1st grade...

well, i have a little new york schoolgirl :) makenzie started first grade this week. it's funny because she started on wednesday and then had thursday and friday off for rosh hashanah, so a very short first week. this next week will be a little more strange that she is in school all day everyday! in kindergarten she only went for 3 1/2 hours, so her being gone all day will be so weird! she was so excited to start and was bummed to not get to go back yet. :)

schools are quite different here! tall big buildings that don't really look like schools. lots of floors of classrooms with long hallways. not your typical california school style. :) and her playground is on the roof, haha. :)

here she is, excited for the day!

in our house...



on our stoop and in front of the school...


by her cubby...


making her nametag at her desk...

lucky that this is "normal life"...

it's been raining for days and we've been cooped up in the house. the sun came out today and it was beautiful so we took advantage of that and spent the day in central park. we don't live right near central park, it's just a few stops on the subway. every time i'm up there i'm reminded of another reason to love living in nyc. i could never get tired of central park. it's so beautiful. makenzie and i had a picnic, climbed on rocks, walked on the paths, rode the carousel, walked to one of the ponds- it was perfect.

sometimes i forgot to document the normal/everyday life so here are some iphone pics of the day :).





attempting a self portrait, a little hard with the iphone...


she wanted a picture of her on the big rock...




found a good walking stick...


first time on the central park carousel...


fishing with her walking stick...




felt very touristy asking for our picture to be taken, with my phone, haha :)

curls...

makenzie does not have my hair, thank goodness. :) i prayed that she wouldnt end up with curly hair and i hope that she still doesn't. while it can be nice sometimes to have the option of curls or straight, really curly hair is just such a pain.

but makenzie, at this age, wishes for curls somedays. julie told me about a way she read online about putting the hair up when it is slightly wet into little spiral buns to make it curly. we tried it and it turns out really cute. :)

makenzie and her curls...

last night before bed...




this morning...

tooth #4...

makenzie lost her 4th tooth a couple days ago. as usual, it was super loose but she was scared to have it pulled. every time it is so stressful and dramatic! i can't ever seem to pull the teeth, so michael always does it. and every time, once it's out, it's no big deal! :)

last time she lost her tooth she said she wished she kept it and decided the next tooth she would keep. well on the night it happened she changed her mind and left it in the tooth box for the tooth fairy. well, last night she regretted it and decided to write a letter to the tooth fairy asking for it back.



as you can see she added that she would like to be woken up. she really wishes she could see the tooth fairy. i wasn't sure what to do but i ended up with this explanation. :) i wrote in cursive, i was kind of nervous she would recognize my handwriting! and wow, it's hard for me to write in cursive! :)



here she is with her missing tooth. funny that she's lost all the bottom teeth before the top teeth. they are loose but i guess the new permanent bottom teeth knocked the side teeth looser first.

exploring...

makenzie told me yesterday that she packed up her backpack and wanted to go on a safari to find animals. i reminded her we live in the city and that's not really possible. she thought about it for a while and said she just wanted to go on a long walk with the dogs and explore. so we did. :) she led the way, looked for "nature", took pictures, used her binoculars and her magnifying glass. oh and apparently, this was her safari outfit haha. a fancy dress, one of michael's hats, sneakers with socks. who knows why. but i didn't want to burst her bubble, so i let her wear it out. :)

heading out, leading the way...


she stopped to take a picture of the waverly place street sign. there's a show on disney called, wizards of waverly place. :)




her picture of her first animal sighting...haha, one of the few animals in nyc...


with copper and penny, who were thrilled with the exploration...


getting binoculars ready...


happened to blow the biggest bubble ever!!!


first nature sighting...un ripe grapes....


her picture of the "nature"...


her picture of the hudson river...






got out the magnifying glass to see if there was anything exciting...


found some ants...


played with flower petals...


second animal sighting...


she thought this lamp post looked like the empire state building. so this is her climbing the empire state building. she told me to twitter that, hahha. :)


we had so much fun exploring our neighborhood :)

it's still technically spring, right???

we were lucky to move just before the trees blossomed in nyc. it was so beautiful! unfortunately, it doesn't last too long before a spring rain comes and they all fall off. makenzie loved it. one of the trees reminded me of those tissue paper trees you make at school. i told makenzie about it and she wanted to make one too. i kept forgetting to buy tissue paper when we were out. yesterday she remembered and made one today. fun and cute. :)

beautiful springtime...











makenzie's spring tree...

singer/songwriter...

makenzie loves to sing and dance, but all in the privacy of her own room. she will NOT perform at all. but then she tells me she wants to be a famous singer and actor. i told her you have to do it in front of people and she got chicken again. :)

she spent her birthday money on a hannah montana wig, outfit and microphone. it's so cute.



she also has been into writing songs. she won't sing them for me but she is so proud to write them. i'll have to find some of the other ones she's written but this is her latest...

how cute is this...

(ignore the period placement at the end of each line, haha)