LARK Toys

Be sure to also check out brother's blogs and SGBG blog (in a couple weeks) for other pictures from LARK Toys.

Camp Omega Family Day

We went to Camp Omega for the their family day. Some day I would like to send her there, or both kids but summers are just to short and we run out of time to do activities and budget to do them too. So, we go there for their family day and have what fun we can then.

Last Day of 2nd Grade

Some pictures from the last day of 2nd grade, before she heads off to school

2014 Spring Dance Recital - Videos

Here are the 3 dances from her spring recital last night:


Ballet

 

Tap

 

Hip Hop

 

2014 Spring Dance Recital - Pictures

Some of these you make have see on FB, but I don't like to put all the pictures on there, so here are more.

K-2 Track and Field Day

This is the last year of the "fun" track and field day for Isabel. Next year it becomes more competitive.

Here are some pictures and a little video of the event at school yesterday.

And the video....

2nd Grade Spring Concert Videos

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?



Take Me Out to the Ball Game



Together, Wherever We Go


 

Swim Videos from LF Meet

50 Freestyle



50 Back Stroke

Pantene Beautiful Lengths Donation

 

Before picture of both of us. The curls make it hard to see just how really long our hair is.

 

Here you can see it combed out and how much was there before the cut.

 

Nervous little girl who thinks its going to be really short, like "boy" short. It's not though. 

After picture: Neither of us is too sure about the short hair.

She donated to Pantene Beautiful Lengths which only require 8+", but they require virgin hair that is free of gray. I researched hair donation places and there are 4 different ones. Pantene is the one that will take the least amount, but nothing that has ever been dyed, which is why I had to donate to Locks of Love because I have used permanent dye on my hair. Locks of love requires 10+ inches.

Now we both have to figure out how to do our short curls. I learned already I have to take the brushes away from her because it leaves her hair quite frizzy, and teach her how to use product because otherwise her hair gets all poofy, like mine.

We are both proud that we donated our hair to help make wigs for cancer patients, but it's gonna take a bit to get used to our short hair.

Orlando Science Museum Video

Just a quick video from our vacation and Isabel telling the weather at the Orlando Science Museum.


** Not sure where the video went previously. But it is here now, so going to republish the post.
)



There will be lots of pictures coming over the next couple weeks of the trip, but for now check out the videos on both kids pages.

Puppet Show at OAC

 Playing catch up with photos! This is from a puppet show I took the kids to see at the beginning of the month at the Owatonna Art Center. They got to see a puppet show using 5 different kinds of puppets and then got to make their own and try them out.

Florida Slideshow

Isabel's teacher had requested she bring in postcards of some  of the places we went to and I said we would make a slideshow of pictures for her to show the class on the Smartboard instead, so that is what we did no the plane - made a slideshow. I let Isabel pick out the pictures she wanted in her slideshow. And because I made her one I wanted to make one for brother too, so there is one on his blog as well. There are plenty other pictures we took on vacation as well that will start cropping up on FB or in Wordless Wednesday posts

This is just a video of some manatees we saw.....haven't decided if I will out this in a WW post or not, probably, but thought I would share it now too.

First Swim Meet

This was taken while she was watching other teams warming up. She had not found me yet, but I was sitting just 4 rows up from her. This was her first swim meet and some of it was overwhelming, but we have some stuff figured out now and will approach things differently next times. She had a good time is excited to do another meet. She got a ribbon for "Personal Best" for each of her races (100yd Freestyle and 50yd Back).

Now she found me! She is wearing her new swim cap which is a team swim cap. They get one when they swim their first team meet.

She is in the water there somewhere. This is the 8 lane pool that the meet was at. This is warm-up time for the second half of teams. They all get in the water and do their laps and drills. She had to do a meet practice on Friday night before the meet and she looked so little out there with all the other team members swimming. When I read the program for the meet and saw all our swimmers, it is no wonder she looked so small. She was the youngest girl on our team swimming, the next youngest girls were age 9. There were a couple 7 year old boys swimming too, but they were standing in groups of boys & girls so I didn't really notice how little the boys were. Both of her events she swam were for 8 & under (& they separate by gender too.)

This is her on the starting blocks getting ready to dive in for her 100yd Freestyle. I am unsure why there are swimmers in the water holding on to the bars for backstroke. She told me that made her nervous having to jump over someone.

She really wanted to swim 2 events and really wanted to swim Back. And I only wanted her to swim one day (it was 2 days of events) for her first meet, so this was the compromise we came up with that she was happy with. I would rather have seen her swim two 50 races, but that wasn't in the cards for this race. She knows she can do faster in the back but she said she was pretty tired by that race and when I watched the video of it you can really see her slow down the last half a length. Next time she'll get the C time. :)

Here she in the Freestyle race. You can't really see her, just barely a splash of her. She is the swimmer in the lane second from the top. Her time for the 100yd Freestyle was 2:41.02. She needs it to be under 2:04:39 to have a C time for Regionals. I was impressed with good she has gotten at her flip turns. She is strong off the wall on her flip turns. She just needs to work more on swimming technique for this as she turns her body too much and that uses too much energy and takes time. So, she definitely has a time to improve from.

I watched a 9 year old girl swim before her in this same race and she took almost 3 minutes and was over a pool length behind the 2nd to last swimmer. She swam the same way Isabel does (with too much upper body movements) and I was so nervous for her. I didn't want her to be in the pool so long after everyone else, but she wasn't. She was only about 5 seconds behind the person in front of her. Next time I think she will try 50yd Freestyle. We didn't do that this time because it was day 2 and we just wanted to simplify things and do just one day.

This is Isabel in the 50yd backstroke. This is the race she was most excited to do. Her time was 1:07.03. She needed it to be under 1:04.99 to qualify for C Regionals. Only 2.04 seconds off!!! She's get it next time! Even her coach thought it was really good for a first meet time to be so close to C Regionals qualifying time. Next time we will plan out her races differently so that hopefully she isn't tired for this one.

Below you can watch her swim the 50yd Backstroke. I was interrupted by a woman who wanted to walk in front of me and then I was trying to watch her in real life and not through a little screen, so I end up taking the camera off her a couple times. She was one of 5 swimmers in this heat. She was in 4th. The person who came in after her was in a closer lane (to me) that she was not in my camera and she was further behind Isabel so she never got in the view either.

2nd Grade Christmas Concert

Here are the three songs they sang at the 2nd & 3rd Grade Christmas Concert. The last song was sung by both classes and each class sang 2 on their own. I just zoomed in on Isabel, so you can't see the entire class.
 

First Day of 2nd Grade

Isabel started 2nd grade this year. This was her choice of outfit. Dang long capris make her look like her pants are too short. It looked cuter afterwards when she was wearing flip flops at home but they can't wear open toe shoes to school.

First week of school went well. She is figuring out all the new expectations and how her new teacher works. I met this teacher for the first time at the open house and seems like it will be a good fit for Isabel. Although, Isabel is such a good student it is hard not to think that she wouldn't do well with pretty everyone.

She has a couple friends in her class, although the majority of her friends are with a different teacher and one is with the new 2nd grade teacher. She is so adaptable that she just takes the attitude that she will just become better friends with new people in her class and know she will still be friends with the old ones

MN Renaissance Festival

Some pictures of Isabel from the MN Renaissance Festival. There will be more pictures on brother's blog and also tomorrow on my Wordless Wednesday on SGBG.

Tubing Videos

Isabel Riding the Tube

Jumping Off the Tube





Sister is a Stinker