End of School Year Activities

Thursday and Friday were filled with lots of end of year activities.  Thursday morning the girls' school had their end of year singing program:

 Thursday evening we had Emily's PreK graduation program.  Here's her class waiting for the program to start:

Before the program started Emily and her sweet friend Maddox were in deep conversation.  I LOVE THIS PICTURE OF THEM!

 Singing some songs:

 Performing with rhythm sticks:

 Receiving her diploma:

 Her teachers Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Stewart were such great teachers!!!

 We had a reception after the ceremony and the class sang another song for us:

 These girls love to hug each other tightly:

 One of the Moms from the class passed away right after Christmas.  Our class provided this plaque near a tree the church planted in her memory:

 The girls with their great friends Julia and Liliana:

On Friday morning the school met at a bounce house.  Everything was too big for Abigail's taste so we spent a lot of time together in the lobby "playing" Pac Man.  Emily had a blast:

 They had pizza and cookie cake and then some of us stayed afterwards outside the jump house and the kids had the best time running in this grassy area.  Abigail and her little friend Matthew enjoyed walking and running together at their own pace (way far off in the background):

 Emily found a snail so the kids decided to build him a house out of pine straw.  I'm sure the landscape group is going to love us:

 

What a great school year!!!  We sure will miss seeing these great kids each week!

Weekly Update

This week I've finished sewing some new dresses for the girls.  I made this dress for Abigail to match an outfit Emily wears that Dee Dee had made:

Since I made Emily a t-shirt dress with cupcake fabric, I made Abigail this one with some flower fabric that I had.  I only had enough fabric for 1 dress each:

 

 

 I also made these 2 t-shirt dresses for the girls that they wore to their spring concert this morning at school:

This week we met Joe for dinner and I caught Abigail with her doll's pacifier in her mouth:

Crazy girl wouldn't take a pacifier when she was a baby but now she will . . . go figure!

We also tried omelets in ziploc bags this past weekend.  I've heard about them but never tried them before.  The girls had fun putting their cheese into their bag and watching it cook:

 

And I have to show more of Emily's sorting!  She got out her paper dolls this week and we had no where to sit because doll dresses were everywhere:

 She even had them on the table so I couldn't put my drinks down.  We finally talked her into putting them up again : )

And finally, we are getting ready for the end of school.  Joe got a really good deal a few weeks ago on the Le@pster 2 so we got Emily a new one with her own case and new game for all her accomplishments this year at school.  We gave it to her last night because her graduation is tonight and we knew she would want to play it the second she got it:

 Today we had the girl's concert (pics to come soon) and tonight is Emily's preK graduation and then tomorrow we are meeting all the kids from the school at a jump house to play and eat pizza.  This has been such a great school year for the girls.  And I have LOVED Emily's whole PreK class this year.  We really are going to miss this great group of kids!!!!

Zoo Time

On Thursday, I had Rachel's girls over so she and her husband could go to dinner.  I was paying her back for keeping Emily and Abigail for me one afternoon when I left for Dallas to see my roommates.  The girls had fun in the back yard:

 We enjoyed pizza and popsicles for dinner . . .

 and watched some TV:

On Friday we all went to the zoo together:

 The giraffes were getting frisky with each other yesterday.  This was the cleanest picture I could capture of them : )

Eating cotton candy:

 

 Everyone was ready to go for a ride instead of walking:

 

 

Here is the same crew a year ago at the zoo.  It was a little harder last year to get everyone to look at the camera:

Bounce House

My parents brought their bounce house to our house a few weeks ago for the girls to have.  I finally got brave enough last night to set it up myself.  We have friends coming over today so I wanted to have this ready for them to play in.  Emily and Abigail gave it their seal of approval last night:

At the gym last night they got their faces painted like puppy dogs:

 

Looking forward to some fun with friends tonight!

School Tour

Last Thursday we got to go on a tour of Emily's school for next year.  We met the principal and one of the kindergarten teachers gave us a typical rundown of a school day.  They broke us up into groups and a tour guide took us to the cafeteria, car pool line, bus line, music room, art room, future science lab, showed the kids where the playground is, peeked into 1 of the kindergarten classrooms, and Emily's favorite: the computer lab.  They have 1100 students in K-5th grade with 9 kindergarten classes.  I like the layout of the school because each grade has their own hallway.  The classroom itself had 5 computers in it and our guide (which happened to be our across the street neighbor) told us that the students will do some of their reading and math lessons on a computer.  It's the teacher's way of keeping up with how much each student is really learning.  Kindergarten sure has come a long way since I went to the YMCA from 8-12 : )  This Thursday I will take Emily to a skills assessment so they can have something to go on when trying to place all the kindergartners in their class for the fall.  I introduced myself to the principal and even signed up for a couple of volunteer slots with the PTA.  I might as well jump in with both feet right!  The PTA president also spoke with us and told us what all they have purchased for the school thru their events and fund raising and spoke highly of how involved all the parents are with the PTA.  So I'm excited about where Emily and soon Abigail will be going to school.

I've been on a sewing kick the last couple of weeks so here is what Emily wore on her school tour.  This was fabric my neighbor gave me because she decided not to use it:

 I dropped Abigail off early to ride with a friend to school so Emily and I could go together on the school tour.  It was really nice getting to share that time with just her.

I also finished these pillow case dresses last night and they wore them to school today:

You wouldn't know from the sweet picture above that we all had melt downs this morning before school.  Some mornings everybody just decides to be stinkers and fight about everything.  A mom can only take so much . . . .

It's also been fun to see Emily wearing some of the outfits Dee Dee made for Sarah:

She gave me the leftover fabric from this outfit so I'm working on a dress for Abigail to match.

Dee Dee also made both of these dresses.  Sarah wore the purple flower dress and Emily wore the dress Abigail is wearing. 

 

 Here is Emily wearing the same dress for Easter in 2009: