Preschool Graduation

Mr. Daci, the Little Roo Preschool Graduate. I can't say enough about this great preschool. We all loved his teacher and also all the high school students who helped in there.  It was so fun to participate in their end of the year party and graduation. I even bumped into two girls I used to have in our daycare back when I was a daycare teacher. I couldn't believe it. Just like that these girls were all grown up. Just like that my boy is growing up so fast.

 I was all tough when preschool started and didn't really get that emotional when I dropped him off for the first time but now at the end of this first preschool year I was kind of a mess. I loved seeing my son so happy. I loved seeing these young students caring for my little son. They came to me to compliment me on what a good boy he is and what fun outfits he wears at school. Mind you my parents dress him since they are the ones taking him to school. So the compliments go to my parents too. :)

Dacian changed a lot this year. He now speaks English really well and has the tendency to use mostly English even though he can speak Romanian just fine. He is very interested in learning and I could see how much being at school has helped. He counts things all the time, he can read simple sentences and he likes to spell and sound things out. I can only hope he keeps this up. 

By the way this school when I enrolled him in it we were told is not stressing academics but try to take it easy on the kids and prepare them for Kindergarten, teach them manners, etc. I had heard from our church members great things about it. I am glad we made it in since they have a long waiting list for it. Sadly this next year will be the last ever for this program due to no new funding from state. 

With all this in mind the decision to switch him next year to a different preschool was very hard. Because I work for the district I get to place my son in our preschool if I want for free. Now Little Roos is not expensive at all but when you talk $900 a year I think I prefer free. I know our district has great teachers there too and also a good program. I know that Dacian will adjust just fine. I'm the one who seems to not be ready for change for him. I second guess myself and wonder if by being cheap I am taking him away from his friends and this wonderful teacher. I still have him enrolled in the old place so I guess it's not final. What should I do? 

Decisions, decisions....

Sweet Lavi thought this was all fun too. She danced when they played a slide show and clapped a lot. She also made friends with some students who liked to give her plenty of attention. Who wouldn't? She is so cute and so little.

The good and the bad

On the day we made cookies Dacian was also doing his own cooking. He grabbed a real pan and put it on his little stove. Lavinia is enamored with her brother. Look how cute she is gazing at her brother. Man, I love my kids! 

And since I don't want to forget and this paper will probably get lost at some point I wanted to post what I found on my fridge a while back. I came from work and I found this posted on the fridge. That's what he does with stuff he is proud of. I have to admit I was pretty proud of him too. It seems like something finally clicked and now he can read short words and sound them out and write them. Of course there are still lots of mistakes but it's a start. I didn't tell him to do this though or ever sat down to really spell the words so therefore I'm pretty surprised. 

That was the good. The bad is that my daughter thinks my couches are for writing. That same day this is what I found. I was so mad. Fortunately it came off pretty easily. Except for writing on my walls once Dacian never did stuff like this. Now they have a fun easel I bought at IKEA and I hope they will use this instead of items in my house. 

And to fully entertain my audience here's what I also found on my fridge as well a while back. Boys... It's so funny the Leap Frog thingy spells the word and then says: Congratulations! Good job. It's funny to hear that after the word BUT(T). 

Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend went by with such success this time. I always kind of dread the trip up there because it's so long (6 hours)  but this time add in that nasty traffic, it added 2 more hours to our trip. 

Saturday we went to Summerland and took the steam train ride. We've never done that before, as a matter of fact I had no idea there was a train going by there. That was the highlight of the trip for us. There was a guy playing the accordion on the train and people were singing along with him. The conductor was pretty cool too. 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for such a fun trip. Here they are having fun with us. 

Here's my sweet aunt from Romania who spent 6 months here with us helping us out with the kids while my dad went back to school. We love her.

The view of this valley is gorgeous. I love visiting this place and seeing all the vineyards and orchards that are taken care of so well. Also the area has lots of lakes and is a pretty popular touristic area. 

Here we all are with the nicest man who was nice enough to pose with us.

Sunday morning on our way out to the center the kids got to ride horses. I still haven't had my wish come true to ride a horse myself since I've never done that but the horses were a little jumpy so they held them tight and let the kids go around a little bit. Lavinia would have none of it but Dacian had a blast and was quite excited for the rest of the day with just this experience. Thanks Grandma for this fun experience. 

After going horse riding we visiting the In'kmeep Desert Cultural Center. This place is amazing and my own mother in law is the manager of this place. She was involved with this center ever since this new place was rebuilt and is so great at what she does.
Isn't this statue so cool? In the distance you can see the new condos and hotels that were recently built. When my father in law was alive we got to spend a night in them and they are super awesome. Am I making this place enough advertisement? I do wish people could experience this place. It's neat.

Aside from the inside of the cultural center which is so fun (they have a native movie and other fun stuff) the outside tour is my favorite. It's a native village that's pretty big and they have these cool statues depicting life in the olden days. 

Lavinia played with rocks a lot. It was hard to get her to go anywhere because that's all she wanted to do. 

I especially liked seeing the salmon.

And this statue. The wall that you can see a little is made of all sorts of soil types in the area. I have to get a picture my aunt took so I can show it better. Again, pretty cool.

Here's my mother in law giving us a fun tour with the golf cart. I guess it's nice to have relations in high places. :) Usually you just walk which is fun as well.

Here's Dacian inside of a cool log hut.

Lavinia being the cute girl that she is.

View from the village. Awesome! And not long after we took this pictured Shane almost stepped on a rattle snake. That's right, they have those creatures over there. There are signs all over cautioning people to make sure they look around and not step on them. I guess the rattle snakes are a protected species. I was paranoid for the rest of the tour.

On our way back home we stopped at a nearby park and Dacian played in the water. He actually swam around in the cold water. I can't believe I let him but is was so hot outside and this lake's water warms up fast. It's great during the summer.

Water, his best friend.

OK, more fun on the same day. We stopped by Spotted Lake. This lake is amazing. It's got 365 circles each with a different mineral inside. in the summer there is almost no water left just these circles in multiple colors. It's rained a lot this spring so they have a lot of water. There is a plan to build a cool trail down to the lake and make a nice parking lot for people to stop by. We didn't hike down to it for lack of time but it was fun to show my aunt this place as well. I think she had a pretty fun weekend.

And last but not least that day right before we got to grandma and grandpa's house grandma took us to this rock that has these ancient pictographs on it right on the reservation. I loved seeing this.

I also loved spring on the rez and this pretty desert flower.

On the way back home we went the longer route just to avoid the passes which we knew would be terrible and we stopped by Harrison Hot Springs. We didn't have time to stop and actually go swimming but it was a good stopping point. Maybe we'll go there in the fall.