Lilly is bringing home all her school work and artwork now that the year is almost over.
Here is her self portrait.
For Lilly's final project in Daisy's, and this is her FINAL project because we will never do Daisy's/Girl Scouts again, she had to put together a poster board on Fish. She included 5 facts about fish. The center piece of her poster was a fishbowl she had made in art class and brought home the day before her Daisy presentation.
(Also that day she knocked heads with a McKenna at recess and got that bruise in the middle of her forehead. She said the reason she got a bruise was because McKenna's head was as hard as a rock.)
Then we celebrated by running in the sprinkler.
And Jack wore his new Lighting McQueen hat, I only bought it because it was the only hat I could get near his head and the boy needs some sun protection.
About a week and a half ago Lilly had her Author's Tea at school. Her kindergarten class invited family and friends to attend a Tea to meet the kindergarten authors and hear readings from their original writings. The kindergartners worked on their writings for months and compiled them into a special book entitled "All About Me."
Jim was able to attend that day and I made the conscious choice not to be the parent who brought her camera to every single event. I thought we could both be present and pay attention without taking pictures and video. So, I left my camera's at home. I didn't forget them, I purposely left them at home.
When I walked into Lilly's classroom I saw that every adult present had their cameras and that some people even had tripods!! I was devastated to say the least and vowed from that day on to not hide who I really am, but to always have multiple cameras to document every moment that I feel needs documenting.
That said, I relied on Jim's iTouch, which has video and photo taking capabilities, to capture the event. I am grateful that we have something to remember the day.
For the Author's Tea, Mrs. Perrquet completely rearranged the room and created a sitting area for friends and family. She had a table set up with drinks, treats, and snacks. She also had over 20 Mylar helium balloons to decorate the room.
She began with a slideshow presentation. Each slide was a picture of a student and their author's biography. After the slideshow each child joined their parents and read their stories to them. Then we had treats and went home, it was so precious.
I was excited to share the video of Mrs. Perruquet reading Lilly's bio, only to find that the iTouch didn't pick up any sound for the video. Instead I put together a ridiculous montage of the video and pictures of her book so I can have a video memory. This is really only for me and the most dedicated relative. It is slow motion slides of Lilly's drawings and writings.
Speaking of Jim's iTouch, I found some other pictures that he had hiding on there.
Based on the outfit, this picture must be from last summer. Based on the floor and door I can see, I think it is at my Dad's house. Based on Jack, I gather that he was sleeping and we brought his car seat in the house.
Lilly got into the Halloween decorations last fall and found my witches hat. I actually remember this event.
For Christmas I received a 2lb reese's cup, or a 1lb cup, I can't remember. We put Lilly's hand next to it for a size reference. Then Jack ate it. I can't remember anything else, this is why I take pictures and blog regularly, otherwise I might forget I have children entirely (based on the chair I gather we were at my mom's house).
The only time I can ever get Jack to sit still for the video camera is when he is at the table eating. That is the only time he is ever in one place long enough to capture for video.
We had just made dinner and were eating when Jack started quacking like an insane duck, so we added in a joke and got it on film. I hate that my messy counter is in the video, but that's how it happened.
Here is the extended directors cut of the previous video. This time I added in some footage from earlier in the week where he was just being extra cute.
Monday, May 28, 2012
One Sunday afternoon in May we played outside for hours and took lots and lots of pictures.
Jack has adorable squishy cheeks. He was distracted which gave me a chance to squish them.
I think Lilly wanted in on the squishing too.
We set up toy little pet shops.
We swung on the swings.
See my legs on the swing below. Proof that I was outside being fun that day.
We played on the slide.
We checked out Jim's garden. His garden is growing and growing. We used Jack as a measurement for the onions. He did not like being used as an onion comparison. (See the really tall plant, that is taller than Jack? That is onion. The green part is green onion and then there is a regular onion underground attached to the green part. Crazy, right? All the farmers knew that, I am just a few centuries behind on my farming knowledge.)
Then we took a family walk. Jack likes to walk in onesies with sneakers and NO socks. It's his style.
Lilly modeled the apron my mom made her with no pattern or tutorial. Under the apron is the skirt I started for her and my mom finished for her.
We like to walk down the street where there is a small path in a small wooded area.
This month has been so busy and I haven't been able to get in all the little side posts that I wanted to. I am caught up on our major family events (races, graduation, recitals, etc.) but this is a little update from the other days of the month.
At the beginning of the month we had the most incredible double rainbow right over our house. The pictures do not do it justice, but Lilly and I were outside in the sprinkling rain amazed by the rainbow.
(This is the view across the street from our front yard. You can kind of see the second band.)
(It was a perfect rainbow arc, right over our street.)
The first weekend in May was my half marathon. The race also coincided with Spring Fling, a street festival in town. Before I had even finished the race, Lilly asked me if she could get her face painted. I was running to the finish line and she was shouting "Can I PLEASE get my face painted?" The face painting line was really long, so I said no. Luckily for her, she has a really nice Dad who took her back later in the day to get her face painted.
After the face painting and my 3 hour nap we took the kids to the drive in (the only movie theater in Danville) in our "new to us" mini van. We positioned the car so the kids could watch some kids pirate movie in the back and we could watch The Avengers in the front.
Drive-in's are not what they used to be (or so I am guessing, I have only ever been to a drive-in here in Danville, as an adult). You listen to the movie through your radio, which poses a dilemma when you are trying to watch two movies at one time.
We had a plan though. We parked the car in front of the screen playing the kids movies and had the kids watch from the back of the van. The other cars were playing the radio loud enough that the children could hear from their radios. We put our radio in the front speakers of the car and tuned in to watch The Avengers, our drive-in is fancy and has three screens.
Lilly fell asleep right away, which was always my master plan, to have the children fall asleep right away so we could watch The Avengers. However, Jack would not be lulled into peaceful slumber. He climbed all over us and the car and took the opportunity to sit in Lilly's booster seat while she was sleeping (during the movie). He climbed up and finished the end of our movie with us and didn't fall asleep until we pulled into our driveway.
I held my spring piano recital last Saturday at the local Baptist church. It was a beautiful church and a beautiful piano.
About 2/3 of my students participated and they all performed beautifully. Lilly, who takes lessons from my friend Heidi, also performed in the recital. Heidi recently retired her piano studio but kept on Lilly as a swap. I teach her daughter and she teaches mine. Lilly joined in my recital, under clear circumstances that I was not her teacher.
(Lilly's teacher, Heidi Parkinson)
It was a great recital, the piano playing only lasted about 35 minutes, then I passed out certificates and called it good. I have about 5 beginners whose pieces weren't longer than 20 seconds, so that helped to speed things a long.
My mom came and brought flowers for both her performers.
I played a duet with Heidi, who is moving away. We played "For Good" from Wicked, which is about two friends parting ways. I attempted to explain that at the recital and just did a lot of crying.
After the recital we went to lunch with my mom and Jim's family and Lilly carried her flowers around like a beauty queen. People stopped her and asked her what the flowers were for, she had never been prouder to carry those flowers around town.
(She held them just like that as she walked. I told people that she actually had NO pageant training.)
Jim took all the pictures and video from the recital, because I was in the front running the show. Here is a clip of Lilly's song "All the Pretty Little Horses."
Here is the duet with Heidi:
I will miss my friend! I need to find someone else to play duets with for next year. Great year of piano lessons, now I am excited for summer vacation!
She received her associates degree in her early 20's, and 38 years later went back to get her Bachelor's degree in Legal Studies.
She of course graduated all fancy, Magna Cum Laude.
In preparation for the graduation we brought a bag of iPads (three to be exact) and my mom made cute gifts bags with treats for the children to open every 30 minutes.
Jack held firm to his iPad for the entire graduation while Jim, Lilly, and I rotated through the other two iPads. You might be judging us at this point (shame on you), but the graduation was in a basketball arena, and it was so crowded that we were all the way in the back and couldn't really hear anything. Oh, and my mom didn't walk across the stage until 2 hours and 45 minutes into the graduation, upon which we all left (her idea). We would have happily sat for the next hour of graduation, but we had dinner reservations at the Melting Pot!
There were a couple thousand graduates at the UMD graduation. Thanks to Jim's telephoto lens and cell phones we were able to track my mom down in the huge crowd.
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