Days 15 & 16: Daddy's Birthday

That's kind of an odd post title, I know, but Ben's birthday was on a Friday and we went out on a date as soon as he came home from work so the kids didn't see him for very long. We ended up celebrating with them - food and presents - on Saturday instead.

Cat couldn't wait for Daddy to open presents, so that's what he did first thing in the morning. Not a bad way to start the day!

That afternoon Cat tried out a recipe in a kid's cookbook we got from the library: Raspberry Fools. (Basically a sweetened raspberry puree combined with whipped cream.) And Cat did almost everything by herself except for whipping the cream (the little mixer we used is pretty loud.)

Complete with garnish and all... nice presentation!

We had it with pound cake, one of Ben's favorite desserts. It was a great combination and a fun way to celebrate.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Day 11: Swim Lessons

Cat had two weeks of swim lessons and absolutely loved it. This was her first day:



And while Cat was busy practicing floating and learning various strokes, I hung out here with the little ones:

Do you see Jack on the playground?

I have to admit, I almost pinched myself I felt so lucky to be in this beautiful place early in the morning, with almost nobody else around, feeling a nice breeze off of the ocean and enjoying the palm trees and the view of Jekyll Island. Why am I leaving this and moving to a place where it snows 11 months of the year?? (Give or take.) :-)

We had a little friend with us (whose Mom was in a Mom-and-Kid swim lesson with her big sister during Cat's swim lesson). She was content to hang out in her stroller and Jack and Eliza explored the playground until it was time to meet Cat. What a great way to start the day!

Day 9: The Water Park

We decided to meet up with Ben's brother and his family at a nearby water park one Saturday morning and we all had so much fun. I didn't take very many pictures because I was busy playing in the water, but I'll share what I have.

Ben with J & E in the toddler play area.

Eliza kept crawling to the steps and trying to go down the water slide. You're not quite big enough for that yet, little one.

Cat and her cousin Cassy.

You can't tell, but here Jack is running into the wave pool. He was a little scared about it at first, but pretty soon he was playing in the shallow part all by himself, even when the waves were going.

We took a break after a few hours and ate lunch at the picnic tables beside the parking lot. We were able to meet a few of the locals. They were hungry, and not as shy as I would have liked them to be.

Cat rode on every single water slide, we went on the lazy river a few times (my favorite thing!), and spent a lot of time with the little ones playing in the toddler area or floating in the wave pool. By the time we had finished for the day, it was late in the afternoon, so everyone came back to our house and had pizza for dinner. A great day!

Day 7: First Sewing Project

Of the many ideas I gave Cat to use to earn stickers for the various "academic/creative" portion of her sticker chart (see this post), "do a sewing project" is the one she is definitely the most eager to do. So she completed her first sewing project less than a week after school got out and she did an awesome job.

I spent a few minutes orienting her to the machine: what's what, how to start, how to backstitch, etc., then I let her practice for a minute on some scraps. We decided to start with this tote bag from Family Fun because it was quick and simple and yielded almost instant results. We used her "NY Princess" shirt that she's been wearing for almost 2 years, since Grammy brought it to her from NYC. We just had to get a little more mileage out of it!

Cat did the cutting and I made the executive decision to use white thread so that Cat could see where her seam was a little easier. It didn't really matter, after all, since the seam ends up on the inside. And... Cat did the sewing completely by herself.

And... she's used it. I call that a success!

She has asked me several times since then when she can do her next sewing project, but I just don't feel like I can sit down with her to do another one right now. We might look for one more simple one to do before we move, but probably it will be best to try to do that once we have the big M behind us.

Day 6: Low Tide

On June 1st, we had plans to go hang out with friends at their pool. They had to reschedule, so at the last minute we decided to hang out at the ocean for an hour in the middle of the afternoon. I'm really going to miss being able to do that once we move to UT!

It was great to arrive at 3pm, though, because many other people were leaving. And we happened to get there during the lowest of the low tides I've ever seen. The beach went on forever, and we had a blast playing on an "island," a sandbar that is usually further out in the ocean. Everyone had a great time, and it was so nice to be somewhere where the kids were all happy to be playing outside, making messes, being together or meeting new friends and very little was required of me. I decided I needed to take advantage of this as much as possible while we're here, so we've been to the beach once a week since school got out.

My sister, Susannah, was visiting at the time, and she did a great job of taking pics of the kids with her awesome camera.

So these are courtesy of Suz:

Thanks, Suz!

A Father's Day Message

Dear Ben,
Happy Father's Day! Thank you for being such
an incredible Daddy. We love you so much and
are blessed to have you at the head of our family.
Love,

BCJE

PS> It was Cat's idea to have the sign say "I Love You" instead of "We."
Sometimes it's nice to have her around to help me make those executive decisions.
She also made the signs. Gotta love that girl!

Day 4: Our Private Pool

Since Ben was home on Memorial Day, I decided to ask him to use his fancy man-air-blowing-contraption to blow up the inflatable pool I bought us on clearance last year. He obliged, and lots of cold-well-water warm-weather fun ensued.

88 Days of Summer - The Launch

I promised I would explain the contents of the gifts waiting for Cat when she finished her last day of school. It does require explaining. But I decided because it's so long, and I get just a little bit philosophical, I did most of my explaining on my other blog. If you're interested in reading more, check it out here. Otherwise, here is a quick summary of what she received that day.


#1 - a blank notebook to be used as a summer journal - after all, we are planning on having an exciting summer. I want her to remember it!

#2 - a portfolio of the schoolwork (and some things from home) she's done from 2-yr old preschool until now. We've had these papers in a box for forever and I decided it was time to put them somewhere she she could look through it and they would remain in tact.

The bottom middle image is of one of my favorite of Cat's writings from Kindergarten. It's just on the back of a worksheet and she wrote, in Kindergartenese, "Pigs play in mud. Mud is pigs' favorite thing. Pigs are pink. Are pigs clean? Pigs are made out of meat."

#3 - a "Summer Fun Chart" to encourage her to stay active, develop a few skills and positive habits, continue learning, and avoid boredom. (See my much longer explanation on the other blog if you're scratching your head at any of this.)

#4 - a collection of ideas of activities to be used for the above mentioned chore chart.

#5 - candy to be used as a reward for the above mentioned chore chart.


I realized that since Cat was finished with school before Memorial Day and they start school a bit later in UT than they do in GA, she would have a longer-than-normal summer. I counted it up and her vacation will last exactly 88 days (starting with her last day of school, since that really is the beginning, right?). So I like to think of all of these things being part of
a little project I've dubbed "88 Days of Summer." I think I'll use that theme for the blog for the rest of the summer. If I can keep it up. And if I do any more blogging at all with the impending move and everything that comes with it. We'll see!

Anyway, Cat was thrilled about all of the surprises and the opportunity to do lots of different activities and earn rewards and write in her own journal and everything. She even took time to write an email to her Mema so that she could earn a sticker for a Writing Activity before she left with Grammy to spend the weekend at her house. Love it! That was about 3 weeks ago as I write this, and interest is waning a bit, but I still think it's a very valuable tool and I'm glad we're using it this summer. It's been good for me to have a ready supply of activities to occupy Cat when all she wants to do is watch a movie during J's and E's nap time.

Last Day of K

Cat was so ready for her last day of school!

Who's finished with Kindergarten??

These were her teacher gifts. She's been taking care of two oregano plants for over a month and she was proud to give them to her teacher and parapro on the last day of school. (And I didn't mind having an excuse to walk her into school... those pots are pretty heavy.) She painted a big popsicle stick as a plant marker for each pot.

I requested a picture of Cat in front of her school. This is what I got.

A bare classroom, ready for its own summer break.

While Cat was at school, Grammy played with the little ones, and I worked worked worked.


So, it was a good day all around.


It started raining just before I picked Cat up, but the excitement of the beginning of summer vacation could not be dampened.

Awaiting Cat when we got home was a small grouping of gifts.
And I'll tell you all about 'em in my next post.

Kindergarten Graduate

At the ripe old age of 5, Cat attended her second graduation from public school.

(You can read about last year's Pre-K moving up ceremony here.)

She was really excited about this day, so we started it off with a bang.
My Mom was in town hanging out and helping me with the kids so I could work on getting things ready for the move. So she took Cat to school in her convertible. Too bad Cat wouldn't let her put the top down!

Waiting for her turn to walk across the stage.

All 5 Kindergarten Classes

Singing along...

During the song "What are You Grateful For?"
Cat had the line, "I'm thankful for books to read." She practiced it lots.

The last song they sang was called "First Grade, First Grade" to the tune of "New York, New York." It was really cute and I got a little misty-eyed during the singing.
The kids held up their first finger every time they sang "First Grade, First Grade."

With her teacher.

With her BFF.

With her Grammy.

Look - all 5 of us in a picture!

We're so proud of Cat and all she's learned this year.

I spent the days leading up to the graduation sorting her schoolwork from this year and it was a very interesting review of how far she's come. She was practicing writing her letters correctly at the beginning of the year, and by the end she was writing narratives with 7 or more sentences. She loves to spell, and gets a kick out of speaking in letters. ("M-O-M! M-O-M! Where are you, M-O-M?" She was counting sets of items at the beginning of the year, and by the end of the year was writing her own subtraction word problems. This is all still new to me, since she's my oldest, and I continue to be impressed with the things she's learning and doing. And she has a great desire to learn and do more. I love that!

We're looking forward to lots more graduations, Cat!