End of the school year

Really?  I swear the school year just started...  this must be what all of those people who lectured me when I was pregnant meant when they said "Savor every moment, they grow up too fast" A smile and a nod later here I am with a soon to be 3rd grader and 2nd yr preschooler!

Izzy and her best friend.

Anyway, today was the prize giving ceremony at the girl's school.  For the first year ever we had a child in both preschool and junior school (I distinctly remember feeling sorry for "those people" who had to be there all day in the past...) which meant that we were at school for festivities from about 9:30 until 2:30 today. Even though it was a bit of a haul, it was great fun.  Izzy went first, with a cute all preschool song and a song sung by the french preschoolers.

Izzy receiving her award.

She just looks most responsible doesn't she? (or is that most skeptical... but there wasn't an award for that)

Perhaps the highlight of the day was Izzy receiving a prize for being the "most responsible" kid in the preschool.  She was super excited to go up on stage and get her envelope with a whole $10 to spend at amazon.com :)

After the preschool event we had two hours for the kids to jump like crazy in a (mercifully) indoor jumping castle and eat from a buffet of food trucks (I am amazed that such a small school could command 4 food trucks).  As you might imagine, when 1 pm rolled around and it was time for Evie's event Izzy was pretty worn out.  Izzy was, however, well fed on homemade ramen noodles so she actually fared pretty well after I found a big long pillow for her to "rest" on at my feet during the junior school performance.  The big kids also sang a song for each of the languages (all of which were surprisingly entertaining) and one very sweet all junior school song at the end.

All in all it was a fun (but exhausting) last day of school for the year!

Hooded

 

 This morning was officially the absolutely very last PhD student-y thing I will ever do.  I decided to go for the total closure on the whole thing and get my hood... and although it felt a little silly because I have been "Dr. Mott Lacroix" for an entire 4 months now :) I am glad I did it, if for no other reason than the opportunity to be on the McKale Center jumbotron....

  and this photo...

Ladybug Chorus

Picture from Evie's choir, a view from backstage, Evie is in the front row, three girls over.

Last night Genevieve had her first ever Tucson Girl's Chorus concert.  It was held downtown at the historic Temple of Music and Art and was (if I do say so myself) fabulous!  This year Evie is in the youngest preforming choir, the Ladybugs.  The preformed three songs alone and an additional 4 songs with the entire set of 7 choirs.  The cutest was their rendition of There's no business like show business, complete with choreography and the most moving was a very pretty (and complex for a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds) This is why we sing.  Dad... you would have particularly enjoyed the full choir rendition of the Beach Boys Fun, Fun, Fun :)

All choirs (although you can only see about 3/4 of the girls) singing Fun, fun, fun.  Evie is in the front row just left of the mic.

What was perhaps most exciting for me was watching Evie up on stage for the first time wholly engaged and involved in what she was doing.  Patrick says he could even hear her singing (I didn't notice this per se, but then I have a cold so that is my excuse).  A few nights before the preformance she was practicing and it literally brought tears to my eyes, both because her signing was so beautiful and to think a child of mine could possible sing :)

After the performance

Getting to the point of performance required a blocking rehearsal Friday and then an additional extra 3 hours on Saturday.  While Evie rehersed I took Izzy across the street to the Tucson Children's Museum (which of course Evie did not like the idea of her having to work while Izzy and I had fun) and then out to ice cream.  I think Izzy really enjoyed being in charge for a few hours and had a lot of fun leading me around the museum.

After the performance we all walked around through the music and people of 2nd Saturdays Downtown to the Hub to get (of course) bubble gum ice cream. Although we were out late (for the kids) until 10:30 this morning no one slept in... I guess I'd better stop blogging then and eat dinner (which Patrick is making) and get everyone to bed so it won't be (more than usual) chaos next week!

Homebodies

After multiple weekends away we have been sticking pretty close to home these past few weeks...  excitement has included Patrick dismantling the scooter, me cleaning the carpets, and Evie and I finding a treadmill on the side of the road (and it works!).  While not as exciting as road trips we have still had our highlights (and low lights).   A low light, which is becoming more of a high light the further from it I go, was Izzy's freakout (tantrum?) last weekend while I was cleaning the carpets....  I had pushed together our couches and suggested that I could build the girls a cool fort to play in while I cleaned the room.  Izzy liked the idea of a fort, but as it turns out this idea of hers was not realizable.  She got very upset when I suggested I would go get sheets for it, started crying and told me "You do not know how to build a real fort."  I asked her what a real fort might look like and she told me "I DON'T KNOW!"  Tough sitation for her, wanting a perfect fort but unable to create it.  As I tried to talk her off of the fort-building ledge she became even more angry and informed me: "You don't know how to build a real fort, all you can build are things that are flimsy flamsy." Trying not to laugh I suggested she take a break from the idea of forts.  About 1/2 hour later I suggested to her that instead I turn the two couches into a boat... this she accepted and both girls played (and watched cartoons) in the boat, not exactly happily ever after, but at least I was able to finish cleaning and not (gasp) have to pay an extra $40 for another day of the cleaner :)

A highlight this weekend was picking a whole bowlful of peaches from Evie's peach tree!  And perhaps even more exciting for the girls, spending their first Saturday afternoon in the pool.  It was, of course, still too cold for me, but they had fun. It was even so hot that today Izzy and I went down to the neighborhood splash park (again a bit to cold for me) but Izzy had fun!

Although it wasn't on a weekend, I actually spent most of last week in Portland... so I guess I am not a complete homebody