Mami's Language Teacher Summer Institute

Mami has been working a lot lately, and Lela and Daddy and I have hardly seen her. She's been teaching the Language Teacher Summer Institute in which she and her colleague Chris are helping language teachers from all over Florida learn new ways to teach and showing them new technologies to use in their classes.
The other night, one of the participants invited everyone over to her house for dinner - including me and Lela! Here's most of the group, you can tell everyone was having fun!

Miss Gloria, whose house we were at, has two sons who are close to my age and also speak Spanish (and, ok, we'll admit it, English). I had a great time playing with them and exploring their rooms.

And, well, running around like crazy together.

Lela seemed more interested in Mami's HefeWeizen (a cultural experience)...

We were glad to be able to spend the evening with friends, especially since Daddy was away and it was lonely at home.

Princess... x2

I got a beautiful new dress yesterday. (Yes, another one!)

Here's the cool part - my sister Lela did too!

Yep, we have matching dresses! Aren't we cute?

Everyone in the grocery store thought we were too.

The dog days of summer

Well folks, the dog days of summer are here and it's really hot and humid. We gals (Daddy was still away) sought some relief this afternoon.
Our first stop was to get some nice cold helado ("ice cream"). I got strawberry, yum!

Lela didn't get any, but she seemed ok with just a spoon. At least it was air conditioned.

Then we went to campus to my favorite fountain to play in the water and cool off. I marched around and through the water and it felt great!



Lela enjoyed watching me, she thought it was really funny!

In fact, she liked it so much that we let her get close to the water too.

She didn't actually go in, but she got wet enough to cool off. And she threw her pacifier in to the water, see? Silly girl, I had to run in and get it for her.
It's still pretty hot, but we had a great afternoon and kept our cool!

Covering for Daddy

Daddy had to go away to a conference for a few days. I'm always sad when he's not here, but I'm a big girl and I know he'll be back soon. Lela, though, is very sad without him, so I have to help her cheer up until he gets back.
The best way for me to do this is by giving her a big ole kiss.

And then we're both happy, see?

But hurry back, Daddy, there's no substitute for you.

Artsy close-ups

That's the great thing about "art" -- you can ask if yourself if these aren't really just too close-up and too blurry rather than artistic... But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and art is in the out-of-focus eye of the camera-holder!

Fun in the sun, according to Resli

We took advantage of the sunny weather this morning to play outside a little. I had my princess dress on, so I just popped on my sneakers to complete the look, and out we went.

I ran and jumped and played, I just love playing in the grass!

I flew through the trees a little too, thanks to Mami's feet.

Then the thunderstorms came so we had to run back inside. Such is life in Florida.

Playing kitchen in the kitchen

My Aunt Melissa got me this great set of play food for my play kitchen back in February for my birthday. I love it, but we just recently discovered that my sister Lela loves it too! And now we can play together with it.

I have more elaborate scenarios than she does of course - she mostly chews on the food.

But we have fun anyway!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Jenifer & Vlad's wedding

Today was a very special day - it was my teacher Ms. Jenifer's wedding, and we were all invited. It was at the beautiful Thomas Center in downtown Gainesville. (Lela was invited too, but someone had to stay home and keep Grandma and Granddaddy company, you know?)
We got there a little early so we played by the fountain. I was all dressed up in my new party dress, so I was as happy as could be.

Daddy was wearing his "dashing blue jacket" as I like to call it, and he looked very handsome too.

Mami had a beautiful ball gown as well. We were all very excited about the fancy evening out!

Before the wedding started, we went inside to use the restroom, and Daddy and I took a few moments to practice our dance moves in the hallway.

You'll NEVER guess who came in to use the bathroom too... Ms. JENIFER! I was so excited to see her that I had to give her a big hug and a kiss. Doesn't she look beautiful? I told her she looked just like a princess.

The ceremony was outside, and then while they were taking pictures my friends and I ran around, explored, and generally acted like 3-year-olds up after their bedtime.

Then we finally went inside and you'll never believe this but there was a dance floor in there! My friends and I had a great time dancing and running around. We even left Ms. Jenifer alone for almost long enough for her and Vlad to eat dinner.

After dinner, I think Ms. Jenifer forgot it was her wedding and thought we were in Circle Time at school! We all sat down on the floor with her.

But then we got up for more dancing. We all wanted to dance with Ms. Jenifer.

But she had a lot of people to dance with, so I had to content myself with dancing with Mami. As I keep saying, "Mami and I danced up a storm!" She showed me how to do the YMCA dance, and I even sang along a little too.

And we learned to dance the electric slide too. (Sort of.)

This deserves a closer look:

Clearly, I was having a blast. This may have been the most wonderful night of my life so far!
I'm exhausted but exhilarated. I'm now sound asleep in my bed ... still in my party dress! It was so nice of Ms. Jenifer to invite us all to her wedding, wasn't it?

Learning to play together

It's taken a while, but my sister Lela and I are starting to enjoy playing together now, and interacting with each other.
One of the things I like to do with her is pretend that we have to go to the doctor's office, usually because she has a cold (or so I say). When we get there, I play doctor and look at her with my little flashlight and show her all the toys she can play that. That's about what I do when I go to the doctor!

And then I give her a big hug to make her feel better and tell her to take her medicine.

Sure, it's a simple game, but I know it's just the beginning of many years of fun together.

(By the way, yes, that is the former crib bumper lining the fireplace. We had to take it out of the crib since she can pull up and climb, but it seemed the perfect thing to protect against the sharp edges of the hearth.)