Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

Olivia visited the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique inside of Cinderella's Castle. This is a magical children's salon run by Fairy Godmothers in training. You get a royal invitation and get to pick

your own princess style. Olivia chose the Fairy Princess which included a Cinderella hairstyle, tiara, manicure, makeup, jewels, and shash. The Fairy Godmother in training was great. She called her Princess Olivia and told her stories about living in the castle and training to be a Fairy Godmother. (Totally in character the whole time) I love the look on Olivia's face in the second photo. She had just been turned around to see herself for the first time in the mirror. Total amazement and joy on her face. At the end they sprinkled her hair with magic sparkle dust so that she could make a special wish. What a princess!

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's

This is one of the character meals that Olivia attended. We took the monorail to the

Contemporary Resort. Chef Mickey's is a buffet restaurant inside of this resort. You sit at nice big tables and have a waitress that continually brings you coffee, tea, milk, soda, etc. The buffet was filled with typical cold and hot breakfast foods. Olivia however enjoyed Mickey Shaped Waffles. Yum! After breakfast they had a breakfast dessert bar filled with any type of donut you would crave.

The characters started coming around midway through the meal. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy were all at our breakfast. Each character would come to your table, autograph your book, take a picture or twenty, and mime a conversation with the guest. In the picture above Mickey is asking Olivia how old she is by putting up his fingers. You think he might have it wrong...but Mickey only has four fingers on each hand. He needs two hands to make the number five. Took me a couple of days to actually recongize this.

We had a great time at Chef Mickey's. Olivia was so excited about getting special time with each character.

Outdoor Art

Olivia and I were outside the other evening messing around. She started coloring the inside of her hula hoop blue...at that point I was thinking "OHHHHHHHH! What a mess!" However, I ended up being incorrect. She continued exploring the yard for things to add to her Nature Friend. She used two hula hoops for the head and body, a leaf branch for hair, a tambourine for a nose, leaves for a mouth/moustache, a jump rope for arms, and rocks for buttons. She colored in the eyes, eyebrows, and body. So cute and creative--- and she did it all by herself!

The Tea Party

Olivia had a birthday tea party today at Imagination Station. Julie set it all up for her, and it was wonderful. The girls all dressed up in fancy outfits. Julie had such great things planned for the party. The girls learned proper tea party manners, made a bookmark craft, listened to a special book about being 5, ate cake, drank tea (lemonade), and opened presents. It was so much fun!

Bats!!!

My class studies bats for a few weeks at the end of each year. Rob Mies from the Organization for Bat Conservation visits my classroom and brings different bats to show the students.

This year he brought five different bats. I only posted pictures of three. The Rodrigues Bat(2nd photo) is from an island off of Madagascar. It is one of the rarest bats in the world. He also brought a Malayan Flying Fox. It boasts a wingspan of 6 feet...yes 6 feet on a bat! The last few pictures are of a typical fruit bat. He fed the bat cantalope during the presentation. It was so funny because bats just suck the juice and mushy part out of the fruit and then spit out the rest. The kids thought it was hilarious when the half chewed fruit landed on the classroom floor. Yuck!

Even though many people think bats are gross, they really are amazing animals. I know that many years from now my students will still remember this amazing experience. Who could forget a 6 foot Asian bat swinging in your face in the middle of Indiana??

Splash!

Olivia has been taking swimming lessons at the high school for the past few days. I can't believe how well she is doing already. She was timid at first, but soon grew some fins and jumped right in. So far she has practiced backstroke, kicking on the kick board, and swimming freestyle. My camera skills are horrible so I wasn't able to capture a picture of her backstroke technique. But I assure you that it is a sight to behold.

At the end of each lesson the students have free time to jump off the diving board. This is Olivia's favorite part. She climbs right up, walks right out to the end, and jumps! She can even swim independently over to the side of the pool. Michael and I are so proud of our little fish!

What's Growing?

My mom's friend shared some starts with me last year. I think they are filling in nicely. There are daisies, columbine, irisies, peonies, geraniums, day lilies, and some others (but I do not remember the names).

I also planted my pots for the deck. I used a mixture of plants, but I also planted a few Gerber Daisies this year. Last year I had one, and it was beautiful. Hopefully, I will have the same luck again this year. Everything looks a little sparse now so... hopefully I can post photos later this summer of lush, healthy blooms. Just have the mulching left to do and it will be "picture perfect."

Much thanks to my mom for her generous gift for Mother's Day! I got to pick out the plants as a special treat for my special day as a mother! Thanks Mom!