Thursday, June 27, 2013

Summer... the start

I am out of school!
We have had false Summer start in April and in early June, but now it is taking its sweet time to make an appearance. It is supposed to be too hot in a few days but that will be a welcomed break from the rain we have had lately.
I was certainly counting the days until school would be out. The past 5 months have been rough both at school and at home and, based on Maman's exasperated look this morning, I can safely say that it is not going smoother on this first week of our extended vacation.
I try hard to break the parents down so they finally let me do what I want.  They are tough to break, let me tell you. But I am also relentless so it sure is a fun tug of war in this house.

Maman is a tad worried about next month. See, we are flying to France to be with Papi and Mamie for 3 weeks. And while I am super excited about it, she thinks that we might get thrown out of my grand-parents' house if I still insist on being the King there. Nonsense I say: grand-parents' role is to spoil their grand-kids right? So obviously, they will let me do a lot more than I am allowed to do here. ( Maman is rolling her eyes).

Yesterday I actually declared that I went from 100% difficult behavior down to 50%. Sure by the end of the evening, as I told Maman, I went up a notch, a mere 1% I said. She did not quite agree with that but seemed to like the hours where I was at 50%!  And most days, I have about 10% dedicated to be fairly pleasant and it certainly allows us to have some fun time.

In May we went to Bend for the yearly reunion of the Pole Pedal Paddle team. I had a great time and although the previous years I barely looked at him, this year I was glued to the hip to my cool friend Grant. Because you have to be cool to handle all my craziness! 
 I also got to row with the girls in front of the house we were staying at, during one of the few shower breaks. Quite fun!
 There was also a big party where I got to help our friend Paula celebrate her 50th birthday. The best was the spread of food and the easy access to anything I wanted. I probably had a few more desserts than I am usually allowed to have ( I know that Maman reads this otherwise I would have written "a tons more" instead of a "few more".)
 We ended the week-end with a hike for most and a bike ride for me. Beautiful area just on the outskirts of Bend.
 The early June sun had helped with the growth of our strawberry patch and by mid-June, after I finally stopped eating all the berries that were ripening every day, we were able to get our first big batch. One out of already 3. Papa thought he would have the strawberries all for himself in July while we would be gone in France, since it is when they usually were good to eat, but the weather decided in my favor!

 And then came the last week of school. Papa came with my friends and I to the end of the year field trip. It was a fun bike ride at Vancouver Lake. I was proud to ride with Papa but soon, the taller kids with their taller bikes were pedaling faster than I could with my short legs and Papa had to go with them.
I still got to have my picnic next to Papa and that was nice.  Notice the stash of cookies I found!
 My buddies and I got quite wet in the Lake but that was part of the fun. 3 of those 4 boys have nearly drawn their kindergarten teacher to take an early retirement this year  ( although she is still about 20 years away from retirement age!)... One of the four is trying to keep all the other ones sane... and it's not me :)


And finally, on June 20, it was the end of the year for students and with it came the end of the maternelle years at the school for me. Three years where I have built quite a reputation of being the cutest kid ever! Wait, what? That's not quite the reputation I have? How could it not be, look at those pictures!

 Maman asked me those two questions on the last day:
- What did you not like about Kindergarten: "Being sent to other teachers' classrooms."
- What did you really like about Kindergarten: "Recess and FREE time".
We are in for a long road of schooling years she said.

I'll give you more news from or about France in a few weeks. In the meantime, be nice to each others.