Q and I have been taking the girls to a lot of flooring stores lately (thank goodness for our iPad and smartphones, which help keep them occupied), so they’re well aware that we’re in full-fledged remodeling mode. But I had to laugh the other night when Avery asked me what I was watching on TV. After I told her it was a home show, she nodded knowingly and said, “Oh, so you know which tile to buy?”
-M
As mentioned, Great America was one of the places that we took Avery for during her week off. Here are a few pics.
-M
Another big treat for Zoe yesterday, when she and her fellow kindergarteners embarked on a bus/ferry trip to Angel Island. It was their last field trip (and one of their last days) of the school year, and I’m so glad I got to join them!
-M
The last thing I’ll say about Zoe and her kindergarten celebration involves her dress. Several weeks before the event, Zoe said she wanted to wear something special – so I told her we’d go shopping for a new dress. We looked several places and had little luck, until last weekend when I spotted the one we ultimately purchased. I wasn’t sure if she would like it, considering the color and material, but the second she slipped it on she immediately did a twirl and said she loved it. (In fact, she even chose the pink over another color – a light green – that the dress also came in.) On Thursday night she asked if I would paint her nails – which I did, since it was a special occasion – and she was excited with my choice of a matching pale pink.
Look, this isn’t the first time Zoe has worn a dress – or even a “girlie” one. But this is a kid who for months now has said that that her favorite color is black and that she doesn’t like pink, who mostly plays with boys, and who has made it clear in the past that she wants nothing to do with princesses (fine by me). Yet there she was – wearing a pale pink lace dress with pale pink nail polish, and dancing around and saying that she felt like a princess on Friday morning. It was so un-Zoe like and so sweet that this (admittedly girlie mom) couldn’t help but smile!
-M
And lastly, one of my favorite shots from Friday’s event.
-M
A sampling of the songs (more than half of which were sung in Hebrew) performed by Zoe and her classmates yesterday. The first one below was the most fun to watch!
-M
Yesterday was Zoe’s end-of-kindergarten celebration, which featured an 11-song (!) ceremony, lunch and dancing in the gym, and some picture taking. That’s Zoe’s close friend Zachary, and her teacher, Mr. Ferris, in the last two pics.
-M
There’s a celebration for the kindergarteners and their families at Zoe’s school this morning. We spent some time helping set up the gym after pick-up yesterday, and Zoe and her classmates’ biggest contribution was decorating a wall with paper honeycomb, bees and flowers. They were so proud!
-M
It’s been a super busy week for me and Avery, who is off school (and doesn’t have camp yet). We’ve gone to an amusement park and the zoo; had two playdates; taken a Wonderbug Adventures class on butterflies; and done – of course – a bit of shopping. I think she’s having fun (“I love not having school,” she called out while skipping down the sidewalk yesterday), and I know I’m wearing her out: She has taken a long nap every day this week!
-M
Two recent money-related comments that made me laugh (for different reasons):
-Zoe was counting up the money in her Darth Vader piggy bank last night, and she told me she was trying to figure out if she had enough to buy a Death Star toy that she’s been eyeing. “How much do you think it is?” I asked, to which she shrugged. “I dunno – probably like a million dollars.”
-While browsing in our neighborhood bookstore recently, Q told Avery – who’s not yet nighttime potty-trained - that we would buy her a book as a treat for having a dry pull-up the night before. Avery picked out two books and when Q firmly said that we could only get one, she told him, “C’mon, we have enough money.”
-M
With about a week left of kindergarten, I asked Zoe for her thoughts on the year, her teachers, and her friends. As you’ll see, (a visibly tired) Avery wanted to weigh in, also.
-M
Something I love about kids: How much joy they get over the simplest of things. Like ice cream cones – which we got yesterday at an old-fashioned drive-through in the South Bay. We were running some house-related errands down there, and this quick summery stop (and the girls’ happiness about it) made a regular old Sunday feel special.
-M
We’re about six weeks into our house renovation project, and the girls have adjusted well to the noise, our inability to use the garage, and the comings-and-goings of many workers. Zoe got really excited when she watched the concrete truck do its thing (twice), and she’s also strangely interested in the truck that comes to clean the port-o-potty parked on our sidewalk for the workers. (For whatever reason, Zoe always seems to be at the window during its weekly stop.) As for Avery, she’s most interested in “the man.” “Is the man coming today?” she asks almost daily, and when she hears the garage door go up she’ll nod knowingly and say, “The man’s here.”
-M
The girls have a hit a stage where they’re pretty much always playing together. If not drawing or playing some sort of make-believe game (usually family, ice-cream shop, or doctor), you might find them giving each other piggyback rides, wrestling, mugging it up for the camera, or playing games on Mommy’s coveted iPhone.
-M
Avery and I are both on vacation for the next 10 days, and we started our time together with a warm and sunny playdate at a friend’s house. It had been awhile since Avery had gotten together with these particular girls (whom we used to see on a much more regular basis), and she was a little shy and clingy – kinda her MO – when we first arrived. At one point she pulled me aside and said she wanted to play with the girls but was feeling shy, and I told her I understood. “It sometimes just takes you a little time to warm up,” I explained. “Oh,” she said (taking my words literally and thinking of the temperature), “I’m actually really hot right now.”
-M