The Search for Miss Direction: A crabby filled graduation day

Remember this day back in September? I do! My pretty little baby set out on her first day of Pre-school while I cried in the parking lot. Oh how far we've come. Today Mikayla officially 'graduated' pre-3! She had her last day of school where we got to watch (part of) a video of pictures and video clips of the whole year (the kids made it through about 20 minutes before getting restless, though I'm told the whole video which we did get a copy of runs about 45 minutes. It was very well put together and I can't wait to sit down and watch the rest!), see her get her award and diploma and then head outside for play and pizza! Mikayla was awarded "Most Independent" in recognition of how far she's come since Mrs. Porto first met her when Noah started pre-3. (remember that??? Can you tell I'm a touch sentimental today?) Mrs. Porto noted how much Mikayla is able to do on her own, without a lot of instruction or reminding. And she's right! Even around here Mikayla does quite a bit on her own (thanks in a big part to her awesome big brotehr role model), though she's still my girl. We had a lot of fun at the year end party and it was definitely a bittersweet feeling. It'll be nice for the next three weeks for it to be just her and I all the time to slowly start to adjust to it being all three of us all day long. I am SO proud of my baby girl today! (who is definitely not a baby anymore)

When we got home from her party the first thing she wanted to tackle was packing for their excursion to Grandma and Papa's this weekend. She was very insistent that this needed to be done NOW. (Think she's a tad excited?) In case I haven't mentioned it, Noah was all set for awhile now to head to the 'Mont this weekend (he's got a half day tomorrow and is off on Monday for Memorial Day.) and go to Cedar Point on Saturday with Uncle Scott. (His birthday present!). Then Bean was going to hang with Grant and I the rest of the weekend until we all headed to the 'Mont on Monday for a Memorial Day BBQ. Well last week at the Hens game I jokingly mentioned to my parents that they were welcome to Kayla, too and my Dad jumped all over it! He thought we had plans with her already or he would have asked for her all along apparently. (The relationship between the Bean and her Papa makes my heart melt every time I think about it) So long rambling (who me??) short - the kids are headed to Fremont for the weekend and we had to pack! And according to Mikayla we had to do it NOW.

So we got that taken care of and then decided that we should make Mikayla's blue crab project. You might remember that I put a picture of my prototype (which was somewhat inspired by this) up yesterday. Well the kids blew my cute little crab out of the water. Mikayla and I created "Clyde" and giggled the whole time. You'll have to see the pictures to see what I mean. Noah put together his crab tonight, too, and I gotta say, I love 'em! I thought I adored making the lobsters, the crabs rival them!

The kiddos also did their Maryland state coloring map today. I'll let you tell them about it themselves in the pictures below.

I don't think tonight's dinner counts as authentic Maryland recipe but there was no way that after the discussion it caused that I could skip it. When I mentioned to the kids a few weeks ago that we would be doing Maryland soon and reminded them that was where we went last summer to see the Kunkle's, Noah instantly asked for crab cakes since Arthur snagged us very authentic ones when we visited. Mikayla, though said "can we have breakfast pizza, then?" It took me a few minutes to remember that Kristina had made a great breakfast pizza when we visited. The thing that made me smile (and hence have to include it this week) is that my bestie, bless her, will tell you herself that the kitchen is not an area she necessarily excels in. (Though I would beg to differ - everything we had when we were visiting was out of this world, especially the quinoa salad) So for Mikayla to not only 1) remember but 2) specifically ask for one of Kristina's dishes, well it was a must! So I emailed Kristina to ask for the recipe and made it tonight. A crust of crescent rolls topped with sausage, o'brien potatoes, cheese and eggs - my crew was of course on board. Everyone here loved it tonight, so many thanks to Aunt Kristina for sharing. If you'd like a copy of the recipe for "Aunt Kristina's Maryland Breakfast Pizza" (Yep, Kristina, I'm so naming it after you!) I'm happy to send it along.

After dinner we enjoyed the sunshine yet again with a walk around the neighborhood (Kayla and I wanted to see if we could find the ducks again and show them to the boys) and then it was home for bath and bed. Maybe I'll continue down today's sentimental path and watch that DVD :) Either way, I'm off for the night. Not sure if I'll be posting much over the weekend since the kiddos won't be around, but keep an eye on us, I do have a few Maryland recipes up my sleeve yet and Grant and I are planning something on Saturday that is sure to produce a couple of super neat pictures. So until then...

Maryland Fun Fact of the Day: The Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is considered a masterpiece and one of the finest 19th century buildings in the world. The basilica is the first cathedral in the United States. Baltimore represents the first Roman Catholic diocese.

Mikayla and I saw our duck family on the way back from the bus this morning

Ready for her last day!

Watching the video (the kids shouting "that's me" is my favorite part every year)

Receiving her award and diploma

I love that face more than the sun and the moon and the stars

Most Independent

YAY!!!!!!

Processing out of graduation

Getting her face painted

Princess (like you're surprised?)

Definitely too cool for school

Pizza time

Ready to make her crab (with an assist with Pinchy who has been doing everything with us this week)

Meet Clyde the Crab!

Separated at birth

She LOVED Clyde

And we then decided he needed a mouth

Giving Clyde a kiss

Working on her state map

Mikayla's Maryland

From Mikayla "These are clouds that make it rain on the black-eyed grandmas that are here and this is the water" (Kristi's clarification: The state flower of Maryland is the Black-Eyed Susan. My Mom's name is Susan. Ever since Monday night both of my kiddos are referring to them as "black-eyed grandmas" Love you Mom!)