Sunday was Lukas's birthday party at Pullen Park. Mostly the kids chased each other around in the grass, but they congregated at the picnic tables for a craft and snacks and cake. While the kids played, all the parents talked about kindergarten and how much we want to keep the gang together. This has been such a great group of kids and parents.
Our friend who lives nearby and also has a rising kindergartner put together a little party Friday night for all the people she knew who had kindergartners headed to Cary Elementary. It was a really nice gesture, and fun to see the kids (future friends?) running around together. Alice was pretty bonkers.
All our training taking pictures constantly pays off. Alice is the only one ready and looking at the camera.
On Sunday we went to Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve for a little hike. The hike was probably under 2 miles total, so Simon was able to walk the whole time. We spent some time playing at the creek, then enjoyed some old beech trees, and hiked up a bluff, then down to the adjacent golf course and watched some men play golf, then had snacks and headed back to the van. Even though we sprayed everyone in advance, the kids still got a lot of mosquito bites.
At the creek, Simon pretended to fish while Alice collected shells and golf balls from the creek.
We also appreciated some of the large beech trees that are about 200 years old.
The best part, as far as Simon was concerned, was that he found a dead cicada early on and carried it around the whole time. Alice eventually lent him her bug watch to hold it for a bit. Finally, towards the end of the hike, we found a dead cicada for Alice (who had been quite sad the whole time that she didn't have a dead cicada to carry around).
We went to Ridge Road pool with the kids on Saturday and planned to meet Grayson's family there. Unplanned was the three other families from daycare that were also at that pool that day. So it ended up being really fun!
Simon continues to do well kicking around with his floaties on. Alice continues to make progress on her doggy paddling without floats. She swam about 3/4 of the pool length todaywithout stopping. The irony is that doggy paddling is the hardest way to swim, so she will do much better once she learns some real strokes.
On Sunday morning, the kids got up and played trains for a while. Simon is wearing his train engineer outfit that Cam (or Santa?) got him for Chistmas.
Then, we headed to Target to do Alice's school shopping. She picked out a Supergirl backpack and a Wonder Woman lunch box.
Then we had some fun in the toy aisle while Zac picked out all the boring stuff on the school supply list.
After Target, we made a quick stop at Dick's Sporting Goods to get me a pair of goggles and Zac some running shoes and sunglasses. The kids had a lot of fun there too.
Back at home, Alice got her first fingernail painting. She used her own money to buy two bottles of nail polish at Target: sparkly blue and sparkly green. Here we go!
That evening, since her piggy bank was out, she made herself some money pants.
On the weekend, we let Alice stay up a bit to watch some Olympics. She is really annoying, because all through the events she asks a million questions, and also during the commercials. She doesn't understand anything on real TV.
Here she is after Team USA won three swim races in a row. Then she gets a bit silly.
Saturday morning was Anna's birthday pool party. Alice and Simon were so excited. Alice made progress in that she jumped off the side of the pool. Simon continued to do well kicking around with his floaties on.
On Thursday, Grayson came over for a playdate while his parents went to his kindergarten orientation meeting. He and Alice had a blast, chasing each other around and jumping in the bouncy castle.
Sunday was overcast, so it seemed a perfect day to go swimming at Lake Falls. The water was warm and the beach was sparsely populated, so it was a great morning.
Simon had first used his floaties at the mountain house last week, and today he figured out how to kick his legs and swim (rather than just bob in the water). It's pretty cool to see him coming along and growing braver.
Friday night, Zac walked to our friends' house for a "manly poker night" and texted me that there was a rainbow outside. I took the kids out to view it.
On Tuesday, we got a last-minute e-mail that Oscar was having a last minute birthday party, hosted at his uncle's house. It turned out to be just be Alice and some neighbors and some cousins. But there were so many fun things to play with that Alice didn't even notice. It should be mentioned that the uncle has no kids of his own, just tons of nephews.
First, the human kids played in the goat pen.
Then, they played in the old truck.
Then, Alice tried driving a truck.
Oscar's dad runs a business that does inflatables and small rides for parties and festivals, so he had The Wizzer set up in the driveway. Alice absolutely loved it.
I even got to ride on it! It was super fun!
Then, she took a turn at billiards and pinball.
Then it was back outside, to race around the track.
Seeing as how it was a school night, I took Alice home around 7pm. This was totally unacceptable and she had a big meltdown with lots of dramatic crying. It was mainly because she was hungry though, since there were too many fun things going on to stop and have supper (she only ate a bit of watermelon.)
