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.

May stickers

Alice made it through the entire month of May with just stickers, and no numbers indicating poor behavior. I think she's getting better at pushing her teachers just to the brink, but not over.  Nevertheless, I'm going to  count that as progress. And it's nice that she's ending the year on a positive note!

Simon's Spirals

Simon wanted to paint spirals on paper plates. The two blacks ones were his first attempts (maybe he didn't know what a spiral was?).  But once I demonstrated one for him, he got the hang of it, hence the three spirals on the right.

Why are they on the bathroom floor, one might ask? At Simon's school, the drying rack for the artwork is in the bathroom. Simon has inferred that artwork must dry in bathrooms. He always brings his paintings here.

Heart Faces

Alice's artwork always entertains me.

Penultimate Playdate with Local Grayson

On Memorial day afternoon, Alice had her next-to-last playdate with Grayson before he and his family move to Virginia. We went hiking at Umstead.  Alice and Grayson were super cute and ran ahead most of the time, which was nice because then we grownups could have a conversation.

Down at the river, Alice and Grayson collected a lot of clam shells!