Sarah goes to Kindergarten

Sarah had her first day of kindergarten today and she did GREAT!  She was so excited this morning and couldn't wait to get on the bus.  We were the first people at the bus stop...a good 20 minutes early...and she couldn't stop smiling as she anxiously watched to see if it was coming.  As a parent, it was wonderful to see her so excited and not nervous like we were thinking she might be.  Her excitement was contagious and it kept me smiling rather than digging for the tissues I had stashed away in my pockets.  :-)   

Here are a few pictures from her day.  Enjoy!

   

This was her at the end of the day and the smile is still there!

 

Emily Goes to School

It's hard to believe, but summer is winding down and a new school year is upon us.  Having turned the "Big 2" a couple of weeks ago, Emily moved up to the next class at her preschool and had a great day!  She didn't get upset when I dropped her off this morning, in fact she barely said good-bye to me, and was happy and smiling when I picked her back up.  :-)

Here are a couple of pictures I got of her this morning before we headed to school.  Enjoy!

Emily's 2nd Birthday

Emily turned two at the end of July and we had a lot of fun celebrating this milestone with friends and family.  It's amazing to see how much she's grown over the past two years and how quickly she has moved from baby to toddler.  Her vocabulary has exploded in the past few months...in fact she talks all the time these days.  She is also very insistent on doing things for herself, "I do it," she often says and doesn't seem to shy away from anything.  :-)  She loves her baby dolls, jumping on her Dora bouncy ball, and reading books.  She's so much fun to be with and makes you smile even when she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing. 

Here are some pictures from both birthday celebrations we had.  The first one was just a small family affair with a special dinner and cupcakes.  The other pictures are from her Sesame Street party we had with the rest of the family.

A special breakfast supper...complete with birthday pancakes!

 

Being very careful with her birthday cupcakes!

The birthday girl!

With the Sesame Street gang!

Sarah's pre-school recently held their graduation ceremony and needless to say, it was a bittersweet end to an amazing journey.  Sarah first started going to Clay when she was 18 months old and it has been a wonderful experience for everyone in our family.  She has made many wonderful friends during the past four years and even stood on stage with a few kids who were in her very first class.  Her teachers each year have done an amazing job of challenging her while also nurturing the compassionate, creative, and yet hard headed little girl she is.  They love her and have supported her and for that we feel extremely grateful and blessed.  It is sad to see her leave this amazing group of people, but we are excited too for this next chapter.

Here are a few pictures from her graduation ceremony.  Enjoy! 

Sarah with her class

 

Sarah with her teachers, Mrs. Michele and Mrs. Rose

The graduate

  

Mind the Gap

It seemed to take her forever to get them so this is a little hard to believe, but Sarah has lost her first tooth!  It had been loose for a few weeks, but it seemed to go from "kinda" loose to "really" loose in a matter of days and before we knew it, it was out.  She seemed a little upset by the whole thing when it first happened, but within an hour or so she thought is was the coolest thing that had ever happened to her!  :-)  The tooth fairy hasn't visited just yet since she wants to hang onto it so she can show everyone, but I'm sure she'll be paying us a visit very soon. 

What a big girl she is getting to be!  Where does the time go?

Florida 2012

We were fortunate again this year to be able to spend some time in Florida with Steve's parents & grandmother who were staying there for a few months during the winter.  The house this year was in Siesta Key and it was a lot of fun to get away as a family and spend some time having fun.

The weather this year was a lot warmer during our stay and the girls spent a good deal of time playing in the water.  Here they are being silly.  :-)

 One item on my "bucket list" was to go parasailing and I'm happy to say that we finally made it happen!  Sarah surprised us by wanting to go along and she did GREAT!!  She never seemed to get nervous and had the biggest smile on her face the entire time!  Here we are right as we're taking off from the boat. 

 

We were pretty close to Tampa this year so Steve and I decided to take Sarah to Busch Gardens for a day to ride the rides.  :-)  We had a great time and took in just about everything the park had to offer.  Here we are just getting started for the day.

The house was a bit of a revolving door this year with people coming and going every few days, but here was the group on our last day.  Steve's aunt Patty had arrived from Texas to spend some time with everyone and we were happy we got to see here before heading home.   We had a great time visiting with everyone and hope we can do it again next year. 

More pictures of our trip can be found in the slideshow on the right hand side.  Enjoy!

Sarah Turns 5

So far, 2012 has been rather busy for the Notos which is why I haven't been very good about posting on a more regular basis.  Now that things are starting to slow down though, I'm hoping to catch you all up on everything that's been going on with us these past few months.

To start, I wanted to share some pictures of Sarah's 5th birthday party from February.  Steve had the idea of doing a pajama party and I have to give him all the credit in the world because it was a lot of fun to plan and the girls loved it! 

Here is the birthday girl on her big day!

We asked each of the girls to wear their favorite PJs to the party and they did not disappoint, with some of them arriving in robes & slippers to match!  It was so cute to see them all dressed up and ready for "bed." Speaking of bed, here is a picture of the table for the party.  Once again, Steve worked his magic and made the table look like a twin bed.  A big thank you again to Grams & Grandpa for letting us borrow one of their headboards!  We decorated the "bed" with some flower sheets and even added a little nightstand for effect.  :-)  The whole thing turned out great and the girls LOVED it!

 










We had a few different games lined up to keep everyone busy, but the girls had the best time just playing and hanging out.  They did humor us though and played a couple of the games we put together.  Here are some pictures of the relay race and the donut game.

 The relay race started with a pillowcase sack race...

...followed by carrying a pancake on a spatula around the obstacle course. 

The donut game was by far everyone's favorite!  I wonder why!  :-)

In keeping with tradition, I once again made the cake for the party.  I don't really know that Sarah fully appreciates all of my effort at this point, but I hope one day she will realize this has truly been a labor of love on my part.  This year she decided that she wanted to do cupcakes so we had individual cupcakes for everyone and then I made one giant cupcake as the centerpiece.  I was happy with how everything turned out, but let's just say I wouldn't make it very far on Cupcake Wars.  :-) 

Here is the cake...

 All in all, the party was a big success and everyone had a good time.  I've posted more pictures in a slideshow on the right hand side of the page too for anyone who is interested.  Enjoy!  :-)

Breakfast in Bed

Look at what I woke up to on Saturday morning!  :-)  Sarah & Daddy surprised me with breakfast in bed complete with yogurt, donuts, and "Sarah's Specialty" (scrambled egg with cheese).  Sarah has always been a big help in the kitchen, but recently she's started wanting to do more and more things on her own.  It proves to be a little more anxiety provoking for me, but she's having fun and is so proud of herself when she's done. :-)  What a wonderful way to start the weekend! 

I don't know if you can see it very well in the picture, but she also wrote me a note that said, "To:  Mommy, From: Sarah" with a heart and our pictures on it.  So cute!  (not too sure about the creepy looking bunny, but she wanted him in the picture too!) 

Spring Concert

Sarah's preschool held their spring concert last Saturday and it was a lot of fun watching her perform with the rest of her class. She's been participating in their Christmas and spring concerts for a few years now, but this one seemed to be the one where she finally "got it" with regards to singing along and following her teacher. It was so much fun to watch her and remember back to her very first concert where she stood perfectly still and looked at the floor. :-)

Here are a couple of pictures, but this post mostly consists of videos so you can get the full pre-K concert experience. Enjoy! :-)







Here are the videos:

Easter 2012

It's hard to believe Easter has already come and gone, but we wanted to be sure and share some pictures of the girls this Easter and their annual Easter egg hunt. :-) The Easter Bunny has been kind enough to visit Steve's parents for the past few years and the girls just love going outside and hunting for any eggs he left behind. He certainly didn't disappoint this year, although it was fun watching Grandpa explain why he knew so much about where the eggs were hidden. :-)

Sarah is quite the pro at hunting eggs, but this was the first year Emily really seemed to understand what she was supposed to do. The hardest part though was keeping her on track because she wanted to stop and open each egg as she found them. :-)

Here are a few pictures from our day. I've added more pictures to an Easter slideshow which can be seen on the right hand side. Enjoy!








Below is a video Steve took of the girls on Easter morning with their Easter baskets. The bunny hides their baskets and they have to find them which is fun for everyone. :-)

A conversation with Sarah

The following is a conversation Sarah & I had on the way home from school today. I was telling her that I had to take the Dynamic Duo (Bo & Luke) in for a check-up tomorrow so they would stay healthy and be with us for a long time.

Me: "It's important for them to have check-ups, just like we do, so they will be healthy."

Sarah: "When I grow up, I'm going to be a doctor so I can end cancer."

Me: "Wow! You're going to cure cancer? That's wonderful!"

Sarah: "Yeah, and do you know what I'm going to do with the money I make when I cure it?"

Me: "No, what are you going to do with the money?"

Sarah: "Well, I'm going to save half of it (that's my girl!) and with the rest of it I'm going to buy toys for me and Emily. I'll also buy you a latte and Daddy a steak...or maybe some ribs or chicken fingers. He really likes those things."

I should also note that further into the conversation she mentioned having a house close to ours and doing her own grocery shopping. :-)

So cute!

Another cute pic of Emily from our shopping adventures. How can you have a bad day when you've got this to keep you smiling?

She's Got Personality

I wanted to share a couple quick pictures of Emily. She is almost 18 months now and quite the ham. Her personality is developing more and more each day and she is starting to understand things better which is making communicating a bit easier. She loves to laugh and seems to know when she's done something funny...or at least funny to her. :-)

We were going through boxes of Sarah's old clothes over the weekend and Emily loved "trying on" just about everything we pulled out. She knew the hat went on her head and the shoes on her feet...too bad she didn't realize that snow boots don't really work with a sun bonnet.



Here is one of my new favorites! Emily found Sarah's old goggles earlier today and insisted on putting them on. As soon as she had them on, she looked at the camera sitting on the counter and started to smile. Seriously!! :-)

P.S. I have no good explanation for why she is just in socks and a diaper! :-)