Last Week of School

Language funnies:

• One afternoon, I looked at Evie and noticed how tall she was getting.  I said, "Evie, you're getting so tall!"  She replied, "Yeah!  I growed a little bit after I ate lunch.
• On the way to school one day, Evie asked me how Jesus died and how he came back and why.  I was doing my best to explain my beliefs about this to this three-year-old.  As I was trying my best to explain why it would be that Jesus had to die in order to save us (that dreaded "why" question!), Evie interrupts me and says, "So, Mom.  On Tuesdays my beast is a man."  (This comes from her fascination with Beauty and the Beast which she sometimes watches as Granna and Grannadaddy's house.

At dinner with Granna and Grannadaddy one evening this week, Evie was sitting at the table with everyone and says, "Raise your hand is [if] you..." and would finish it with things like, are wearing red, have short hair, have no noodles.  She was very conscientious of who had not had an opportunity to raise his/her hand in a while and would create new criteria to let that person play.  I love her sensitivity.

Since we are leaving for California tomorrow and will be gone for 12 days, we had Evie's last day of school today.  Technically she could go to the zoo with classmates the day after we get back, but we probably won't do that due to jet lag, so this week has been her last week of instruction.  She has been the youngest in her whole class of 3, 4, and 5 year olds all year, so it'll be interesting to see how things go when she returns in August with kids who are younger than her.

Since she has a summer birthday, we did her birthday recognition today.  Montessori doesn't encourage the cone hats and cupcakes kind of birthdays.  They have a special ceremony they do where the child walks around a candle (representing the sun) once for every year of her life, and the teacher talks about what the child learned or did during that time in her life.  Granna and Grannadaddy came for the recognition, and Seth and I stayed for lunch with Evie's class.  Evie was thrilled to handout the chocolate chip muffins we made this morning as a dessert following lunch.

I noticed this week that Evie is able to say /gr/, which means no more Lanadaddy and Dranna.

A mother bird has built her nest right outside our bathroom window, so Evie and I have been watching the eggs, waiting for them to hatch.  This week, all four birds have hatched and are growing at an amazing rate!  Evie has very much enjoyed watching them being fed by their mother.

In anticipation of being gone on our trip next week, we've been trying to get together with Cristal, Matt, and baby Nathan.  It's so fun to watch Evie and Nathan interact.  They are very sweet with each other.  We finally made it out to dinner with them on Wednesday, and both kids thoroughly enjoyed their macaroni and cheese and free pie slices.

Yesterday Evie was very excited to help the dogs take their medicine, and I was able to do a little interview.

We can't wait to go to "Cow-ni-forn-ya".