Ruby

Here's the latest and greatest for the kid I now refer to as five (even though she's not yet):

Uncle Kevin's school has a fundraiser with the San Jose Giants every year.  It didn't start until 7PM this year and there were fireworks afterward so Ruby and I had a date night while Adam and Ella watched the Sharks.  Ruby got to play with her buddies Liam and Aaron, eat junk food, go in the jumpy house and see the fireworks.  Fireworks clearly never get old.

She also got to meet the mascot, Gigante.  Thanks Uncle Kevin!

Ruby loves the car wash.  She used to like the duck ride at Ducky's.  Then she liked Lozano's in Mountain View because they have popcorn and lemonade.  Now she wants to go all the way to Sunnyvale because she found a tree she can climb on her own.  It's the little things in life.

I picked up a Laurel hoodie at the Kindergarten Orientation.  How can Ruby be an incoming Kinder?  It's so, so weird for me.  Sometimes I think "I got this" since I teach Kindergarten.  Other times I get tears thinking it's my own kid.  And sometimes, like when I go pick up a student for assessments and see a little blonde cutie pie smiling at me and burst out crying, I have to explain my situation to parents so they don't think I'm a creepy teacher.

Ruby went on a bug hunt with her pre school.  I'm not a tie dye person but love their field trip shirts.

Thanks to my great friend C, Ruby and Adam are both addicted to Plants versus Zombies.  I just remember back to Day One when the leader of our baby group said dads will have their own special things with the kids.  Ruby says her special things with Adam are: Scooby Doo, chocolate milk, swimming, Plants versus Zombies, monster chase, Sharks and taking her shoes off in the house.

Footsteps had a celebration and pool party when they finished the alphabet.  Letter of the Week isn't considered the best way to teach early literacy but Ruby had a blast, knows all her letters and sounds and is reading CVC words.  I'll take it.

Auntie made special alphabet cookies for Ruby's celebration.  Thanks Auntie!

I love how Ruby held Teacher Abby's hand when she gave her the certificate.  Teacher Abby is amazing.  Ruby is so excited about Kindergarten but is really going to miss the teachers at Footsteps.

The climbing wall at Pump It Up.  It's birthday season around here.

Two girls love the dollhouse toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

My job share partner and I were taking two students to the movies for an auction prize.  Our oldest are nearly the same age so we took them as well. Here's the gang afterward pretending they are characters in the movie.  Ruby thought it was hilarious to be the little girl picking her nose.

Ruby and I were walking through PBK when she spotted some girls at a table and heard the words "tea party."  I kept walking but her spidey sense was strong.  She turned around and asked the woman how she could join the tea party.  $10 and an hour later and we experienced our first Mother's Day Tea.

I finally cleaned out my closet.  No more maternity clothes.  No more clothes from when I was feeding Ella and never felt full (read...ate a pint of butter pecan ice cream every night).  My clothes fit again and my closet is super organized.  Ruby loves to play fashion model in the closet and Ella loves my shoes.  I think I'm in trouble when they are teenagers.

Next up...Texas, pre school graduation and The Summer of Awesome (our neighbor's words).