School's out for summer!

I started writing a post to catch up on everything that happened at the end of May, but never finished, and since today is the last day of school, that news takes over!!

Flashback ... here was Molly back in August on Day 1:

And here's Molly from earlier today ... her last day as a Kindergartner:

On the way to school

After school on the playground

Manicures on the porch -- we're having a sleepover celebration tonight

I feel like the second half of this year just flew by ... it took a few months at the beginning of the school year to find our groove, but after the holidays, things really started coming together. Molly made some really good friends this year, looooved before and after care, and made a ton of progress in learning to read.

Now on to our next adventure ... summer camp! More on that after Monday :)

One-on-one time

I took the day off on Friday to chaperone Molly's field trip to the zoo ... along with about 15 other parents. They split us into groups of 2 parents per 3 kids, which still ended up being a lot of work since the zoo was beyond crowded and the kids were all beyond excited.

Molly's favorite animals at the zoo ... the ducks!

Molly and I had a good time together, even though we started off on the wrong foot arguing about what jacket to wear (she wanted to wear a fleece jacket even though it was warm and sunny out, go figure). She reeeealllly wanted me to go on this field trip though and I'm so glad I went. I know it meant a lot to her that I was there. And since Jason was at the Cubs game all day, Molly and I also had the entire afternoon and evening together. We hung out at the park after school and then went out for pizza for dinner. It was a pretty perfect day all in all. I threw my paleo diet out the window and didn't think twice about it.

It was also good for me to have some face time with the other parents, even if all it did was make me realize how far on the fringe I am of the inner circle of PTA moms. Their kids are all in activities I've never heard of, the moms all take the same yoga class and seem to know who lives in every house in the neighborhood. I'm still trying to learn the names of all the people on my street and have to introduce myself to half the parents in the class. Ha! But everyone is super nice. I think it's a lot of work to be "involved" in the school ... I can't decide if I want to try to step it up (even join the PTA ... eeek!), or if I should just continue to be happy and clueless on the edge of things. Right now I'm leaning toward happy and clueless on the edge :) Though Jason is now at a daddy-daughter camping trip with a bunch of other dads from the school ... maybe he can do the hard work and be the one who makes all the parent friends. Good luck, Jas!

April odds and ends

It felt like Spring for about a week ... and now it doesn't. But May is almost here and so I am feeling optimistic for our future. So what have we been up to these last few weeks in April?

Molly's social calendar has been packed. She's been to about a million birthday parties and has recently started a new session of gymnastics in addition to Sunday morning swim lessons. The new gymnastics class is awesome ... they have trampolines and one of those foam pits that the kids can jump into. Needless to say, Molly loves it.

She is also in the final countdown for school. Her last day of Kindergarten is June 2nd and we are starting to get end-of-year type notifications, like Teacher Appreciation Week and Field Day. Where did this year go? I feel like there was so much build-up for Kindergarten and now it's almost over! 

I have been trying to adhere to an 80/20 paleo diet and think I've been pretty successful ... weekends are hard though and lately I suspect my ratio has been closer to 70/30. But I've also started running again! Betsy and I signed up to run a 10k in June, so I now have the motivation I need to get back into a routine. My pace has been dreadful -- thanks to my Garmin watch, I can see that I am a full minute slower per mile than I was at this time 2 years ago when training for the half marathon -- but I'm starting to add mileage and the old familiar callouses are reappearing on my feet. 

As for Jason, he decided to take Earth Day to the next level and signed us up to adopt a park through November with another family. Our first park clean-up was last Saturday and we filled at least 6 large garbage bags. Some of that stuff looked like it had been there a while, so hopefully future park pick-ups will be a little easier. If not, that's why we're doing it ... to help keep Evanston clean!

Jason has also started printing again, which means I may have time to add a new show ... or I could use the time to run outside, tend to my garden, and write more blog posts. The days are getting longer, the sky's the limit. Bring on Spring!

Good times with Grandma

It was perfect timing for a visit from Grandma Lynette -- Betsy was busy working toward the April 15th tax deadline and I was holding down the fort solo with Jason on a work trip. We all had a lot of quality time hanging out, and the cousins loved being with their grandma and each other. Also, if you can't tell from the photos, it's getting warmer here. Sunny and 60s ... I'll take it!

Grandma with her 3 littlest squirrels

 Still working up to the monkey bars, but at least Molly is finally strong enough to shimmy across sideways

Ay, caramba!

Seven days in Playa del Carmen, Mexico felt like longer than a week ... in a good way. It was hard to come home to 35 degree weather with a thin layer of snow on our porch, but I think we're all still feeling the good vacation vibes.

If I decide to forget about the day of sickness at the end of the trip, it was a pretty perfect first official family Spring Break. We got to overlap with our friends, the Ciaglias, for the first few days of the trip. Molly was about as happy as a kid could be, doing cannon ball jumps into the pool, drinking fresh juice every morning, and eating gelato every night. And Jason and I loved re-visiting some of our favorite restaurants and discovering some of the (many) new ones that have popped up since our last trip. Maybe this is the start of an O'Grady Spring Break tradition!

Fun with friends -- Olivia and Calum -- Molly was so sad when they left midway through the week

Swing time

Check out our view!

Me and the Molls

More juice, please!

Staged photo, but cute just the same :) As you can see, we kept our girl pretty covered up in the bright Mexico sun

Spring break

We are frantically packing and getting ready for our Spring break trip to Mexico, but before we go, here are pictures from Marsha and Steve's Spring break with us!

Molly, Marsha, and the ducks

Jason with his parents (photo credit goes to Molly)

Playing at the park

Steak and shake! Steak and shake!

Molly/Mommy time at the nail salon

Dancing days

We gave ballet another try and Molly seemed to like it ... but she still ended up deciding to switch back to gymnastics. Oh well! While it is definitely fun to watch her walk the beam and jump over the vault, I will miss watching her point her toes and hold ballet poses. These may be the last ballet photos I ever post. But stay tuned ... I'm hoping to sign her up for hip hop over the summer :) 

Sassy face. This comes out whenever she has an audience

Toe tapping

In motion

Paying attention to the teacher