aunt sue sue comes to visit

Olivia loves her Great Aunt Sue Sue. So she was beyond thrilled to learn that she would be coming to visit for an entire week. I decided to take the week off from work so that we could all do fun things together. Olivia had school all week but we planned to do things in the afternoons. From the second Sue arrived they were BFFs. and they were inseparable all week!

First on the agenda was taking Aunt Sue Sue to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. Each year Sue gets us our zoo pass for Christmas. It is the best gift and we get so much use out of it each year. Olivia really wanted to take Sue to the zoo and show her all of her favorite animals. It was a beautiful day and we got some amazing up close views of the animals. One of the highlights was the crazy close look we got at "Bill" the lion. He was very outgoing that day and came right up to the glass. It was very exciting. All of the animals were active that day, which made for a very entertaining trip to the zoo!

Each time we visit the zoo Olivia begs to go on the "rides". We usually let her choose one per visit. Well this was a special trip to the zoo so she got to choose two special rides! Her first choice was the horses. Last year Olivia developed an affinity for one very cute little horse named, Gayle. Each time she rode the horses she would request Gayle, and she quickly become one of Olivia's favorites. So of course she was thrilled to see that Gayle was at the zoo again this year. She was so excited to be reunited with her and she even more excited to go for a ride!

Since we have a zoo pass we rarely take time to go through the entire zoo in one day, but that day we did. The weather was gorgeous and we were all having a great time. We saw and did everything! Olivia was thrilled to show Sue Sue all of her favorite animals. It was almost as if my Mom and I were not even there. The day was all about Sue Sue!

Another thing Sue wanted to do while she was here was visit Olivia's school and spend a little time in her classroom. My Aunt has experience as a teacher and has worked with young children before so she was interested to see what kinds of things Olivia did her in classroom. My Mom came up with the great idea of decorating cookies with the kids. They were in the middle of a unit on art so it gave the kids the perfect opportunity to be little artists and decorate their own masterpieces. I tagged along to take pictures as the kids took turns in groups designing their cookies. As you can imagine the activity was a huge hit and the kids had a blast! Olivia was thrilled to be able to show Aunt Sue Sue her classroom and introduce her to all of her friends.

Our week of fun continued as we took a trip to the Botanical Conservatory to see the butterfly exhibit. This was something we had wanted to do for awhile but we heard mixed reviews. We heard that there were not many butterflies and that it was not really worth the trip. We thought we would give it a shot anyway with the hope that we would be able to see some beautiful butterflies. It turned out to be so much better than we expected. Olivia wanted to bring her binoculars with her so she could really get a close look. They were all kept in a large white tent and there were quite a few different kinds for us to see. It was pretty cool and Olivia was totally into it!

While we were exploring the tent a woman came up to Olivia and I and asked if she could take some photos of us. She was with one of our local newspapers and she was doing a story about things to do during Mother's Day weekend. As we left she to look in the Friday paper to see if any of the photos were used. That Friday was my birthday and I woke up to see this super cute photo in the "Weekender" section of The Journal Gazette. It was the perfect Birthday present!

"Olivia Menor, 3, looks for butterflies at Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory’s “Butterflies & Fairies” exhibit. Visiting moms will get a free plant Sunday."

It was another jam packed day and Olivia was pretty exhausted. Before heading home for a nap we promised her we would stop for ice cream. This is by far one of Olivia's favorite summer treats. She is still mastering the skill of eating an ice cream cone without getting it all over herself. It is quite a sight, but she is in pure heaven!

Later that afternoon my Mom and Sue took Olivia to her tap class. I thought it would be nice for them to take her so they could see her dance. Olivia was more than happy to show off her tap dance moves for her Aunt Sue Sue. Next month Olivia will be performing in her second dance recital. She is just as excited as she was last year to get back up on the big stage. This is an exciting year for me too as I started teaching at the dance studio and I have my first class performing. So I will not only be there as a proud parent, but also as a proud teacher.

We packed a lot of fun things into the week Aunt Sue Sue was in town. We had some nice family dinners and spent a lot of time playing, reading books and just being silly...all of Olivia's favorite things! Olivia did not want Aunt Sue Sue to go home. She even plotted ways to try and get her to stay longer. But Sue had been traveling for three weeks and really had to get back to California. We all had a great time during her visit and we will miss her very much. Olivia is already talking about her next trip to California. According to her she is going to take a plane ride all by herself out to California. Hmmm...something tells me that she is not exactly ready for that quite yet. But we are always up for a trip out to California, so maybe we will be visiting sooner rather than later. I do know that Olivia will miss her Aunt Sue Sue terribly until we get to see her again.

never ending fun

Whew! We have been busy lately. Lots of family activities and outdoor fun. Last month, Olivia's cousin, Christopher came home from leave from the Marines. He has not been home in a few years so the last time he saw Olivia she was just a baby. We were looking forward to introducing him to her again and letting them spend some time together while he was home. Little did we know that they would immediately become best friends. She took to Christopher unlike anything I have seen. She just lit up when he was around. Not only did she enjoy spending time with him but he truly enjoyed spending time with her as well. Every time they were together she would want him to play silly games and he would happily oblige.

Christopher came over to say good-bye before heading off for his last tour with the Marines. Another of Olivia's cousins, and Christopher's brother, Jordan came along. Within minutes she had them playing all sorts of goofy games. There was no shortage of giggles, squeals and screams. I have never seen a child so sweaty and exhausted, but most importantly truly happy. She was sad to see him so go, but we were all happy to hear he would be coming home again for a long weekend at the end of May.

Another exciting development in Olivia's world is the addition of her new, fancy swing set in our backyard. After MANY man hours and lots of help from our family friend, Dennis the thousand piece monstrosity was standing tall and ready to be tackled by a rowdy three year old. I am pretty sure that my husband will not be putting another one of these together again in his lifetime. But he did a great job and I know that Olivia will get countless hours of fun out of her new toy. She is most looking forward to inviting some of her little friends over to play.

Right now we are working to teach her how to swing by herself. For so long now we have pushed her on the swings but I think it is time to start learning the "pumping action" so she can do it on her own. She is catching on, but I think it will still be a bit longer before Mom and Dad are no longer needed to get "way up high". She has quickly mastered all of the other elements of her swing set, which is not surprising considering all of the time we have spent on other swing sets at the parks.

Our constant fun of late continued with a super fun birthday party for Olivia's cousin Brendan last weekend. It was at this new ice/sports area in town, Canlan Ice Sports. But there was no ice skating taking place at this party. Nope...it was a party full of bouncy houses!!! One of the ice arenas was full of about 9 different blow up monstrosities. From the second we stepped into the wide open space the child just exploded with energy and went wild. She ran from one bouncy house to the other, hardly stopping to catch her breath. She did stop at one point, turned to me and said, "Mommy...this party is FANTASTIC!!!". Olivia is still talking about Brendan's birthday party from last year at Gymnastics in Motion. I thought it would be hard to top that, but apparently all it takes it a room full of bouncy houses and very few rules to follow. It was a huge success with Olivia and I think we will be going back ourselves for more bouncy house fun in the near future.

This past weekend we also packed in our first trip to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo for the season. Olivia had been counting the days until the zoo opened, but we were afraid to tell her that we might not be able to make it because of the weather. It was a wash-out of a weekend. It rained on and off for most of it. Because Saturday was packed with a swim lesson and birthday party, Sunday was our only chance to go. The forecast was rain for most of the day and when we broke that news to Olivia the tears started flowing immediately. There was no way I was going to deny her a trip to the zoo that she had so been looking for to, so we got dressed and rushed over hoping to squeeze in some time before the rain started.

We decided to take in the African Veldt first. It is the newest part of our zoo and the part I believe has the best animals. It actually turned out to be a great day to hit the zoo. Because the weather was sketchy not many people were there, and because it was cooler more of the animals were out and quite active. We got some crazy close views of the male and female lions. The monkey's desperately wanted some of the popcorn we brought with us, and there was a leopard that was sitting right up against the fence staring right into our eyes. Just as we were heading over to see the giraffes the rain started, and it kept coming down. So our trip to the zoo was short lived but fun while it lasted. I have no doubt that we will be going numerous times this year and I am really looking forward to it. It is one of Olivia's favorite activities and she seems to enjoy it more each year. I think she is learning to appreciate the animals more now and seems interested in learning more about them.

With Spring here it reminds me that Olivia is just about done with her second year of school! I cannot believe how much my little girl has grown during these two years at Three Rivers Montessori. She has learned SO much this year...not just knowledge but better social skills and problem solving. Her Spanish is amazing! She has even started to throw Spanish words in her normal conversations. It is pretty impressive. She is back in swimming lessons, this time at the Carroll Natatorium. I think we outgrew the Y. The cool thing about the Carroll Natatorium is that they place your child base on their ability, not just their age. Olivia is pretty confident in the water and has learned a lot over the past few years. I am thinking that she will start swimming without a floating device this year. And as if Olivia is not busy enough she will be showing off her tap dancing skills in her second Northeast School of Dance dance recital this summer. She has been working hard all year and is itching to get back up on the "big stage" to perform for everyone. I am now teaching at the dance studio too so it is going to be an extra special recital this year. So much to look forward to...stay tuned!

a sad loss

Recently our family was dealt a devastating loss. A few weeks ago Todd's father, Villamor, passed away. He had been dealing with numerous health problems during the past 6 months or so, but his passing was still quite a shock. It was a difficult time for all of us, especially Todd, but he immediately stepped up and helped his Mom with all of the arrangements. The biggest task was notifying all of the out of town family members. It was so comforting knowing that so many family members were able to drop everything and come into town.

This was the first big loss for our family since Olivia was born. We were immediately faced with the challenge of how to explain the loss of her G.P. (all of the grand kids called their grandfather, G.P., for grandpa). She saw him in the hospital before he passed away so she knew he was sick. We simply explained to her that because G.P. was sick and not able to get better he had to go live with God in Heaven. We explained that the doctors were not able to make him better so God took him to Heaven so he could be happy and healthy forever. She seemed to understand it as much as a three year old could possibly understand losing a loved one. She does seem to understand that he is no longer here, but we will see how she reacts in the upcoming months when we visit his parent's house. We have told her that anytime she wants to talk to her G.P. all she needs to do is look up to the sky to say hi or tell him that she misses him. I have already caught her talking to him a few times. It is very sweet and I know she will miss him very much.

The one bright spot during all of this sadness was the time we spent with distant family while they were in town for the funeral. Aunts, cousins, nephews, grandchildren...so many were able to be here to say good bye. It gave Todd a chance to catch up with some family members he had not seen in years and Olivia was able to meet some of her family for the very first time. It was so wonderful to see everyone, we just wish it could have been under better circumstances. With it being such a rare occasion for all of us to be together we had to take some family pictures.

Below we are standing with three of Todd's Aunts and two of his Cousins.

And of course we had to take a photo with all of the grandchildren. This is the first time they have all been together since Olivia and her cousin Ella were born. As you can tell it is impossible to get everyone to cooperate and look at the camera at the same time when you are dealing with such a wide range of ages!

This is a family photo of everyone that was in town for the funeral. It includes all of Villamor's children and their spouses, all of his grandchildren, three of his sisters and two of his nephews. Pretty impressive. He also has three brothers that were unable to attend.

Now that the chaos of the past week is over we now are dealing with the reality of no longer having Todd's Dad around. It will be strange not seeing him each time we go to his parent's house for a visit. Thankfully we have tons of wonderful memories that we will carry with us and be sure that Olivia always remembers. He was a kind and generous man and we will all miss him terribly.

As our emotionally draining week came to an end we prepared to celebrate Easter with Olivia. Olivia started talking about Easter egg hunts weeks before the holiday and she knew exactly what she wanted in her basket this year. During a recent trip to Meijer she spotted a Dora bath toy that she just had to have. We are not the type of parents to just buy her things because she says she wants them. We usually wait until there is a good reason to reward her with a toy. Easter was the perfect excuse to justify getting her the bath toy. Well Olivia's curiosity got the best of her and she spotted her Easter basket a day early. At that point we had no choice but to give it to her. There was no chance she was going to wait another day. Even though she blew the surprise she did still want to act surprised. She sat downstairs with her eyes covered and saying, "I'm ready for my Easter basket!". Little stinker.

She was of course thrilled with her Dora mermaid bath toy, as well as the 3D sidewalk chalk and the jelly beans. She is going through a Dora phase right now. Elmo is no longer the apple of her eye. He has been pushed aside for more "grown up" commercialized characters. No matter how much you try to shelter your child from all of the TV shows and the never ending line of commercial products that go with those shows, they always seem to become attached.

Our Easter was packed from morning till night. We started by sleeping in a bit...delightful. After getting dressed in our Sunday's best we headed for church. Most Sundays Olivia attends Sunday school. There is no Sunday school on Easter so Olivia sat with us during the service. Having her spend the hour with us made me realize how young she still is. She does not yet have the patience to sit quietly for that long. I am looking forward to sending her back to Sunday school next week!

After church we stopped at my Mom's so she could give Olivia her Easter basket. It was full of fun little Easter things as well as a cute little spring dress and some adorable Hello Kitty pajamas. She opened everything at lightening speed so she could get on with her first Easter egg hunt. She quickly found all of her eggs and opened them all to reveal money and candy. Nothing makes Olivia happier!

Our next stop was our annual Easter lunch at the Fortes, close family friends of ours. They have us over each year and they treat Olivia like one of their very own grand kids. They include her in their Easter egg hunt and they always give her wonderful Easter basket. This year only one of their grand kids was there so it was a much more low key Easter egg hunt. That did not matter to Olivia, she still had a great time finding her eggs. To make things even better the weather was fantastic that day. It turned out to be just a perfect day but we were all exhausted by the end of it. Not just from Easter but from the whole week.

Things are starting to get back to normal now. Olivia is on Spring Break this week so she is spending a little more time at Mama Kay's than she normally would. I am sure she is enjoying just playing and not having as many structured activities. We did have a few fun school activities prior to Spring Break. There was International Night, which Todd and I were not able to attend last year. We were out of town but Olivia took her Nana and we heard it was quite an event. Each year the school picks a handful of countries to feature and each classroom decorates and makes food for the country they chose. Olivia's classroom was South Africa. The kids do crafts and learn about the country prior to the event. It was a fun night and the food was fantastic!

The week leading up to Spring Break was spirit week. Monday was crazy hair day. It is not hard for Olivia to participate in this task. Last year we teased her hair and made it really wild but it ended up looking just like it does on any given day. This year I put it up in four pony tails. She was excited to show off her crazy hair 'do.

Tuesday was favorite team or school t-shirt day. Olivia showed off her school t-shirt and her colts jacket that day. Wednesday was rainbow day. Each class was asked to wear a different color. Olivia was thrilled to find out that her class had red...her absolute favorite color! And the day she was most looking forward to was Thursday...pajama day! It was the last day of school before the break and all of the kids could wear their jammies. They also had a spring party to kick off the season and the upcoming break from school. It was a fun week for her and one she looks forward to each year.

So as you can tell we have been pretty busy lately. With the nicer weather we have been spending quite a bit of time outdoors. Olivia has lots of big plans this season. There is a new addition to our backyard that Olivia is just dying to break in. You will have to wait to see what I am talking about. In the meantime I have lots of yard work that I need to tackle. It always seems a bit overwhelming at the start of the season. Oh well, it will get done. But with everything that we have been dealing with lately we are hoping that this spring/summer is, if nothing else...uneventful.