Peytie's Interview as a 4 Year Old

Me:  What is your name?
Peyton:  Um, Peyton.  Mommy, you know my name!

Me:  How old are you?
Peyton:  4

Me:  What do you like to do?
Peyton:  Play and watch TV

Me:  What do you like to play?
Peyton:  Um, Polly's, baby dolls, and cooking and um, doing puzzles and playing games.  That's as much stuff I can think about.

Me:  What's your favorite color?
Peyton:  purple and pink

Me:  What's your favorite food?
Peyton:  pasta & pizza

Me:  Who do you like spend time with?
Peyton:  You.  No, um, I meant you Mama.

Me:  What do you like to do when you spend time with your mama?
Peyton:  Play games, play the Wii, play Polly's, and snuggle.

Me:  What's your favorite movie?
Peyton:  Dora and um, Princesses

Me:  What do you want to be when you grow up?
Peyton:  Uh, a police girl

Me:  Why do you want to be a police girl?
Peyton:  I mean not that, Mama.  I want to be a doctor.
Me:  Why do you want to be a doctor?
Peyton:  Cause that helps their blood and stuff like that.  You get to check their heart and give them shots.

Me:  Why do you like your lamb so much?
Peyton:  cause
Me:  Cause why?
Peyton:  I just like to snuggle him and slobber him and that kind of stuff.

Ally:  Peytie, do you like spending time with Ally?
Peyton:  Uh huh, I like spending time with my big sissy.

Me:  Ok, Peyton, is there anything else you want to tell us?
Peyton:  Um, no.  That's all I want to tell you.

My Girls

I took the girls to have their birthday pictures taken today.  Allison turned 7 on April 1 and Peyton will turn 4 on May 18. Once again they did such a great job that mommy had trouble deciding on favorites!  Here are a few of them...

Sweet sisterly love

This shows their personalities perfectly.  Sweet with a bit of sass and mischief, especially Peyton!

So grown up

Looking like a big girl

Smart Scientist

Tonight I was helping Allison with her science homework.  They have been studying liquids and their various characteristics.  When I took a look at the paper she brought home to work on, I thought it looked simple enough--draw a picture of the bottle your liquid is in, write the name of the liquid and circle the characteristics.  THEN I read the list of characteristics and thought...uh, where's the dictionary?  However, my smart little first grader didn't miss a beat and told me what all of the words meant including viscosity, transparent and opaque.  She is like a sponge the way she absorbs information and she LOVES science!

Lost Lambie

A few weeks ago Peyton couldn't find her lamb when it was time to leave for daycare.  Now you should know that this child is almost never separated from her lambie.  She received this stuffed lamb as a gift from Great-Grandma Eileen when she was born.  So here's how the morning conversation went....

Peyton:  Mommy, I can't find my lamb.
Me:  What do you mean?  You just had him.
Peyton:  He's lost.
Me:  Lambie is lost?  I'll help you find him.
Peyton:  Ok.  He has yellow fur and ears.

I couldn't help but laugh.  First, at her cute description of her lamb and second, at the fact that she thought she needed to tell me what her lamb looked like...as if I haven't seen this lamb every day for the past three and a half years. :)

Snow What Fun

Who doesn't love a snow day???

Ally and I both had school canceled on Wednesday and we took full advantage of the day.  Beginning with staying in our jammies until after lunch.  The girls and I watched a few videos in the morning including Disney Princess Sing-A-Long and Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  After lunch we bundled up and headed outside to play in the snow.

We got about 6 inches of fresh snow and a new sled that was just calling our names.  We had hoped to build a snowman, but the snow didn't pack very well, so we ditched that idea.  Instead I pulled the kids around the yard in the sled, they made snow angels and we threw snow (not snowballs) at each other.  Our neighbor Kalie came out to join in the fun with us. I think the girls would have stayed out all day if I let them, but an hour was more than enough for mom.  It was a good fun time!

Ally's Snow Angel

Peyton's Snow Angel

A Sunny, Funny Day at the Fort Wayne Zoo

Sunday was the last "official" day of 2010 Zoo Season at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.  It was also a gorgeous day, sunny and warm.  You can't tell in this picture, but Peyton is wearing Allison's old shirt that says, "I'm the Big Sister".  NO, SHE IS NOT GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER.  She just loves the shirt because it has a princess on it and because it was Ally's.  The girls love to climb in the cracked eggs.    

My two cuties, Peyton and Ally sitting on a frog.

The kangaroos in the Australian Adventure were very active.  They were jumping all over the place, across the path in front of us.  This guy happened to stay still long enough for me to snap a pic.  Thank you, Mr. Kangaroo!

The girls each wanted to do something different for an activity at the zoo.  Darren took Ally to ride a pony named Trish.  I took Peyton on the Sky Safari, or as she repeatedly told me, "it's the sky ride!"

A view from the Sky Safari of the African Journey.

Our final stop was to see the giraffes.  There were a lot of people waiting to feed them, but they must not have been too hungry.  Darren and Ally got impatient and continued to the drums while Peyton and I stayed by the giraffes.  Eventually they moved closer to the feeding station and we saw a few up close.

A Quick Trip to Napa

On September 29-October 2 I had the opportunity to visit beautiful American Canyon, California for a Leadership Summit for work.  I headed out after a full day of work on Wednesday, leaving at 7:40 pm.  After a layover in Chicago, arriving in Sacramento, picking up the rental car and driving about an hour to American Canyon, I finally got to sleep around 4:30 am Indiana time.  Whew!  I was exhausted, but excited to be in California.  The next two days were packed with workshops and networking with the wonderful people associated with the New Tech Network.  I cannot believe how fortunate I am to get to work with these outstanding educators!  Our conference was held at the new American Canyon HS and we also got to visit the newly renovated Napa New Technology High School.  Both are amazing facilities with innovative educational practices occurring at them.

As it happens, a friend from high school lives not far from Napa.  We were able to get together and he served as our tour guide for Friday evening.  We visited a two wineries and a neat Spanish Tapas restaurant called Zuzu in downtown Napa.  It was a fun evening with friends and colleagues.

The entrance to Mumm.

Mike Yurkus (friend from high school) and Me

Red, White & Blue Sparkling Wine Sampler at Mumm

Next stop was Castello di Amorosa.  Supposedly there was an episode of The Bachelor filmed here.  I wouldn't know though, I don't watch The Bachelor.  Either way, it was a cool place.

New Tech Colleagues from NE Indiana...Eva, Me, & Sean

 Statue of a gargoyle 

Vineyard

Beautiful view of Napa Valley

After a few busy and fun-filled days, it was time to head back to the Hoosier State.  Got up at 3:30am to head to the airport in Sacramento.  Once again, I had a layover in Chicago.  I literally ran through O'Hare to make my connection and got seated on the plane only 6 minutes prior to my scheduled take-off.  Needless to say, I was not surprised when I made it to Fort Wayne, but my bag that they made me gate check in Sac was still in Chicago.  Thankfully, my bag was delivered to my house about 6 hours later.  

It was a great trip, not nearly long enough to truly enjoy all Napa has to offer, but I guess that just means I'll need to go back...