Paul's not the biggest fan of camping, but he thought he could tolerate roughing it on the back porch with Clara for a night this weekend. The temperature has been getting into the 50's at night to make it comfortable, and the screens would hold the bugs at bay.
Clara loved it, sleeping solid through the night (even sleeping through the thunderous chorus of bird chirps that started around 5 am). Kate has promised to do it next time, but we haven't hear her reminding Clara just yet...
We hit Jordan Lake with the Kuss's on Memorial Day weekend. The girls loved the boat. Clara loved the inner tube. We pulled her at least four times, and she never wanted to get off. No fear!
We play hard on the weekends, and there aren't always good opportunities for naps. Hattie is in this funny phasing out period anyway where she'll really need naps some days, but won't be tired at all on others.
Today was Hattie's last day of MMO, too. She'll be moving to St. Mark's in the fall (it's a bit closer to our home), so this marks the end of a Dryden era at White Memorial, too.
Her teachers sent her home with this class photo last week. It's so, well, two! We're still trying to figure out how they managed to corral three rows of two-year-olds long enough for the camera shutter to snap.
But our favorite images from White Memorial will always be the first...the handing of the baton last September:
It was a big day in the Dryden's world. After two wonderful years of preschool, Clara graduated from Arts Together. She walked the stage (er, bridge) and got her diploma, matriculating from the best preschool program we could have imagined for our little girl.
Like last year (here), the entire school put on an end-of-year play. This one was a medley of fairy tales swirled together to make sure every kid had a role and a few lines. Clara was the Little Red Hen, and she had three lines:
Chicken Little: "The big bad wolf is coming!! The big bad wolf is coming!!"
Little Red Hen (Clara): "Can you help me build 3 houses?"
chick 1: "One is made of straw."
chick 2: "One is made of sticks."
Little Red Hen (Clara): "And one is made of brick."
Chicken Little: "I can't do anything...the big bad wolf is coming!"
Little Red Hen (Clara): "Then I will do it myself."
It's onto summer, and then - gulp - kindergarten in the fall. She seems ready to move on, suffering a mean case of senior-itis for the past few weeks. But we'll all remember these two years fondly, and will be eager to introduce Hattie to Arts Together in 2015.
We're taking off the pull-up. Though Hattie has shown so little interest in potty training, we've decided it's time to take the plunge. We've swapped huggies for big-girl underpants, and we've begun toting the portable potty every where we go.
As can be expected, there have been accidents. One came while up at North Hills for Live Blue Grass on Sunday afternoon. Hattie relieved herself mid-stride on the sidewalk leading up to the new stage. Before we could clean it up, several other kids were splashing in it barefooted- believing it an innocent puddle. Rather than notify his parent peers, Paul opted to sulk away. Surely they'd all receive baths soon enough. Right?
But it's all coming together. Hattie is deep into her diaper-free days, and she's making progress.
With spring comes the start of our warm weather weekend traditions. This Saturday we woke up, and
Hattie helped make pancakes. We spent a lazy morning lounging around.
We rallied for a trip up to the farmer's market with neighbor Arrington in tow.
Then came home to prepare ourselves for the season opening of North Brook pool.
We had an uncharacteristic late-spring cold snap in Raleigh. It's been getting into the 40s at night, making the water chilly even with the daytime temperature reaching the 70s.
The cold usually has no effect on Clara. If there's swimming to be done, than damn the torpedoes! She's in the water. Not so this time. She stayed in long enough for this picture...
...and the rest of the time was spent lounging on the side of the pool.
We know we'll have more warm weather coming up this weekend, so there's plenty of swimming to be done.
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