77 months

Grandma and Grandpa are officially here and after their first sleep over where they had to sleep on an air mattress the girls could not wait for Grandpa to put together their new bed (it's a trundle which they think is so cool) and sleep over again, every day they asked if it was done until it was! Grandpa watched the girls one Saturday afternoon and if it was up to them they would spend every Saturday with him, McDonalds for lunch, Menchies for dessert and a trip to Walmart where they got to run through the toy aisle, their Barbie collection is growing.

 

We celebrated my birthday and Mother's Day this month, both of which I just wanted a nice family picture with the four of us, guess it's time for me to hire a photographer to do that. Mother's Day I did get a bug to photograph the girls and since it was my day I made us all drive out to Myakka State Park to take pictures in the wildflowers, it was always something I had wanted to do in Texas and we never did, after seeing friends post pictures in the yellow fields I knew I needed pictures there. J was a very cooperative subject this day and I got a few good shots, I think she would have spent all day there picking flowers if I would have let her (and needed some in her hair to match her dress)! We will definitely be going back next year, this time with notice, props and a tripod!

The weekend before Mother's Day we took a quick family get-a-way, with daddy being in class last month, some good quality time was needed. We headed to Orlando Friday afternoon and spent the late afternoon/early evening at the pool and eating pizza pool side. The water was still a little too cold for us but the girls enjoyed playing and getting their wiggles out. We got upgraded to a firework view room and watched them out our window before calling it a night so we could be up early for the Magic Kingdom the next morning. Saturday morning the girls bounced out of bed and ate Mickey waffles before we headed to the park. I don't know how we did it but somehow we conned them into riding new rides, we were there early and the lines weren't long so it was worth a try asking them to ride something out of Fantasyland! Given the choice between Splash and Thunder Mountain J chose Splash and that is where we started, she rode with me (it had been many years since I had been on the ride and forgot how it was) and we got soaked right off the bat by a geyser. She kept psyching herself up the entire ride (as she held onto me) by saying 'J be brave", it was so cute! She enjoyed the inside of the ride and when we got to the big drop she screamed, not sure if she will go again (she said she would another day) but now she can tell all her friends she rode it. We got off the ride and the line for Thunder Mountain was still short so we convinced them (this took a little more coaxing) to go on that one too, 2/3 of the mountains first thing in the morning is a great way to start the day! She continued to tell herself to "be brave" and rode with daddy, at the end she said it wasn't that bad but she didn't want to go again. We spent the rest of the morning in Fantasyland (she was excited to be Mrs. Potts) before heading out for some lunch and rest time, we were trying to make it for the night time firework shows. We got back to the park around 4:30pm with the rain clouds lurking in the distance, the rain stayed away just long enough for us to take them in the Haunted Mansion, these girls deserved many brownie points for what we put them through this day! They both were terrified of the ride especially at the end when the ghost ended up in our car, oops guess we won't be going on that one again anytime soon! We dodged rain the rest of the time (saw the Bears, ate dinner, rode Peter Pan and Buzz) before the rain decided to take a break to allow us to see the night time castle show, something I have wanted to do our last few trips but thanks to cranky kids we left before it started. The girls watched in awe as the castle images changed with the music and screamed at Tinkerbell as she flew over us. After the show we rode Buzz twice to let some of the crowd out of the park before we called it a night, we had a great fun day and we rode Buzz at least four times so J was very happy! The next morning we woke up to a down pour and were home by lunchtime, we were hoping to catch one last trip to the Epcot Flower Festival for J to see the butterflies, oh well, we still had a nice family weekend despite the rain.

The end of school crept up on us and the month was filled with lots of excitement! J's teacher put on a fabulous Mother's Day program with food, gifts, songs and videos each of the kids made about their mom (the only thing missing was Kleenex on the tables). I was in awe of what she did and got the kids to do, learning 5 songs/dances I'm sure took a lot of practice! J is always very shy and affectionate when I visit her at school, she always wants to hug me and not let me go, I hope she is always like this. The last week of school her teacher made it fun and there was no learning, they got to dress up, bring toys/stuffed animals in, watch movies, play in stations and just have some good ole fashion fun with their friends, I got to help one morning (on what was supposed to be water day but got rained out) with some fun activities. The kindergarten classes had their end of the year program and awards ceremony, J got an award (again) for her Gator baits and also a character award for Responsibility. G&G moved just in time to attend and see her strut her stuff across the stage. We are so proud of what J accomplished this year,  how well she excelled and adjusted to "real" school and of the model student she is (definitely the teachers pet).

They learned all about animals this year and the last month hatched eggs (I don't know the whole story and how they got them), J's class got to "babysit" the chicks for a few days the last week of school, they were only supposed to have them one day but J told me since the other teachers didn't come and get them they got to just stay in their class. J loved watching them and her teacher sent me a picture one day of her during free time, while all the other kids were playing she was sitting next to drawing and writing about them.  I didn't get to have lunch with J this year as much as I wanted, with C in school five days next year it will be easier to eat with her more often. I did surprise her one of the last days with her favorite burger from Wolveshead, she knew I was coming to deliver pizza for teacher appreciation week but didn't think she would get something special too. Daddy had one final lunch with her too, McDonalds her usual request. Kindergarten flew by in a flash and she is soaring right on to first grade, not sure if I am ready for that just yet!

Her final assessment scores and report card came home, she ended the year with all E's and 4's and is reading at mid-first grade level. In just a few weeks time (since she passed her last sight word list, picture below of her standing next to the bulletin board at school with the names of those who have completed the lists) the words just seem to be rolling off her tongue and is turning into a little book worm, or Belle as I am calling her. She is walking around the house with books in her hands, I'm surprised she hasn't ran into a wall yet! Her teacher sent her home with a notebook and some reading prompts to work on over the summer, our goal is to read 30 books (and have 30 entries), let's see if she can get that done.

Tumbling ended this month, well for the summer, we might try putting her back in the older class again in the fall. Her cartwheel has gotten "a little" better and her confidence in herself has improved, hoping she will now want to try other new things, like soccer again!

Here are the pictures from the month and our trip to Disney.