Repurposed and Fabulous

Awhile back, Eliza's grandma gave her a TV/VCR combo set so she could watch videos in her room. Her cousin Jacob also gave her his old video collection. It had everything from Disney movies to Barney to Batman cartoons. What more could a girl want!



Eliza loves watching movies in her room and I love that now she has a place to watch movies when we are upstairs. However it became pretty clear that the TV needed a sturdy place to sit and storage was need to house all of bazillions of videos. I decided to repaint and repurpose an old chest that once belonged to my grandmother and was currently sitting in my room gathering dust. I had once used it as an entertainment unit when I first moved out on my own, so I knew it was sturdy enough to hold a TV.

Here is the finished product!




Unfortunately the before picture somehow was deleted from my camera before I had a chance to upload it to my computer. Bummer. Originally the chest was stained a light honey color with shiny gold hardware. I had contemplated painting it pink but decided that she had enough pink in the room and went with a color called "rapids". I replaced the hardware with simple white pulls and I love the way it turned out.

Big Change Big Day

Monday August 1, 2011 was a big day for our big girl. It was her first day at her new preschool. Eliza had been at her previous school since she was 5 months old, so the decision to move her was truly a tough one. Ultimately, we decided that even though it may be tough at first moving her was the best decision for our family.

One of the things she was most excited about was getting a new backpack. Her new school requires each child to have a backpack to hold their nap supplies and an spare change of clothes. When we started looking for backpacks, it became abundantly clear that the only choice for her was the princesses. She also thought it was super cool that her backpack had her name on it - I had it monogrammed.

Here she is before we left for school. She super excited and ready to go.

Once we got there, Steve and I could tell that she was pretty nervous and feeling slightly overwhelmed. She was pretty quiet and looked a little scared. Even though we knew she was feeling a little uneasy, Steve and I were so proud that she kissed us goodbye and didn't cry. Sadly I can't say the say for myself. As soon as I walked out of the room, I started to cry. It was hard for me to see her feeling so scared and uneasy.

However, she was all smiles when I went to pick her up. She talked nonstop about her day. She shared with me that the word of the day was "recipe" and that they had used a recipe to make pink lemonade.

On the way home, Eliza asked if we could stop for frozen yogurt and it was the perfect way to celebrate her big day at her new school.

Old Navy Love

I love T shirts from Old Navy. Eliza loves posing with the mannequins. This is what happens EVERY time we walk into an Old Navy store. We can not leave the store until Eliza has had her picture taken with "her friends".

Rah Rah Rah

Eliza was very excited that this summer she was old enough to attend day camp at The Little Gym. Camp lasts from 9 - 12 and each week a different theme is offered. Eliza had wanted to attend pirate camp but she was still in her cast at that time, so the doctor said no camp. However once her cast was off, she was free to attend as long as she wore her brace and didn't do any tumbling.

Her first camp was Cheerleader Camp. (She also attended Princess Camp and Harry Potter Magic Camp a few weeks later). On the last day of camp, the kids did a performance of the cheers they had learned. I think Cheer Camp was Eliza's favorite because she really liked the pom poms.

I think all of the instructors are great and super nice, but Miss Jennifer is by far Eliza's favorite.

Footloose and Cast Free

After three long weeks, Eliza's day of freedom finally arrived! It was time to remove her cast. She was a little unsure about the saw at first, but Kevin reassured her that it would only tickle and wouldn't hurt her!

After the cast was removed, she had new X - rays done to make sure that the bone truly was healing. Dr. S was very happy with her progress, but he still wanted her to wear her brace for 3 weeks. He also wanted us to come back in six weeks for a final X - ray check.

As soon as we got home from our appointment, Eliza's favorite swim partner was waiting for her so they could go for a celebratory swim!

We never had a problem with Eliza keeping her brace on . . . . she was such a trooper through it all. Last Thursday we had our final appointment with Dr. S. He was pleased with how her X -rays looked and we have been officially released from his care. She is good as new and wild as ever.

Best Buds

When we first started our house hunt (in the spring of 2009) it was vitally important to both Stephen and I that our house be in a kid/family friendly neighborhood. Not only did we find a neighborhood that we loved but we hit the jackpot with our next door neighbors.

Our sweet neighbors have 4 kids and the youngest is Eliza's age. Recently these two have begun to develop a truly sweet friendship and they love having play dates. I am so glad that Eliza has a buddy to play with and I am excited to watch their friendship grow as they do.

Merry Go Round

On a recent shopping trip, Eliza sweet talked her Aunt Kristen into buying her a ticket to ride "the dancing horses." Aunt Kristen is a totally softie and paid the $2 bucks for Eliza to ride.

I was a little worried that she might not like it, as new things are often a little scary for her but she loved it!

Show Night

Instead of doing a traditional recital, The Little Gym does a "show night" where the kids demonstrate everything they have learned during the semester and Eliza's big night was May 23rd. She was very excited to show everyone what she had learned.

Due to her broken arm, she was only able to due her beam routine in gymnastics and had to watch all her friends on the bars. She has always liked the beam but she still wants someone to hold her when she walks. . . not quite ready to let go yet.

Once she finished in gymnastics it was time to change into our tap shoes for her Mambo routine! She always tells me that she likes the tap and ballet part of her class better than the gymnastics part but I think that is just because she likes watching herself in the wall of mirrors!

Next up was the ballet portion . . . .an Irish jig???? The jumping part is my absolute favorite - they remind me of popcorn!

After the performances were over it was time for awards and pictures. I am so grateful to Miss Ashley, Miss Amanda and Miss Jennifer for all their patience and expertise. Eliza truly loved going to her class each week and can't wait for classes to start again in September!

Eliza was so impressed with her award and she was super excited that Grandpa came to watch. (Grandma wanted to come but she had eye surgery that day and needed to stay at home.)



We are all so proud of our little dancer!

Summer

I always think that I am going to get so much blogging done durning the summer

and as it turns out I hardly do any.

I guess that is because we are just too busy having a great time and trying to stay cool!

We have truly been enjoying our summer

(and our afternoon ice cream treats).

More updates to come . . . . . .

A Story with a Happy Ending

On a cold rainy Saturday in early March, Stephen was headed out the door to go to work when he saw that young black lab was sitting on our porch by the front door. She was wet, cold, hungry and had no collar or identification. Eliza and I took her to a local vet to be scanned, in the hope that she was micro chipped. No such luck. She was officially a lost dog. Being the dog lovers that we are, we knew that there was no way we could take her the SPCA, so we set off to find her family. Eliza decided that she needed a name and she started calling her Lucy. I don't why she picked the name Lucy, but it did seem to suit our new found friend.

We tried very hard to find her family . . . .signs in the neighborhood, calls to local vets, and a posting on Craig's List. It soon became very obvious that whomever once owned Lucy did not want to be found. Our focus then became finding Lucy a "new " family. We briefly toyed with the idea of keeping her, but in the end we knew two dogs was just too much for our family. I know that Bob is very grateful for this. He is much happier being the only dog.

After twice getting our hopes up that we had found Lucy a new home only to have things not work out, we finally made contact with a lab rescue organization that was willing to help us find her a home. The rescue group would pay for her to have all of her shots and be spayed and we agreed to continue fostering her until we went to be with her "forever family." She ended up staying with longer than we had expected but at the end of April we learned that Lucy would be leaving us (and Texas) to live with another foster family in Connecticut. (I am not exactly sure why a rescue organization in Texas would be the companion of a rescue organization in Connecticut.) However the Northeast was apparently where Lucy needed to be to find her new family.

Lucy now lives in Katonah, NY - a small peaceful town about 30 minutes outside of NYC - with her new "parents" and her older brother (also a lab rescue). This town is also the home of Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart - so perhaps Lucy will be wearing designer duds and snacking on gourmet treats.

Since I don't personally know Lucy's new family, I didn't feel comfortable putting their faces on the blog, but they do look like really nice people and we are thrilled that she has such a beautiful area to run around in. We truly hope that Lucy has a great life with her new family .