Final dance class

Tuesday was Natalie's last dance class before her big recital this Sunday. We were again called back to the studio to watch the girls perform; I can't wait to see it this weekend in costume!

Tomorrow (Saturday) morning is the full dress rehearsal, which means I get extra practice getting her hair into a tight bun on top of her head. Then Sunday afternoon is the big day! All of her grandparents and her aunt Carrie are coming to see her dance, and she's so excited. I know she'll do a great job!

Fun at Ida Lee playground

And here's the second in a row of photos of the kiddos playing on a playground! Something tells me that as the weather gets nicer this will be happening more on here :)

This set was taken on Saturday when I took them to run some errands and play at Ida Lee playground. We of course spent quite a while on the swings, and when Henry was done there left Natalie swinging while I followed Henry around a bit as he played.

 

...seriously, could this kid be any cuter?!

 

Our movie star attempted to hide behind her big glasses, but the paparazzi found her anyway!

 The kids played together so well, particularly on the slides.

On a playset

There's not much to this post, I warn you. Mostly just that I had some cute pics of the kids that I wanted to share :)

Two weekends ago we went to the house of some friends of ours, and the kids were immediately distracted by the playset in their backyard. I'm never one to miss an opportunity to snag some photos of the kids playing!

 

A preschooler no more!

On Friday, Natalie graduated from preschool. I hardly know how she's gone from my tiny, 8 pound baby to a 5 and a half year old big kid who will be going to kindergarten in only 3 short months. The graduation was wonderful, and I'm so happy to share it here.





























We were then treated to a number of patriotic performances (including Yankee Doodle), but I think the highlight of the performance was the "Grand Old Flag" parade around the room. Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with this video and I can't get it to upload! Grr. I'll see if I can get it another time.

It was then time for everyone to get their diplomas. I will admit, at this point I teared up.

 The graduating pre-school class of 2013!

It was then time for the cake reception, at which I managed to get a couple of photos of my kiddos.

 and of the graduate! She also asked to have a photo taken with her teacher, Ms. Erica

 

After the kids finished their cake, we got a few of Natalie with her friends.

 

So proud of our big graduate and all of her friends!

"Fun in the Sun" at Preschool

Today, Natalie graduated from preschool. I can still hardly believe it...how is she 5 and a half, and going to kindergarten in 3 months?! It hardly seems possible. The graduation was great, but of course with using a real camera I have some steps to do before I can share them here, so I hope to get them up by Sunday. In the meantime, here is the last preschool activity to report on before the graduation itself!

Last week at preschool, the kids were very excited for "Fun in the Sun" day, where they were allowed to wear their bathing suits to school and play outside in water stations for the last part of the school day. I arrived a bit early to take some photos of the kids playing.

I then had the parents help me organize all of the kids together for a class photo. Yes, I shared this one in my previous post, but it's just so darn cute that I had to share it here once more.

There was actually a reason for this photo - we decided part of the end of year gift for the teachers would be a class photo, signed on the back by each of the kids. They did a great job signing the back of the photos, and leaving enough space for all 20 kids to sign!

I was honored to be asked to do the photo, and the parents all said they loved this final version. Pretty good to get 20 kids all looking at the camera, right? This was actually the second class shoot - the first day we did it, two kids weren't in the photo, so it was requested that we reshoot, and I'm glad we did as I think this came out way better than the first one, pictured here.

Still quite cute, but I like the one we ended up choosing which has all of the kids and is a bit more informal in their bathing suits. Very fitting for this class! We're all so proud of our kids, who graduated today and are all so excited to go on to kindergarten in the fall.

Tomorrow, it ends

What ends, you ask? Preschool. I can't believe that tomorrow is Natalie's last day of preschool. It will be celebrated by a graduation ceremony - they get to wear mortarboards, do a performance, and I've been told there's cake (this is of course one of the more exciting parts to a 5 year old).

I'm looking back over the past two school years...here she is on her very first day of school in September 2011, and her last day of that school year, one year ago (May 2012)

Then starting the school year in September 2012, and a photo of her taken just two weeks ago (I don't have her end of school year one for this post quite yet; that will come tomorrow!)

 

(and more on where and why this recent photo was taken is coming shortly!)

Natalie has grown up so much in the past two years, and we are so proud of her. We received a fantastic end of year report card, including the sentence "Natalie is a model student". I of course have no way of knowing how many other students may have received that same compliment, but that doesn't negate it being a wonderful thing to hear about your child. 

She's made some wonderful friends over the past two years, and I've made friends with the parents as well. I am so glad that we chose this preschool, and can't wait for Henry to start there in the fall. Now to just get through graduation tomorrow without completely embarrassing myself by crying my eyes out!

Little Drummer Boy

Both of our kids love music; this isn't surprising given that Evan and I constantly have music playing, I'm always singing, and both of us played instruments for many years. Natalie seems to be expressing her musical creativity through dance (although she does also love to sing!), while Henry seems to be showing some talent for musicality. I'm fairly certain he's better at maintaining a beat and a musical rhythm than she was at 3. I'd love to get him some music lessons - if only they weren't so expensive! For now, we are making due with lessons at home with us...enjoy the show :)

Kid Photographers, Part 6

We're on Part 6 of this series already! Tonight we feature Photography by Henry (tm). In my previous post, I detailed my foray into planting in our new house. While Natalie and I were busy repotting the plant, Henry requested permission to take some photos. Along with the expected photos of the backside of the stairs, or a blurry close-up of the grill cover, we did get some decent gems!

I like his use of foreground and background in this shot.

His close-up of the table looks like ripples on water to me!

Earlier this week, I helped Natalie make a "Fairy House" one evening. While we were busy working on it, Henry again asked to take photos and captured these two (amidst many close-ups of his pants and the couch).

Hey Mom - I did something with plants!

So, I'm not Suzy Homemaker. I don't really cook (although I do like to bake, I just don't do it often because I don't want the sweets in the house!), I'd prefer to pay someone to do a household chore than do it myself, and although I do some cleaning, because Evan works from home he does do more than I do, more often than not. One thing that I really don't do is gardening. I've managed to kill plants that my mom said were indestructible (challenge accepted!), I don't like getting dirty, and the amount of effort that has to go into maintaining plants and/or a garden just seems exhausting.

However, in our new house, I've decided to give it a shot with the plant pictured below.

My mother in law sent us that plant as a housewarming gift, and it turned out there were 5 separate plants in the one box. My mom advised us that we needed to replant it, so I bought 5 little pots, some potting mix, and set to work. Evan captured the historic moments. 

Natalie very much enjoyed helping, and she did a very nice job filling in the soil and tamping it down on the plant. The result: (minus one of them that was already placed in Natalie's room, as it has pink on the leaves)

I am proud to say that over a month later, all 5 are still alive. The one on the back left (with the big wide leaves) I put a bit too close to one of our standing lamps and the leaves started turning brown (not all, just a few). So, I moved it and it seems to be doing ok. The tall skinny one in the middle is in our bathroom (on the side of our jet tub), and it seems to be doing the best, I'm sure because of the humidity in the bathroom. Let's see how long I can keep this going!

The dance is almost done...

Yesterday we parents received a surprise at dance class: the girls came out and invited us back at the end of class to watch their recital performance. I recorded about one minute of it (missed the very beginning and shut it off before the end). I am quite pleased with her dancing, and in general think the dance is adorable! I can't wait to see the whole thing in costume at the dress rehearsal in 3 weeks.

Foxfield 2013

Henry wearing a blue and orange button down with a UVA hat...

Horses running...

Girls in summer dresses... 

 This can only mean one thing - FOXFIELD! Our annual journey to Charlottesville on the last weekend in April every year. This year was a first -we had over 1/3 of the number of kids as there were adults (about 45 adults and almost 20 kids), so we spent quite a bit of time making sure we had lots of stuff for the kids to do. My friends Renee and Beth put together activity bags for each kid, which was a fantastic idea, especially as the races wore on in the afternoon. being able to pull out bubbles for the kids was very helpful, as you'll see below!

When we first arrived, I took a bunch of the kids over to a grassy area to play. We brought some baseball bats and balls, and they proved to be a HUGE hit! I ended up pitching the whole time, so my friend Rachel grabbed these shots of us all playing. Henry may need a little help figuring out how to hold the bat!

 

We all agreed this may have been the funniest picture of the day. No, I did not actually hit Ellie in the face - the ball bounced off the bat and gently bopped her. She was fine :)

 Here I am pitching to Sydney, drink in hand. Would it happen any other way?!

Then it was time for food, and the races to start. Henry absolutely loved watching the horses, even more so than in previous years. It was nice that we've reached the point where Natalie and the other girls her age (or older) can mostly take care of themselves (with occasional checks by us), so we mostly had Henry to watch after.

Midway through the races was time for Evan's birthday cake (Foxfield is always around his birthday, and every few years it falls on his birthday, like this year!).

Photo courtesy of Rachel

Don't you love the children just waiting for cake?! That may have been the highlight for them.:)

 As I mentioned before, we then brought out the trip kits and the kids had a blast with bubbles.

 I loved how excited Katie got about the bubbles Natalie blew for her!

 Henry enjoyed being thrown up in the air by Evan, and I love this little guy's happy face!

Rachel also grabbed a couple of great family shots of us - this one is my favorite

 When it was time to head back, we got everyone packed up in the car with minimal issues. Ellie's car seat had been moved to our car, and this was the site when we got back to the house. Ellie stayed asleep for about another 30 minutes; Henry around an hour! I kept checking on him expecting him to wake, and he was just OUT. That's what a day outside will do to you!

 Natalie and Zabby got showered up and were good to go. Since the other parents were doing different things (including Evan and a few others getting Crozet Pizza for dinner), I supervised the girls on the big tree swing outside.

 

 

As always, a fantastic time at Foxfield! I do have a ton of photos of friends at the event, but thought they were better suited to Facebook than to here (as then I can tag everyone). So if you haven't seen them yet, click HERE to take a look.