After five lessons, River had her first performance with her dance class at the local mall. Whether or not dance is something that River holds an interest in is not important. For her it's all about fun. It's also a way of maintaining River's comfort level in public situations. She rarely shows any sign of shyness now and we hope to keep it that way.
Sadly, she has already eclipsed her father's dancing skills.
Yesterday River took a class at The Cincinnati Zoo called Tails, Tails, Tails. It was all about the many different uses of tails in the animal kingdom. Afterward, we took a stroll around the Zoo. It was a beautiful Spring-like day of blue skies and temperatures in the late 60's. After all the snow and rain, all of us (River included) were happy to be cured of our cabin fever and winter blues.
While waiting for class to start, River entertained us by reading about Spiders. It was difficult to keep her mother off the ceiling.
Mr. John introduced the class to Hurricane the American Alligator.
Mr. John lets River meet Brittany the Red Eyed Alligator Skink.
Hurricane was very well behaved and let River pet her tail.
River posing by the Cheetah track.
A Cheetah relaxing in the sunshine.
A majestic White Tiger holding court in the afternoon.
My favorite, the Mexican Wolf. Shortly after this was taken, he and his mate demonstrated their howling abilities.
River and the rest of the class singing the Tails, Tails, Tails song. At this point, River had had enough and was ready to get outside and explore.
River's school had their second annual Christmas party last Friday and she was excited to play hostess to her mommy and daddy. We enjoyed a delicious meal and then were treated to some Christmas Carols afterward.
Yummy ham!
River and her classmates. River is hard to spot. Follow the arrow.
There she is!
She rehearsed "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" all the way there.
Waiting patiently to see Santa. (More on him in a future post!)
Family and friends joined Jo, River and me to celebrate River's Third Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. I had expected it to be loud and chaotic and.. well, it was but it was also far better than I expected. A great time was had by River and all her little pals and that is all that matters.
Over the past three years River has given me the joy of experiencing so much for the first time.. again. This may have been a celebration of her first three years but she has given Jo and I what seems like a birthday everyday for the past three years.
The Scooby Doo Cake made by Iris Klonne of createcoolcakes.com. It was as delicious as it was fun to see!
Thanks to all our family and friends who stopped by.
River could not stop talking about her Scooby Doo cake!
Making a wish.
I'm sure this is some sort of health code violation.
Lots of goodies were unwrapped.
Lots and lots of goodies!
(Psst, Please don't tell her I ate a chicken wing! P-p-p-lease!)
We recently took River to her first visit to Chuck E.Cheese's. I hadn't been there in over 20 years and was amazed it was still around. Jo and I expected it to be about as much fun as root canal surgery but we went early and truly had a good time. The atmosphere was tame enough for us old folks and the pizza was actually pretty good. River had a great time playing the games and got to hug ol' Chuck himself. Not a bad way to spend a lunchtime.
Of all the attractions, she preferred talking on the phone most of all.
She is a natural cowgirl.
Yummy pizza..
..and a princess cup!
Who doesn't love a "Push Ump"?
River noticed that this restaurant did seem to have a large rodent problem.
This is probably going to date me but I listened to a lot of The Beach Boys as a child. It was one of my Father's favorite groups. We even saw them in concert.
I guess it was no surprise when River was brand new that the only songs my extremely tired brain could come up with to sing to her in the middle of the night when she would cry and I, being a new mother, didn't know why, this song would always float to the top.
Who would have thought that it is a comfort song for her now? She loves it.
Know how I know?
.
Well its been building up inside of me For oh I don't know how long I don't know why But I keep thinking Something's bound to go wrong
But she looks in my eyes And makes me realize And she says "Don't worry baby" Everything will be alright Don't worry baby Don't worry baby......
Standing beside the B29 "Bockscar" at Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. This is the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945..
.With Mommy, standing beside a Gemini space capsule.
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