Sakura has been at the Cdc since she turned 2 years old. While we love everyone at the Cdc, we were finding that Sakura wasn't being (what we considered) challenged enough, so we decided to make a move to a new preschool. The Cdc offers preschool, but not until the child is 4 years old, and is based around a traditional school calendar, so Sakura wouldn't be eligible for that program until Fall 2013, and we didn't want to wait that long to put her in preschool - so that necessitated a move and quite a change for all of us. Sakura's last day at the Cdc was also her "teacher's" last day as well, Miss Isabel was retiring at the end of June which is part of the reason we decided to move Sakura at the same time. I took cupcakes for her last day, and they also had "Splash Pad" day so I was able to get some pictures of the kids enjoying themselves too. The hardest part for us was feeling like we were taking Sakura away from all of her friends. She has been with some of these kids (Danica) since she started at the Cdc so they are pretty good buddies.
Ready for the party
Washing hands before eating .... ALWAYS!
Here is Sakura with her two "mother hens" as they refer to them - Jade and Kaylie
Of course it was Hello Kitty cupcakes!
YUMMMY!!!
With her buddy Danica
Sakura was telling Danica how much she liked her Tinker Bell swimsuit
The day before Sakura's last day they made these "japanese fish kites"
Fun at the splash pad with Kaylie
Sakura really loves these girls
As you can tell
Jade, Sakura, Kaylie and Danica
Soaking WET!
OF course she is hiding from me taking pictures!
SO grateful for the care she was given while here at the Cdc
Goodbye Miss Isabel - we love you and will miss you SO much - with Kaylie
Sakura has been in dance since she turned 3, and she LOVES it.
This weekend was her first dance recital. I was admittedly a little worried Sakura would freeze once she got on stage without Miss Karla dancing in front of them, but I was pleasantly surprised when Sakura went right out and did exactly what she was suppose to do. and make a quick departure off the stage too. Our family attended the Friday night show, and I volunteered to be Room Mom for the second show Saturday matinee. We are SO proud of Sakura!
Here are some pictures from the performance, and also a video of the dance.
Getting ready for the show .... as you'll see below they were on a big stage and asked for make-up, not something I was crazy about, but necessary due to the stage lighting, and I do think she looked beautiful.
Sakura LOVES make-up and held very still for it ... just like the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique she said.
All ready - Let's GO!
Daddy, Mommy and our little Groovy Chick aka: Sakura
SHOW TIME - always "Wide Awake" ...
and I love to Boogie Woogie too - Sakura loves this part!
Wide awake
This is Miss Karla - Sakura's dance instructor - she was the adult Nala in the show
At the end of the performance, all 300+ dancers went on stage for their final bow ... they didn't tell the girls about this, or let them know what to do, so we had a little lost chicken, this sweet young lady spotted our lost chick and picked her up and held her over by the other chickens .... come to find out she is the daughter of a high school friend!
Hannah and Sakura on stage for their final bows
That ugly guy is Ed one of the hyenas
Waiting for their Mommy's to come and get them.
We went out for a celebratory ice cream at AppleBee's afterwards ... can you tell how tired Sakura is? She typically goes to bed about 8 pm, and this was near 11 pm!
Of course Papa and Greema couldn't miss Sakura's dance performance!
The second show is when I volunteered for Room Mom, I hadn't wanted to do it because I wondered if Sakura would fuss about her costume with me in the room, whereas I knew she wouldn't with people she didn't know very well --- but my friend Mayumi was going to be the sole Room Mom and I couldn't do that to her - so I told her I would volunteer too. So these are some 'back stage' pictures. We had to entertain 12 (or 13) girls all between 3-4 years old for HOURS! The show is about 2 3/4 hours long, their part is almost at intermission time, needless to say we were HOPPING busy! OMG I don't know if I'd ever volunteer again - some of these girls were great (thankfully mine is included in that), but there were some who didn't listen to anything we said, removed clothing, their shoes, etc, right before it was their turn to go on stage, we had lost shoes - omgoodness it was a lot of work!
The girls wanted to take turns with my camera - so here are some of their captures.
Me and my beautiful girl - taken by Candace
Me and Candace taken by Sakura
Carriana (Mayumi's daughter), Sakura and Candace
Sakura and Candace
Making beaded necklaces
After the final show we all headed to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Sakura got a couple small gifts for her performance.
A new outfit for Baby Yuko - it was a ballerina outfit for her
Sakura was super excited for it to be Daddy's Day! Daddy got home from his business trip late Friday night and she couldn't wait to give him the special tie she had for him .... she had gone to her new preschool earlier in the day Friday, and because she hadn't been there during the week, she didn't make a tie, apparently it really bothered her that her Daddy wouldn't have one of these special tie's, so Miss Clarissa offered for her to take the "sample" - Sakura was SO excited when I picked her up showing me this tie. She also made a nice picture of a tree with her handprints, and at the CDC she had also made a couple cute projects....so gearing up for this day was pretty exciting for her.
Waiting for Daddy
Giving her tie to Daddy at the airport!
Ready to go to dinner at Ah-So
It's SO hot, must I stand for a picture Mommy?!
Daddy and his girl at dinner!
We went to Ah-So since they have the best sushi in town, and Jiichan loves his unagi! We opted for the restaurant side this time vs. the teppanyaki. It was delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and time together.
Dinner time with Daddy and Jiichan - I love this pic!
A little miso with your tofu Sakura?
SO sweet - Sakura loves her Jiichan
I love my family! We are SO blessed to have Bachan and Jiichan right here with us!
It's been a LONG day and Sakura passed out as soon as we got in the car. She was beat!
Daddy leaves for business, Mommy and Sakura have a truly "girlie" day together. It was great. First we took Daddy to the airport for his second of four trips to DC for training, then we headed out for some shopping. Our next stop was pedicures! Sakura loves getting her hair makeup and nails done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, so I knew she would love having a pedi.... I was right. Then we met up with Katie, Nicole and Samantha for lunch - what a FUN day! Daddy needs to travel more ... J/K!
Getting started, how adorable are these children's chairs?!
I think she could get use to this!
Checking everything out
Cutest feet ever!
Ahhhhhh!
Painting begins
MUST get a flower!
All finished!
After lunch we stopped in at Cold Stone Creamery to visit Ryan (Katie's son) and get a cold treat! YUM!
Samantha and Sakura
Three girls - Sam has always said Sakura is her little sister :) In case you don't remember, Katie watched Sakura until she turned 2 .... so they're pretty close to sisters!
Sakura has been complaining about her eyes lately (saying she can't see when the sun is super bright) - she already has an appointment in the big city however it isn't until next month and was for something unrelated (her eyelashes) so we made an appointment with our favorite optometrist for a quick check up. Thankfully Sakura came out fine, there are no issues at all, except he said he would recommend having the eyelashes checked out (we hadn't mentioned we had that appointment separate when he suggested it). Sakura was a PERFECT patient as you can see - and Dr. Brown said he hadn't ever seen such a good 3 year old, responding and identifying his chart, etc. We were quite proud of Sakura!
Several months ago when Sakura had her check-up and cleaning, I asked the dentist about her front teeth, if you looked closely it seemed as if her front teeth were shifting. Her dentist described what she has as a cross-bite, and suggested that we wait until her two year molars came in and then get a "quad-helix" appliance inserted. So the day had finally come, a few weeks earlier Daddy took Sakura in and she had a mold of her mouth, so the appliance was ready to be inserted. Sakura is crazy for the Disney Junior show - Doc McStuffins and her "boy" Stuffy (the dragon) she commonly refers to if she does something that is uncomfortable or unfamiliar - so today I dressed Sakura in a blue dress (Hello Kitty) and told her she was a Big Brave Dragon just like Stuffy (he is blue).
Mommy was quite uptight, and tried to get Daddy to take Sakura in, although the more she thought about it, the harder it would be to not go and be there when Sakura was done. So we all went. Sakura played in the castle until her name was called, then marched back with the dental hygienist for insertion of the quad helix. Several minutes passed and Mommy couldn't stand it, pacing around like a cat on a hot tin roof, reluctantly asked the front desk person to check on Sakura. She came back saying she was doing great, they had inserted the spacers in her mouth to hold it open and Sakura was just looking around - whew what a relief. Several more minutes passed and out came the hygienist holding Sakura's hand saying what a great help she was and that she was super. She tilted her head back and showed us everything. Thankfully you can't see anything when you look at her, only if her head is tilted WAY back. We were never so proud of our little girl. She amazes us with her strength and courage.
Later that night, when we were laying down, I held Sakura tight and told her how very proud of her I was .... I said "Sakura Mommy is SO SO SO proud of what a big girl you were today at the dentist" - Sakura replied "Mommy I'm so so so so so so so so proud of ........." I said "You are so proud of what?" She said "I'm so so so proud of you being a brave dragon too". It melted my heart and I shed a tear (or a few actually), yes I guess I was a brave dragon too.
