Preschool Graduation

Hailey graduated from preschool a couple of weeks ago.  sigh. As excited as she is to go to Kindergarten, I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that all my kids are old enough to be in elementary school.  Where did the time go.  How has this spunky, funny, cute little girl get to be so big and grown up? 

Hailey's school always puts on a big production for the kids (well the parents too I suppose).  The kids walked in to the graduation march (caps and all).  Then each class sang a song and each child received their diploma.  A big day for Hailey.



on stage....she found us...."Hi Hailey"

with her classmates....waiting

performing their "stick" song

ta da!

and she's a graduate!!!

Her teachers Mrs. Eberli and Mrs. Milne

the official certificate

We were so lucky to have such great preschool teachers for our kids.  Both Tyler and Hailey had Mrs. Eberli and Mrs. Milne.  Their days were filled with friends and projects and games and work.  Mrs. Eberli is so good at balancing the fun and keeping the kids in line.  I think it is so important for the kids to learn at an early age how to be respectful in the classroom and the proper way to treat teachers and classmates.  I couldn't be more pleased with our experience at Kids at the Creek.  What a great school.  And thank you Mrs. Eberli.  We will miss you!

Splash Dance

Hailey's dance recital this year was very cute.  She is a good little dancer.    Unfortunately she no longer want to take dance because she doesn't like the bar work.   This is where the parenting becomes difficult.  I don't want to push her into something she doesn't enjoy.  On the other hand, Hailey spends half her day twirling, dancing, leaping.  She doesn't even know she's doing it...it's just the way she is.  She wants to just do gymnastics which is fine since she was asked to join the pre team this year.  She could be an outstanding gymnast but I'm not she it's really a good fit for her personality.  I envision a tantrum and storming off the floor when she makes a mistake or doesn't "win".  So not sure how I'm going to parent this one.  But here is my super cute dancer!!



Waiting for dress rehearsal. 

 The stage part of dancing is pretty fun!

 My gymnast girl in her team leotard.

Ordinary Days - May

Homemade catapults, jelly bean and marshmellow cannon balls, and lego figure targets.....a good hour of fun!

 Mother's day.

 The end of a bike ride in Woodinville.

My colorful girl!

 Bee memorial/cemetary

Corn on the cobb

Readers

I'm so excited to have two readers this summer.  I must admit I have visions of us all sitting out on the deck and reading for a half hour everyday once the weather gets nice.  It might just be a dream but it would be lovely.  I'm so proud of both kids arnd their reading.  Tyler is loving that he can read some chapter books now.  He's read a significant number of the Magic Tree house books.  Once he starts he doesn't want to stop.  I think he is really enjoying the stories.  Hailey was reading the Magic Tree House books as well for a bit.  She was making it through a book a day there for a few weeks but has stopped.  I think she was trying to keep up with Tyler.  And though she if fully capable of reading the chapter books she still prefers the picture books.  That is great.  We are definitely not pushing her into the deep reading yet.  I've found she is spending a lot more time actually reading her picutre books too and not just looking a the pictures.  She has one book inparticular that she reads over and over again.  Her grandma bought her a book that has 6 or 7 stories about baby animals that includes photograph pictures.  She loves that book and reads it everyday.  Here's to sunny summer days and kids who want to read!

neighbor cat

....still Hailey's best friend.

257

Sometimes when Hailey is bored (while Tyler is at school) and she says "no" to all of my ideas of thing to do, we just get out the camera and take pictures.  Many are silly, lots are terrible, and it's mostly just a filler to keep us busy for a while.  So thankful for digital cameras and the ability to take 257 pictures of nothing in particular.  Here's a small sampling.

And then when we were through with that we planted the sunflower Hailey brought home from preschool.  And we made a sign.  Poor flower has since died but was a tasty meal for some bug/slug.

 Shortly after we picked Ty up from school and captured a few photos of him eating and Hailey showing off her sunflower.

And then it was off to all our after school craziness and the day was done.

Rocket Launch

Tyler's last scouting event of the year was a rocket launch.  It was just one event on one of our fun filled, schools almost out, weekends.  The day before we had our family fun run and Tyler had a baseball game.  On this day it was rocket launch and then over to cousins house for Matt's birthday party.  Tyler loves weekends like this! 

I don't think Tyler really knew what to expect with the whole rocket launch.  We arrived, registered and Tyler watched the launches for a few minutes.  His smile grew and he was ready to launch.

registering

watching

waiting to launch

 Meanwhile.............

 Ready for take off

ready to launch

 A successful first launch (phew!).   You hate to be the parent of the kid who had a faulty rocket.

 Of course the best part of all is sprinting out to the field to see if you can catch your rocket!

 Meanwhile...........

 Each scout was able to do two launches.  Tyler's rocket is just getting set.

 It's a little hard to see but he is way out there and his rocket is drifting down.

 A successful catch and a happy Ty.

 Meanwhile.........

 Soon followed by

cupcakes and watching everyone else's launch

 From the launch we headed to Renton for Matt's birthday.  The hit of the party were the lazer tag guns.  Good times for Tyler.

team Tyler/Alan

 Happy 9th birthday Matt!