Preschool Graduation

Today was the first of many graduations for my little girl. She graduated from preschool. She was so excited about this day. When we were deciding what she should wear she wanted to wear something fancy because her cousin, Elaine, wore a fancy dress to her 8th grade graduation earlier in the week. I think she picked out a great dress and looked just beautiful today.



The students put on a very cute program with singing and talking parts. The last talking part went "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 blastoff, watchout kindergatern here we come." it was so cute!



Here are some pictures from the day.



Here is my kindergartener!



All ready to go.

Getting her diploma from her teacher.

I love this picture. She was looking at the tassel.

I told her that at the end of the program the graduates throw their hats in the air. It was so cute to watch her do this also.

It was a great day and I am so proud of my little girl.

(Everyone loved the scrapbooks. They thought they were great. It was nice to hear such nice things from everyone.)

Last Day of Preschool

I tried to get a good last day of school picture of Lauren but she was in one of her moods where she was trying to pose. So this is what I got. Still very cute but silly.

These are pictures from the kid's scrapbooks. This is from Lauren's book. On the pages are note from the student. So on Finlay's page there is a short note to Lauren.

More kid's pages.

These are from the teacher's books. I gave the parents pages and had them or their child or both write the teacher a note. I love who these turned out!!

Here is Lauren's page to one of her teachers.

Today was Lauren's last day of Preschool. Tomorrow is her school's "graduation party" . I can't believe that my little girl will no longer be in preschool. She started preschool when she was 2 years old and she went two days a week. When she was 3 she went three days a week and now that she is 4 she goes four days a week. She has never cried when she was dropped off at preschool even that very first day. She has loved all her teachers and she loves to play with her friends. Although this year has frustrated me and there are times she was upset, if you ask her about school she will tell you how much she loves school and her friends and her teachers. Preschool for Lauren was a great experience and I think she will do great in kindergarten.

I was just reading someone else's blog and they had a comment about how they pulled their child out of preschool because they didn't feel that the child was learning enough and that preschool was just like babysitting. I feel bad for this child because there is much more to preschool then learning the ABCs. I am glad Lauren went to the preschool she did. There are so many different types of preschools from play based to academic based. The school I sent her to was a play based program. Being a former teacher, I know that each child will learn at their own speed and to force learning (flashcards, practice writing and and the like) does not benefit them in the long run. The child might learn to read a little faster but studies have shown that by the end of the third grade kids are all about at the same level no matter how they started.

I wanted Lauren to have fun and learn to play with other children. I wanted her to learn to sit in circle time and to take turns in a group setting. I knew that reading and writing would come at her speed. Which it has. A play based school teaches children through play and it works. Lauren has never done a worksheet in class or they have never done flashcards but it is amazing because she is starting to read. She loves to write and had been writing since she was just over three.

The other thing I love about this school is their approach to creative art items. You will never see a coloring book or coloring pages at this school. What you see is a lot of blank paper, scissors, stickers, markers, crayons, paint, staplers, tape, glitter, and the like. I get great art projects. I was at a friends house the other day and I saw an art project that is made by a 3 year old child and you can tell that she was told exactly what to do to make the project turn out. I am sure that every child's art project look alike. There is no creativity with that type of art. I have taken the approach from school and Lauren has a whole cart full of art supplies. I get so many cards, notes and letters that are decorated in such a wonderful way. She loves to make art projects for her friends and cousins. It is great to see her not hold back and think that there is a right way to do something. She tries things and that is great.

All is all Lauren has grown so much since she started school. It will be sad to leave the community that we have been in for the past three years. A couple of the kids will be going with Lauren at her new school but it will be a brand new experience for her. She is so excited about going to kindergarten.

I am so excited that preschool is over because I packed my last lunch!!!!! Lauren had to bring a lunch everyday to school. That is a lot of lunches for the past 3 years and now I am done. She will probably buy her lunch most of the time next year.

But what I am most excited about is that I FINISHED THE SCRAPBOOKS!! I posted a few pictures of them. The student books were 6 x 6 books. The books have 22 pages in them. The 22 pages are: 2 class pictures (one funny and one not), a page for each of the 3 teachers, a page for each of the 14 students, 2 pages of the student doing activities in the class and a question/answer page. The pages with the teachers and students, I had the teacher and students write a short note to each other. They turned out really cute.

The teacher scrapbooks turned out great. They are 8 x 8 and 30 pages, two class pictures and then two pages for each of the 14 students. The students pages have one page of pictures and on the opposite page is a note to the teacher from either the parent or the child or both. They really look nice. I would have liked to have done the students in an 8 x 8 size but I was given the books to use for the students but I think they turned out nice. I think the teacher books look a little nicer but that is probably because they are nicer books and bigger.

Memorial Day Cookout

Today we were invited to a cookout with some friends. We met these friends about 3 years ago when all our girls were in the 2 year old class at Little Gym. None of us go to the Little Gym any more but we have kept up with this friendship. We have a mom's night out every 6 to 8 weeks and we try to get the kids together every once in a while. It is nice friendship because the girls really get along and us parents also get along really well.



As the parents talked and caught up with each other the kids tried to swim a little but the water was still a bit cold. We were all a little surprised that they did get in the pool for a little while.



It was a nice day to hang out with nice friends. We had a great time.

I love when I see pictures of Lauren and she and a friend are holding hands. I think it is so sweet.

Great Start to Summer

Memorial Day weekend is known as the unofficial start to summer. Usually in Arizona Memorial Day weekend is pretty hot. It is usually already over a 100 degrees and the weekend is spent swimming or staying inside. This year it is completely different and that allowed us to do something we would not have been able to do.


This past week has been a strange weather week. Last Monday it was 110 degrees here and by Friday the high was just 69 degrees. It rained on Friday. (I heard on the news that it is only the 2nd time since they started to record weather that it rained on May 23rd.) This morning there was still a few raindrops but the day looked like it was going to be wonderful. So we decided to spend the day outside and Lauren wanted to go to the small Wildlife Zoo.

This is a small zoo and seems to be a bit run down. The thing I like about it is that you can still get pretty close to the animals. They have a place were you can feed the giraffes and a place you can feed parrots. The great thing is that the zoo is not that busy so you can do a lot without having to wait in lines.






One example of this is the train. It goes through some of the animals areas but there is never a line. The driver of the train is also the one that collects the money. So when train pulls up the driver gets off and collects for the next trip then gets back on the train and drives.





There is also skyride. It looks like an old ski lift and it goes across the zoo. Lauren loves this ride. she thinks it is so cool to look down over the animals. I tried to take some pictures of her but she always gets scared that I am going to fall.




Here are some pictures of Lauren feeding the parrots. They give you apples and you put them on your hand and hold your hand up in the air. The birds will fly to your hand and land on your arm and eat the apple right from your hand. Lauren did it a few times. When the first one landed it scared her a bit but she stood there and let it land and eat the apple. She got to feed two of them before she had done it enough and we left.

The zoo, like most, has a petting zoo. You can buy these pelts and feed them. These animals become a bit aggressive. If you have the pelts when you walk in they almost attack you. They start to bit your clothes and chase you to get the pelts. I hate being in there but Lauren can spend all day petting and feeding the animals.

We were walking to the playground and there was a peacock that had just put up it's feathers. It was so pretty. I had to try to get a picture with Lauren. My camera has an auto focus so it focused on Lauren and the peacock was blurry, so here is a picture of the peacock and the one below is the try with Lauren.

Who would have thought that it would be chilly enough on May 24th to wear a jacket in Phoenix. But the skyride was a bit chilly and when we got off it was a bit overcast and Lauren put on her jacket. We were one of the only ones at the zoo in shorts. Almost all had on long pants. (We have pretty thin blood here in Arizona!)






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This is a picture from the skyride. Lauren loves this ride. It was the first thing we did when we got to the zoo. Lauren loves to sing when we are up there. So when we passed over the camels she had to sing "the camel has 5 humps" song. Then we sing a ton of other animal songs.

As I stated above you get to get pretty close to the animals. There is a tower that you climb up and you can feed the giraffes. You again have to buy pelts and the giraffes will stick out their tongue and you put the pelts right on the tongue. Lauren thinks this is pretty fun.

One thing about this zoo is that you have to bring a ton of quarters. There are pelt machines everywhere and so you go through a ton of quarters. I knew this from the last time so before we came I got a roll of quarters. It made things much easier.

Overall, we had a great day and it was a great start to the Memorial Day weekend. We have a cookout with friends tomorrow so it should just continue to be a fun weekend.

Happy start of summer!!!

First Dance Recital

Today was Lauren's first dance recital. Lauren takes dance lessons at school and she takes lessons at a dance studio. The recital today was for the school dance program.





We started the day with her dance studio lessons. (That recital is June 21.) At dance lessons she got her dance recital outfits for the June 21 program. Since she takes ballet, tap and jazz she will be in three dances in that recital. So she got 3 new dance outfits. The new outfits are really cute but I think the outfit for today's recital was cuter. The hat on the outfit was a bit strange but overall it is a cute outfit.

After dance lessons we went to a Arista Curl (a girls spa makeup place) and we had Lauren's makeup and nails done. We also had them curl her hair. The recital instruction were that we should have their hair half up and curly.

Lauren loves having her nails done and she loves to play with makeup so she had a great time. They put on some sparkly eye shadow and some glitter on her cheeks. It really looked a bit over the top but matched her outfit great.

Then they curled her hair. Lauren's hair is pretty thick and holds a curl pretty well but I was not sure about ringlets. But they sprayed on a ton of hairspray and it was not going anywhere.

Here are the ringlets from the back. It stayed that way until she went swimming. I kept telling her she does not look like my little girl any more.

All ready to go to the dance recital.

The dance recital was fun. Her class range in age from 2 to 4. (now 3 to 5) . Some did the steps and some didn't. There was a little boy next to Lauren that did not get out of his chair the whole dance. He just sat there and didn't move. Lauren did about half the moves. The class looked cute and you could tell they were trying to do the dance.

With the younger kids, the dance teachers were on stage with them. The kids were watching the teacher the whole time and trying to follow what she did. At Lauren's next recital there will be no teacher on stage. I will see which one works better. Lauren "practiced" her dance at home and she knew more at home then she did today. She still did great!

There were some moves that they got better then others but I am sure they were a bit overwhelmed with that many people watching them.

At the end of the program all the dancers come on stage and dance. Lauren's class pretty much just stood there. Every once in a while Lauren would do a dance move.

This is all of the classes that were in the program. I thought that the outfit that Lauren's class wore was the cutest (other then the hat.) But they all were really cute.

The program ends with balloons coming down and the kids all loved that.

After the program the students got trophies and a ribbon. Lauren loved the trophy. There are a lot of people that think that you shouldn't give a trophy for just being in a program. I don't think it is that big of a deal. Lauren was so proud of that trophy. She had to show it to everyone. We had to put it on her shelf right when we got home. I'm surprised she didn't ask to sleep with it.

Lauren's aunt Diane and her cousin, Elaine came to the program. They brought her flowers. This is a big thing. All the kids get flowers after the program. I told Lauren that we would put them in our vase on our table. She would have nothing to do with that. They had to go in her room.

Here we are (with my bra strap showing). I am so proud of my little girl. She got up on the stage and did a great job. She did not seem like she was scared, she listened to her teachers and she seemed to have a great time and that it why I am so proud of her.

After the dance recital we went to Aunt Janine's house. Lauren's cousin, Blaire, was having an end of year school party at her house. So Lauren had a snow cone and swam in the pool.

We went home a few hours later and Lauren was asleep within a few minutes.

I am glad she got to experience a dance recital. I think she will be more comfortable with her next one and maybe she will be able to do a little more of the dance. After she did this one she is excited about the next one and was asking when it is and etc.

It is fun to see her enjoy this activities. I don't think that she will be a dancer when she grows up but I think she will always have the memories of being in recitals with fun outfits. I think dance lessons and dance recitals are just part of childhood and I am so happy I get to be a part of it with her.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

After we got home from church on Mother's Day I thought that I would have to go to the condo to do work. However, my sister decided that we should have Mother's Day off. So with a free day Lauren and I spent the day together. I worked on the never ending scrapbook project and Lauren did her own art project. Lauren loves to make cards for people. She really does a fancy job on them. When they are done they are usually full of messages, stickers, drawings, ribbons, buttons, and etc. She had a great time doing it.

We then decided to go to a park in town. This park has a big pond/lake that has fish and ducks in it. It has a nice bike path and lots of playgrounds. It was a bit warm but we had fun. We first started with a bike ride around the park.

Lauren is ok with riding her bike but she does not love it. She is very scared to go down any type of hill and she does not like to go very fast. So the bike riding did not last for very long.

We then went to the playground and Lauren played in the sand with her sand toys. We always bring shovels and buckets to the park. Usually when we get them out there is a group of kids that come and want to play. Today was no different and soon there was a crowd. However, these kids were from a large group of people that were at the park having a large group picnic. The kids were at the playground area and the parents of these kids were no where around. These kids were so bad. They were throwing sand and just being brats. I finally went up and took the toy from this one little boy. Lauren had fun and she does like to play in the sand. She could do it for hours.

We then decided to take a walk around the pond/lake and feed the ducks. Lauren was wearing her sunglasses and decided to walk like a sassy girl. It was really cute.

The ducks at this pond know that people come to feed them so when someone starts to feed them they all start to gather. There were times when there were a lot of ducks coming up to us and making noises. At times it was a bit scary. There was this one duck that would not leave us alone, it kept following us, it was a bit weird.

It was hot and Lauren kept wanting to take a break. It took forever to get around the pond/lake when you have to take a break every few minutes. We were both hot and tired when we got into the car to go home. But it was a nice Mother's Day afternoon.