certificates) she got from us for being such a good girl at her first dentist appointment and a few more pics depicting her in the act of writing.

Ella writing "by"

Ella's art (Moon, stars, rock ship, airplane, boat, hot air balloon)

Ella's fish pets

We've got plans for Valentine's day: they'll be having a party at school on Friday and I signed up for the fruit platter. In addition, I'll be baking cookies, cupcakes, and making rice crispy cremes that she can have (no milk/butter allergens.) Parents are invitated to attend and have lunch with the kids. It should be fun! I really want to make everything I'm bringing from home look enticing and yummy so she doesn't feel like she's missing out on anything the other kids can have (food related, of course.) Pictures to come once I have all the goodies ready! I'm excited!! It's so interesting how it changed for me from looking forward to get stuff on Valentine's Day to looking forward to make something for someone so special! I'm happy to be her mother.

Yummies

Some of the things we're loving right now:

Ella:

Mango Juice, Book of Mormon Stories, Crayola markers, Apple turnovers, Lemon  tea.   
                                                                 
                                  

Hrishi & Cris:

24, The Mentalist, House, Fringe, LifeTime Fitness, Ice cream

                                

To these I could easily add sleeping in and shopping (that's only my fave, not Hrishi's), golfing (Hrishi's, of course although poor guy hasn't gotten to play since we've moved here.)

So for today, I though it'd be fun to summarize it all in images.

(Shhhh.... I have a confession to make: I too love the raspberry and apple pastries. And the mango juice. And the lemon tea. And reading Book of Mormon stories to Ella.)

Our **Star**

Ella was the star in family home evening last night. As she was super excited, we let her take on several things: lead the song, teach the lesson, AND say the closing prayer. Our topic was love and she loved teaching it. I was amazed at her confidence and excitement. This is the first time we asked her to give the lesson. Honestly I thought she was going to shy away from it; well, instead she jumped all over it and taught an excellent lesson using role play and providing examples of how we can show love to others. Both Hrishi and I were sitting there in awe! Wow, this girl really does pay a lot of attention in her primary class and knows her stuff! We then moved on to our activity to cut paper valentines and decorate them. It was great!  Wish I'd taken a picture of her standing up there by the fireplace teaching but I didn't want to distract her. Here are the valentine's!

It feels really wonderful when we take this opportunity to learn and have fun together as a family!

Let's see... what else?
-Trying to get our house sold in Omaha; may need a fresh splash of paint to make it more attractive to visitors. We've had a lot of traffic so hopefully we'll get a good offer soon.
-Working on making the gym a priority. We usually try to go during lunch. There's lots of fun classes in the evenings too.
-Gym related also: hoping to get Ella started back up with swimming lessons. They don't have enough children at this time to form a group, may need to start as private lessons but ouch, that's pretty pricey!