Kid Art

I know I have written many times about kid art, but I love it so and can't help myself from sharing more.  Something about it is so pure and joyful.  Here are my favorites from AJ's kindergarten year.  This is a good way to celebrate the end of AJ's kindergarten year.  It is amazing how much he has learned in the past year.  He went into kindergarten reading and writing a handful of words and came out reading at an "H" level in the Scholastic Books, basically some medium-easy stories.  In math, he was very proud of having made a number scroll all the way to one thousand and learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide.  He still has his challenges with sitting still, keeping his hands to himself and doing what his school calls his "non-preferred" activities, but we are so proud of how far he has come.  Most of all, I love to see how proud he is of himself.

Tea Party

It was a rainy and slightly chilly Memorial Day weekend here, but this was perfect for baking cookies and having a tea party with every single stuffed animal in the entire house.  Julia packed her suitcase and took everyone to California for tea and cookies.

Two for Two

This week David had two front teeth that were hanging by a thread and the adult teeth were already visible behind them pushing their way through whether mom was ready for it or not.  Where did the time go?  Somehow this event snuck up on me and surprised me more than David's preschool graduation, which was the same week.  I am so excited for David to go to kindergarten and experience what I hope is the joy of school that I was only proud, not sad or emotional, at preschool graduation.  This was also the week of AJ's kindergarten graduation, and there were several parents there who were emotional and crying at the milestone.  I have felt nothing of excitement and happiness for my kids so far (and relief--we made it through some long years!), but I have a feeling this might change by the time Julia is going through.

Davey happily showed off his three "gold doubloons" (one dollar gold coins) that he received from the tooth fairy.  Big brother AJ is a little unnerved to have had Davey catch up to him so quickly in lost teeth and is telling anyone who will listen that he already has two other teeth that are "really wiggly and will fall out any day now."  I think this may also be related to a little bit of protectiveness about holding onto his position of being the oldest and the first with talk starting about how Davey will be at AJ's school in the fall.  When I told Davey to smile for a picture here to show off his first lost tooth, AJ quickly said "take one of us together because we BOTH have lost teeth!"  Davey was happy to be welcomed into AJ's embrace as one of the big guys.

The Graduate

It's official...David has graduated from preschool to the big leagues.  Although due to the crazy winter this year, he had his graduation on the day it was originally scheduled for and then had to go back for an extra seven days of school to make up for snow days, so it was a bit confusing for the preschool set to get a good grip on what graduation meant.   We heard a lot of "we are done with preschool...except for another seven days!"

David was as entertaining as ever at the graduation, enthusiastically singing along with his class song and beaming throughout the entire ceremony.  Each of the seven preschool classes in the district sang a song, and David's class song was called "I want to be a dog" in which each of them acted out barking, licking, scratching fleas and tail wagging.  After the ceremony, we ran into a family friend who said "Oh, that's your son?!?  My mom was watching him during the ceremony and said he looks like trouble!"  Did I mention that David also received a certificate from his preschool class for being the funniest kid in Sunday School?  (I don't remember this award being handed out when I was little!). I am thinking he might enjoy some acting classes, but they asked each child to tell what they wanted to be when they grow up as part if the graduation ceremony, and David said he wanted to be a police officer.  I would be curious to hear what Jimmy Fallon wanted to be when he was little.

Mudder's Day

I was thoroughly spoiled for Mother's Day and got to spend the afternoon with my mom and Joe & the kids, so it was about as low-key and perfect as could be.  Joe and the kids actually pulled off breakfast in bed with waffles, whipped cream, bacon and coffee.  We all ate on the bed and no one spilled anything--success!  In the afternoon we tried the natural playscape up at Saylorville Lake and took a walk around a learning pond there.  I think my favorite part of it all, though, was the dandelion bouquet.  The kids were thrilled to pick about 75 dandelions and proudly presented fistfuls of yellow blooms to me.  The sweetest.