First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Little Squirrel's first day of Kindergarten! It was very exciting and a little chaotic. The playground was filled with children of all sizes and about a million parents. Little Squirrel did a great job of remembering where to line up (and luckily is first in line due to good old alphabetical assignment). After school she was still excited but (as expected) a little short on the details. With some prompting it sounds like she had a great first day and really enjoyed school.

Vacation

It was Little Squirrel's first trip to Disneyland, Mama's first trip since 1991 or so, and Papa's first trip since before Captain EO opened (that was as close of a date he could arrive at). Needless to say we were all very excited. We ran ourselves ragged all over the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure for 2 ½ days.

We had breakfast with Minnie Mouse and her friends got to meet Mickey Mouse and tour his house, and got shrunken to the size of pixies to meet Tinker Bell and Iridessa. Little Squirrel's favorite rides were Dumbo and the Tea Cups in the Magic Kingdom and Soarin' in California Adventure.

By Wednesday, we were exhausted and enjoyed the quiet train ride to San Diego. We rode on the second floor of the train and had a great view of the ocean. Thursday brought the Zoo with pandas, okapie, and the start of flamingo mania. Little Squirrel was delighted to see flamingos for three days straight in San Diego. She also greatly enjoyed pointing out palm trees.

On Friday, we spent the day at Sea World and then took a dinner cruise around San Diego harbor. Little Squirrel really enjoyed all the animal exhibits and shows at Sea World, especially the dolphin show, penguin encounter, petting the rays, and feeding the flamingos. She really enjoyed the cruise and wanted to spend most of it on the top deck. She found a good resting spot on Papa and dozed off after dinner.

Saturday was our last full day and we spent it hiking around the Wild Animal Park. Little Squirrel was delighted to see lots of baby animals including a baby cheetah. It was adorable but we decided that it may play too rough with our kitties so it was best to leave it there. Of course there were also flamingos and lots of other animals (babies or otherwise) to learn about and see. Little Squirrel had an amazing time and it was definitely a memorable birthday present.

Ducklings

The Bumblebees have ducklings! Little Squirrel's class were watching for their caterpillar's to emerge from their pupas and also were incubating duck eggs. They finally hatched and they are so cute. The kids named them "Baby Quacks" and "Albert".

The kids love them and they really like the kids. The ducklings peep constantly and jump up and down to see the kids when they are out in their splash pond.

Easter

It was a nice quiet family Easter. First it was the frantic emptying of the Easter basket. (I'm surprised that the Easter Bunny doesn't have a hernia), then we went to church followed by breakfast at Squeeze Inn.

It was then back home for an Easter egg hunt. That bunny is very sneaky and it took Little Squirrel awhile to find all of the eggs.

After a little rest, we went over to Grandma Rita and Grandpa Ben's for a family Easter dinner and Little Squirrel was once again in charge of bringing the decorated eggs. I'm not sure how many are consumed but she certainly has fun decorating them.

Effie

Little Squirrel "adopts" the same animal at Animal Ark each year, Effie, an Artic Fox. As Animal Ark is only open April through October, we usually get a beautiful picture in the mail of Effie in the snow and then get to see a small white fuzzy dot trying to stay cool under the trees when we visit. This year, they had a special adoptive parent's day, very early and we were allowed to bring in treats for Effie.

There was still snow on the ground and it was very chilly so Effie was bright eyed and still shedding her winter coat when we arrived. Sarah Beth from Animal Ark fed Effie the hard boiled eggs and raw sweet potatoes and really made the day special. Effie was very animated and engaging (and so absolutely adorable that Papa wanted to take her home).

Little Squirrel was absolutely thrilled and got to learn a lot about her friend. Sarah Beth even gave her a little tuft of Effie's fur to take home. We will have to make sure that we visit on colder days from now on.

February

It was a busy month including a trip to the planetarium and saying goodbye to our favorite tea spot, Belle's Tea Cottage (which was also the last tea place left in Reno/Sparks).

We also had all sorts of birthday related activities from parties for friends, to Papa's birthday, and the grand finale (of course) Little Squirrel's 5th!

Little Squirrel took pizza and cookies to school (she wanted the big frosted sugar cookies instead of cupcakes), followed by dinner that night at Blue Moon Pizza with Mama and Papa, and just to round things out, a family pizza party (complete with cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents). (Surprisingly, pizza is actually her second favorite food, right after macaroni and cheese).

Hectic Holidays

December was a hectic holiday month with lots of festivities! The first part of the month started with a lot of dancing. We got to go to Tea's recital and Little Squirrel's ballet class did a special holiday number for the parents. We also planned a special outing and took Little Squirrel to the Chocolate Bar for lunch and then to the Nutcracker Ballet. She absolutely loved it and spent most of the performance on her feet, dancing along!

Little Squirrel's preschool class did their very first Christmas Pageant in the big church for all of the parents. Little Squirrel was suppose to be a cow but decided at the last minute that she would rather be one of the sheep. Afterwards, we all went back to their classroom for holiday crafts and a visit from Father Christmas.

We got to spend more time with family by dividing Christmas day into thirds so that we could celebrate with everyone. We started by opening presents at home and Little Squirrel got a bicycle from Father Christmas. We then had our traditional breakfast with Gram E and Uncle Skip (Aunt Holly/Uncle John/Sofia/Olivia were in Santa Cruz so we did a separate celebration with them). Linner was in Cold Springs with the full Weisshaar clan and then dessert was with Grandpa Ken, Grandma Mary Jane and Uncle Skip.

I was able to take some vacation time during the school break so we did a lot of fun activities with Tea n' Crackers. There was an outing to Jump Man Jump and sledding with Tea's new Christmas sled, and lots of practice on the new bicycle.