Half-Birthday?

Today is Thomas's half birthday. We're starting to celebrate his half birthday instead of his birthday, at least I want to start that tradition. And this was the first one. His birthday is December 15 and he gets all his presents, Christmas and birthday, pretty much at once. I'm sure this happens for lots of December birthday people. Well, a couple months back his bike got smashed up (wasn't his fault) and he needed a new one. He's a huge biking fan - taught himself to ride before Kayleigh even learned how. So I'd heard someone mention the idea of a half birthday. Since he needed a new bike and December was a LONG way off, this seemed like a good excuse to try it out. So his family presents will be on his half birthday. On his real birthday, he can have some sort of celebration with friends (not so focused on presents). We'll see how it goes.

So anyhow, today was his half birthday. And of course, he got his bike. It has gears and hand brakes. Grandma Bonnie also gave him some money to pick out a present, and he chose a nerf gun that does some strange lighting up thing. Thomas and nerf guns...

Swim Team

Kayleigh and Thomas have been swimming on the swim team. Last week was time trials where they have the kids all swim, similar to a swim meet, just to get an idea of how fast they swim and get them used to how a swim meet goes. Thomas was first and did fine. Kayleigh was a bit freaked out. Took her a while. It was cold and windy and I guess she just didn't feel like being tough. They only had to do freestyle and for their age group, it's only one pool length. They need to work on their strokes. Practice is daily and they seem to get stronger every day. It's a good experience for them. School's out after this week, so they will start morning practice. EV will also start mini-developmental swim team next week. It's similar to taking swimming lessons

Graduation

Thomas had his Kindergarten graduation. I'm sure he's hard to see in here. He's in the middle. His award (each child gets a specific award on that blue paper they're all holding) was for "His Curiosity". He asked what curiosity meant. I told him it's like Curious George. The award fits him nicely. He doesn't even think about asking permission to explore things, at times, but just sets out to explore it. This is his teacher, Ms Morris. She was great. Kindergarten was fun for Thomas. If you click on these photos, they enlarge.

Kayleigh had a class picnic, sorta. It got pushed indoors for weather troubles, then shortened and condensed so that it was pretty much a wash. She did this story reading with half of her classmates, and that was about all. She's in the middle there. The shortest in her class. Of course, the cutest, though.

Dance Recital

In In other news, Kayleigh had a dance recital and was just as cute as can be. She had a ballet one - dressed like Cinderella. Curled her hair all curly-Q. The other was tap, and she was a teddy bear (danced to Elvis). Very cute costumes...

Afterwards, we all ate out - Aunt Lynne, Kristin and Laura came to watch, as you can see.

Piano Recital

Then last week was the piano recital. Kayleigh and Thomas both played. And did great. I had 9 other students who played (have 10 others total). Here they are:

Of course there's tons of other photos to show y'all, but I'd better quit now. Hope everyone's well and having a good summer. Our summer season starts late - school goes late here. Last day is tomorrow.

Love to everyone - Kathi