More Ice Skating!

Emma is really enjoying her ice skating classes. She is getting more independent, but moves a lot faster when some one is holding her hand. Here are a few pictures from class last weekend...

Emma and Daddy, her skating partner

Playing Ring around the Rosy

On her own

Ball time!

Collecting balls to put away

Following the pathway

Touching this ice and then jumping

Emma and Gretchen, my cousin and one of Emma's teachers

After skating, it is off to Red Robin for lunch

The end of an era for Emma

The first class Emma ever took was Gymboree. We started taking Gymboree classes when she was around 6 months old and continued until today...Our last day of Gymboree. Emma and I have both loved our experiences with the classes, but she has slowly outgrown the classes and it is time to move on to other adventures. In honor of our last day, I found some pictures of Emma's younger Gymboree days as well as some pictures from today. When did my baby become such a big girl???

When we started Gymboree, Emma could not walk

She needed help from Daddy

The little things were exciting

Parachute time was a little scary

But it could be fun too

and she loved bubbles

Now Emma loves to see what is in the "mystery bag"

Story time

Feeding a "barrel of monkeys"

Crawling through tunnels

Climbing up ladders

Riding on the "zoo train"
After class, we picked up bagels at the little deli next door


(and yes, we are outside with no coats on in February... we are having a cooler day today, high of only 65 :)
Gymboree, we will miss you... Emma will not know what to call Wednesday now if it is not Gymboree day!

"Fancy Emma"

One of Emma's favorite book characters is "Fancy Nancy". Nancy loves to be fancy. She loves to dress fancy, talk fancy, and eat fancy foods. So for Emma's birthday this year, we are going to have a "Fancy Nancy Soiree" (that is a fancy word for party) We will be dressing in our fanciest and "accessorizing" . We will be eating fancy foods like parfaits and our sandwiches will have frilly toothpicks. In preparation for the party, we had a short photo shoot for an invitation picture. Here is Emma at her fanciest. we will call her "Fancy Emma".

All fancy girls need feathers and movie star sunglasses

The winning invitation photo
Emma now wants to wear her Fancy Nancy Accessories everywhere!

Ice Skating and Chocolate

We are getting back into our weekly routine and activities after the holidays. Emma and Daddy have now added a new activity to their Saturday Mornings. One of my cousins teaches Ice Skating classes in the area, so every Saturday morning, Daddy and Emma go to the skating rink for a little daddy/daughter time. These are pictures from her first week of skating. They were taken through glass, so there is a lot of reflection, but you get the idea of what Emma is up to.

Emma makes her way across the rink with the help of my cousin, Gretchen and Daddy

With Daddy

Ring around the rosy

"We all fall down"

Standing on her own

Tongue out in concentration


We also made brownies for our small group last week. Emma did a great job at "cleaning" the spoon for me

"Now how can I get my mouth around this???"

"There... I think I've got it"

"Mommy, are you really letting me do this?"

"I like it!"

Winter in Yosemite

We spent the last few days relaxing in Yosemite National Park. Dan got a good deal on their historic hotel and the park was beautiful with snow on the ground and bright blue skies.

The hotel was still decorated for Christmas, so Emma had a great time examining their Christmas Tree

Emma had a great time looking for bears. Luckily, the closest we got to any were the ones in the gift shop

We walked to Yosemite Falls. Emma enjoyed running across the "Snow Bridges"


It was really cool to see steam rising from the snow. It made for great pictures, too.

Bridal Veil Falls in the distance

The moon was rising over "Half Dome" When we took Emma to try out Ice Skating

Emma shows off her skates

Warming up by the fire

Skating around the rink

On the hotel grounds, we found some fun creations...
A snow fort

And a little snow family

The hotel had a great fireplace to warm up by

On our way out of the park, we found a great sledding hill to try out