Graduating Preschool & Kindergarten

Hazel and Mom (not in a banana costume)

The end of May and beginning of June have been a busy and exciting time for us.

Hazel graduated preschool. At the graduation ceremony, her class walked out, wearing little graduation hats, while they played Pomp and Circumstance. Then they sang "The Pirate Song," which her class chose to sing with a vote. That was the song Hazel voted for, so she was excited. It's also one of Turner's favorite songs from school. Then they gave each graduate a diploma, everyone ate cake. 

My wonderful teacher, spraying us all down with shaving cream

Before graduation day, Mom asked Hazel if they should dress up, and whether Hazel wanted to wear her fancy pink and white dress. Hazel said yes, and Mom asked if she wanted her to dress up too. Hazel said, "In what? Your banana costume?" It wasn't quite what Mom meant, but it made Mom realize that maybe she has been running around in the banana costume a little too often.

We celebrated the end of kindergarten in a big way too, by inviting my whole class to have our end of the year party at our house on the last day of school! It was wildly fun. We had three wading pools with water toys, a slip n slide, a million bottles of shaving cream that we all sprayed all over each other, watermelon popsicles, pizza, cupcake decorating, water balloons, face painting, and lots more. It was crazy fun, and we were all tired for days afterward. Woo hoo! I'm a first grader now. And Hazel's a kindergartener!!!

Since then, we've kicked summer off to a great start. Turner and Hazel are still going to school two mornings a week, which is a nice way for Mom and me to spend time together. We like going for walks, but it is also our time when we have to get some errands done. No matter what we're doing, we agree that it's nice hanging out together regardless of what we're doing.

Another cool thing we've done is visited a splash pad in Central Austin two Fridays ago. It was a nice relaxing day. Turner, Hazel, Mom and I all really enjoyed that and then a visit to a banana stand afterward. I told Mom it was the best day of my life.

We've also spent time at birthday parties and hanging out with friends, but the main thing we've been doing is blitz swim classes this week and last. Blitz classes are when you have a class every day Monday through Thursday. It doesn't sound like much, but we are all worn out. The best part is we can all hang out in the shallow end when we aren't in class. Mom especially loves not having to sit on the side watching everybody else having fun.

I'm doing really well in my class, Hazel already moved up to the next level, and even Turner has started taking classes this week. After watching us all last week, he said, "I want to take lessons." He's doing great. He doesn't mind going underwater and does everything the teacher asks with a smile on his face. It seems he's a natural swimmer! Mom and Dad are proud of all of us. We all agree we want to spend a ton of time in the pool this summer.


Finally, we had the chance to celebrate Dad last weekend, on Father's Day! We started the day by leaving the house so he could sleep in. Mom took all of us to Einstein's Bagels, everyone's fave.

Then we headed to a nearby elementary school to check out their playground. Turner and Hazel played on a playscape while Mom and I made up a new game, state bounce. They had a huge U.S. map painted on the ground at the playground, and we found a playground ball. I like states, and Mom wanted to work on bouncing and catching. So we combined it all and made up a game. It was a blast!

Dad sent Mom a message telling us he was up, so we went home to shower him with gifts. After Mom took a nap, we headed to the lake to spend time with our friends Will and Bob on their boat. It was great! Turner and I didn't love the speed, but once we anchored and jumped in, we really liked being out there. Hazel and Will did cannonballs off the tube and we all just had a really happy time relaxing and hanging out together.

Then we took Dad to Freebirds, and were happy that Bob, Will and Will's mom and brother could join us. Will asked Hazel to marry him, and Hazel said yes, so that was just one more exciting part of the day.

I can't wait to see what the rest of summer has in store for us!