Week of the Child

Simone has had a very exciting week. Her preschool celebrated the Week of the Child by doing something special each day. Monday was Pajama day and Tuesday was Color day -- Simone's class dressed in yellow. We didn't remember to take pictures, however, until Wednesday which was ...Picture day. So here she is all dressed up for school pictures. Thursday was Character Day. Simone was, of course, Pinkalicious--her favorite character of all. She was a little upset that we couldn't find pink fairy wings, but we explained that Pinkalicious doesn't always wear her wings. I thought she turned out a pretty close approximation considering we accomplished it in one evening!

And we ended the week with Freaky Friday (which Simone affectionately called Freaky Fracky Day). She picked out lots of stripes and mismatched shoes. But the craziest part was her hair, which we brushed out to about twice the size of her head. She thought it was hillarious and kept touching it, calling it "airy". LOL!

All Tuckered Out

It's incredible, Simone has been mastering more things than we can keep track of these days. Just tonight I noticed that she has learned how to twist her ice cream cone as she eats it rather than eating one side at a time. Over the past couple of weeks, she has also learned how to use a mouse and play computer games; how to ride her scooter and bicycle; and color inside the lines (for the most part); and the list goes on. She's also turned into a little negotiator. Every offer is met with a counter offer and her favorite word is "but". "Ok, daddy, I'll take my bath, BUT can I come back downstairs and watch TV?" She's something else. But all this growing up takes it's toll and here Simone is for only the second time in her whole life -- having fallen asleep on her own, watching TV. What can we say? It takes alot of energy to be Simone!!

A Mommy Day

Well, today was mommy's birthday, and we spent it as a family doing lots of fun things together. We started the day at a cooking class at Cookology. The theme was a mommy-daughter tea party. Of course, Daddy came along as the photographer.The menu was strawberry scones with honey butter and white bean humus and rice cake sandwiches. Yummy!

Afterward we headed to Fair Oaks to see the Easter Bunny. We caught him just as he was headed on break. Simone was a little shy and worked her way up to shaking his hand but not long enough for me to get a good shot. On the bright side, we avoided waiting in a long line only for her to dart away.

And we ended the day at one of Simone's favorite spots.... Wegmann's kids area, where she had pizza, and we had birthday cake and coffee.

Who could ask for more? Truly a PERFECT birthday!

Shadows and Scooters

Simone finally got her very first scooter. It's a pink Radio Flyer that I applaud for being cute, stable, and easy for toddlers to handle. She adores it. The first night she rode it around the house and now asks to go outside every day to practice on it. She's getting much faster, but steering is still a little challenging for her. With the learning curve we've observed, however, she'll be flying around everywhere in a couple of weeks.

Here's just one of her many laps in the cul de sac.

And finally, here's the craziest bit... After she finished on her scooter, Simone thought it was HILLARIOUS to dance with her shadow in the street.

So Much for the Super Bowl

So Simone and I put on our black, gold, and white (Tony of course refused), and we had a few friends over to watch the Super Bowl. We served up all the requisite football foods and even sought out some seasonal cupcakes for the occasion.

We took a quick picture before the game started, while our hopes and spirits were still high. And then...

... they started to lose. And they didn't stop. And that was the end of the pictures. A disappointment, I know. But really the only fitting way to document the night. But well, hey, there's always next season. GO STEELERS!!

The Show Must Go On!

So what, you ask, does the Dotson family do on cold Sunday afternoons? Well, it doesn't get better than this. Simone decided that she was going to put on a dress up show for mommy and daddy. We may have a singer on our hands yet...

And for the grand finale...

A Snowman At LAST!

Simone has been dying to make a snowman since before Christmas but we haven't had a big enough snowfall of wet packable snow.... UNTIL NOW! Last night's storm dropped about 10 inches of perfect snowman snow. The sun and mild temps had it melting fast today, but not before we were able to get outside and build this beauty. Officially, Simone's very first snowman. Her name(yes, it's a girl), as christened by Simone, is... Madeline
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On the path right behind our yard Simone spotted instantly this snowman that other kids had built and knocked down. I guess you can think of it as snowman roadkill.