May

Summer has officially arrived and the month of May has already come and gone. For one of the longest months of the year, it sure went by super quickly!  I finally finished Suri's photo book for the 2013 year... yes, I know it's 1/2 way into 2014!  But the book arrived in the mail and with only a few spelling mistakes (whoops), it turned out pretty darn good!  It got me thinking once again about what I am going to do with this blog...  I bound together Suri's first year and the final product was 2 THICK hard back books, similar to the size of an old encyclopedia... that times the rest of her life = more books that I want to think about housing. So Im not sure what to do. I may bind her 2nd year but the rest may just need to stay put here on Blogger for as long as they will have us :-)  After all, who knows if suri will even be interested in reading these words when she grows older.

On that note, I wanted to update this post on Suri's month of May. It was full of trying new things, graduations and more graduations, sunscreen and swimming!  

We celebrated the Graduation of the 5 year olds who were leaving Little Friends Montessori this month. Suri is sad to see so many of her friends leaving but many of them have siblings entering Little Friends so hopefully she will be able to stay in touch with many of them. This years graduation was at one of her classmates homes and all the kids were thrilled to be able to swim together!  Suri loves going to Connors house and it was fun to have the graduation there. In the graduation ceremony, all the "graduates" got to show us the chairs that they made at school. Each child helped cut the wood and assemble a chair and they then got to decorate it as they pleased. It was fun to see how each child's personality was demonstrated through the art work on their chair. Suri is so looking forward to the time she gets to make a chair when it is time for her to graduate :-)

Suri LOVES carrot sticks

The kids were taking turns hugging baby Annabelle (18 months)

All the graduates and their chairs

Miss Mary and Miss Mary Ann

Suri and Miss Mary

Suri and Miss Mary Ann

Jackson has his preschool graduation this month as well. He will be leaving his daycare at Bright Horizons and entering Kindergarten in the fall. His little ceremony took place at USAA and all the kids got to dress in official "graduation attire".  Jack was very cute and we were happy to share in his special day.

This month started (and finished) gymnastics!  She has been so excited to start gymnastics until she officially was enrolled in a class at Scottsdale Gymnastics. The class was not at all what she thought it was going to be and the 4 o clock hour must be when the rest of the city was able to attend as well. The gym was PACKED and Suri was a bit overwhelmed. She also didn't like that she was "sore" on the days post her class  (totally Mommas girl)!  She stuck it out though through the month of May and on her last day of class for May I asked her if she wanted to continue or drop, she reluctantly said "drop".  She likes the sport but not the atmosphere.  Maybe we will try again some day when she is older but in the mean time, swimming is still her passion.

Speaking of swimming, Suri is getting to spend some time with Amalia now that it is summer. We will be taking care of Amalia on Fridays and Suri is excited because they will get to swim together. This past week, Amalia spent the night at our house (Suri's first official "friend" sleep over) and the girls spend Thursday and Friday together. I think Suri would LIVE in the pool if I would let her. She is such a strong swimmer and the best part about it is that she LOVES to swim!  Starting her young has definitely paid off.

The good ol Slip N' Slide :-)

Grandma and her brother Lester

Some of the highlights of Suri's month:

She completed her first year of preschool at Little Friends Montessori

Suri jumped off the medium height diving board at Mc Dowell Pool (even though you are supposed to be 6 years old!)

Her favorite place to eat is still Paradise Bakery

She is beginning to read 3 letter words.  CAT was the first word she read all on her own

Suri saw the movie Heaven is for Real

Suri rode her bike all the way to the frozen yogurt store about 2 miles away ( complaining most of the way but she still did it!).

Suri has been spending some time alone with her Dad a couple times a week for a few hours (they are getting to know each other and Zijah is getting a strong taste of Suris personality :-)

Suri visited the cabin for the first time this year and went fishing for her first time.

It has been a fun month and Suri is growing up so quickly. She is asking MANY questions these days and it is remarkable to hear her thought process articulated... such as when she asked me why a Quad is called a Quad. I replied, because it has 4 wheels. She then said, well not all things with 4 wheels are called a quad- cars have 4 wheels and they aren't a called a Quad..... 

Suri is one independent little 3.5 year old and I have no hesitation that one day, this girl will move a mountain!