We have survived the end of school and our first week of summer vacation! And it even has turned summery here—had to find all the shorts and sunscreen packed away after the Mexico trip in February. Pretty pitiful to hear all of us complaining about the blazing sun and heat of a 72 degree day.
C had just nine days of school after we returned from Minnesota. Also, one visit to the pediatric oral surgeon where her jaw break was declared healed. However the joint is smaller than normal so we will still be going back regularly for check ups to see if that situation resolves on its own. Fingers crossed. (The next big challenge for C is a dentist visit which will involve having two baby teeth “wiggled”. She is thrilled, mostly due to the belief that for two teeth the tooth fairy is going to give her the power of flight. I might have to ask the dentist for extra drugs that day eh? I am worried about how she will do, but luckily (??) she fell off a climbing thing at a neighbor’s today and one of the teeth to be wiggled is now loose. So we are halfway there!)
Graduation was quite the affair, with a procession, diplomas, and “semi-formal attire” requested for the students. Still puzzling out what that last one meant. Lots of parents showed up with gifts and flowers, and I swear several of the girls were wearing makeup and at least one had her hair professionally done. Needless to say, we were the family grumbling with a 2 year old up past her bedtime, wondering when the power point slide show would ever end. I mean, sure we are proud of her….but it isn’t like most kids drop out of kindergarten, right? Mostly it seems like an attendance thing and as the one who drove her to and from school everyday perhaps SHE should have been bringing ME flowers. In any case, she officially graduated kindergarten.
And was a bit giddy afterwards.
(Why yes, I did panic the day of graduation, run out to Macy’s, and find a fancier dress than anything currently in her closet. Gaped a bit in the back, but that just means she will probably be able to wear it to first grade graduation, right?)
We have a Hanna Andersson outlet near us and I scored this super cute gray jacket. And in even more of a coup, C has agreed to wear it a few times! Usually her sense of style is more, um, unique.
Here she is at a party on the last day of school (classmate has a pool? score!) Her friend is wearing an outfit I made for her birthday—first time appliquéing a knit T shirt and I was pretty pleased.
I noticed everyone else left smaller siblings at home for that party, but we had M along and she loved the pool—and was pretty willing to just sit on the highest two steps rather than attempt to jump fully in on her own. Phew.
M is our little danger seeker. After watching a neighbor (age 5) repeatedly ride his bike down a long driveway, she has started “driving her car” down our driveway, feet up and shouting “wheeeee!” the whole way. In the process she has also flipped off the curb, run over the grass, etc. etc. The car has limited steering. She gets right back up again (although she has also learned about bandaids from big sis so we are going through those at quite a rate). We do insist on excessive helmet wearing now. On this particular day she was a bit gun shy and tended to just push the car up and down the drive.
M is also getting better at jumping. What used to be more of a vigorous return to standing from a squat now shows some actual air underneath the feet.
M for one is quite happy to have C home from school. For her school meant long afternoons of asking “where is my c?” and “where is my sisser?” They can play together pretty well, with C making up most of the games and M playing along with a big smile that says “I am just happy to be here”.
C attended a classmate’s Kindergarten graduation dinner (seriously) and afterwards we took some photos of her looking like a “rock star”. Hmmm.
Father’s day was rainy and cold. It began with C accosting G in bed with about four different cards and some school crafts. One was a paper collage of G’s face (she got the sideburns and beard pretty well) that had a fill in the blank section which included “My dad likes to eat __take out__.” I am sure that will get me a good reputation among the other moms. Anyway, Father’s day. We did brunch and then napped M. Finally, the rain cleared a bit and we were able to hit the beer festival. The kids could do crafts and go on bouncy rides, I (the designated driver) got free root beer, and G, the man of the hour, tried a pretty good sampling of local brews. Except for the incident where M ate some hot sauce (we did tell her repeatedly that it wasn’t her beloved chuppie [ketchup]) a good time was had by all.
Oh, and there was a glimpse of our house in the jumping shots but here are some slightly better ones.
It might seem like I take a ton of photos, but many activities (actually, all) from this past week were unphotographed. Painting ceramics with C and M (“I’s paintin’ mommy!”), baking pretzels with the girls, C agreeing to quiet reading time when I am putting M down for her nap, a new session of swim lessons, free magic show at the library, etc. etc. I have high hopes for this summer and so far the girls seem to be enjoying it. This coming week C does a morning art camp and we all will be preparing for a big fourth of July neighborhood celebration. Our new neighborhood seems to do a lot of activities and we have jumped right in to playdates, wives’ bookclub, men’s poker night, shopping parties (not as excited about these), garage sales and the like. This week the kids’ bookclub begins. Yay!
Jaded Optimist 