The Amazing Flying Hazel

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! 

Coming up on 7 years

Even though I'm not quite 7 years old yet, I had my 7 year-old-checkup at the doctor today. I was excited to see how much I've grown, and also excited that I didn't have to get any shots.

I am just a half-inch short of 4 feet tall (45th percentile) and weigh 52 pounds (55th percentile).

You can see my latest growth chart here, or by clicking the image on the right side of the blog

Happy Father's Day!

We love our Dad!

Potty Training Express

This picture has nothing to do with
potty training because that's kind of gross.
Shucking corn, however, is pretty fun.

Here's some big news. Turner is pretty much potty-trained!!!

It all happened so fast.

Last week, after hearing that one of his close friends started using the potty, Turner started wanting to wear underwear for the first time. So Mom let him wear underwear around the house, and kept the potty around for him to use. He sat on the potty a lot but didn't seem to get how to use it. He had a few accidents in his underwear but then something seemed to click. He pooped in the potty a few times, then the day after that he started peeing in the potty. He even went to school and used the "big potty" there and didn't have any accidents.

The first few times Turner used the potty, he ran around yelling "I pooped in the potty. I'm not a toddler anymore!" Then he started saying, "Now I can stay in the babysitting room at Ikea!" 

The funny thing was I think Hazel and I were just as excited. We ran around yelling about Turner's accomplishment, and telling him how proud we were of him.

Today he used a regular toilet at Mom's allergist's office, at a friend's house, and at a restaurant. So Mom got rid of all his training potties so he will just use the regular toilet at home.

All of us were amazed at how quickly Turner has become potty-trained! Way to go Turner!

Happy Mothers Day!

This weekend was Mother's Day! We did a great job putting lots of fun surprises together to make Mom feel happy and appreciated.

We have been looking forward to this all week. Hazel, Turner, and I made different Mothers' Day presents at school all week. I also whispered to Dad on Wednesday last week that I wanted to make Mom breakfast in bed. Hazel, Turner, and I were determined to keep it a secret all week.

On Saturday, Dad took us kids to go get flowers for Mom. We spent a long time agreeing on which flowers to get. Turner had some very specific ideas about which flowers he wanted, and Dad wouldn't let us get anything until we all agreed on it. Finally, we settled on a very colorful bouquet of a bunch of flowers. We gave them to Mom on Saturday so she would have them for the beginning of Mother's Day. She was surprised and very happy!

Mom asked if she could go running on Sunday morning, and I told her, no, we were going to make her breakfast in bed. Whoops! I spoiled the surprise. But Mom said she was surprised when I told her. So mission accomplished.

On Sunday morning, Dad and all of us kids got up early and went downstairs to Mom could sleep in. Then we started making Mom breakfast. Dad washed and cut up some fruit. All of us helped make some "Daddy eggs" (Daddy's secret scrambled egg recipe, that only he knows how to make!). Hazel and I made some toast with apple butter spread. Then we took all of the breakfast upstairs, and sang "Happy Mother's Day" to Mom and gave her a delicious breakfast in bed. Turner and Hazel stuck around to help her eat it.

Next we called Bubbe to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. She was happy to hear from us and thanked us for the Mother's Day cards we had made and sent her.

After a leisurely morning at home, we gave Mom her next surprise. She said she wanted to spend the day outside, so we took her to the Dinosaur Park in Cedar Creek, Texas. We had never been before, but it sure looked fun. It was beautiful weather, and a perfect day to go to the park.

The park had lots of fun stuff to do. There was a playground with lots of fun things, including a giant dinosaur head we could crawl in. The playground also had water misters and swings, which delighted all of us. We had a terrific lunch, played on the playground, and then walked on the dinosaur trail.

The trail was neat. It had all kinds of dinosaurs hiding in the woods, and a scavenger hunt for us to find giant scorpions, spiders, fossils, and loads of other things. The weather eventually started getting warm, and before too long Turner loudly and repeatedly told us he had enough and was ready to hit the road. We finished out the trail and headed home.

On the way home, Dad found a nut and candy store with a giant squirrel, and Mom ran in to pick up a treat for us to enjoy on the drive home.

We all agreed that it had been a great Mother's Day! Mom said she is very lucky to have us as her family.

Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch

Here's something funny that happened while I was at school today.

Mom needed a few minutes to work, so she asked Hazel and Turner to play together in the living room. She was pleasantly surprised by how cheerfully and quietly they played together.

After about 10 minutes, Mom finished what she was doing, and found them in the bathroom like this.

They yelled "Trick or treat!"

Hazel said she was Cookie Monster and Turner was Oscar the Grouch.

And it turns out water colors don't wash off skin as easily as you might think!