Of foam and farms.

The kids took an art class together on Friday mornings in January and February. It was really cute to have them in this at the same time. They would always sit by each other and play together and help each other with the projects.

Our last class on the season was fun with shaving cream and sand and water. The kids had a BLAST and have since spent at least an hour every day on our back porch playing with our water and sand box.

Emma's preschool class took a field trip to Superstition Farms on March 7, 2013.  The farm was so fun and the kids had a wonderful time.  We first rode a hayride and looked at all of their cows.

Then they got to feed and pet all the animals in the central area...

We got to bring with us our carpool buddy, Eli.  He is such a delightful kid to have around.

I wish I could say the whole field trip went perfectly well, but it could have been one of my hardest parenting days yet.  Emma was in a horrible mood and chose to disobey everything that I asked her to do.  This compounded because we were in public and I was trying to keep her safe and close.  She wanted to explore and was being just plain naughty.  She then pushed one of her classmates off of the tractor and when I tried to put her in a small timeout, she just went APE WILD.  I'm talking it was the mother load of all tantrums.  Crazy like behavior.  Everyone was staring.  It was horrible.  She continued to scream for the remainder of the field trip (remember we had a friend, so I didn't want to leave and make him cut his fun short).  She screamed for a solid hour.  LOUD.  And all the way home in the car.  By the time we dropped off her friend, I had lost my marbles.  She spent the rest of the afternoon in her bedroom and had to put away all her laundry and clean up and make her bed before she came out.  It took her over 2 hours to calm down and finish the chores.  And I needed that time to calm down myself.  PHEW!  Being a parent can be really tough sometimes!!

A few Emma activities!

Emma was involved in some fun activities this last month.

Here she is with her friend Makenna at their preschool winter program. They sang some darling songs about winter and snow and all things non-Arizona.

She also did a gymnastics class.  Here she is with her friend Katie on the balance beam.  They had so much fun doing this class together.  I just have to write a quick story about their final performance.  I took video of everything, but I need to write down the story.  The first girl was called up to perform and she was too shy to do the floor routine.  So she bashfully walked to the beam and walked across.  Then Emma was called, who without hesitation, started a series of "cartwheels" across the floor which just looked like uncoordinated somersaults.  Then she ran to the balance beam and was so dizzy from all the "cartwheels" that she fell off the balance beam within seconds.  She hopped up with a huge smile and finished her balance beam.  What a hysterical moment.  I was laughing to hard I was crying.  And she had no idea why everyone was laughing.  Little doll.

And one of my new favorite images... our violins, big and small, out together following a practice session.  Emma is still loving every second of her practicing and playing.  She just learned how to place the bow on the strings and is finally playing a few basic songs.  She is so proud of herself and loves to play for anyone who will listen.  I'm relishing in these moments where we are not arguing over practicing.  I'm sure it will not last for much longer! :)