July 4th...

Too hot outside to do anything at all..... played in the sprinkler for awhile.

Fireworks....

Last night was Jazzy's first fireworks experience. It is uncanny how every year, it literally does not rain one drop until the evening of July 3 when Arizona City has it's fireworks..... It poured down rain at about 5:30... for the first time since last November.... right before I went to Vietnam. We went to the pre-fireworks party which was just a band and a bunch of people walking around. The fireworks started late.... around 8:35 and lasted all of 15 minutes. They weren't too impressive. I guess it was a budget thing. Jazz had fun dancing with the band, watched about 3 minutes of the fireworks, then fell asleep. I watched about 10 minutes of the fireworks with her asleep in my lap, then we left. By the time we drove home... about 3 minutes... the fireworks were over and it was pouring down rain again.... so, perfect timing.


Ready to go to fireworks
Playing with her neon heart necklace
Eating kettlecorn
listening to the band
dancing

Birthday Party prep...

Tonight Jazzy helped me make her birthday party grab bags. I thought about not letting her know about it.... but I'm glad I didn't. She had alot of fun helping me put stuff in the bags. If all the kids show up... which they probably won't... there will be 7 boys and 7 girls, ranging in age from 1-7, so it was a challenge making the bags for each gender and age... plus it's mostly a Hello Kitty party.... ha.....

Friday class....

Today we had a class with a July 4th theme... since we have no class next week. They made sun visors and little music shakers out of paper plates. Then we went to Cold Stone Creamery to get our free ice cream which was given to every child for completing another 2 weeks of swim lessons..... 4 weeks down and 8 to go.

Eating our free ice cream
Making the paper tambourine
Singing a patriotic song
Singing a song with the class
Jazzy's home made sun visor and shaker

Free Swim....

Every other Thursday night, we have a "free swim" instead of swimming lessons, so I just stand on the side of the pool and film everything instead of going into the vomit/pee/snot water. The other day, a kid vomited in the water. They put a rope across half of the pool and closed the side where the kid vomited. I asked the teacher... "Don't you think that water is connect with this water over here?" "Oh no, it doesn't circulate". OOOOKKKKK. Yuk.
So, we have some photos of Jazz in the shallow beach end acting like a frog ..."ribbit", "ribbit", "ribbit"... for about a half hour, then she went down the slide again. I don't have a photo of that because right when I went to take the photo, an idiot guy stepped right in front of me and took his pants off.
Also, I didn't realize that when I changed the batteries in my phone... that I had to reset the date... so they all say 2003.

Socializing with a friend.
Jazzy starting to jump off a little ledge. She is not so brave when I am not in the water with her. When I am there, she will literally dive into the water, and puts her whole head/face in the water.... but, if I am not there, she turns around and slides butt first into the water:)
Jazzy at the top of the slide... but it is getting dark, so you cannot see it very well.
Doing the splits
Jasmine is mad because she had to get out of the water for a "lifeguard change".
Jasmine swimming

Songs for Tots....

Jazz is in a class on Friday afternoons called "Songs for Tots". They sing, play games and do crafts. I keep forgetting to bring the camera because I am always rushing to get off work and get there. Here she is with a horse she made.. with some help... in the class.
A few days ago, Jazz actually asked me for a vest like either Dora's or Deigo's...... the one Deigo always pulls his map out of. She kept pointing to herself and saying "vest, vest, vest". I always thought Dora had a backpack and Diego had a vest, but she wants the vest like Diego's (I think), so the search is on -- maybe in the little boy's section somewhere.

Strawberry Festival.....

Last night, I decided we should drive up to Strawberry, Arizona... which is a small town about 100 miles north of Phoenix... to go to their "Strawberry Festival". So, I got up at 4AM, and Jasmine insisted on getting up with me.... and she was very grumpy:). We left at about 6AM, and since it was a 3 hour drive, we got there at 9AM. Luckily, Jazz slept the whole way. The town is just one main street... which had a few vendors selling jewelry. Not a strawberry to be seen, except a few kind of old looking strawberries at the Senior Center. We had one chocolate covered strawberry. They had advertised miniature horse rides, other rides, a bouncy house, etc... but none of that was to be found anywhere. So, overall, the Strawberry Festival was a disappointment. We did go to the Strawberry Quilting Contest... which is judged by the viewers.. so we voted on the quilts that we liked the best. For brunch, we went to HP's Place.. which was about the only restaurant around. It was obvious that they were not prepared for the line of people wanting to get in. Jasmine became a little less irritable after she had her bowl of oatmeal. After leaving HP's Hole, we drove south to Payson and took a small hike... about 200 feet:).. thru the forest. It was so nice to smell the pines, show Jazzy the pine cones, and take a little walk. It was 20 degrees cooler there than where we live. We also looked at various campgrounds for future travels. All in all, it was a fun day, even though we spent most of it driving in the car.