Alice's 6th Birthday Day

Alice's 6th birthday started with the traditional cake reveal. Alice told Zac the day before exactly what design she wanted on her cake.

The second birthday surprise was that I told Alice we were going to the Durham science museum.  She was last there three years ago, but remembers it fondly and has been asking to go ever since. I invited my friend Kate to go with us, since Zac and Simon would be going to school and work.

The last time we were here, we visited the butterfly house at the peak of Alice's butterfly phobia and she was miserable. She wasn't terrified this time.

What Alice probably remembered most from three years ago was the dinosaur that she was allowed to climb on.

Just like three years ago, Alice loved digging through the mine rubble for fossils.

Catching a "seed." 

And finally, the best place of all: the mist area.

After Alice was soaking wet, we went and had lunch, then went to a play area so she could dry off more before heading indoors.  There's this really cool tree house area, and Alice climbed all the way to the topmost tree house, but then was scared to come back down, so I had to go rescue her and coach her back down. She did a good job overcoming her fears.

Then more climbing around 

The indoor part of the museum is pretty cool too, with lots of interactive activities for the kids.

Around 4 we finally left. Alice promptly fell asleep in the van, which was good since the traffic was already bad and we took a while to get home.

Back at home, Alice was thrilled to blow up a balloon on her own for the first time ever. Six year olds must be powerful!

Once Zac and Simon got home, we revealed the next surprise: a new bike!

(You can see we opted for blue so Simon can inherit it.)

It came with a sticker pack, so Alice had fun decorating it.

She's a speed demon now!

Finally, supper was ready. Alice had requested chicken wings, corn on the cob, and couscous for her birthday dinner.

Supper was followed by her birthday cake.

Then she could open her presents! (She even let Simon help open some.)

Simon mostly had fun throwing the wrapping paper around.

Alice's face when she discovered her fidget spinner lights up, too!

When Simon had a turn, he put the fidget spinner on his head, like a propeller.

All in all, it was a great birthday. These last six years have been the shortest eternity, the longest blink of an eye.

Alice's last day as a five year old

Monday was the first day of summer break and Alice's last day as a five-year-old. Alice will stay home with me most of the summer (with a few camps here and there for variety). Simon will go to daycare most of the summer, but I'll keep him home with us some days as well.  

Since we'd gone to the pool Saturday and Sunday, we decided to go for a bike ride for our Monday morning activity. We have a lovely greenway right by our house that connects two playgrounds. Alice loves riding her bike!

Then it was back home for a snack. I let Alice cut her own strawberries using a real knife. She was pretty bad at it, but didn't cut herself.

Then Alice put on her formal wear for a trip to Harris Teeter for groceries. She became obsessed with playing with the bear the honey came in, and lost her sunglasses at some point, but otherwise behaved herself.

Summer smoothies

Simon's snowflake

He's a bit of a minimalist.

Alice's 6th Birthday Pool Party

Alice's birthday party this year was at our pool. We can reserve the gazebo there for free, which is a very nice perk. I think we've got the plan for birthdays for the next 10 years covered. We invited a mix of friends from kindergarten (Brantley and Julia), daycare (Izzy, Anna, Lukas, Oscar, Glenn, Murphy) and neighbors (OBJ's family). Everyone we invited was able to come except Parker, so we had about 20 guests total, including parents.

Zac made cupcakes.

About an hour before the party, we went to the pool and decorated the gazebo with dollar store decorations and leftover streamers from last year (or maybe two years ago). As you can see, nothing was color coordinated.  Our "theme" every year is just "colorful!"

The party favors were dive toys and goggles (from the dollar store) and these sunglasses leftover from last year. The sunglasses were a big hit.

Then the kids started showing up. We basically had the pool to ourselves most of the morning, except for one or two other people.

Around noon, we had five pizzas delivered to the pool from Papa John's.

Once everybody sat down, with did the cupcakes, since I knew kids would soon be jumping back in the pool and we didn't want to have to gather everyone up again.

Although the party was officially from 11-1, most people stayed until around 2.  Simon was tuckered out at the end.

Back at home, after nap, we let Alice open her presents from her friends.

We all love the glitter glow lamp. It matches the Fight-Over lamp nicely.

Crepe team!

We usually have crepes or pancakes on the weekends. The kids love to help sift the flour and stir for the crepes.

Last day of Kindergarten!

Friday was both Alice and my last day of school. But whereas I have nearly 30 years left at my school (yikes!) this was really her last day at hers, since she'll be going to the school in our new neighborhood next year.

Alice said she felt happy that she wouldn't have any more school (she calls summer break "the long weekend") but sad that she wouldn't see her teachers anymore. We can do playdates with her friends, so she's less worried about missing them. When I picked her up at the playground from after school, I teared up a bit, feeling happy she had such a good experience at this school, and nervous if the new one would be as good.

Bubble Boy in the Bath

Simon sings in the bathroom

Simon has been singing this song about D-A-DD-Y that he learned at school for the Father's Day program a lot lately.

This long video of Simon singing in the bathroom right before bed is perhaps not terribly interesting in and of itself, but it just seems like it'll be really funny to look back on later. I love how he mismashes song tunes and lyrics, often adding his own word substitutions. or phrases from storybooks. What must be going on in this kid's brain?

Alice's Kindergarten End of Year Program

On Tuesday, Alice's kindergarten had their end of year celebration (although Friday is the official last day).  It started with a singing program in the gym.  Alice had been dreading this for weeks, as she suffers from extreme stage fright. Whenever it came up, I kept talking her through it, asking what her worst fears were (people not clapping, people laughing) and told her that everybody would clap, and if anybody laughed, it was only because the kids were so cute. I told her most parents were just watching their own kids and not even paying attention to her.

So I was quite happy that at the actual performance, she seemed a bit nervous, but didn't cover her face or stand there like a zombie (as she had in years past at daycare programs). In fact, if you look closely, she is usually singing and even doing the hand motions. Progress!

Here are a few clips of the songs. Alice is in the very top/back row, 7th kid from the right.

After the kids went back to their classroom and got settled, the parents were invited to the classrooms, where for Alice's class, Ms. Winterton gave a little speech about each kid and then gave them a personalized "award" and a real plastic gold cup. Because the teacher would first describe the student and then announce the name at the very end, it was impossible to record the speech about Alice without recording all of them.  So to the best of my recollection, Ms. Winterton said Alice was going to be a fabulous talk show host some day. I'm surprised she didn't say lawyer, but maybe Alice talks more than argues at school, so I guess that's a positive. Alice got the "Spunky Spirit" award.

Brantley, Alice, Julia

After the classroom program was over, we all went outside for a picnic on the playground. I like that somehow Alice always picks friends with parents that I also really like. It's very convenient. So we had our picnic with Brantley and Julia's parents.  It was great fun. Alice sat in the very middle (because nobody puts Alice in a corner).

Ms. Wilson, & Ms. Winterton

Alice has had such a great kindergarten experience, thanks in large part to these lovely ladies!

Tricycling

Simon always wants to ride his bike after school, but that's when we're busy trying to get supper ready and on the table. Zac had the idea to just have Simon ride his bike on the deck. Simon loved it.

Night Flight

Last playdate with Local Grayson )-:

We had our last playdate with Grayson and his family on Sunday morning at our neighborhood pool.  We got there pretty early and basically had the place to ourselves.  Since they were moving in a few days, Grayson wouldn't be able to come to Alice's birthday party the next week (at the pool) so it was nice that they sort of had their own pool party.

We are all sad they're moving away, but they plan to visit and maybe we can visit them. They ultimately plan to move back here, but who knows.  At any rate, we all had a fun morning at the pool.

Morning at the pond

The kids took turns practicing casting with the fishing rod (just a plastic fish on the end, no hook) until Simon got the line all tangled up and they set it aside to build a water fort.

How Simon eats supper

He is always scanning the sky for aircraft.

Casting practice

I'm not sure exactly why, but Alice suddenly became interested in fishing. We'd bought her a practice pole for her birthday a year or two ago, but she just couldn't get the hang of casting, so we put it up for a while. But when Zac took her down to the pond to practice today, she picked it up really quick. Although her casts aren't perfect every time, she occasionally does a great one. (To be fair, even I have trouble properly casting with the push-botton rod).

Simon wrote his name!

When I picked Simon up at school, his teacher excitedly told me that he had written his own name that day.  I couldn't believe it, because as far as I had seen, Simon didn't even hold a pencil properly and didn't appear to know the alphabet. She said they had him trace it first, then look at the tracing and write it. She had the evidence, and it was quite exciting to see him write the name we had picked out for him for the first time!

I asked him to write his name at home, and this is what he produced:

So he still needs some practice.