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Last week was a big day for Leah - graduation day! Which meant it was Leah’s last day of preschool. This is very bittersweet as we love our preschool. I can’t believe she’s gotten so big.

For reference, here she was on her first day of preschool this year.

And her first day last year.

And for good measure, from the year before, her very first day of preschool.

Jen made Leah a new dress for her preschool graduation. She was a bit crunched to find sewing time with G’Mom and Grampa in town, but the dress was finished on time!

Here’s Leah sitting up front in her cap, gown, and stole, ready to graduate.

Hey, that’s me!

Here’s a taste of what the graduation ceremony was like for those who could not be present.

Of note, her teacher predicts that she will be a “Broadway musical star”. If you look back 3 years to Molly’s graduation video, you’ll find that she was predicted to be a “Broadway superstar”. I guess it runs in the family.

And here she is receiving her diploma.

Smile! I had to take this quickly before she hurried off the steps.

Here’s Leah with Miss Kelly and Miss Kathy.

Molly really wanted to be there for Leah’s graduation, so we relented and let her skip school for the morning to attend.

Grams, Jen, and I were there too.

Leah’s a popular girl in her class. She may be drawn on the top of one of these boys’ hats.

Friends, graduates. In cute dresses.

We managed to avoid being too sad about the end of preschool because Leah was signed up for a 1 week day camp at her preschool the following week. So, graduation wasn’t the end. Sadly, today is the last day of that camp. So, now it really is the end. And now my eyes seem to be wet for some reason. Congratulations, Leah!

I’ve already written about lots of big fun with grandparents during their visit, but there was smaller fun as well. For instance, there was book reading.

There are a lot of voices in the girls’ usual night time stories. G’Mom and Grampa didn’t know what they were in for when they agreed to read to the girls. Skippyjon Jones is a Siamese cat who wishes he was a Chihuahua, and the books include a lot of Spanish words. It’s a great book, but requires you to really get into the characters.

Leah played some Crazy 8’s with G’Mom and Grampa while Molly was at school on Tuesday.

G’Mom and Grampa went along with Leah to tennis lessons as well.

And there were some presents along the way as well. Here are the girls with their grandparents and their new journals.

Thanks for coming to visit, G’Mom and Grampa!

After a morning picking strawberries, the girls still had plenty of energy. So, we broke out the bikes to show G’Mom and Grampa the girls’ bike riding skills.

Leah is a determined rider, focused on what’s in front of her.

Here’s a bit of video showing off Leah’s skills as well as her brand new bike.

After riding bikes and scooters for an hour, the girls took a short playground break. I love how fun Leah’s personality has become.

Oh, and there was also some bike chasing.

On Memorial Day, Larriland Farm opened their strawberry fields. All of us (G’Mom, Grampa, Jen, Molly, Leah, and I) made the trip to pick a few pounds of them.

It’s important to sample the fruit your picking to make sure it is up to your standards.

The girls frequently showed the interesting-looking ones to us.

You’ve got to get down low to pick strawberries. Consequently, I mostly let everyone else do the picking while I took the pictures.

Here we all are with our haul. We ended up with 16 pounds which is a lot. Next time, we’ll get more though, as you get a discount if you go over 20 pounds.

After picking the strawberries, we headed to the Red Barn on the farm to see what else they had for sale. The girls got some fudge, and sampled it quickly.

Outside the barn, they had some goats and alpacas that the girls fed. This little alpaca was just the right height for them.

It was a fun (and delicious) morning outing.

Saturday afternoon, we walked two doors down to a neighborhood Memorial Day party. Molly and Leah spent a good bit of time swinging around.

Leah put her gymnastics skills to work.

Molly wanted to have me take a picture of her jumping off the swing. She does this all the time, but apparently trying to show off for the camera pushed her to over-rotate. She landed face first on her arm, which was thankfully OK after a little ice.

Thanks to our hosts for putting this on!

G’Mom and Grampa came in town to celebrate Jen’s birthday. After arriving late Friday night, they immediately started baking with the girls Saturday morning. Their first project - chocolate angel food cake for Jen’s birthday.

Baking a cake was not enough. So, on Monday they baked some scones with G’Mom as well.

Yes, there was even more baking. On Tuesday, Leah and G’Mom baked 6 mini-loaves of English muffin bread.

And if that wasn’t enough, Jen immediately followed them up by baking Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. In addition to meals and a few other extras, our kitchen was out of breath by the end of their visit.

A lot more happened during their visit, but I’ll save that for future blog posts.

On Mother’s Day, both of the girls’ choirs sang in church. Sadly, they did not sing at the same service. So, we got to go to two services.

First up was Molly’s choir. They sang a couple of songs and didn’t make it easy for me to get it on video, but I did my best. She looks so grown up with the music folder in her arms.

Leah’s choir sang at the next service. Their song really pulled at the heartstrings. I teared up a bit (and continued to do so every time I rewatched it to edit the video).

Great job girls. I know your mom (and dad) appreciated it.

Leah was so excited to honor her mom at Jen’s last Mother’s Day Celebration at East Columbia Preschool. The kids performed “Over in the Meadow”, sang a number of songs, and showered their mom with gifts. Everyone was then treated to a royal treat of dirt (aka chocolate ice cream with crushed Oreos).

In Leah’s preschool, they honor each kid as the Top Dog for a week. They get to wear a special vest for the week and receive special treatment. At the end of their week, they have a special presentation, which Jen and I got to attend (as we did with Molly 3 years ago).

Leah created a top dog book with details about herself, what she likes to do, what she likes to eat, and what she wants to be when she grows up. What might that be? The President of the United States, of course. I’ve told her that she has to be at least 35 years old to be President, so she’s reluctantly agreed to be on the county council or governor until she is old enough to be President.

After she presented her book, she was presented with Bones. These are notes from her classmates telling her what they like about her. They included such gems as “I like the color of your skin” and “I think you’re cute”.

Here is a video of her presentation in its entirety.

As winter soccer drew to a close, we asked Leah if she wanted to keep doing it. She decided she wanted to try something different instead and chose tennis lessons. She had her first lesson last week, which she and I are both very excited about.

At her age, they spend a lot of time working on skills without their racquets. This drill is designed to help them with hand-eye coordination.

She loved her first lesson, and she can’t wait for the next one (which should be taking place this afternoon :).