Kindergarten Graduation

Kindergarten has officially ended! It's so bittersweet...I cannot believe how quickly this year passed by...all the things I was worried about at the beginning of the year - how Henry would do as the little fish in the big pond, a new school, new rules, eating lunch in the cafeteria, etc., etc. And now, on the other side of it, I am so proud of him and how well he adjusted to elementary school and adapted to all the new challenges and how he thrived!

His class had a very nice ceremony - they didn't go overboard making a huge deal about it, but did mark the occasion with a cute, symbolic walk from one side of the classroom (representing kindergarten) to the other side (representing 1st grade). One of the moms made them all the cutest paper graduation caps which delighted Henry since he had just seen Geoff's graduation hat and was so pleased that he got one of his own.

 After the classroom ceremony all three kindergarten classes met out on the playground for some ice cream sundaes and playtime. What a wonderful way to end the school year - and now we have a first grader!

Nora made herself right at home in the classroom and was clearly unimpressed that she was not part of the festivities.

Field Day

Henry had his very first elementary school field day last week! Gigi, Nora and I stopped by to cheer him on for most of it (I think I missed the first two activities, out of maybe a dozen or so). The P.E. teacher did an amazing job setting up games and activities that were a blast for the kids. The weather was a little chilly, but at least it didn't rain which is pretty much all you can ask for in early June in Portland!

 They had practiced some of the games in P.E. class prior to field day, so Henry was familiar with what was going to happen. He knew there were going to be some activities with water and he was a bit apprehensive about participating in them - he was worried he'd get wet and cold even though they were instructed to bring a change of clothes. So, in preparation, he requested that he wear water repellent pants and his rain jacket (even though it wasn't really that cold). Turns out he made the right call, as half his classmates were shivering by the end when they handed out the popsicles!

 This game was his favorite - the kids scooted around on these wheelie things, pushing themselves with "oars" while parents sprayed them with water guns.


In the parachute picture, he's at the far side next to his teacher.

Start of Summer

Even though it's not officially summer yet...or even summer break...it sure feels like it already is!  The weather has been so beautiful lately - Nora and I go bike riding on the waterfront a couple times a week and we all eat dinner outside just about every night. Speaking of bike riding, I had what I consider to be my first real, back and forth conversation with Nora the other night. I was trying to get her to sleep and I said to her something along the lines of you need to get to sleep so we can have fun tomorrow and she said "bike ride!" I said "ok, we can go on a bike ride tomorrow," she said, "Mommy's bike!" (meaning she wanted to ride with me on my bike) and I said "ok" then she said "water! boats! geese!" So I said "oh, you want to ride down by the river?" and she said "yes! river - bike ride, river!" So there we go - she very effectively communicated exactly what she wanted to do...I was kind of surprised that she wanted to go to the river because the other route we regularly take is to the park, but apparently she likes the river route better.

 We've also been doing lots of fun things around the house...like making popcorn. :) While making popcorn might not seem like the most exciting thing to you or me, to Nora and Henry it is a huge event. 

 We've been playing camping a lot as well...sometimes inside and sometimes outside. Nora usually refuses to play with us for some reason, but as soon as we're done she crawls into the sleeping bag. I can't figure out why she won't play with us and instead waits until we're done...but I'm sure she'll join in one day.

The nice weather is also allowing us to dip our toes in the potty training waters. Since Nora screams "no diaper! no diaper!" whenever I try to put a diaper on her, I figured she might be ready to give potty training a try. She runs around diaper-less and occasionally goes and sits on the potty, but hasn't yet successfully gone on the potty.  She definitely understands the concept and what she's supposed to do I just don't think she has the control yet. With all our impending summer travels, I'm not to keen to really get it going just yet anyway.

This is Henry's last week of kindergarten. I cannot believe the year has flown by so quickly and soon he'll be a FIRST grader! He had field day this week and had a blast - I have pictures from that I will post soon.

Tomorrow Henry and I are heading to the Grand Floral Parade - Brett and Nora are staying home given Nora's aversion to loud noises. Should be a fun time!