June's First Day of School

Back on September first, June started kindergarten!

Lots of people asked if she was nervous, but I can honestly say that she wasn't. The poor girl started school so late that most of her friends at daycare had already left, staying home for the summer or starting their own schools. So by the end, she was one of the only 5 year olds left, and she was so eager for it to finally be her time to start at a new school. So, as a result, she excitedly walked into her new classroom, gave me a big kiss and then sat in her spot on the rug without fuss as I walked out. 

She loves kindergarten. She loves her teacher. When I picked her up on the first day, she said, "I love kindergarten and I never want to leave, ever!"

She's also in the after school program, which is needed since their school gets out so early. So she's got a different set of friends (a few from her kinder class) to hang out with, and a different set of stories to bring home. 

I've really enjoyed hearing about all the school-y stuff... an assembly about school rules, a fire drill, an upcoming ride-your-bike-to-school day. Sometimes June doesn't remember a ton about her day, so I try asking really specific questions. If all else fails, I ask her if everyone was a good listener that day because girl loves nothing more than to tell me about which kids got in trouble that day! (The gossip is strong in this one.)

June picked out her backpack and lunch box. She got the kitten print. 

Sometimes she even lets Bennett hold her lunch box as they walk out to the car!

Drawings from June

There's been a bit of a pattern in the drawings that June brings home from school.

Me and June walking a dog:

On the back:

Me and June (naked?) with a turtle between us:

Me and June again:

Me and June with some flowers: 

Kids sometimes have funny ways that their love pours out, you know? Sometimes I don't feel worthy of the love she shows me, but I feel so humbled by it when I see each of her drawings come home.

Love that little girl.

June at Five

June is five now. Five's a big deal, right? It feels like five's a big deal.

Five is when she'll go to kindergarten. Five is the first birthday party that both Michael and I remember. Five is going to be the beginning of a whole new phase of life, when real school starts.

June is so smart, man.

These days I like asking what she learned about in the science room at school because it's the best way to get a substantial answer out of her. She went on and on about birds, about how birds of prey are fastest when they are diving, and how we don't have blue jays in our area, we have scrub jays, and how mourning doves are in our area but we don't see them much because there are too many predators.

I'm just amazed about how much she picks up after only hearing it once, or I guess just how much she picks up. She's always listening. The other day I was whispering with Michael in the kitchen about if we should go get dessert somewhere. When I next saw June in the living room, she asked what we had decided about dessert. Makes me a little paranoid in my own house!

She has a real instinct to protect people. When Michael is wrestling with everyone on the floor, she is constantly leaping in to deflect him away from me, or jumps into a protective crouch in front of Bennett. "No, come after me!" she'll growl in between barks. When she sees kids being mean to each other at the park, she stops what she's doing and watches. She went over to help Bennett when a little girl was being mean to him the other day. (I wasn't there, but Michael says she told him to go away! when he stood near her group and waved at them. He continued to watch them, but the girl came over and sort of pushed him. Bennett said, "No, stop it!" and June swooped in to help, but Michael got there first. I actually wish I could see June follow through to see what she would do.) She holds Bennett's hand while he balances walking along a curb.

Sometimes she's the loud one in a group, sometimes she's shy. Whenever we're on FaceTime, she vanishes and doesn't make much of an appearance. But she'll talk to grownups as if they were old friends. (Our adult neighbors listened so patiently to a lengthy description of how she prefers to eat her hamburgers yesterday, bless them!)

She has this flair for dramatics. Where she learned some of these expressions or their appropriate context, I'll never know. She's got a face for seeming truly vulnerable so she gets her way, a lofty face for when she knows she's arguing a case she can't win, an exaggerated eye roll for when we ask her if she knows how much we love her. "YESS!" The other day Michael was waiting for her to use the potty before bedtime and she was dawdling. Finally he said, "June, it's time to go, come on, let's just go potty." She narrowed her eyes, said, "I'm about to," and as soon as she started going, cocked an eyebrow at him. I laughed so hard hearing that story.

And her silliness. On the night before her fifth birthday, I was putting her to bed. Normal routine of reading books, then cuddling for a few minutes. Then I said, "Alright June, I want one more kiss. One more kiss from 4 year-old June, because I'll never get a kiss from her again. Tomorrow it'll be 5 year-old June." As if she understood how solemn my heart felt about the moment, she tenderly brought her hand to my chin and gently brought my face to hers. And just as our lips met, she...stuck her wet little tongue in my mouth."UGH! JUNE! GROSS! Why did you do that? Oh my goodness, what am I going to do with you?!" And she LAUGHED and LAUGHED.

And, really, that probably was the best way to get a last kiss from my four-year-old, because that is just exactly who she is right now.

Happy Birthday, June!

We had June's birthday party at a little party venue this year. This was our first time not having it in our home, and I have to say, I did love not having to set anything up or worry about cleaning or anything! We just set the date, told them what themed decorations to bring (Star Wars) and brought the food/cake. 

It was non-stop fun activities and games for the kids. We have been to two other birthday parties here before (which is why June asked that it be here) but they even included games we'd never seen because of the Star Wars theme. It was so cute!

"Jedi Training" with "light sabers":

Bennett LOVED the instructor and basically stayed glued to her side the whole day.

Had to show a close-up of this photo since I have the same pose from my own 5th birthday:

Time for snacks and cake:

And then more fun activities...

Don't mind the look on Bennett's face, he loved this and immediately ran to get in line to 'swing' again:

I love this photo from the very end of the party, with all her friends grouped around her, giving a cheer. June has such a sweet little smile on her face!

That night, we had our neighbors and some friends over for a last-minute dinner to watch some Final Four basketball. All 6 kids fit around our tiny picnic table.

Happy Birthday to my 5 year-old (!!) girl! She is sweet, gentle, sensitive, smart, funny, imaginative and silly. I love her so much and love watching her grow up.

Disney Day One

When we woke up on day one of Disney, June was ready to go within 5 minutes of waking up. I swear, I've never seen her so eager to brush her teeth. She put on a layer of clothes underneath, then put on her beloved Princess Leia dress on top.

I tried to see if she'd let me give her the signature buns, but she didn't like them and wanted me to take them out. I did get one picture though...

There it is, folks, the face of wondrous excitement, eager for a day at Disney.

Aaaanyway, after a quick breakfast, we headed out to the main gates. Since guests of the hotels got an extra hour in the California Adventure park that day, we headed there first. But the line to use the special entrance directly from the hotel was very long. On a tip from an employee, we went to the normal gates instead, and we were first in line at one of the turnstiles! It was so exciting! Poor June could NOT wait and she unfortunately had to for 20 minutes!

We - along with every single other person - headed straight for the Cars ride. This ride is the most popular in the California Adventure park and often gets a HUGE line. June had recently seen Cars for the first time, and since all the websites said that it was a great ride for little ones, we went straight there. 

Unfortunately it was a little too much for June. It went fast, was loud, it got very dark at times and had a big, scary tractor thing that alarmed her. She didn't cry, but after we got off the ride, she said, "I think that ride was too scary for me."

I felt AWFUL, but slightly amused that I had carried on the tradition of making a poor choice in first rides at Disney. (Last time we came, we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride and had a similar thing happen.) In hind sight, I should have taken her on a very tame ride to start with, but I had no idea that the Cars one was going to be like that!

We headed off to do more things around the park, including getting to meet Elsa and Anna! It was great timing... we just walked right in! I think we might have been the first people in the park to get to visit them. (Everyone else must have been over at the Cars ride still!)

June was feeling pretty shy when she saw them, so I got in the picture too. It was so cute, I asked if June wanted to give hugs goodbye, but June sort of hid behind this cutout in the wall. Anna then crept up and 'found' her. She was such a good sport about June's shyness and June loved how playful she was. She talked about her game of hide-and-seek with Anna throughout the day. 

My (and June's) first ever Disney churro:

On the trolley:

Doc McStuffins in the background:

At this point, I felt like we had done most of what we could do - or what June would be willing to do - at California Adventure park. We hopped on over to Disneyland.

June was so excited to see the castle at the end of Main Street (and so was I!).

(June got so many comments on her cool outfit, especially from adults!)

We rode a couple of rides before it was time to go to Ariel's Grotto for lunch to meet the princesses!

Even though it's expensive, I like character dining at Disneyland. You get to have a nice meal, rest your feet, and the characters come to your table to speak directly to you. Because we did this, we didn't need to wait in long lines to see the princesses at other spots in the park. I wasn't worried about missing their open hours or not getting to see some of the favorites. June got to see five princesses at this one spot!

 

We charged right on (instead of stopping for naps), something I don't think we could have done if Bennett was with us. We got a bunch more rides in.

It's a Small World...

Dumbo...

Astro Orbiters...

I found that June loves rides that go around and around. All told, we went on the teacups 4 times, each of the carousels twice, Dumbo and the Astro Orbiters twice. I didn't mind...I just wanted her to have fun and not pressure her to ride things that might scare her (especially after the Cars ride incident!) I'm sure there will be many trips ahead of us where we go on all the big roller coasters, but for now, that wasn't the big goal of the trip.

After that, we went to see the Star Wars show. June said she wanted to see it, but that she didn't want to be one of the kids brought on stage to 'fight' Darth Vader because she might be scared. We sat in the front row and she sat on my lap, sometimes holding her hand out to help with the Force.

Afterward, she said, "I could do that! I want to do that! Can I do that?" I decided to wait and see if she was still talking about it the next day to see if we should really try to make it happen.

We ate dinner outside right on the river, with the lights of Disney and the riverboat reflecting in the water. There was music and barbecue food and I was in HEAVEN. I was so overcome with a feeling of happiness to be there with my girl, having a wonderful time. 

After walking around some more and riding some more rides, we got some ice cream for dessert.

Then hopped back over to California Adventure for a lights-and-water show, called the World of Color.

By the time we were back in our room, it was 9:15 and my legs were quite tired. I couldn't believe that June hadn't complained of being tired, but I certainly wasn't going to introduce the idea. June kept musing about how much she wanted to battle Darth Vader the next day.

When I turned out the lights at bedtime, June told me that she wasn't sleepy. I think it was only about 30 seconds later that I heard her soft, even breathing from across the room that told me she was already asleep. I think I was asleep about a minute after that.