Kindergarten Graduation!

Well, the day was finally here! Olivia's Kindergarten graduation! The kids still have a full week of school left, but each grade does a celebration or graduation, so they have to space them out. Olivia was so excited and wanted to wear a really pretty dress. She actually wanted to wear her dress from the Gala, but I convinced her to wear one of my all-time favorites, which was one of Sofia's dresses. It looked so adorable on her! She was more than happy to pose for pictures before we headed off to school.

CK and I met at school and I arrived shortly before the program was to begin and was surprised at how many people were there! There were parents and grandparents, so the cafeteria was already pretty full! I saw Marco and Stacy and sat next to them in the middle but pretty far back. CK made it just before the program started and he used my phone to take videos while I used my camera for photos. Thankfully Olivia was in the middle of the top row and since she's so tall, she was easy to spot throughout the program. The program consisted of the kids singing a couple of songs, which were all super cute. Olivia sang her little heart out!

At the end of the songs, all the kids sat down by class facing the podium where Mrs. Farragher stood and welcomed us all earlier. She returned to the stage where she congratulated all the kindergarteners for completing the year and wished them a fun and relaxing summer. The graduation started with Mrs. McMean's class and was followed by Mrs. Schultz! Soon Olivia was walking the stage, accepting her "certificate" from Mrs. Farragher and giving Mrs. Schultz a big hug! She was so excited and happy and we're so proud of her for her Kindergarten year. She's really grown up and learned so much this year. The first half of the year Olivia got sad and missed me during the school day, and we were thankful to have Mrs Schultz as her teacher since she would cuddle and hug on Olivia when she was sad and missing me. The past few months, she hasn't missed me as much and has really blossomed in her reading and writing. Mr. Chreno, Alexa's amazing Grandpa, has worked with each of Mrs. Schultz' kids individually this year and we've seen the effects of his efforts in Olivia's reading! She's been amazing and has really progressed quickly. She still gets frustrated when she comes across a word she doesn't automatically know, but she's really become a confident reader in books she's knows. She loves to read "The Duckling Gets a Cookie?" and "The Little Red Hen" to me at night. She's become very good at both and she's also pointing out words when we drive around town. She had a great year and is ready for first grade, but she's more ready for summer!

Stacy gave us a cute little yellow "graduation doll" who plays a little song when you press his hand for us to give to Olivia. It was really sweet of them and of course she loved it! Once the graduation was over, we met up with Olivia and gave her a big hug and congratulated her. We then walked back with her to her class and took a few pictures before giving her a final hug goodbye! She did such a great job and she is so excited to be moving on to 1st grade!

One happy graduating Kindergartener!

She's ready for summer!

Getting up on the bleachers to sing their songs. She looks a little nervous!

All the kindergarteners!

Olivia coming out of her shell as the kids start their first song!

Mrs. Neugent who has worked with the kids and done an amazing job, as usual!

Happy girl!

Ready to approach the stage for her certificate!

Olivia receiving her certificate from Mrs. Farragher

Giving Mrs. Schultz a hug!

Love this picture of a very happy Olivia with her favorite teacher!

CK and me with Olivia

Olivia with her certificate and "graduation doll"

With her buddy Cora

Olivia's Certificate

The Fourth Grade Field Trip to the Ft Worth Zoo

Today was the last field trip of 4th grade with a visit to the Ft. Worth Zoo. Since I was just there with Olivia and the Kindergarteners, I knew it would be a fun day. There was a risk of rain, but the teachers decided to go ahead with the plan and we all met at the zoo around 10am. I drove Linda, Alexa's Grandma and Pritha, Shivani's mom. Linda's husband, John has been instrumental in teaching both my kids how to read and write and is very involved at CES. He and I have driven to the zoo field trips for the past few years and it's a little bit of a tradition at this point. He was originally going to go, but decided to stay behind and read with Mrs. Schultz' Kinder Cuties for the last time this year. Linda is an equally lovely person who is easy to be around and the three of us had a good trip to Ft. Worth.

We bought our zoo tickets and our kids arrived on the school buses around 10am. My group consisted of Sofia, Elena, and Sofi B. Sofia wanted to see the lions and elephants, Elena was completely content to see anything and Sofi B. was completely focused on getting Dippin' Dots after lunch. It was a lot chillier than I expected and my shorts and long-sleeved shirt weren't as comfortable as I expected. Of course, I also had my backpack full of all of our lunches, extra snacks, extra water and my wallet and things, so I was carrying extra weight which helped warm me up enough. I brought my "real" camera with me, but ended up leaving it in the back of the car since I was afraid it would start raining and I wouldn't have room in my backpack to keep it dry. I really prefer taking pictures with my "real" camera, but my iPhone would have to do for this visit.

We headed toward the giraffes, elephants, hippos, and ostriches. One perk of having the cooler and cloud-covered weather is that all of the animals were out and active. After visiting those animals, we headed up to see the lions and tigers and saw the rhinoceros - one of my very favorite animals. The first of the big cats we came across is the white tiger, which is absolutely stunning! It was laying right next to viewing window, so we were able to get a cute photo of the girls together. From there we visited the other tigers and lions and I gave each of the girls a granola bar since they were all starting to get hungry. We continued on and came to the parrot house, where I gave each of the girls $1 and they bought a stick of peanut butter and bird seed. The parrot house was really crowded already and most of the birds were on the enclosure fence or really high in the tree branches and not interested in eating. Of course, there were a few who the girls convinced to eat their bird seed and we probably spent 20 minutes with the birds before I told the girls it was ready to continue our visit.

The girls saw a small shark and kangaroos as part of the Australian Outback exhibit. The kangaroos were actually walking around rather than snoozing in the shade, as they always are in all of our previous visits. We also saw a variety of raptors, which Sofia really loves and then we decided to stop for lunch. The girls found a picnic bench and we dried of the wet seats with napkins and ate our lunches. Throughout lunch the girls were debating whether they wanted Kona Ice or Dippin' Dots. Technically, the chaperones aren't supposed to buy anything for the kids on field trips, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if we got something at the end of our visit.

We walked all the way to the Texas Wild Depot and visited the "Texas Traditions" exhibit that included all the Texas native animals and plants and was really interesting. We'd never been inside before, so Sofia was totally focused on reading everything she could about each display. Meanwhile, Sofi B and Elena quickly headed to the main area, where we soon watched a short preview show about Texas weather before we headed into the main little theater to hear about the Texas environment and how people and animals need to co-exist with the resources that we have. It was an incredibly balanced and fair representation on our ecosystem, I thought. The girls loved it and it was only about 15 minutes long. We continued to the Texas native animals with the first one being a favorite - the burrowing owl. There were three in the enclosure and they were all out of their little burrows. They are so cute! We continued on and visited the alligator, black bear and otters before swinging into the bats, snakes and spider house. Of course, Sofia really loved checking out and learning about the bats, snakes and spiders and I had to convince Sofi B from zooming ahead and leaving the building so she could hurry to Dippin' Dots.

We left the Texas Wild Depot in search of Dippin' Dots and ended up having to walk all the way back to the elephants! The girls each decided on cookies and cream Dots and they were so thoughtful in thanking me. As they were enjoying their Dippin' Dots and strolling toward the entrance, Sofia noticed that we'd missed going into the amphibian house. She wanted to run in and look around, but we really didn't have enough time at that point. She was bummed and I told her we could return to the zoo anytime this summer. From there, we headed back toward the entrance to meet the teachers and other students and stopped at the gorilla exhibit while the girls finished up their ice cream. The male gorilla was sitting on the grass while the baby gorilla climbed across the structure. He was so cute and it was eerie how similar their motions and actions are to humans.

Just as we were ready to go and we had less than five minutes to go, I realized I had no idea where Sofi B. was! I figured she headed to meet the class, but when I headed to that area she was nowhere to be found. I wasn't really worried that she ran off or was taken, but I did start to stress out that I would be the chaperone who actually lost one of the students at the zoo! We soon discovered that she's walked a short distance on the other side of the gorilla enclosure to get a different view of them. Disaster averted!

We met up with the rest of the kids and teachers and Pritha, Linda and I headed to the car. It was still pretty chilly out and I was glad to get into our car and maybe get a coffee once I got home. It was a fun trip and I think the girls really enjoyed it. I especially loved how much Sofia really got into it and read everything she could on each animal and exhibit. I can't wait to return with the girls over the summer.

Elena, Sofi B, and Sofia ready to explore the zoo

Posing near the elephants

The beautiful white tiger!

The other tiger hanging around

One of the female lions

Sofia holding her lion figure with a lion in the background

Feeding a parakeet

The girls with the kangaroo statue

Sofia! I have a similar photo from when she was in Kindergarten!

With the penguins

The coolest owl - the burrowing owl!

Sofia and me

Touching the starfish and horseshoe crabs

Posing for another picture together

Zebras! So beautiful!

The huge male gorilla and the cute little baby climbing above him.

Three happy girls after a very fun visit!

Splash Day

Today the Kindergarteners had Splash Day at school. It's significantly improved from when Sofia was a Kindergartener and there were a few splash pools set out on the play ground. This year, it was set up behind the school next to the cafeteria, where the bus riders get on the bus. There were three main areas: a bubble making station, a shaving cream table that had bottles of shaving cream for the kids to use and an area of splash pools. There was also chalk that the kids could use to draw on the sidewalk. I arrived maybe 20 minutes after Splash Day started on a day when it was overcast and a little cool out. The parents who were there agreed that it was better than years past when it has been blazing hot. I looked for Olivia and finally found her and Hannah completely covered from head to toe in shaving cream. They had obviously visited the shaving cream table and lathered themselves up liberally. They also looked like they were having a blast together! Of course, as soon as they saw me with my camera they screamed and ran away, so I had to be stealthy in my photography. They were so cute running around together and they finally found a tree that they slathered with shaving cream (it was washed off when Splash Day was over). I was able to get a few pictures of them, but I was really hoping to convince them to pose together, which never happened.

Soon it was time to get hosed off so they could eat lunch. I didn't envy them in their hose spray down, but they both seemed to enjoy it, especially Olivia. After she was cleaned up but dripping wet, we found her towel laid out on the sidewalk and I sat with her while she ate her lunch. At one point I had to wrap the towel around her because she was cold, but I was surprised she wasn't uncomfortable since it wasn't warm out! After lunch, the kids were allowed to continue playing, so she jumped up and ran off. Instead of shaving cream, and the eventual spray down to get clean, her and Hannah spent their time chasing bubbles as they floated by. There were several kids blowing bubbles and the breeze was just enough that they were carried away at a good speed. They girls loved it, although it was tiring just watching them run around so much. They would both sleep well tonight!

Gracie, one of the sweetest girls in Olivia's class was cold and wanted to change into her clothes so I took her and Scout, who was also cold, to the classroom where they got their dry clothes and then they changed in the bathroom. I didn't blame them! I couldn't imagine being out there in a wet swimsuit. The kids were planning on being out for another hour or more too, so they would have probably been very cold if they stayed in their wet suits. After they changed, the three of us returned to the splash area. Olivia and Hannah were still running around and having fun. I decided to head out so I stopped Olivia briefly to give her a hug. Her swimsuit was completely dry! I guess all that running around must have done it. As I walked out, she ran off to chase more bubbles! Crazy girl!

The crazy girls coated in shaving cream!

Caught her!

Hannah at full speed

Wonder what they are talking about?

Coating the tree with shaving cream

Adding more shaving cream to their legs

..And their arms

Standing in line to get rinsed off

Two shaving cream-covered girls!

So many cute Kindergarteners!

Our sweet girl

Getting rinsed off!