Preschool Graduate #2

It's graduation season, and my family were treated to a stinking cute "celebration" (as the graduate himself liked to call it) last week.

That's right...my sweet Emory will be heading off to kindergarten in the fall. :-/  Time continues to fly.

Look at that picture. My love wanted to have his beepie in the picture with him. Ugggg...so sweet and young.  Part of me is excited for him to embark on his school adventure...another part knows how quickly they change/mature in kindergarten and is a little sad about that.

But anyhoo...the celebration!

Emory's teachers did a fantastic job preparing the kids for such a performance!  They had a few songs for each month of the year.  Marin soooooo wanted to be on stage, as well, but had to settle for singing and dancing in the aisle. :-)

He was so happy the entire night

 Ms. Julie had the children march into the hall to Rod Stewart's song "Forever Young" (lyrics below).  Uggggggggggg...I was crying before the kids even took two steps.  Wow.  Such emotions you feel as a parent. I had just gotten done telling Emory about mommies and their babies, and how they'll always be their babies...and how when I look at him, I can still see him as a little baby.  So, yeah...forever young!  We were lucky in where we sat as Emory and the whole preschool crew walked right in front of us.  Seeing him and his classmates...it was a total glimpse of the years to come.

Our favorite song was "A Tooty Ta"---thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, eyes shut, bottoms up, tongue out...it was so cute, Emory looked like an old man when he did all of those things and started to turn around. He was soooo into it. :-) 

A Tooty Ta

The boys didn't want to dance (such a difference from two years ago: Evander's Preschool Graduation), but Marin sure did.  She wouldn't let me dance with her but told me to go sit down. Sigh.

How low can you go? How low can you go?

This preschool stuff is for babies

Emory and his teacher

My sweet preschool graduate!

FOREVER YOUNG

May the good lord be with you 
Down every road you roam 
And may sunshine and happiness 
Surround you when you're far from home 
And may you grow to be proud 
Dignified and true 
And do unto others 
As you'd have done to you 
Be courageous and be brave 
And in my heart you'll always stay 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 

May good fortune be with you 
May your guiding light be strong 
Build a stairway to heaven 
With a prince or a vagabond 

And may you never love in vain 
And in my heart you'll always remain 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young 
Forever young 

And when you finally fly away 
I'll be hoping that I served you well 
For all the wisdom of a lifetime 
No one can ever tell 

But whatever road you choose 
I'm right behind you, win or lose 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 
For, forever young, forever young

Field Trip to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium

I had the wonderful opportunity last week to chaperone Evander's first grade class to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium.  Evander and I were so excited to go...we prepped for the trip by watching YouTube videos and making fish-shaped sugar cookies for the class.

I just love being with Evander at school, and being with his class....they are all so sweet. The best part was that Evander wanted to sit with me on the bus (and actually sit on my lap...I don't think that's bus kosher, though...) while the other mother chaperones got ditched!  Ha.

I mentioned how sweet they are, right?  Well, one of the first things Evander's buddy told me on the bus was, "Buses explode and people die on them."  Don't worry, he redeemed himself when he said, "We're gonna be best friends forever, right Evander?" (cue the ending scene from the Fox and the Hound in your brain) and "I wish the whole world was Minecraft for you, Evander." Too cute.

Getting down to the Aquarium was a trip...the bus driver didn't quite know where she was going and we went all up and down the residential streets of Ohio City.  We passed The West Side Market, Penzey's Spices (yes! Love Penzey's...too bad she couldn't drop me off to shop!), St. Ignatius High School, The West Side Market again, yadee yadee yaddah.

In the classroom at the GCA

I never quite figured out why there were tortoises at the aquarium...but there were and the kids loved them.  They were rescued from abusive ownership. They were smelly. Each weighed 100-150 pounds.

The Aquarium's architectural features are pretty cool.  It is located in the old Cleveland Powerhouse building in The Flats, originally built in the 1890s, now renovated and home to fish! :-D

If you look up here in this room, you will see one of the 215-foot-tall towers

Another cool "looking up" feature---jellyfish!

I don't really like eels because of The Little Mermaid, but I really liked that these guys were interwoven in this rock:

The kids absolutely loved the touch pool.  The pool was filled with several stingrays that would swim to the surface and to the side. I may or may not have shrieked when my fingers actually touched one.  I totally don't need to do that again. :-P They felt...slimy and squishy!

Touching a Horseshoe Crab in the touch pool

 But the most popular thing was the shark tunnel!

My group of precious kiddies upon seeing the shark tunnel

I had heard mixed reviews about the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, mostly over its size and price for admission--an adult regular admission is $20!  That does seem a bit pricey for what is there, but everything we saw we enjoyed, and hopefully the Aquarium will grow in the years to come.

Thank you bus ride with windows down for that stray hair strand! :-P

Baby Clothes Quilt

About a month ago, a friend asked if making a baby clothes quilt was something I could do. Well, of course I can!  :-P

Here's some of what I started with:

The cat is one of the reasons I like to wash my quilts before they are sent to their new owner. :-)

First, I had to take the scissors to all of these cute clothes.  It didn't quite feel right to be tearing apart such nice things, but I knew something just as nice would come out of it.

I then ironed on some Pellon stabilizer to each usable piece. This was very time consuming, but necessary since most of these baby clothes were made out of knit material...not your 100% quilting cotton.  This allowed for the clothes to stay in place, and not stretch, while sewing.

Here is what I had to work with after chopping and ironing:

As you can see, most of the clothes were red, pinks, white and blues. Although, this could have been just fine color-wise, my client asked if I would add some fun and vibrant colors to the quilt...especially yellow and purple. 

For the quilting, I stitched the ditch.

(This photo only looks blurry when I put it into Blogger!  Grrrrr...)

The greatest thing about working with baby clothes, well, girl baby clothes...is all of the ruffles and bows!  It was fun trying to fit these extra things in.

And, here is the back:

This was the first T-shirt type quilt that I've made, so I'm extra happy with the way it turned out.

The quilt is in the dryer now, and then it will be off to its owner soon!!!