Sophie's First Ballet Class

During my first pregnancy (with Sophie), when I learned that we were having

a GIRL, I was thrilled ... absolutely delighted. A little girl to dress up with bows and frills
and the tutus ... oh, the tutus. Who knew how much my little girl would LOVE tutus!
And of course, like most mommies, I dreamt that my little girl might someday
be a graceful ballerina - which if Sophie is anything like her parents, poor thing
doesn't stand a chance. BUT, we are still giving her all the opportunities in the world!

Anyways, moving on ... over spring break, Sophie took her first ballet/tap class
with her friend Ella. As I suspected, she LOVED it ... and really, that's all I really want for
her, to enjoy herself and to have fun at whatever she chooses in life ... including ballet.

Here are some photos.

My little ballerina ready for her first class!!!

At first Sophie sat to the sidelines, too shy to join in,
but soon enough, I noticed her doing all the ballet movements so
I encouraged her to join in ... which she did.


And like if it were a performance,
we headed out for an ice cream treat with our friends
Claudia and Ella ...

The girls enjoying their ice cream treat ...

Sophie LOVED the ice cream

But surprisingly Blake didn't enjoy it as much ...

Spring Break ... Annie and Yuli style

I might have previously mentioned that I was at the very least slightly afraid we'd spend the two weeks of spring break relaxing but majorly bored. Andrew has been traveling a lot for work lately and spring break was no different. To my complete horror, I learned about a week before break that Andrew was going to be traveling the first if not both weeks of spring break. I thought that was a terrible idea (Andrew traveling during break) and though I tried my best to convince Andrew that we HAD to come along on his business trip (hint, hit ... Mall of America anyone?), he was not to be convinced. So he traveled and we stayed in LA ... I was definitely nervous - stay busy, stay busy, stay busy ...

But wouldn't you know it, we kept very busy.

As I mentioned earlier, I would have never survived Spring Break 2012 without my Shabu Shabu Besties, Annie and Yuli. They kept us busy and entertained that very first week ...

The first stop of the week, a little indoor playground called Pintsized.

Calling ... Dr. Sophie!

I think Sophie seen her mommy drink way too many cups of coffee ...
always "making coffee" ... she thinks it's a way of life.

Buying fruit and veggies at the "market"

We headed to Annie and Nicole's after lunch and had a playdate

Sophie, Nicole and Danica have a teaparty

Blake (10 months) really looks up to MJ (18 months) :)

The next day, we headed to Danica's dad's (Brock) beach house ... it was amazing!

Blake's special smile ... love him!

My happy, happy boy!

Eating sweets with the sweetest friends ... Danica, Sophie and Nicole

Danica eating some dried mangos ... yum!

We headed to the beach ... right outside of Brock's apartment

Even Blake loved being at the beach ... eating snacks!

Later that night, Andrew arrived home with good news,
no business trip the following week ... yay!
The next day, we headed out to sushi and the mall (and dinner too!)
for some fun with a friends ...

Sophie in some train maze
Obviously having a great time ... check out that bow!

Sophie and Daddy on the carousel

Easter photo with friends
Danica, Meredith, Sophie and Nicole

The 2nd week of break, Yuli and Danica headed to Florida to visit grandma ...
so though us friends left in LA still hung out (shabu shabu anyone?),
we also took the opportunity to relax and do other fun things ...

Relaxing at home
A pretty typical everyday photo op of my kiddos ...
Cheese - and an adoring little brother

Eating Cheerios

We visited Pau Pau at the Getty Center ...
but I'll save that story for another post.

Then on Good Friday, we met up with our friends at the Malibu tidepools.
We stayed for about 45 minutes before the wind really picked up -
and we were just about blown away ...

Beach Time with good friends!

My friend Annie is the snack mama
Always prepared and always handing out snacks.
You wonder why Blake sat so closely to her ...

Sister and Brother ...
Blake was still eating ... obviously

Meredith
About the time we got hit by sand ..
ready to go!

So thankful for good friends,
to keep us busy all break long!

Underwood Family Farms

It sounds crazy but before we started school, I wondered what I'd do with Sophie in school all morning - Blake answered that question. Now, nearly 6 months into the school year (wow), Spring Break arrived and I wondered how we'd fill our time for 2 whole weeks. As it turns out, it has been so busy (thanks to Yuli and Annie ... and kiddos) that I had to schedule some down time. What a serious blessing my shabu shabu besties are!

A few weeks ago, I discovered that two of Sophie's preschool buddies from the Blueberry class at school, had Tuesdays off ... just like us. The two youngest preschool classes are called Avocados and Blueberry. Sophie is an Avocado and Danica and Nicole are Blueberries. Anyways, when we all discovered we had Tuesdays off, along with their mommies (Yuli and Annie), we started to meet weekly in Downtown LA for and early lunch of (yummy) Shabu Shabu. We've met almost every Tuesday for about 2 months now. My hope is that Sophie will make some lifelong friends ... and that I will too!

So on the first Saturday of Spring Break when Annie called asking if we wanted to join her family for a fun outing out at Underwood Family Farms (a farm, about an hour from our house), we jumped at the chance to hang out with some very fun friends!

Danica on a horse ride.
Not surprisingly, Sophie hadn't warmed up yet.
She refused to ride the horse.

Nicole "screaming" down the tractor slide ...
she taught Sophie how to scream!

At first, Sophie wanted nothing to do with this slide ...
but before we knew it, she and Nicole were "screaming" down the slide

MJ (Annie's son, Nicole's little brother) and
Annie's sister-in-law riding the horse train

Andrew and Sophie
Again, not surprisingly, Sophie hadn't warmed up yet.
She didn't go on the ride with her friends ...
instead, she went right afterwards and wouldn't you know it,
they had the entire horse train all to themselves!

All alone on the ride ... private tour.

Blake was there too!
Sorry buddy, this was the only photo of you.
We were stuck together like glue so there is only one picture of
me too ...

Wheeee .... hands in the air
Riding the tractor to pick strawberries in the fields

Going out into the strawberry fields

Nicole with her strawberry to taste
I think we ate more than we bought ...

We picked 2 boxes to bring home!

Sophie loved picking the strawberries

She loved eating them fresh from the ground!

Danica, Nicole and Sophie
Sweet girl!

Funny Nicole!

Farmer Annie ...
Lettuce, fresh and inexpensive!

Andrew is usually a hit with the kiddos ...
you wonder why ...

Sweet friends ... shabu shabu besties!
Yuli, Annie and Charlotte

It really was a great day ...
with good friends and some fun farm time!!!