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!

Elijah's Birthday Party

Waterslides, a baby pool, a sandbox, a play structure, pizza, cake, ice cream, presents, and smiles all around were all we needed to make Eli's first "kid" birthday party a success. In the past, we've invited just family and had small, quick parties at a local park. Instead, this year, we decided with our amazing new house and backyard we should go all out. It went amazingly well -- I think Scott could get a second job as a party planner. The key to this party was that we had out all sorts of things for the kids -- enough so that the kids could all do what they wanted and yet not let one thing get too crowded.

The overwhelming favorite of the afternoon were the water slides. Over six months ago, when we first watched our backyard taking shape, Scott was excited about the potential of the hill. To begin with, I was hoping for a level backyard. But, Scott knew that the hill would make the backyard so much more fun for the kids, and it has been. Eli rides different vehicles down the hill, and Scott knew the potential for water slides in the summer would be awesome. We had imagined that a Slip 'n Slide set up on the side of the hill would do the trick, but we discovered in our test run that the gravity didn't work with the Slip 'n Slide. Instead, Scott researched on the internet and found out all we needed was painter's plastic, dish soap and a sprinkler to make a successful slide. It worked wonders and the slides were the overwhelming hit of the party. I think the kids would have played for many more hours if we would've let them. Eli did most of his sliding at the beginning of the party. Later on, Keira and even Scottie got in on the fun.







While the waterslides were popular, Keira's overwhelming favorite was the baby pool. Who knew? It was probably the best thirty dollars we've ever spent. Somehow the addition of the little slide made our water baby infinitely happier with the baby pool. I spent most of the first half of the party holding Keira's hand while she went down the slide over and over again. Eli even got in on the fun.





Another big hit with Eli and some of the kids was the sandbox. I'm so glad we decided to fill up the giant one again. It's perfect for a party and Keira and Eli have spent many happy hours playing in it since the party.



Eating was another favorite activity of the party. Both of my kids are now pizza lovers and of course cake and ice cream are always popular. Dendi was incredibly sweet in offering to bake and decorate Eli's cake. She made a rocket themed cake that was actually a collection of decorated cupcakes. It was adorable. Thanks Dendi! Eating also provided some good photo ops including the four of us singing "Happy Birthday" together and some shots with the grandmas.










Finally, as you can tell from my drenched shirt in the previous pictures, I spent most of the first half of the party guarding Keira in the pool. Auntie Andrea offered her services for the second half of the party, which was incredibly sweet. She watched Keira which allowed me to branch out a little, and most importantly, gave me time to help Eli open presents. Thanks Andrea!





All in all, it was an incredibly successful party in our new beautiful backyard.