yet another trip to the zoo

On Saturday, as part of an early Father's Day activity, we went up to the zoo since Jim loves watching the animals. It was sort of a rare day as we actually made it to Grizzly Bear feeding, which Jessica loved, and saw the kangaroos up and about (usually they are sleeping or simply laying down).



Of course, Jessica's favorite activities are throwing coins in the fountain, riding the carousel, and going to the petting zoo to feed the animals and brush them (in no particular order). I let Jim wander over to the big cats while Jessica did the petting zoo. This was probably a good call as she spent a lot of time at the farm. She decided that she had to use every brush to brush the goats. And, while there are normally 2 or 3 brushes out, they had at least 8 different colored brushes out that day, so it took quite some time for her to use all of them.

Here she is on the carousel.

Jessica's new big girl gym class

This week, Jessica moved to a new gym program at a real gymnastics facility. The class she is in is still geared towards preschool kids with dancing and songs, but it also incorporates real gymnastics equipment. And, as a bonus, she gets to wear a leotard. Of course, she kept asking me why her leotard did not have a tutu. Ballet Jessica, ballet is all I can say. We start that shortly. Anyways, last night was her first class.

After some warm up songs and exercises, the class eventually goes through a circuit of gymnastics activities. Given it was Jessica's first class, she had a hard time staying on task and kept wandering over to other equipment that she found interesting (rings and tumbling mat). Eventually, she made it onto the correct circuit though. The first stop was the balance beam. Jessica was a bit hesitant last night and was holding up her friend Isabella (and eventually the rest of the class too).



Then, she practiced her kicks.



Which was followed by big jumps on the trampoline.



And, then she moved on to walk across the bar.



We assume her most favorite part was the rings however. The kids were supposed to hang from them, but Jessica decided to act like a monkey and go upside down while intertwining her feet in the rings. Her dismount was not quite a 10. It was drop to the mat and then laugh at the big fall she took.

Santa Cruz Vacation - Day 3

Before we left Santa Cruz, we went to the beach one last time.

Once again, Jessica spent lots of time playing with her sand toys.



She also decided that she wanted to go in the waves and ventured out much further than she had in the past.

Santa Cruz Vacation - Day 2 - Natural Bridges State Park

On the second day of our vacation we made it out to Natural Bridges State Park for sunset. While Jim took pictures of the sunset, Jessica and I played in the sand with her sand toys of course.

Santa Cruz Vacation - Day 2

On our second day of vacation in Santa Cruz, our friends joined us so Jessica and Leilani could play together. Our first stop was the beach at the boardwalk where the girls ran up and down the shore and collected seashells.




Then, it was off to the boardwalk for rides. Jessica enjoyed flying the airplanes.



And, she liked driving the truck with Luke.

Santa Cruz Vacation - Day 1

Last weekend, we decided to take Jessica to Santa Cruz for our first and most likely last beach vacation of the summer. We drove down to Santa Cruz on Friday night and were able to enjoy some time at the beach and on the boardwalk rides before it was time to call it a night.

Jessica has decided that she loves the beach. She loves to play in the sand with her sand toys.



She's decided that it is really fun to play with her daddy and make sand castles.



But, it is even more fun to smash the sand castles.



Of course, Jessica had to play in the waves too.

Eventually, we left the beach and went to the boardwalk to have fun on the rides. Jessica prefers the low key rides. Here she enjoys a spin on Bulgy the whale.



And a ride on the ferris wheel with her daddy.



After dinner, we saw a baby sea lion on the wharf.



Then, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the patio of our hotel room.



Jessica even got to stay up super late with us. She went swimming in the pool (aka hot tub) on the patio and sat and watched the moon.

Jessica at bedtime

Jessica had fun goofing around with her dad at bedtime. Here she is right after bathtime having a good laugh with him.



Then, it was time to get ready for bed. She tried to brush out her own hair.



But, wasn't very successful, so I had to take over. Here she models straight hair for about one second.



Then it was time for books. Jessica is currently a fan of Pinkalicious, Purplicious, and Goldilicious.



And, then off to bed.

gymnast Jessica

Jessica had lots of fun at gym this week. She practiced hanging on the high bar.



She swung on the trapeze bar.



She went jumping on the trampoline with her friend Isabella.



She practiced swinging from the rings.



And, she had fun playing with her suprise -- a tennis racquet. She just had to have a pink one.

swim lessons for Jessica

Every week, Jessica goes to swim lessons. Jim came this week to take some photos.

The first part of the lesson has Jessica on a kickboard going across the pool and back. Jessica works hard (yeah right) as she's dragged across the pool by her teacher. She should be doing her big kicks, but those stopped somewhere along the way.



Then, it's on to practicing breast stroke. Eventually, she'll keep her head in the water and do big arms and kicks. We are working on that. But, it almost looks like she is swimming right?




For Jessica, however, swim lessons is all about the play time at the side of the pool while waiting for her turn.

ice cream store

Today, Jessica and Isabella played "ice cream store" at school (a common game that many of the kids play). They set up their store using the big blocks on the back patio. Here is how the game went.

Jessica goes to Ellie's princess party

Today, Jessica went to Ellie's third birthday party, which was a princess theme. There was a princess bounce house that Jessica had lots of fun bouncing in.



As she bounced, she tried to convince all her friends that she was Sleeping Beauty and they were some other princess (Belle, Cinderella, Mulan, etc.). We're just slightly on the bossy side and obsessed with Disney princesses.



After bouncing, Ellie's mom had organized some fun games for the girls. First, they did the freeze ribbon dance -- dance a bunch, freeze when the music stops, and collect lots of ribbons. All the girls had quite a stash of ribbons by the end.



Then, the girls worked hard on decorating their princess wands with stickers, ribbons, and jewels. Jessica declared hers a "magic" wand.




After all the games, the girls sat down and had lunch. Jessica ate lunch with lots of her friends from school.



Once everyone had finished lunch, it was Princess story time. All the girls wanted to hear Pinkalicious. I guess that isn't just a favorite at our house.



And, then it was cupcake time. As soon as Jessica saw the cupcakes, she started screaming that she wanted Sleeping Beauty. So polite!



Jessica was very lucky to have gotten a Sleeping Beauty cupcake. She dug right in. It was frosting first as usual.