Still trying to catch up with my blog posts as the milestone of 1st day of kindergarten fast approacheth and I wanted to be caught up by then, if possible.
May was a fun month. It started out with a
who now lives in Australia. To celebrate his new home, he brought SPL a cricket bat and ball. We had a great time eating pizza and talking about the differences between baseball and cricket (mom loved the conversation too after living in Jamaica for 2 years and learning firsthand about cricket).
SPL's school always throws a lovely Mother's Day tea to
and this year was no exception. All the kids
and painted them. They also
and made beautiful scarves
And they sang 3 songs for us (though SPL wanted to remain on the periphery):
(video), and
We even had a group photos of
(who was standing in as his wife had come down with the flu :-().
I started thinking about the ending of an era: SPL's last few weeks @ Mountain View Parent Nursery School. He's been a student there for 3 years and grown so much during that time (as have I :-). All the little things from the routines and procedures (
so the kids can identify their name and
-- SPL now insists on doing the safety pin himself :-)), to the
to the
so we know who's who, to
so we can talk and develop manners and communication skills. SPL definitely had the "BMOC" (big man on campus) attitude throughout the year but not in a bad way -- he had so much ownership of the school and felt a strong sense of belonging and it showed (sometimes too much ;-).
On May 9th, we
(since his regular birthday falls during the summer). It was a little strange to him celebrating it in May but he had a fun time g
that the other kids had
and singing not 1 but 2 happy birthday songs. SPL did really well with the attention (normally he doesn't like to be in front of the group like that).
He also had his share day on May 9th so it was a busy day. He brought in a shrinky dink project he'd done @ occupational therapy
It was the first time he'd done shrinky dinks.
During May we also had many adventures with our Adventure Day class (meets every Tuesday to go out into nature). We went to Villa Montalvo on May 3, Edgewood Preserve on May 10, La Avenida Park on May 17, Sanborn Park on May 24 and Lucy Evans Bayland Preserve on May 31.
At Villa Montalvo,
,
figured out
, and found
(though thankfully no one touched it -- this group is very knowledgeable about the different colors and ways of identifying it "leaves of 3, let it be. If it's hairy, it's a berry." :-).
At Edgewood Preserve, we had an
who taught us a bunch about the
, plants,
and animals that live in the area. We found a
(yes, they are an actual animal and thankfully didn't see any), learned to
even though it looks super goofy, in order to avoid ticks, saw some
and
, and counted
in the stream or on rocks nearby.
On May 17th, our adventure class took us to La Avenida Park, which is right behind Microsoft near the bay (you'd never know it's there). It has great views of Hangar 1 and the wind tunnel @ Moffett too.Â
so were scouting the skies for the bird of the day. We were especially happy today because
after being off for a few weeks (his house caught on fire and thankfully no one was hurt but he took some time off to help get things in order and figure out a new living situation as the house was rendered unlivable -- they'd rented it for 25+ years!!?!?!). We saw some flowers, wild oats, and
from a swimming position. SPL also enjoyed
he saw in a bird guide that one of the other moms had brought along. At the end of the hike,
with his friends (though there were some disagreements as to who got to be "king" or "queen"). Teacher Marie also taught them how to build a
And we ended the morning, as we always do,
An annual highlight is always the night out @ school: kids get to spend from 5-8:30 pm @ school and eat dinner, play, and hang out with all the teachers (this is an auction item that the teachers donate annually to raise money for the school). SPL has been all 3 years and loves it! This year it was a clown theme so he put together his own outfit from his costume collection and that of our friends and was ready to roll. He arrived and immediately
, and had his photo taken with
(also a favorite) was dressed up as the circus ringmaster and
They ate pizza and roasted marshmellows for s'mores while John and I had a nice evening out together. Awesome!
On May 24, we went to Sanborn Park in Los Gatos. It was quite a wonderful find as it had so many different natural spaces for the kids to play: rings of redwood trees,
large stones, and
We learned about the
that coniferous trees make as well as had some
to listen to the different sounds and draw what we hear. And in all that redwood majesty,
:-)
We ended the month of May by going to the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Preserve on the bay. Last time we were there, there had been helicopters flying overhead with workers dangling from wires and harnesses fixing the power poles that span the bay. They were fascinating to watch but limited our access to the boardwalk and other areas of exploration. This time, we were able to
. We saw a blue heron wading and
We also saw a bunch of
As usual, SPL enjoyed hanging out with his buddy DL,
,
, and walking along the paths. We will miss him next year when we go to different kindergartens :-(.
Oh and we had a lot of fun @ home too building with Legos and blocks.Â
May was quite a month! Hard to believe it went so fast and the end of school (and an era) is upon us.