Another newspaper reader

On a short road trip this afternoon, I put the paper in the back seat. Emma grabbed it and started reading the index on page 2. She said there wasn't much news in the paper.

Christmas photos

More Christmas Day photos, and a few of the gingerbread house that Emma and mom created a few days before.

Christmas morning 2009

Emma in the seconds as she comes downstairs on Christmas morning, 2009, to get presents Santa left for her.

Christmas songs

The kindergarten classes at Emma's school sang Christmas songs today. Emma is wearing a pink dress at the far left, second row from top. Here's a music sampling:

SF photos

A few days in San Francisco

Grandpa Don and Jody visited from Texas, bringing joy to San Francisco and us. Emma had fun ice skating, riding cable cars and playing in the videos here. Enjoy.

Tom Jones

Crank up the volume as Emma dances to She's a Lady" by Tom Jones:

More Tom Jones dancing

Football game video

Football game

Emma and the Breton girls went to the University of North Dakota vs. UC Davis football game on Saturday, Nov. 14. UND lost in a close game.

A day of bubbles, basketball

Our little devil

Emma and her kindergarten classmate Diana went trick-or-treating together, collecting enough candy to keep the dentist busy.

Halloween dance video

Halloween dance

Some Halloween video and photos to get you in the mood. Emma made a jack-o-lantern on Friday in kindergarten. More photos coming later. She's going to be a little devil tonight, although that may continue for more than just a night.

Hide and Seek at Todos Santos Park in Concord, CA

Oct. 4 at Pixie Land in Concord, CA

Bingo night video

Emma and Bailey laugh it up at Bingo Night at their school Friday night.

Bingo night

Emma's kindergarten class had a Bingo night tonight at her school, with pizza and soda. Her friend Bailey, who is in another kindergarten class at the school, played Bingo also and brought her mom.


We didn't win, but came close, as evidenced by Kristen's one-spot-away Blackout Bingo card, where you have to get every number to win a prize.

Emma the storyteller

Emma wrote a book today, or at least a story. She dictated it to me and I wrote it down, so in her eyes I wrote it and she "told" the story.

The story is below, but as an introduction I should say that it involves her best friend, Mikayla, pictured above, at right, as Emma blows out the candles at her 5th birthday party. Emma started kindergarten last week and came home today with a book that everyone in her class put together about the Cookie Monster finding cookies.

Here's the story, in Emma's words. It's titled "Emma" and she gives it 5 stars.

Emma
Written by Daddy.
Told by Emma.

Emma and Mikayla went downtown. I showed Mikayla my Cookie Monster book. Mikayla liked it.

The next day was Halloween. Me and Mikayla said "We're going to steal some candy."

We went door to door. And we had enough candy for the night. Before we go to the next stop, we stopped on the pavement and I said "We are going to get one more candy and then we'll have enough."

Tomorrow we get to play in the snow all summer long because it's a play area.

The End

'Snow' blows: 2 stars

Emma's book club continues with her review of "Snow," a Dr. Seuss knockoff meant for beginning readers. Emma's a beginning reader, but we've been reading this book for so many years that she's bored by it, so it gets 2 out of 5 stars

Take a look at the book here:
http://search2.barnesandnoble.com/BookViewer/?ean=9780394800271

Emma's book club begins

Emma is only through with two days of kindergarten, and she's already turning into a book reviewer. A monthly assignment that her teacher has given us is to keep track of the books we read and discuss with her, which Emma then rates on a scale of one to five stars.

Tonight we read "Sock Monkey Goes to Hollywood," which Emma gave four out of five stars.

The first book she picked to read was, of course, a cookbook. "C is for Cooking" features the Sesame Street characters. This book got five stars. Her mom would probably score it just as high.

Photos from first day of kindergarten

First day of kindergarten for Emma

Party games

Emma went to the 5th birthday party of her best friend, Mikayla, on Saturday and played pin the tail on the donkey.

Swim lessons are over

Swim lessons ended today, marking the end of summer. Emma had a great time at each lesson and learned a lot. She's a very confident swimmer at age 5.

She's hard to find in the video above, but she's there. All of the teachers and students joined in a round of "motorboat" before ending the session. Emma is wearing her pink goggles and comes up after the boy splashes like a dolphin next to her. Good luck finding her.

This is the second summer that I've taken her to swim lessons, and I've really enjoyed it. I'm sad to see it end, as is Emma, and see this as another milestone. The days will no longer be ours, as she starts kindergarten on Monday. We'll still go swimming, of course, but weekday swim lessons for this summer, are over.

Rockin the Bo Diddley beat

Emma had a little dance party the other night before going to bed. Rockin Bo Diddley.

Birthday girl

Emma turned 5 Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009.

She blew out candles, jumped around like a nut with her friends, had cake, played games and got enough presents to keep her busy and clothed for the new school year, which starts in three weeks with kindergarten. She's growing up.

Games were played

We played a few games at Emma's 5th birthday party on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009.
Started with pin the bowtie, then threw water balloons at it, and of course jumped on the jumper before opening presents and having cake.

Opening birthday presents Aug. 8, 2009

Emma's 5th birthday party

Well balanced

Emma has gym class on Friday mornings and at age 4, has mastered the balance beam.

Twins fans for life

Emma and Mom hold a "Circle Me Bert" sign at A's-Twins game on July 22.

Aunt Jaci, Cousins Taylor and Charlee in MSP

Emma in Minnesota

Emma and her cousin Taylor from North Dakota at a zoo in Minnesota, where there were plenty of rides.

Fourth of July celebration

Emma's cousin from Minneapolis, Charlee, had some sparklers. Emma didn't partake in sparklers.

Charlee and Emma dancing at Twins game

Minneapolis video with Charlee

Minneapolis with Charlee

We went to a museum today, and tried to get the girls to pose together near the spoon/cherry. Emma wasn't going for it.