Kids Outings, Summer Classes, Nanny Update

 Fun Outings, Play dates

Now that I've started completing many of my "To Do List",  its free up some more of my time to do so many other wonderful things. One of them is of course spending much more quality fun time with my kids with outings and play dates. This week, we took the two girls to Happy Hollow Zoo and park. They had a blast! It was Emma's first time sitting on rides on her own and she loved it! We saw a puppet show, ride the dragon train, ate outside in the nice summer weather, and had fun riding many rides, such as the carousel and others.

Since the kids are so social, I also plan weekly play dates for them.  It's nice that they love to play with other kids since this gives me time to catch up with friends as well. So, last week we had 2 dinner play dates. One was to a church friend's swimming dinner party and another day with our other friends at Santana Row.

Summer Classes

Now that Ethan is in full day preschool 5 days a week, Ellen says she is ready to go too! She absolutely loves singing, dancing, drawing, reading and playing with other kids her own age.  So, we've decided to enroll her too at the nearby Tiny Tots preschool program, part time, 5 days a week from 9AM to 12PM.  We've also enrolled her into a Saturday course called Princess Ballerina dancing class.  She is so super excited and anxious to go! Her program starts end of June.

Starting in June is also when Ethan and Ellen start their private swimming lessons at the nearby YMCA twice a week. Their class starts in the early evening right after Ethan is done with his preschool and has a bite to eat.  They can't wait! I hope they enjoy it and start developing some basic swimming skills since they love the water. Knowing how to swim is such a necessary life saving skill and I really hope they master it. If they do well, we will continue to enroll them in swim lessons until they become certified skilled swimmers!

Nanny Update
So with the two older kids in 5 days preschool, and I will be mainly caring for our youngest, Emma and Ellen after her preschool program, we decided that we may not need a full time nanny after all.  This will save us so much financially and I hope it works out. We have some back up sitters we have in mind just in case I do get overwhelm or tired on the days or evenings we may need help.  It's expensive for us to keep hiring our full time live in nanny. Besides, our live nanny doesn't fully fit ours nor the kids needs since she doesn't speak nor understand English, doesn't interact, read, teach or play with the kids nor does she drives. 

Hence, it's best for our older kids to be in an environment that continually offers opportunities to educate, inspire, sparkle and tickle their intellectual minds and interests.