Tennis

Shyla recently began taking tennis lessons and, so far, she is loving them.  She has an adorable Dora the Explorer racquet and has exclaimed on multiple occasions, "I can't wait to play tennis!"  Tennis could be a good sport for her - there's plenty of excitement to keep it interesting, she has great hand-eye coordination, and she loves skirts.

Her lessons were through Parks & Rec and were twice each week during my summer break.  There were just a total of three kids in the lessons which was great!

The most challenging aspect for me was keeping Harper off the court and out of the way of swinging racquets.  Luckily, the father of the two other kids in the lessons was amazing with Harper and played with her everyday!  We are going to miss them!

The twice-weekly lessons culminated with a Tennis Bonanza for everyone playing Parks & Rec tennis (i.e. A LOT of kids of all ages and abilities) and the very best part - their siblings as well!  This was a 2-hour evening event that was SO MUCH fun!  We all went, including Grandpa Steve and Harper, of course, was in heaven getting to play with the big kids!

This next picture is of one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  In fact, it still makes me literally laugh out loud to think about it.  Unfortunately, you kinda had-to-be-there to really get it, but I will do my best to explain:  the coaches had all the kids lined up on the far side of the court.  They were explaining that they were the sharks and the goal of the game was the make it across the court without being tagged by a shark.  Obviously, the kids were supposed to wait for them to say "Go!" but Harper heard the goal and decided it was her chance!  She took off while they were still explaining the rules, with a clear look of determination on her face.  She was going to make it to the other side.  And she did.  But the hilarious thing was that after she took off, while the coaches were still talking, she started a wave of all the other kids sprinting across and around the court.  All because a little munchkin wanted to win.

Shyla won the Most Improved Trophy for all kids taking lessons at her location.  Guess what!  Not everyone got a trophy and no one (to my knowledge) died as a result of it.  But, we are proud of her nonetheless.  She also randomly won a raffle prize consisting of a tennis bag, balls, water bottle, and t-shirt.

And, finally, here are the 3 kids from her lessons.  She is now taking weekly lessons one evening each week and still doing great!  It's even a bit better - there are more kids and a wider age-range but the 45 minute lesson runs really smoothly and they are actively engaged the whole time.

I, however, am still looking for ways to keep Harper occupied and out of the way.

1st Year of Preschool

Here is Shyla on her 1st day of preschool: 

And on her last day of preschool:

Shyla had a great year in the Busy Bees.  In fact, she burst into tears a few days ago asking when preschool was going to be open again.  She had great teachers (thanks Ms. Jessica, Ms. Brandi, Ms. Anahit, and Ms. Lisa [pictured above]) and is looking forward to her 2nd year with them coming up!

Shyla Turns 4!

Over a month ago, my beautiful Shyla turned 4 years old!  I am so proud of the little lady she is becoming!  She is a wonderful big sister; that role seemed to come very naturally to her.  She is smart; currently really into numbers and counting, but starting to get more interested in letters.  She loves playing dress-up and {still} loves jumping and dancing.  Currently her favorite activity is swimming and she's doing great.

Big news when Shyla turned 4: no more binky!  And she's done great with it!

At Shyla's 4 year well-check (actually called a physical now) here's what we learned:

• 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight
• 20/30 vision
• healthy!
• should grow out of her melt-downs

Now for the celebrations that surrounded her special day!
 

The weekend before the official day we had her big birthday bash at McDonald Park complete with a Princess jumping castle, popsicles (in lieu of cake), and lots and lots of friends.

We also collected donations of coloring books and colors for the Gospel Rescue Mission again; something they really appreciate and makes us feel good.  We do this because we really, truly don't need anything and with the majority of our friends having little kids, we would all be constantly buying things.  This just seems like a great way to provide a service to our community.  And, plus, our girls get lots of presents from us and our family.

Continuing the celebrations .... Uncle Dan and Auntie Erin sent the birthday girl a yummy smily-face cookie.  They must know her really well :)

This is how the birthday girl went to school on her special day:

And these are the special treats I made for her to share with her school friends:

On the night of her birthday we had her Family Dinner at our house.  Grandma Barbara made the cake:

I cannot believe that I have a 4 year old but I am so blessed because she is a truly amazing 4 year old and I love her more than life itself.

Brief Hiatus

Dear Blog Readers (all 3 of you),

I have not posted in nearly a month and I apologize.  Generally summer break is when I do the most posting, sometimes multiple times per week.  However, in its weird, crazy, unpredictable way, LIFE got in the way and you had to take a back-seat.  I plan on catching up, but here are my excuses for being so far behind:

• I applied for a new position at my school which meant buying a new suit (thanks Mom!), prepping for the first interview, losing sleep over said first interview, prepping for second interview, losing sleep over said second interview, etc.  (Side note: I didn't get it.  I "lost the World Series in game 7" according to a trusted friend and one who knows I get sports analogies.  The positives that came from the experience FAR outweigh the bummer of not getting it so, don't worry, I AM GOOD.)
• I've been readmitted to the Master's Program in Educational Leadership (yep - gonna get certified to be a principal!) that I dropped out of before Shyla was born.  Those credits I took back then have a 6 year life-span so I wanted to get back to it before they expired.  I am currently taking 2 classes and, although time-consuming, they are so freaking interesting that I am loving them.  I am taking Supervision of Instruction and Legal Aspects of Education.
• I'm tired.  All the time.  And when I have to choose between blogging and sleeping, the latter will generally win.