Goodbye Preschool

Preschool ended for Zeke last week, and his teachers threw a graduation and goodbye party to celebrate. All of the cute kids sang their preschool songs and showed us all of the things they learned. We got there late but they slipped Zeke right in on the end. He has been singing some of the songs at home but it was fun to hear them all. 

Zeke with his 'diploma' and gift.

Nora loving chairs just her size.

After the program Zeke hopped right up on the tramp. It has been one of his favorite things. It wasn't long before his friends joined him, just like they do at recess.

Zeke with Miss Amy and Miss Katie. And his popcorn :)

He has learned so much, and 5 months has really gone fast. He made friends, learned letter sounds, wrote numbers, practiced writing his name, drew pictures, went on fun field trips, and he's working up to reading. He will really miss preschool this summer, but he is excited for kindergarten and thanks to these wonderful ladies he is so ready!

Zeke's Preschool Art

Zeke has done so many fun art projects at preschool, and he is so proud of his work. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Mother's Day bouquet he brought me last week. The words say 'Happy Mother's Day'.

Fingerpaint rainbow from W week (W is for Weather)

Weather wheel, also from W week. This is probably my very favorite project. I just love Zeke's depictions of rain, wind, sun, and clouds.

Writing Zs.

W is for wheel print painting (how fun!).

S is for star stickers

R is for robot

Fish bowl from U week (Under the Sea) - I love this one too. At one point Nora found this and ate the goldfish, so we had to replace them :)

Floating and Flying

We've been to a lot of float flys, but this was the best one so far. It may be my favorite fly yet! We borrowed a boat to take with us, and the first thing we did when we got there was unload the boat and go out on the lake. It was still early and the water was so smooth and peaceful.

Nora loved the water and spent most of the day splashing in the shallow water. She did a great job staying close to the shore. Meanwhile, Zeke was playing in the dirt further inland.

Aaron did plane retrieval as necessary and Zeke went with him nearly every time. 

Aaron even got to fly. Some technical problems stopped him after one flight, but he loved his first experience flying off the water.

Toward the end of the day, we all went out on the boat again. I really enjoyed watching the float planes from out in the middle of the lake instead of the shore. While we were out, another plane lost power so we towed it in.

It was a wonderful way to spend a warm sunny Saturday. 

One Beautiful Crazy Week

Last week was one of those weeks with lots of things going on that threw off our routine and made me feel really scattered. But that's not to say there weren't good things. I took Nora with me to a meeting at work and she did fantastic! I had a couple of different entertainment options for her but she watched a couple of episodes of her favorite shows on my phone and was sitting, happy, and mostly quiet for an hour. The first time she got down from the chair beside me was seconds before I scooped her up to go home to pick up Zeke from school. 

And, fortunately, things slowed down at the end of the week and we were able to play outside and enjoy the warm weather and the beautiful trees and flowers.

April Birthday

For many months Zeke has been asking about his birthday and we have talked about how his birthday is in April. And then April finally got here, and he had to wait until the last few days of the month! But it was worth waiting for, and we celebrated several days in a row. 

He got to take treats to preschool, and he chose cupcakes. 

At preschool, he got a birthday crown and a whistle.

The next day, a package arrived in the mail from Draper and Carrie. He can read his name, so it was fun when he opened the mailbox, pulled out the package, and said 'This is for me!'. 

Turtle cake. Aaron did the building and we frosted it together. 

We had a fun little party on Zeke's birthday, with cake and ice cream and presents. He got train tickets from mom and dad and Nora.

Zeke also got a fun truck pulling a trailer with an ATV on it. While Zeke opened more presents, Nora and Brielle were pushing the buttons on the truck and jamming out to the music it plays.

Singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles. He's been looking forward to this for a long time!

After the party we headed to the park to fly Zeke's new Spiderman kite. The kite goes up and stays up so easily, and Zeke loved that he could fly his kite and play in the dirt at the same time.

Nora got a turn to fly too.

The day was nice but the wind was cold, so after a while we headed home to warm up with quesadillas and watch Inspector Gadget on Hulu. I had a great day, and Zeke says he did too :)