Last Day of Kindergarten, Beginning of Summer Vacation

So I mentioned last week that Evie's last day of kindergarten was Wednesday.  She and her 3 fellow kindergartners and one tag-along younger sibling went to the Pink Palace (this wasn't their first choice - they originally wanted to study the concept of invention, but there wasn't a good opportunity around town, so Pink Palace was the second choice).  We met Ms. Jan and the other kindergartners at 9 am and spent about 2.5 hours at the museum looking at dinosaurs, rocks/gems, history exhibits, etc. and then went to lunch.  They were all sad to leave each other, though we hope to see some of them at Evie's birthday party in a couple of weeks.

Last Day of Kindergarten pose

The restaurant we went to used local street names instead of numbers to deliver food to your table, and we lucked out with this sign.

Evie's kindergarten class: Bridger, Evie, Nysa, Leo

We had dinner with my parents Wednesday night, which reminds me of a story that happened last week that I forgot to mention.  Sunday before last was Pentecost and Evie learned about the apostles being able to speak different languages because of the Holy Spirit.  So in the car on the way to my cousin Garrett's high school graduation party, Evie said, "You know what, Mama?  I think you might speak a different language from me."  I said, "Oh really?  How so?"  She said, "I just do... but we can still understand each other."  I said, "What makes us understand each other?"  She said, "The Holy Spirit."  I am blown away by her perception and "old soul"ness.

Thursday, Evie came with me to my school while I cleaned up my classroom and took home the things I needed for the summer.  She enjoyed seeing where I work and playing with some of the games I use for speech therapy, and she was a big help taking things to the car with me.  Then we went to the mall to return some things and let her do Build-a-Bear.  She's never done one of those before (it's a shop where you pick your stuffed animal "carcass" (my word, not theirs) and then stuff it with fluff, put a heart in it, then give it a "bath" and make it a birth certificate.  She wanted to do it the last time we went to the mall and I wasn't in the mood, but this one she made to commemorate her last day of kindergarten.

She named it Strawberry Frosting since Addie has a bear named Blueberry Frosting.

Friday, we ran errands and got ready for our trip to Florida, and Saturday morning we headed out.  Evie's been looking forward to this trip for ages, so about every 30 minutes, she asked me how much longer until she sees Addie and Will.  

She finally took a nap about 30 minutes before our lunch stop in Birmingham.

Then she and Strawberry Frosting played games on the iPad.  

We happened to be headed to Florida right when Tropical Storm Alberto was projected to hit the Destin area, so of course we drove in through quite a bit of rain, but when we got to Ryan's house, it was dry, so we hit the beach while we could.  There was a double red flag so you couldn't go swimming in the water (though Ryan and I got in up to our knees), so the kids played in the sand.

Sunday, Ryan and I went to church and let the kids play at the house and that afternoon Aimee to the kids to the birthday party of one of their friends (it was very nice of the hostess to invite Evie). 

Yesterday the storm really hit, but after running errands, we girls decided to go get pedicures.

Evie and Addie getting their first pedicures together.

They were done before Aimee and me, so they played "spa".

We've had such wonderful meals here!  We are fortunate that all the kids have fairly sophisticated palates.  Not that they don't enjoy some mac and cheese and corndogs, but they all ate what the grown ups ate, and Ryan and Foad (Aimee's dad) have perfected the art of grilling, so we had lots of good food.  Evie was particularly excited about Uncle Ryan's shrimp.

Today we've gone to the pool and hung around the house.  The kids are doing very well entertaining themselves and each other.  One day they put on a parade for us:

And tonight the girls gave us a fashion show.

I'm so glad we're here, making memories.  I love being with family.