Joyful June-Part 2

The second half of June was just as action-packed as the first. 

Sweet Elizabeth posed for pictures before her kindergarten stepping up ceremony, 

sang songs with her class, while wearing her hat a bit lower than tradition dictates,

enjoyed a party in her classroom

with friends,

her teachers

Baba,

and me,

and she ended the celebration with a bouquet of roses (photo bomb courtesy of Henry).

The next weekend, we were on our own and busied ourselves with a visit to the library, a swim at the pool, baking banana bread, playing with foam dough (an awesome but messy combination of shaving cream and corn starch), 

snacking while reading, 

and getting extremely dirty while at a park get together to say farewell to some dear friends.

The next week was the last week of school, so Elizabeth helped me create pencil bouquets for her teachers, 

and posed for me on her last day of kindergarten (first day).

Her last day of school also included an opportunity to harvest lettuce from the backyard, 

and attend a birthday party at an amusement park, where the kids insisted on sitting together in every ride.

(check out the motorcycle face on H)

Then, we just had one more day to fill until Justin's return. I wanted to keep the kids busy so they wouldn't become overwhelmed with anticipation. We began the day with a library visit, and followed it up with some swimming. The kids took advantage of the beginning-of-summer barbecue at the pool.

While they were eating we learned Justin had landed, so we rushed home to hang up our sign, and 

greet Justin. Hooray!

We filled the weekend after his arrival with snuggling, 

visiting an awesome waterfront playground in Staten Island, 

and acting as Sacajawea while gathering flowers from our backyard wildflower garden.