Molly’s school had an outdoor movie night a few days ago where they showed Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. In preparation for this night, we checked out the original Night at the Museum from the library for the girls to prep. They loved it, so we looked forward to seeing the sequel outside.
We arrived early to set up our seats and play a bit. As is commonly the case, the school mascot was there to join in the fun. Leah has long been scared of costumed characters with giant heads, but no more. She walked up to me and asked if I’d take her picture with the wildcat. She’s clearly not scared any more.
We all enjoyed the movie, and the girls did great staying up super late to watch it.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday was Jen’s birthday. After morning worship, we headed home for some lunch and birthday presents.
When we pulled out the presents for Jen, she was surprised to have large boxes from both of the girls. One large box might have been the inline skates she’d been wanting, but two? Ah, now she sees. This large box from Molly only has one skate in it.
After getting one skate, what could be in the large box from Leah?
It’s another skate!
That afternoon, we went to a performance of Godspell by the Young Columbians. Then we all went to the Ale House for a delicious birthday dinner.
Those desserts in front of us are their Skillet Cookie - a big chocolate chip cookie cooked in a small cast iron skillet, which they bring out still hot and in the skillet with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. It’s crazy good.
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.
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.
Molly joined my worship band yesterday to sing her first solo in big church (as opposed to children's church). She did great! Jen said it was a good thing it wasn't any longer, as she would have started crying.
Here's the song in its entirety. Her solo starts at 3:45 in case you want to skip over me and the rest of the band.
I got to chaperone Molly’s class field trip to the Robinson Nature Center. Thankfully, we had a beautiful day. Nature’s much more fun when it’s not cold and rainy, as it was the day before we went.
Our group first walked through the exhibits, including a large forest exhibit. Part of it was even a nocturnal forest. Then we went into a classroom to learn a bit. During our classroom session, we learned about the different types of vertebrates, including amphibians like these American Toad tadpoles.
After the class time, we ate lunch outside. Then we went on a nature walk through the woods, learning along the way.
Our final activity was a fun show in the NatureSphere planetarium about the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
The trip was lots of fun for everyone. The Robinson Nature Center is a great place, and now I know they put on a great field trip.
