Elijah's Preschool Graduation

As the title suggests, Eli would like to be referred to as Elijah. He likes it better and thinks it sounds like more of a big boy name. In fact, he wanted his preschool to call him Elijah, but it never caught on. I told him he'd have another chance in Kindergarten. :)

On May 12th, Elijah graduated from preschool. It was an amazing, slightly sad and mostly proud day. As they usually do, they started the program off with a singing performance. Eli enthusiastically sang and greeted all of us. He was very excited to have five females in attendance -- Aunt Seana, Dendi and Grammie joined Keira and I for the festivities. The first picture shows Eli and some of his classmates "making their bubbles." This is a little technique that his preschool uses to keep the kids quiet when necessary. I catch Eli making his bubble all the time when he's thinking or waiting to talk to me. Interestingly, making his bubble has come in quite handy this summer during swimming lessons.







After the singing portion of the program, Ms. Vis presented the students with their awards. Elijah received "Most Likely to Succeed." She gave a little talk before presenting each award, and she said something about Eli being very bright and keeping them on their toes. She made a specific reference to time. She said unlike any preschooler she met before, Eli understood time, so you had to tell him the truth when he asked how many more minutes. We were all very proud of him. :)



Unlike some previous performances, Keira sat and watched patiently from her seat. Although she did try to wiggle out of my lap and run to Eli at least once.


After the presentation we all got a chance to get a little food and take a slew of pictures. We all got a chance to pose with our little graduate. And, we even got some pictures of Eli with his favorite "teachers" -- Allison, Kerri and Lindy, as well as Ms. Vis.











As usual, Keira settled right in to the rhythm of the classroom, she ate at the kids table, and found a few toys to play with.

Mother's Day

Today is actually Father's Day, but as usual I'm running about a month behind, so this post will instead be dedicated to Mother's Day...

I felt incredibly spoiled for the whole Mother's Day weekend. Unbeknownst to me, Scott and Eli had planned to start celebrating on Saturday evening at The Spring Fling at Scott's (soon to be Eli's) school. We attended Spring Fling last year and had a ball, this year, like last year, had the kids playing on jumpees as well as the playground.




This year, though, Scott's class and Eli surprised all the moms (including me) by singing the Imagination Mover's "The Mother in You" to us. It was incredibly sweet to see my little boy singing to me. He was so brave to stand up in front of all those big kids and parents.



I was so touched by Eli singing to me and I thought that was the end of the surprises, but that just kicked off my weekend. When Eli woke up on the morning of Mother's Day he went to the computer, and all by himself, he typed up and printed a message to me. He put the message with a picture he'd painted me outside the door so that it would be the first thing I saw when I woke up.


Elijah really made up his mind to try and spoil me all day long. After I finally got up and gushed over his gifts, we did a puzzle together. He let me put in all the "fun" pieces and even let me put in the final piece. Now that's love. :) After puzzling and getting ready we all headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.






After breakfast, Scott asked me what I wanted to do. I wanted to drive to one of my favorite spots -- FDR State Park. And, even though we'd had a busy previous weekend with Eli's birthday party, The Spring Fling the previous night and we were planning on Keira's party for the following weekend, Scott obliged. Taking a day trip was probably the last thing in the world that Scott wanted to do, he did it anyway. Now that's love. :) Both kids took a nap in the car on the way to Warm Springs.



Once we arrived at the State Park we poked around, played at the playground, enjoyed our beautiful tranquil surroundings and threw rocks in the water.



What an amazing weekend!