Hawaii

Violet and I just got back from our first visit to the big island.  I went for a work conference and my friend Jenee joined us with her son Nicholas.  The flight there was long.  I foolishly thought it might be easier now that Violet was 3 but it wasn't.  She didn't nap at all and needed to be constantly entertained.  At least there was no crying.

Between leaving at 6 a.m. from LAX and not napping on the plane, Violet was literally rolling around on the floor near baggage claim.  Jenee is such a good friend--she whisked Violet away to go pick up drinks and giving me a bit of a break.  It also got Violet up off the floor of the airport.

While we waited for our room to be ready, we stopped for lunch. Violet enjoyed her first spam mosube of the trip.

Yummy spam!

Then we checked into the hotel which was right on the beach.

Other than lecture, the trip was full of alternating between the beach and the pool, then watching kids movies at night in bed.  Jenee was a saint, watching both kids when I was in lecture.  I don't think I could have handled it.

Hotel Lagoon

Eating at the pool restaurant.

Watching TV after a long day.

Somehow Violet managed to fool Jenee into believing that she was allowed to eat fruit loops at home and manipulated her into letting her have them for breakfast two days in a row.  How did they get so smart at 3 years?

The last day we were there we had the best weather of the trip and we went to Hapuna Beach which was not far from our hotel and was just gorgeous.

Clear water.

Violet took this picture!

Violet and Nick

It was a short but sweet trip.  Despite the age difference, the kids got along great.  I can't wait for our next trip.

Peekaboo!

First Movie, dance and dentist

Violet recently went to her first movie, Disney's "Frozen".  She did great and sat still for most of it.  She asked to leave twice but as soon the singing started she was entranced again.  We've been playing "Elsa and Anna" ever since then and have the music in the car as well.  We plan to see it one more time before it leaves the theater.  It was the first movie I've seen in the theater in over a year as well (babies pretty much make that impossible), so I was pretty excited too.

Pretending to be Elsa who can freeze things.

Violet has been dancing around the house a bunch so now that she is three she was able to start a dance class.  It's called Fairy Tale ballet and Tap.  The ballet snob in me is a little put off by them blowing bubbles in class, but Violet loves it.

It's way too cute to see all the little girls in their dance clothes.  She says she likes tap better than ballet but she's got plenty of time to change her mind.

Violet just made it to her 3 year dentist appointment.  I was so proud of her--she let the hygenist do a whole cleaning including scaling and polishing.  She picked chocolate flavored polish.  Yum.

Looking worried before the cleaning.

Brushing the Lion's humanoid teeth.

Creepy Lion

So proud!

Violet did really great.  The hygenist said she was her best patient the whole day.  Then the dentist came over to check Violet's teeth.  I don't know if it was because he was a man or she was just over it, but she lost her $hit when the actual dentist came over just to look at her teeth.  Full on screeching.  It was pretty embarassing but at least her teeth are clean now.

To the treasure chest she went next.  While she considered the Mardi Gras beads again (I was silently screaming No! in my head), she decided on a blue spider.  Yay!

Then we got to do the photo booth again.  Violet's head is either cut off on top or the bottom.  Maybe next time we will get it right.

Pics from a recent day at Disney:

"Crown Day" at preschool for her birthday:

Dressing up with Nana

Violet's 3rd Birthday!

Violet turned three on Sunday.  She started the day getting an awesome kitchen from Aunt Deanna.

Rocking her awesome party dress

 Then we celebrated by going to a local bounce house place, Jump n Jammin.  Violet loved it and at one point we noted that with her high pitched scream, she was the loudest kid in the place.

Digging in to chocolate cake with her friend Emily

Running through a kid habitrail

Friends

Nana and Papa

Everyone signed a pillow case.

The ball room

This year was really fun because it was the first year she understood what a birthday was and that the party was for her.  She had been excited for weeks leading up to it.

Thanks to Aunty Jenny for capturing the day on "film" and to Jeff to getting the video of the birthday moment both this year and last year.

Violet's View of the World

Violet is obsessed with taking pictures whenever we take the camera out.  Her picture taking has definitely started to improve.  Her choice of subjects and angle of view gives us an idea of her view of the world.

chickens at Irvine Great Park

And thanks so much for Aunt Rosanne and Uncle Al who gave Violet this fabulous purple turtle which has become her first "lovey".  I am already looking for a back up one in case it ever gets lost.

Daddy Days

Hiking with Daddy.

Painting nails.

Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirt and dark nail polish.  This is definitely my kid!