Black and white beauty

There were a few more favorites from our day at the park on Saturday, and I just had to share them.  I happened to edit these all to black and white, so grouped them in one special edition post for you.  I love them…they capture Ava’s expressions so well!  And, there is one random shot of Tyler at the bottom, just so you don’t think he gets completely left out of the pictures!  For all the photos from our day at the park, you can click here to visit my Google+ album.  You’ll notice a couple versions of this first picture of Ava in that album because I just couldn’t decide which edit I liked best!

Our Kindergarten Graduate

Tyler had his Kindergarten graduation today.  Can you believe it?  It seems like just last month I was writing about him starting school for the first time.  Now, he’s part of the Kindergarten class of 2012!  Have you ever thought about what year he’ll graduate from high school?  2024. That seems so far away, but if this year (heck, the last 5.5 years) is any indication, I’ll be writing about his high school graduation in a couple of days!  

They had the kids walk out individually and stand in front of the room.

They called them up to receive their diploma and a poem from their teachers. 

I had to take a picture of how Tyler signed the Congratulations sign that was hanging at the front of the room.  Wouldn’t you know…he drew a rocket above his name!  When Dave and I were sitting in the seats waiting for it to begin, Dave pointed out Tyler’s name and said “I think there is a rocket right there, that must be Tyler’s name.”  Sure enough!  Isn’t that just the sum of Tyler’s entire last year?  The space craze has officially lasted a year!

Before we left, I asked Tyler if he wanted to take pictures with some of his friends.  Unfortunately, there weren’t many who were still there, but we did get a few pictures.  Luckily, his friend Sylvie was there and was willing to take a picture (on the left), and Maddie (on the right) was willing after I asked her.  A few of the girls told him no when he asked if they’d take a picture with him.  I found them to be more willing when I asked.  Poor guy…his feelings were sort of hurt!

Finally, here is a picture of Tyler with his two teachers, Miss Sammi on the left, and his lead teacher, Ms. Tiffany on the right. Ms. Tiffany is taking a break from teaching after this year to spend more time with her own 4 young children at home.  I’m glad that he had this year with her, and I’m very appreciative of all the teachers in his class and at this school.  It really has been a great year for him! 

Just for the heck of it, I’m also going to include a picture of Ty with his two teachers on the first day he met them back in August.  I guess not too much has changed! Tiffany was pregnant, Tyler’s face was red and sweaty, and Sammi was wearing a white shirt instead of a black one, but other than that, there isn’t much difference.  I guess Tyler looks a bit more grown up now.  What do you think?

In actuality however, so much has changed. Tyler has spent a year being an independent learner, making friends, and learning about the world around him. There has always been a question about whether we should have started Tyler in school as a 5 year old, and the teachers in my family will probably always say he needed to wait. I am comforted knowing that he will spend his elementary years (if we continue at this school, as I hope we do) in combined classrooms with children of varied ages. Next year, as a first grader, he will be exposed to work for first, second, and third graders.  I know every parent thinks their child is the smartest one in the room, and we are no exception.  His teachers this year have continuously raved about how smart and well adjusted he is.  He is very well behaved and gets along with the other children in the class.  He clearly has a passion for learning and directs it towards what he is most interested in.  Tiffany told me today that she was sure he’d do great in first grade, and that he needs to move up.  She said we’d be doing him a disservice by keeping him in Kindergarten for another year.  We are so proud of how well he has done this year, and look forward to watching him grown and learn more next year as a first grader!  Great job buddy, we love you to the moon and back again!

At the park on a Saturday evening

The weather here in Arizona on this Memorial Day weekend was outstanding!  Usually, we’re well over 100 degrees by this time of year, and we have had plenty of hot days, but it was in the high 80s pretty much all weekend.  It was fabulous!  On Saturday evening, the kids and I went to the park to kill some time and enjoy the nice weather.  I brought my camera with and got so many good pictures (mostly of Ava) that I’m not sure how to go about sharing them all.  I guess I’ll just give you a very photo heavy post to enjoy on your Tuesday morning!

Do you see a trend with Ava’s photos lately?  She loves sticking her tongue out when the camera is pointed at her. Silly girl!  I know I’m a little low on photos of Tyler, but he tends to stay out of the way of the camera most of the time.  When he does want his photo taken, he’s jumping off of something, like in the picture above.  He was telling me when to “snap it, Mom!”  After dinner on Saturday night, we got on our bikes and headed the other direction to the school park until dark.  It was a great day to be outside, which is not something we say very often at the end of May.  I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend.  I know we did….

Floaties=Good, No Floaties=Bad

We had a little reminder yesterday that we need to get this little girl into some swimming lessons! And I got to go for a swim in my clothes.

We were at my friend Becky’s house for a barbeque yesterday.  The kids all swam for a little while, but believe it or not, it was a bit too chilly!  Sad that 85 degrees is too cold for swimming when we’re used to it being well over 100 on Memorial Day weekend.  Because we had a few cooler* days, the pools dropped a few degrees too.  To most adults, they aren’t warm enough yet, and the kids don’t last quite as long.  Most of the kids had gotten out, but Tyler was still swimming with another little boy, and Dave and I were both sitting by the pool watching (fully clothed, of course).  Ava had her suit on still, but no floaties, and we thought she was done.  She started getting in the water again, and we reminded her that she needed to put her floaties on.  She didn’t want to, so we told her she needed to stay on the step.  She started inching out towards the edge of the step (it was one of those large flat areas), and we said “don’t you dare step off of there, you don’t have your floaties on.”  She kept looking at us with a little smirk on her face that seemed to say “I’m going to do something I’m not supposed to do!”  I even said to her “I’m not going in after you if you get off that step.”  She must have known better, or else she just didn’t know what would happen, but sure enough she stepped right off and started to sink immediately.  She was able to pop her head up for air once, but by that time, I was in the water myself.  I had on a dress and shoes still, but I didn’t even hesitate!  I hoped I would be able to reach her from the step, but no such luck…in the water I went!  Little stinker! 

I think it scared her enough to remember—and listen to us—next time.  In the mean time, however, we really need to get her into some swimming lessons.  She has no fear, and that can be a bad combination for a little girl who can’t quite swim by herself just yet.  Luckily, we were both right there, and there was no chance that anything other than getting scared was going to happen.  It makes you realize how quickly a tragedy can happen if the adults are not paying attention.  Now, off to find some swimming lessons!

Reading and singing

In my post yesterday, I promised a couple of videos of Ava reading her book, and she was also singing songs to her babies.  

This one is pretty funny. This book, The Teeny Tiny Woman, was a favorite around here for a couple of days, and after a few readings, she could recite it herself.  Let's see if  you can follow the story....

In this last video, she was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her babies, and she was kind enough to sing it again for me once I got my camera ready.  She got stuck a little bit, and sounded like a broken record, but with a little prompting, moved on to the end of the song.  I don't think either of our kids will get a singing scholarship or win American Idol, but I hope they always try!

Reading with friends

On Friday, I walked in to Ava’s room to see her with her stuffed animals lined up next to her in bed, reading books to her friends.  She didn’t mind that I was taking pictures and videos of the event, and they ended up pretty cute! 

It was so cute to listen to her tell her version of the story from her books.  She does pretty well with some of these books we read often!  I have a couple of videos of this too, and I’ll share them separately. I love that both of our children have such a fondness for books…..

Bahama Buck’s!

One of my very favorite places to get a delicious treat is Bahama Buck’s.  Samantha and I started going last summer, and it became a regular occurrence.  For those of you out of the loop, it’s a shaved ice place and it tastes like heaven.  Tyler had his presentation at school yesterday, so after we left, I asked where he’d like to go to get a treat.  I may or may not have hinted at going to Bahama Buck’s, and luckily, the kids agreed!  I’ll use any excuse to go to BB’s!  I took a few pictures with my phone while we were there to commemorate this special treat.  I also got one of my most favorite cell phone pictures ever….this one right here. ↓

Trust me, they’re happy to be there! 

That made me hungry just looking at those pictures!  Who’s up for some Bucks?