Final Spring Concert

Last night was the annual preschool spring concert, which is always a fun time. It was once again held at the Williamson Auditiorium--it seems like we've been there a lot lately!

Upon our arrival Kate was whisked away to the back room to get ready with the other kids.......while Emily and the moms went in to find our seats. Emily is very social, so of course she wanted to say hi and give hugs to everyone we knew, including Mrs. Murray.The auditorium was pretty crowded, but thankfully Grandma and Pop Pop had arrived early and were saving us some seats.When the kids all filed out on stage, they were of course totally adorable. Looking at the really young ones brought back memories of Emily's first concert, up on stage as a 3-year old. We were terrified that she would pee her pants in front of everyone (we were in the middle of potty training), but she did great. Now she's such a big girl--it's amazing how time flies.Kate is a concert veteran, of course. She loves to belt out the tunes.......and this time she really got into the hand motions too.After a few songs, the kindergarten-age kids got up and did some square dancing. It was very impressive!Emily was intrigued by the idea that if she was still at the Montessori school for kindergarten, she would be up on stage dancing too!By the time the elementary-age kids busted out their tin whistles to play some tunes, the little ones were starting to get worn down. Our only complaint about the spring concert is that it starts a little late (6:30). Our kids' bedtime is 7:30, which is probably pretty standard for all the little ones, and still being on stage when your bedtime rolls around can (understandably) be tough.But we did manage to stay to the end, and we all enjoyed the concert, despite being up so late on a school night.

Bridge News

Today was a big day at the bridge site on our road--Mama witnessed not one, not two, but THREE giant girders arriving under police escort! (The escort is for over-height, over-length, or over-weight loads traveling on state roads).

Mom got this photo when she got home from work--it looks like one girder had already been unloaded, and the other two were still waiting on the trucks. The big question in Mom's mind at this point (since the trucks are in a position to back in with the girders) is how on earth those trucks turned around on that narrow road with those long loads?

Kindergarten Testing, Round 2

Our faithful blog readers might recall that we took Emily to kindergarten registration about this time last year. Today was finally the day for Kate to get her turn!

Mama dropped Emily off with Grandma, and Mom came home from work for a few hours so we could both take Kate to the big event. The day was made even more fun by the surprise snow flurries in the afternoon--too bad we just put away the winter gear.
Kate is super-excited about kindergarten...she seems to have absolutely no anxiety about the big transition at all. Of course it helps to have a big sister who forges the path ahead of you. Last year we hardly knew anyone at the elementary school, but this year ALL of the teachers and administrators seemed to know that we were Emily's parents and sister. Our friendly firstborn seems to have made quite an impression--we're glad it's a good one!While Kate was off getting tested, we sat down with the big stack of forms to fill out. Once again it was interesting to note that some of the forms had spaces for "mother" and "father", but others were looking for "Parent/Guardian #1" and "Parent/Guardian #2".Kate finished very quickly, and pronounced herself "ready for snack". She told us that the testing was a lot of fun, but she didn't really elaborate much....

...although she was very proud to show off her pink school bus nametag, now full of stars.

In the exit interview, we learned that Kate is very academically advanced--in fact she ranked up there with the six-year-olds in just about every category. The administrator we talked to was quite surprised to hear that she had just had her fifth birthday. Two very proud moms agreed with the elementary school today that our little baby is ready for kindergarten!

Seedlings

Mama has decided to start some seedlings inside this year, in preparation for her expanded garden. She planted broccoli seeds in little cups on Wednesday and put them in the windowsill, and they are already reaching for the sky! She plans to start tomatoes and basil also, and we quickly realized that we needed a better seedling setup.

Today we dropped the kids off at Grandma and Pop Pop's house so we could spend some time examining lighting fixture/bulb options at Home Depot without the kid chaos. We bought what we thought would work, brought down a wire shelving unit from the playroom closet, and Mama put it all together in our bedroom this afternoon.

It looks like it's going to work great. The fixtures have a mix of one "cool" and one "warm" bulb, so the little plants get the whole spectrum of light waves. They also hang on adjustable chains so they can be raised up as the plants grow taller, and Mama used the Christmas lights timer so they will get about 14 hours of light per day.Right now we're only using one shelf, but once the tomatoes get going all the shelves will be full.

The sight of the seedlings reaching for the light caused Emily to launch into a lengthy and detailed explanation of how things grow, how they need sunlight and water, etc. etc. It was very sweet, actually.Here is a close-up of the broccoli plants still leaning towards the natural sun, right after we turned the lights on. It didn't take them long to start growing straight up though. Grow little plants, grow!

Spending the Birthday Money

Today the girls were itching to spend their birthday money on new toys (Kate was loaded, of course, and Emily dug around in her piggy bank and found the $10 bill she got when she turned six).

Mom decided to take them to the place where they could get the most bang for their bucks: Goodwill.

After some careful consideration of the entire toy department, they each came up with, yes, yet another stuffed animal. Emily chose a dog (who she named Rover), and Kate went with a princess bear with ballet slippers (who she named Teddy).

Mom made the girls each pay for their own toy, which was quite an adventure--luckily the clerk was very understanding. Kate's toy cost 50 cents (on sale!) and Em's was $1.99, so they each got quite a bit of change back.

The kids are still struggling with the idea of different denominations of money. Giving the clerk one bill and receiving back a whole bunch of (smaller) bills was very confusing to them, even after Mom explained the reason.Regardless, they loved being able to pick out whatever they wanted--always a fun treat.

Kate's Fifth Birthday Party

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Kate's birthday with a little party. Grandma and Pop Pop were the first to arrive....

...and they brought a beautiful birthday cake! Earlier this month Kate had picked out the "flower pot" design from our Cakes for Kids book, and Grandma worked very hard to produce that exact design. It turned out looking great, with chocolate crumbled "dirt" on top and lollipops for flowers.As soon as they stepped in the door, Kate insisted on playing the Tinkerbell card music for them....they were suitably impressed.Uncle Seth and Sebastian came to celebrate too, along with Kate's best friend Elizabeth and her mom.There was quite a stack of presents--even though Grandpa N. and Nana are still in Hawaii and Florida, there were some gifts from them in the stack too!Predictably, it was a little bit hard for Emily to see Kate getting all the presents. She did her best though, appointing herself head of the present passing out crew.Kate got some awesome presents, including this tall, soft princess doll.......at which she exclaimed "I didn't know I wanted a soft princess doll but I did!".She also got some new sparkle shoes........which we were all thrilled about since she had worn her old ones into basically shoe rags.She got a cool wooden craft set, and a play-dough craft center.......a pretty princess castle clock radio (to replace her tot clock)....

...and this sweet Barbie pink convertible from her sister!

Needless to say, Kate loved all the gifts.After all the presents were opened, it was time to try out the convertible. It had room for two barbies, and they even had seatbelts to wear.Now the barbies have a transportation option besides the big monster truck!Finally, it was time for cake. We all took a moment to once again admire the flower pot.......then we sang the birthday song and Kate blew out her candles.......and we all dug in.The cake turned out to be as delicious as it was good-looking!After cake the kids headed off to play, while the grownups actually got to visit a little.After the party, we managed to send some lollipops home with Elizabeth, but there was no avoiding giving the girls each a "flower" too. Knowing they would be messy, Mom set them up outside with strict instructions not to run with the sticks until they were done. Perfect!

Happy birthday to Kate, our littlest girl and our own little princess.