School days....3 year old class here we come!

I have been horrid about Leeza's blog. With facebook, it's hard to make time for both, but I need to get better and at least include the highlights.

School started and Leeza , after being in the 2 year old classroom for 2 years due to her birthday being 4 days after the cutoff, has moved up to the 3 year old classroom. All her buddies from last year moved up too, and most of them also turn 4 in September so it's really perfect. I adore her new teacher as well, and I have known her for a few years as she's also a past running buddy.

I have made the pledge that we will not be late, Leeza is not going to sleep in, we will be there at 9. She is going to go 3 mornings a week, and stay for lunch bunch. Next year is VPK and she will go 5 days, so I still selfishly want to spend time with her the other 2 days of the week where we can explore the children's museum, and perhaps take gymnastics or kung fu or do something else that interests us. I really do cherish this time with her, even though sometimes it's very trying on my nerves. :)

I adore her lil preschool class. Leeza really is a smart lil girl and incredibly social, and school is very good for her. She needs to learn that if you are mean to your friends, they won't want to play with you and you can't act like a brat if you want people to like you. Those are what I hope she takes away from preschool anyway. :)













The funniest story ever happened when driving Sean's new carpool home from middle school. I am driving a new carpool this year for Sean. There are 2 8th grade boys (besides Sean) and McKenzie is in 6th grade. We went to meet her Sunday, she seemed really nice. Leeza, ever so social, asked if she wanted to play and they went into McKenzie's impeccably neat room and when it was time to go (like 10 minutes later) Leeza cried like she was losing her best friend. It was hilarious.
McKenzie gavae her a stuffed animal squirrel and talked about how cute Leeza was.However, fast forward to Monday afternoon-when I pick up the kids.
They were all talking at once, and Leeza is so excited-my lord this child is a social being.
She yells LOUDLY...everyone SHUTUP, YOU'RE ALL TALKING AT ONCE AND I CAN'T HEAR WHAT YOU'RE SAYING.
I said of course, HEY HEY HEY, we don't use that word, not a nice word, we don't say that to which she responds that SHE CANNOT HEAR IF EVERYONE TALKS AT ONCE.
so McKenzie is sitting in the seat next to her and shuts her eyes. Leeza is like HEY MOM, WHAT IS THAT GURLS NAME THAT GAVE ME THE SQUUL? (She can't say her r's)
i said, McKenzie.
she goes MCKENZIE, HELLOOOOO WHAT ARE YAOU DOING???
MCKENZIE says...chilling.
Leeza says WHAT'S THAT? WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING? IT'S DAYTIME! PLAY WTIH ME!!
TO WHICH McKenzie responds..."doesn't she have a pacifier or SOMETHING?"
Chad, who I adore and is a great kid (who Leeza also has a huge crush on) says NO, she's almost 4.
Oh my, it may be a long year for McKenzie. :)

One more funny story I want to remember. We were at Target getting school supplies for Sean and ran into someone from his old school. I stopped to talk to the mother, to see her her daughter liked her new school. She asked SEan how he liked his school, and Leeza clears her throat and says "excuse me". Leeza said "ask me the questions you asked Seanie", so the lady said, "Oh, ok, did you start school today too?" Leeza said "yes", and then says "ask me my name" then starts to tell the lady ALL ABOUT HER DAY. Oh Leeza-a wallflower, you are NOT. :)

Summer...it turns me inside out!!!

Oh MY, I have been a "momma blogger slacker"...I have not updated poor Leeza's blog since spring break!!!!! Summer is here-in fact, we only have a month and a few days before SCHOOL STARS AGAIN!!! However-my lack of blogging does not mean I have nothing to report. We have had a WONDERFUL summer and I've been busy with the kids, and we're all having a really good time. In fact, as I type this, my darling Leeza is still sound asleep, at 11:14 am. :) This is our first week without any planned activities (no camp, out of town trips, etc) and so we've been staying up late swimming, watching movies, etc. I slept until 9, and Leeza still sleeps on. :)

Let me start with our first big fun event of the summer...Kazapoolza! It was held at the Tradewinds resort..only 30 minutes from our house! It was an amazing time....Leeza had a BLAST, and was in the pool the entire time. We stayed over on Sunday to hang with Kristan and her family. It's always so wonderful to be surrounded my such Kazakh beauty-inside and out. We met new friends and got to see old ones. It was a great time. Sean even had fun. :)





oh my i did this post on 7/22 and never finished and now summer is over. I will have to update later, cuz I need to post first day of school pictures.

Cruisin to Cozumel

Leeza went on her first cruise last week. I really wanted a lil get away for Sean's spring break, but Joe has too much going on a work right now and we really don't like to leave Papa for very long. I ended up with a cruise out of Tampa (super convenient) on Royal Carribean. We took Sean out of school a couple days early and sailed on Thursday and came home on Monday (the first day of his spring break). It just cruised to Cozumel and back. It was really fun! Leeza was fascinated with everything and got her bearings very quickly. "No mommy-THIS WAY to the kids pool.". Now I realize that BOTH of my children are WAAAY smarter than their mother. :)

Sadly, my camera had a collision with water and it died our first full day at sea. I have a couple pictures though that I can post. Joe and I went on the Princess cruise for our honeymoon and loved it, and we took Sean on the Disney cruise when he was 5. I have to say, Disney is my all time favorite. While I thought the kids pool on the Royal Carribean Radiance of the Seas was "lame", Leeza sure didn't. I couldn't get her out of it. She had a blast-and seeing her thru her eyes-I can't really complain about a thing-except maybe all the weight I gained. :)

Update on May 5th...wow, I never finished this post. What a slacker! Life has been busy. The cruise was fun, we got to "swim" with dolphins, and it was great. I have pics, but if i never post this, I will never move on, so I'm posting. :)

Trike a thon CUTENESS!!

Today was the Trike-a-thon at Leeza's school. Last year, we didn't go to school on Wednesday's and she was not interested in a trike or bike at all.

This year, I've tried to get her to ride a bike. She gets too frustrated and it's a losing battle. I'm sad because I have seen her swim, and run, and she has some crazy endurance for a 3 year old, and I think she would be an amazing triathlete. But, you gotta learn to ride a bike for that. I volunteered at their trikathon hoping for the best, but really didn't think it would go well.







I guess I need to go find her a bike now.....and a helmet.
We borrowed the helmet from one teacher and the bike from another. I love her teachers.She was not down with putting the helmet on at all. Finally..she agreed and I PINCHED HER CHIN! Poor kid. With a mommy like me in your corner, it's rough. Despite mommy, she did great. :)

Cooking with Leeza

I have been such a slacker on cooking lately...so I knew I needed to fix it. I figured if I involve my sidekick, it might make it more fun. Little did I know...I was so right!! I felt like one of those really good homeschool mom's who do crafts and cook with their kids everyday. Leeza loved it! It was an educational and bonding experience. I may have to do it again. Tomorrow night-she can pour the cheerios. :)

She was so excited to help-and we counted out how many we should make and how many is in our family and when she heard Joe's car in the driveway she RAN out and told Joe SHE made dinner and how she put chicken then sauce, then peppers and onions and we put it in the oven for 35 minutes. Even Sean made a HUGE DEAL about how good it was and how it was SO MUCH BETTER THEN WHEN MOMMY MADE IT. Leeza even ATE IT!

wow, I'm such a good mom.

Lucky girls!!

Happy St. Patricks Day! I think this is the first "St Patty's day" shirt I've ever owned. I do wear green, but really never thought an outfit was necessary. Of course, until I had a daughter. I found these "Lucky girl" shirts in the Target girls department..for 4 bucks each. They say Lucky Girl and they have sparkly shamrocks and rainbows and a picture of a girl. I mean..PERFECT. Leeza and I wore them today to Jungle Boogie , the mall, and out to dinner. Sean and Joe wore green, but they didn't match. Leeza asked Seanie if he was sad that he didn't have a shirt like ours. :)

We got lots of smiles and compliments, even though I am sure they were all for Leeza. She's pretty cute. :)

I was also told by a lady at Jungle boogie that "Leeza and I look so much alike" and that "she has my eyes". I wish I had Leeza's eyes, and I can honestly say, her beauty has NOTHING to do with me...she is just a blessing from God...a beautiful child with a BIG ATTITUDE. :)