First day of Kindergarten

Violet had her first day of kindergarten today.  She was very proud to go to the big kid school.  We were told her teacher is very strict but very kind which seems perfect for our crazy kid that likes to push boundaries.

Waiting in line to go in:

More dance

Dance Recital

Violet just finished her dance recital.  She is lukewarm on actually taking dance class but she loves the recitals because she loves the tutu, the make up, and the hair.

Auntie Jenny took these pictures just before the recital.

Recital time!  She had two performances.  Lucky me got to sit through the whole recital twice.

Violet laughing at me waving to her from the audience at the end.

Violet is done with dance for the summer.  She just started daycamp at the JCC and she is loving it.  She gets to swim every day.  They have foam parties, art, science.  Every week they do an inhouse field trip (a petting zoo came in yesterday) and a off site field trip (they are headed to the zoo today).  She comes home thoroughly exhausted but says she has too much fun.

Whale Watching

I was lucky enough to be invited to go whale watching on a private boat with some former clients.  They run private whale watching tours.  We didn't see any whales but up close and personal with a pod of about 1000 dolphins.

Cute shark fin life jacket

So close to them!

Fun pic catch up

First Pho:

Frozen yogurt

Teaching herself addition while I was in the shower:

Mother's Day

I had to work on mother's day but I was able to enjoy the PreK mother's day celebration at Violet's school.

First we had to guess which of these pictures was made by our child.  Here is Violet's:

Did I mention my favorite color is burgundy?  It has never been turquoise but I don't think Violet knows what color burgundy or turquoise are.

She painted me an awesome finger painting.

I got a laminated card that explained why she loved me:

Only slightly better than last year's answer "Because you buy me whatever I want."

On Mother's Day Eric and Violet stopped by work with food, flowers, and gifts.  Next year I'll be home for it!

Great Wolf Lodge

We just got back from visiting Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park and lodge geared for kids.  While it's odd to have an *indoor* water park in Southern California, we thought we would give it a try.  Violet had a blast.

She got to sleep in a bunk bed in her "wolf den".

We got mommy and me pedicures at an ice cream themed spa in the hotel.

Violet did a digital scavenger hunt where the clues were triggered by internal components in her stuff animal from the lodge.

Photo from the end of the scavenger hunt:

We all played at the 24 hour arcade:

 

The games required "paw points" to play.  And the unclear exchange rate on dollars for paw points kept you from realizing how much you were spending.

Violet asleep in her wolf den: