VBS 2009

Here are a couple of pictures from the last day of VBS this year.

Millie and Jade during recreation.

Chalk Time

Bubbles

Singing songs at the program on Thursday night.

Making a telescope craft. The theme was pirates this year.

Zoo Trip #3

Back to the Akron Zoo again. Millie and I had an afternoon with no therapies so we headed out to the zoo for a couple of hours one afternoon. Millie did an awesome job walking. We were there for about 1 hour and 45 minutes and she walked all of it but 5 minutes. We saw just about everything in the whole zoo. She seemed to enjoy the black bears, tigers, lions, red panda, bald eagles, jellies and tortoises the most. We went through the jellies exhibit twice. It was a big hit. She overheard an older boy talking about the playground and then she was on a mission to "go to the playground." She also took a ride on the train and sat in the red car. Red is still her favorite color. Next time she wants to sit in the green engine. Here are a few pictures.

Hudson Springs Park

We took Millie to the park on a Friday night after dinner and she had a blast. She really loved swinging this time. Shannon was pushing her really high and she thought it was great. She probably spent close to half an hour swinging. We need to teach her to pump her legs now. Here are some videos and photos.

Sunflowers, Worms and the Sprinkler

About a month ago, Millie and I planted some sunflower seeds. They are now doing really well and were ready to be planted today. When I told Millie we could take the sunflowers out of the cups and go plant them in the ground she was so excited and started talking about "planting a garden." As soon as I showed Millie the worms she lost interest in "her garden" and I ended up planting all the sunflowers myself. She kept wanting me to get more worms and then she was naming each of them. It was too cute. After we were done playing with the worms we turned the sprinkler on to water the grass we are trying to grow. Millie went right up to the sprinkler to check it out. Only seconds later she was soaked. She kept wanting to go back for more. The fact that the water was freezing and that it was only in the low 70's outside did not matter to her one bit. She loved it. I will have to remember to turn on the sprinkler a bit more this summer because it was a MAJOR hit!



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Broccoli = Garbage

Tonight I chopped up some broccoli and had it on Millie's plate for dinner. She didn't want to try it at first, but I got her to swallow a bite. Later, after eating a few other things I covered the broccoli in tomato sauce and tricked her into eating two more bites. I tried for a fourth bite and then she noticed and said, "I want the broccoli in the garbage." This is great language for her. I was so happy she expressed what she wanted. Usually what happens when she does not want to drink something is she spills it so she does not have any left in her cup and she gets out of drinking it (even having to clean the spill does not deter her.)

Millie is doing a great job writing her name and a bunch of new letters this week. She is really interested in reading, spelling and writing now.

Millie finished school yesterday and they had a picnic at the park for her last day. They made some shirts in class with their name and a stamp of a frog (the teachers favorite.) Here are a few pictures.

Horse Rding at Pegasus

Millie continues to love her horse riding lessons at Pegasus Farm. Here are a few pictures of her in action at the outdoor arena on Friday. She loves to make Shannon and I pretend to be a horse at home and she tells us what to do... "walk on, whoa, trot, etc." She talks about what she does to mount the horse often. It is fun. The white horse that Millie rides is named Miss Molly. She has been riding her all winter. There are two other girls and two other boys in her class. Millie is the youngest one. I couldn't get any good pictures of Millie looking at the camera and smiling because I took these photos during class from a little distance and zoomed in.

Memorial Day

We went down to visit Pon Pon & Becky for Memorial Day. We had a quick BBQ followed by four hours on Salt Fork Lake. We took out a great boat that fit all 20 of us. Millie enjoyed helping Jim drive the boat, swimming and watching all her cousins go tubing. Then she said, "I want to take a turn." So Shannon took her tubing and they had a good time. Here is a video and 2 pictures.

Video of Millie and Papa tubing

Zoo Trip #2

Our second Zoo trip was to the Cleveland Zoo. We had a blast! We did just about everything at the zoo that we had never done before. We started with the new Dinosaurs exhibit. It was really nice. The dinosaurs moved and had sound effects. Millie enjoyed looking at them. The T-Rex was a bit scary. We went to see a bunch of butterflies and also another indoor exhibit with birds. You could feed the birds some nectar. They were everywhere. They would come right up to you and Millie could see them really well. Of course, we got a picture of Millie in front of the baby giraffe, since we take a photo there every visit. Then Millie took a ride on a camel and LOVED it! She was smiling the biggest smile ever! She also went down the large slide they have there. She was too scared to do it last year, but wanted to try this year. Finally, after some hippos, donkey's, koala bears and more we ended our day with another first with a ride on the train to see the kangaroos. Millie has been playing a game at home with me for the past month. She pretends that she is a baby joey and that I am the Mama Kangaroo. So she really enjoyed seeing live kangaroos.

Touch a Truck

A few weekends ago we took Millie to the library for a free event called "Touch a Truck." They had a cement truck, a huge semi UPS truck, fire engines, postal truck, tow truck, ambulance, police car and more. You could sit in all of the trucks and honk the horns and run around in some of them. They gave out some gifts too. Millie got a hat from the fire department. I enjoyed the ambulance the most. Here are a few pictures.