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.

Jessica goes to the beach

Today, after running some errands in the city, Jessica and I went to the beach at Crissy Field. The weather was in the mid 70s with a bit of wind, so it was a pretty good day for San Francisco. Most of the sky was clear, except for right around the Golden Gate Bridge, which was covered with fog.



Jessica started off by playing in the sand. She worked on birthday cakes of course. She made lots of cakes for me. Mine had too many candles (aka sticks) in it if you ask me.



Then, she got very interested in the water. It was a bit chilly, but she wanted to go down and play in it.



Eventually, she brought her sand toys down to the water to fill them with sand and water.



And, I was finally able to get a break from running up and down the beach as we play the "where did our feet go game". Lots of sand in our clothes, but the rest was worth it.

painting fireworks at school

Yesterday, Jessica had fun painting firework pictures at school. Here she is painting next to her friend Isabella.

Jessica is hard at work at school

Today, Jessica was hard at work at school with her friend Isabella. They worked with green colored water to see what a sponge plus liquid could do. They also practiced filling up containers (one of Jessica's most favorite things) and then transferred the liquid into funnels, etc.



Jessica must have really had a good time because those aren't the clothes she went to school in this morning. I probably have sopping wet and green clothes waiting in her cubby.

a relaxing Memorial Day at home

After such an exciting weekend, we decided to spend Memorial Day at home. While Jim cooked ribs and corn on the bbq, Jessica played in a water ring in the yard. Once again, rather than run through the water, she wanted to fill buckets to make birthday cakes.

memorial day weekend with friends

On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we went to the kid's amusement park nearby with friends. Jessica and her friends had fun riding rides and playing in the water play area at the park.

Here Jessica is riding the mini carousel with her friends Leilani and Luke.



The park has a large waterfall that Jessica and her friend enjoyed running under over and over again.



Jessica was even brave enough to go on the large water slide. There was quite a long line, but Jessica always managed to sneak under the arms of the older kids to get to the front of the line (despite protests from both Jim and I who stood below and were really not able to do anything).



She thought the big water guns were fun even though she couldn't see what she was shooting at. I'm sure she sprayed plenty of parents on the other side who were hoping not to get wet. Sorry!



Finally, we worked our way around to Jessica's favorite part of the park where she got to ride the real carousel, the goldfish, and the strawberry. This is Jessica flying on the goldfish.



And, here the girls are misbehaving on the strawberry ride as they aren't sitting down. When they sit down, you can't see the tops of their heads.



And, finally, Jessica and I at the end of a very long day. She is carrying one of the many stuffed animals Jim won for her. This photo is simply put in for those folks who have been asking what I'm looking like this pregnancy. Too big is what I say.

memorial weekend trip to the water park

It proved to be a nice Memorial Day weekend as the sun finally came out and the weather reached about 80 degrees. On Saturday, while Jim was stuck inside working, Jessica and I went to the water park to cool off after lunch. Jessica was very interested in collecting water with her shovel and bucket.

She spent a lot of time trying to collect water in her shovel and then would transfer it to her bucket.



Obviously, this took a long time.



But, it did mean lots of fun and laughs.



She eventually figured out that filling her bucket directly was much more effective and just as fun.

Jessica at gym

Jessica still goes to gym once a week. This week she did lots of tricks. She walked on the balance beam without much help using her airplane arms.



She practiced hand stands.



And, she took a ride on the tire swing with her friend Isabella.

well, I'm glad this was a school activity

Today at Jessica's school, one of the play features was a flour table where the kids could use various molds, utensils, sifters, etc. to play with flour and see what it could do. Evidently, they shared what foods they made at home using the same tools, built and destroyed flour mounds, and sifted the flour to create "snow". Everyone was laughing since everybody was covered head to toe in flour. Check out Jessica all covered in flour.



I guess I will be doing laundry tonight.

color, color, color

Jessica is back into coloring in her coloring books all of a sudden. She likes to sit down every night and work on them. She seems to be more concerned that things are colored the right color and prefers pencils over crayons all of a sudden. Here she is sitting at her art desk coloring away while we make dinner.

Jessica at school

Jessica has been having a lot of fun at school lately. New things she has been exploring are balancing and climbing and she still has her all-time favorites of storytime, singing, arts and crafts, and water play. She is also developing relationships with her schoolmates and refers to them as her friends. And, she spends a lot of time asking why and what type questions.

In the art room, one of the activities is beading that gets attached to a mobile in the room. Here is a picture of Jessica checking out the mobile.

Sunday was a day of rides

Sunday, Jessica ran more errands and got to play at the park. Surprisingly, she got to go on a few rides too.

First, she rode the Duck at Ducky's Car Wash. This seemed to be a consolation prize as she was hoping for popcorn, juice, and a horse ride, which she typically gets at the other car wash. I guess I shouldn't change up the routine on her.



This was also the first time she seemed a bit irritated that people were in her car. Oh well. They have to clean it.

Later in the day, we went to the park near nana's house and Jessica got to ride the train 4 times.

Jessica's music class

Jessica has been going to music class for about 2.5 years. Saturday was the first time that Jim came too.

Here she is shaking the eggs.



Then dancing / running with the bells.



Then singing the horse song and getting a horse ride from her daddy.



And finally playing other instruments during instrument time.

Birthday Party for Jack and Nicky

This weekend, Jessica went to a birthday party for her cousins Jack and Nicky. She had a great time jumping around and sliding at the indoor bounce house facility.

Her favorite part was the slides. Here she is sliding down the big slide.



She also roped a bunch of us into going down the slide with her.








She also had a good time playing with the cars.



And her Daddy helped her climb the tall mountain.



Finally, no birthday party is complete without cake. Jessica liked the frosting best.

no more errands!

Last Sunday, Jessica and I ran lots and lots of errands. By the end of the day, she was done with errands. so we went to the park to play for a bit.

The first stop was the sand areas where she made lots of birthday cakes.



The second stop was the car where she drove around town running errands. Go figure.



Then, she al had lots of fun playing in the tunnels and going down the slide.



And, she finally showed me that she has mastered the corkscrew. I guess all that time on the preschool playground is really paying off.

making Mother's Day gifts

Another late post. This year, Jessica went to the pottery paint store to make her Nana a painted picture frame. She had lots of fun painting it with many colors and then stamping her hand on the frame.