Anna Grows

Today Anna was very excited to officially begin 1st grade. She seemed disappointed that today was only a half day and is already looking forward to a full day tomorrow.  Apparently the half day was exhausting as she collapsed in bed when she got home. Dad, Mom, & Grandma took her to school this morning where they were greeted by the principal and several enthusiastic teachers (neither Mom nor Dad remember this sort of festive atmosphere when they started school).  Anna has her own desk this year.  Her teacher is Miss Dawson and the assistant is Mrs. Baker. Among the many things she is excited about this year is her school planner where she writes her daily homework assignments "just like the big kids."  Apparently they spent the first day going over all the rules.  Let's face it - that is a key part of school, along with schedules. After school, Mom, Anna & Grandma celebrated by going out to lunch.  After a little bit of a nap, Anna went to the pool where sh

Anna & Aidyn Anna spent her last week of summer vacation visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Ohio.  Mom & Dad drove her out on a Saturday, where she got to spend the night in Columbus and hang out with her cousin Aidyn.  Grandma & Grandpa picked her up on Sunday and spent the afternoon with her and Aidyn at the COSI museum in Columbus (check it out at www.cosi.org).  The museum was fantastic for kids and kept them occupied for hours. Anna had a week packed with entertainment, that included a tour of a gourmet chocolate factory, shopping with Grandma (including new clothes and twinkle toe shoes), a county fair, and more shopping.  She also spent lots of time riding the kid John Deere tractor around.  This became even more fun after Grandpa showed her how to put it in second gear!  It was a great vacation for Anna. Mom & Dad had many long dinners during a very quiet week in which they tried to recall what they use to discuss prior to Anna.    They did manage to make i

Anna's & the Mini-Ds It is hard to believe the summer is almost over.  Anna had a good one that included some big events. The biggest milestone of the summer was learning to swim.  Anna was part of the neighborhood swim team, the Lakevale Dolphins.  Since this was her first year, she was on the mini-dolphins (aka, "mini-Ds").    Swim practice was three mornings a week.  It was not long before Anna was jumping off the diving board by herself.  Soon she was doing cannon balls (actually, her definition of a cannon ball was yelling "cannon ball" as you jump off the board.....she can now do a full-fledged cannon ball).  The grand finale was the mini-D swim meet in which team members jump in and swim the length of the pool in front of a crowd of older swim team members and cheering parents.  This is where we quickly concluded that Anna will likely not be training for the Olympics any time soon.  As soon as anyone mentioned the word "race," she