Summer's Off to a Great Start

So much great stuff happened this weekend, I hardly know how to document it all. I'll start with Friday's Preschool graduation ceremony at Spanish for Fun Academy (which Johnny and Grace affectionately have shortened to "Spanish for Dot Com since their Daddy does their website.") All rising Kindergarteners put on a show with songs and dances and then donned caps and gowns for an "official" diploma ceremony. There was a Panamanian "rap-type-reggae" crowd-pleaser, and a fiesta at the end, but one of the highlights of the day was that Grace's abuelo (grandfather) is a mago (a magician) and my dad did a very successful magic show. I have more to say on the magic show, and will perhaps in another post, but it went great; the kids loved it, the parents laughed (some howled, some moaned, and some cried), but it all went well and was a great way to celebrate this major milestone in Grace's life. SFFA is my kids' second home, and I couldn't be more pleased with the care, education, and cultural exposure they are getting there.
Saturday we went to a 6-Year-old girl's birthday party, and my dad did the magic show all over again. It was a bit tougher to get laughs from the suburban crowd, but overall, it went over well. These are the same tricks that my dad did for my birthday parties, the last one being when I was 9 years old. He hasn't lost his touch.

One exciting thing that Grace has been able to boast is that she's had a loose tooth for about two weeks. Johnny wants so badly to have a loose tooth too, but this is the one area in their development when their age difference actually means something, and Johnny's just not old enough to have a loose tooth. So, last evening, David and I were getting ready to go out (without our kids) and I noticed that Grace's loose tooth was really loose. I thought it would still be a few days. I didn't hear this but apparently, my dad told Grace to keep working it with her tongue and in a matter of seconds, Grace was standing there dumbfounded with a gap where her bottom tooth used to be. I screamed for at least 20 seconds causing my dad to run in thinking a fish hook had gotten stuck in her mouth, or something equally dramatic. I looked in Grace's hand and there was this tiny tooth in the middle of her palm. I was screaming for joy, of course, like a mother would if her daughter had just won the title of Little Miss Sunshine or something, but I think I freaked the whole house out. It was a great moment, and Johnny didn't even pitch a jealous fit.



With the kids in a good mood and having heard me tell them that they'd better go to bed without a fight and on time for Granddabs or the Tooth Fairy might not come, David and I took off to the North Carolina Museum of Art to meet PS for an outdoor concert and movie. The band was Southern Culture on the Skids and the movie was Talladega Nights. I had a great time people-watching (and there were some characters) and feeling right at home as fried chicken was flung from stage to audience, a bite taken out and then back from audience to stage. It was a great time, and the rain spared us, just barely. The evening was a big deal, because it was the first time my dad has ever babysat the kids all by himself, and we were gone for at least 5 hours. All went peachy except that my dad couldn't for the life of him find the chocolate-chip cookies that he knew were somewhere in the kitchen.

The weekend would have been great had it ended there, but today we were given this glorious, humidity-free day to enjoy outdoors. And outdoors we played. We swung. We swam. We casually read books when we were supposed to be life-guarding out most precious commodities. You'll have to watch the last video to see exactly what I mean.