School's Out 2018

Today we're finishing up our first week of Summer vacation so I figured it was about time I shared the end of the school year here on the blog.

The last week of school was a big one for our family. It was Ava's last year of 5th grade and elementary school. It was also the last week that Ava and Lola will ever be at the same school together. Knowing that my oldest baby will be going into middle school in the Fall is daunting enough, but knowing that she'll never be at the same school as either of her sisters again is well, kind of a little sad. I went to a school that encompassed Reception (Kindergarten here in the US) through to 12th grade, so my younger brother and sister were always at the same school as me, even though my sister is eight years younger. My girls, on the other hand will go to three different schools for elementary, middle school and high school. Lola and Mathilde will have a few years together in elementary plus one year together in high school, but for Ava, that's it. No more sharing a school with her sisters.

As always, the last week of school was crazily busy. This year was even more so than usual with graduation celebrations for Ava including the 5th grade dance, the annual 5th graders versus the teachers kickball game, her big graduation ceremony and a grade wide picnic in the park. Lola and Mathilde also had end of year celebrations, which just happened to coincide with Ava's graduation ceremony, so that left me running around town like a crazy person! Or, you know, like my usual self! 

Of course, I was taking a gazillion photos at all of these events, or at least the ones that I was able to attend, so here's a look at our last week of school for 2018...

Mathilde's First Day of Preschool

Last week I shared Ava and Lola's first day of school for the year. Yesterday we celebrated another back to school milestone with Mathilde's first ever day of preschool.

As of this week Mathilde is a big preschool girl and is attending the same preschool that Ava and Lola also went to when they were younger. She's only going two days a week for now, but if yesterday is anything to go by we just might have to increase it to three or more days because she absolutely loved it!

Teacher Gifts

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This year Ava decided that she wanted to make a clay plant pot as a thank you gift for her school teacher. I loved the idea of her making something herself from scratch, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time. Plus it would've proven too tricky for Lola who was keen to do the same.

So instead I suggested that the girls paint ready made pots instead. They both loved this idea and couldn't wait to get started. So we headed to our local gardening store and purchased a selection of terracotta pots and cute little succulents to plant in them.

School's Out!

School's out!

Summer vacation has officially begun!

It has been a busy week here in the Little Hiccups household with all sorts of preparations happening for the end of the school year (and other exciting things that I'll share soon). Ava finished second grade yesterday. Her class had a little breakfast party in the morning, they signed each other's year books and then spent the rest of the day watching movies. The day before they went bowling. Ah, the last week of school. Always such hard work!

Finishing second grade is no mean feat, however the bigger event this week was Lola graduating from preschool on Wednesday. My little girl will be a big school girl in the Fall. I can't believe it. My mornings are going to be so much easier with just one school drop off!

52 Weeks: Week 18

Week 18: Family Fun Night

Last Friday night Lola's preschool held a Family Fun Night fundraiser. Lola was super excited about it and counted down the days all week. And there was good reason for her to be excited. With craft activities, yummy food, a make your own dessert stand, and a petting zoo there was plenty of fun to be excited about.

First up Ava and Lola made "beautiful" headbands complete with long ribbons and tulle bows. They wore these all night and looked rather '80s!

Back to Preschool

Last week it was back to school for Ava. This week it's Lola's turn.

Lola is back at her preschool for another year - maybe two seeing as she won't turn five until just after the school cut off next year. But that's a whole different story...

Preschool Graduation Day

Tuesday was Lola's last day of preschool for the year.

Now that she's a big girl she will be moving up to the next class when preschool goes back after Summer. To celebrate Lola and all of the other big kids in her class, a little graduation ceremony was held at preschool today. The kids sang a few songs for the parents before they were presented with their graduation certificates. We then headed outside for a potluck lunch with the other classes.

Of course no graduation ceremony is complete without mortar boards! The kids all looked adorable in the hats that they had decorated for the special day.

Preschool Easter Party

Today Lola's preschool class had an Easter Party.

Her class sang songs that they've been learning, we shared a potluck lunch and, everyone's favourite part, the kids took part in an Easter egg hunt.

I love Easter parties

P is for Pancakes, Pajamas and Preschool

Each week at Lola's preschool the kids learn about a new letter. This week they are learning about the letter P and to celebrate they had a pajamas and pancakes day today!

Lola has been so excited about her pajama day and all week she has been talking about which pajamas she would wear. Last night before bed she picked out two sets of pajamas. One to wear to bed and one to change into in the morning.

This morning she was so excited to change out of one set of pajamas and into another. She was so excited that she got to put shoes and a hoodie on with her pajamas. And she was super excited that she got to leave the house in her pajamas. We dropped Ava off to school on our way to preschool and Lola made sure to tell all the kids in Ava's class that she was wearing her pajamas to preschool today. I think they had all presumed she was sick.

The bus came by as we were walking to preschool so we jumped on. Lola thought it was pretty great to be on the bus wearing her pajamas. She made sure to tell the driver that she was wearing her pajamas to preschool today!

Riding the bus... in pajamas

Lola's First Day of Preschool

Today my baby is a big girl. A big preschool girl.

Lola's first day at preschool started out promising this morning. 

She was super excited about going to preschool and couldn't wait to get her backpack on her back and head off. In fact, she told me that when I'm big enough I can get a backpack and go to preschool too!

She was excited the whole way to preschool on the bus...

Waiting for the bus

Home Grown Pickles

As you would have seen in my last post today was Ava's pre-school graduation day.

Ava's teacher was also "graduating" from pre-school after 26 years of service. All the children and parents contributed to a group present, however Ava really wanted to give her teacher something special just from herself.

Ava's teacher really loves pickles. In the past Ava has given her teacher several pickle related presents; a simple jar of pickles for Valentine's Day and "Pickle Party Beans" (green jelly beans) for her birthday. We needed to come up with a new pickle themed idea for a graduation present.

As Ava's teacher is retiring and plans to spend her time gardening we thought she might like to grow her own pickles.  One jar, a few packs of Pickling Cucumber seeds and a half dozen hand drawn labels later and we had our gift.

Teacher Meri's Home Grown Pickles kit

Graduation Day

Today Ava graduated from pre-school... again.

I say "again" as Ava also had a graduation from pre-school just before we left Australia last year. This time though it was an official graduation with her whole class.

Ava's class made special graduation t-shirts to wear for their big day and performed a few songs for family and friends before receiving their certificates. It was all very cute.

"I am a promise with a capital P..."

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and for the first time ever I'm actually excited about it. Not for lovey-dovey romantic reasons mind you, but because Ava's class at pre-school will be exchanging valentine's cards/chocolates/treats etc - just like on tv!

In Australia Valentine's Day is really just for couples. Here in America Valentine's Day is embraced by everyone in honour of all the people they love; partners, family, friends, classmates etc. I really like this way of celebrating Valentine's Day. Sure it's over the top and Hallmark and Hershey must make a fortune from it, but it's nice to think about all the people who are special rather than just one person.

Ava will be exchanging valentines with 27 of her classmates tomorrow (plus her 3 teachers) and as with every other opportunity to hand out cards we've decided to go with something home made. I was going to help Ava make personalised cards for each of her classmates but this was going to be very time consuming and a lot of work for Ava. Instead I decided that we'd bake sugar cookies for the class and print labels that Ava can personalise with each child's name. More work for me but much, much less work for Ava.

Now, in my opinion Valentine's Day cards and gifts must have the cheesiest wording on them possible; think "I choo choo choose you" from The Simpsons. I ran through a few different heart and cookie themed cheesy sayings before Ava decided that "Sweet hearts for my sweetheart" was perfect. Actually, she thinks it's absolutely hilarious and laughs like a maniac every time she says it!

To make our little heart cookies even sweeter we decorated them with coloured sugar. I think they came out quite pretty. They're also very delicious!

Sweet little heart cookie

Happy Australia Day

It's Australia Day today!

Ok, so it's not Australia Day any more, but that's how I had intended to start this post when I originally starting writing it... on Australia Day.

We've all been sick with a cold/flu/cough bug this last week and my attempts at doing pretty much anything (including finishing half written blog posts) have been thwarted by said bug.

Well, enough of the excuses. Back to where I left off...

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It's Australia Day today!

As it's not a holiday here and we're going about our normal day to day business - work for Kim, preschool for Ava, yet another school tour for me - I decided to whip up a batch or two of Australian delicacies to share with our American workmates and preschool buddies.

So yesterday I spent most of the day, and night, in the kitchen baking Anzac biscuits, lamingtons and pumpkin scones. Now, I've made Anzac biscuits and pumpkin scones on many occasions but this was my first attempt at making lamingtons. I was a little worried that they might not turn out quite right but I must say that they turned out pretty fantastic, even if I do say so myself!

Ava helps stir the Anzac biscuit mix

Anzac biscuits ready to bake

Ava's batch of goodies for preschool was accompanied by all the Australian themed books I could find in the kids' collection. It's amazing just how many Australian themed books they have - and without me ever buying one! Possum Magic by Mem Fox was the prize of our Australian book collection and Ava's teacher read this to the class before the kids tried their goodies. The kids loved Possum Magic and were excited to try some of the same food that little Hush possum eats as she travels around the country over the course of the book... Anzac biscuits in Adelaide, lamingtons in Hobart, pumpkin scones in Brisbane... These all went down a treat. The one food that didn't go down so well was, surprise, surprise, the vegemite! Out of the class of twenty kids only one liked it. And no, that wasn't Ava. She hates the stuff!

A little taste of Australia