End of School Year Celebration

The end of school year celebration happened over a month ago. I didn't have time to blog about it until now. The celebration was very much like a graduation commencement. It started with a slideshow on pictures taken thru the school year. When the students saw themselves or their friends in the slideshow, they said the names loudly together. After the slideshow, each student went out to get his/her evaluation. Charisse was so shy that she took her evaluation from Teacher Nancy and rushed back to her seat. Luckily, I was able to capture the special moment. The celebration ended by a potluck with all kinds of delicious food.

Here is the evaluation from Teacher Nancy:

Charisse is a dear, sweet, kind and respectful child. She has grown so this school year. She really is feeling so secure in herself, participating well at circle time. Charisse is beginning to use more of her English at preschool. She has a good recognition of the numbers, shapes and colors we focused on this school year. With a little more help she'll be chatting away to us all in no time. Charisse follows directions well. Charisse loves to play with the play kitchen/house area at school. She has some good friends in our class, Jessica and Caris. Keep up all the solid foundation building at home, you are doing a great job. It feels so wonderful to see Charisse so happy to be at Children's School playing well with her school friends. Thank you for sharing her with us all. She warms our hearts.

End of School Year Celebration

A Trip to LA on Memorial Weekend

We went to LA in almost every holiday because Ivan wanted Charisse to enjoy the holiday with us, and he knew Charisse liked taking the rides and roller coasters. It's true that Charisse enjoyed more each time we went. However, there is one more attraction in LA, not a theme park but my friend Grace's home. On last day of our trip, we visited Grace and her family. Charisse loved her family so much that she didn't want to leave. We drove away for 20 minutes; when we went back, she didn't show any sign of missing us. It took us almost 2 hours to convince her leaving with us. Ivan and I thought it would be great if we could leave her there for the whole summer but I could see Grace's husband Kenny kept sweating when we brought up this idea. Ha ha ha...

LA Trip - Knott's Berry Farm and Legoland

Last Day of the First School Year

Time flies! The school year just ended couple weeks ago. When I looked back, I see Charisse have grown up a lot this year. She
...becomes more independent.
...is potty trained.
...has builds up trust between her and other people besides parents and our nanny.
...knows what's friendship.
...doesn't like to play with boys because they play rough.
...feels sad when she has conflicts with her best friend (Jessica).
...feels sad when she feels rejected.
...becomes more emotional.
...is more expressive.

We may send Charisse to another school next year. Charisse is looking forward to go to the new school. She always thought that going to a new school means she's a big girl. Kids always want to grow up. If I were at her age, I would like to stay young. There's another reason she wants to go to another school, she always complained that she got hit and push by a classmate named Garrett. I had raised this issue to her teacher. I have been teaching her to forgive and forget but I don't think she understands it yet.

This school has a tradition that all students walk on their feet with colorful paint onto pieces of paper. I believe that symbolizes the students walk out from school with a colorful life.

Last Day of School

Second School Field Trip - the Discovery Museum in Palo Alto

Charisse's class had a field trip on April 30. I took that morning off and went to the Discovery Museum with her. All students wore the T-shirt they made couple weeks before the trip. It felt like they were wearing uniforms.

School Field Trip

Easter Egg Hunt

This year, we went egg hunting at Central Park in San Mateo again. We shouldn't go to this place because we didn't have a good experience last year -- too little eggs and too many people. Before the hunting started, they kept announcing that "pick up one egg, you will get one gift; pick up 10 eggs, you will get the same gift." They tried to convince people not to pick up more than one egg. However, who would listen to them.
"Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."

Within 1 minute, the eggs were all gone. How many we got? Three... We were pretty lucky because there were many older kids in the crowd. I didn't enjoy it. Why were we waiting in lines for so long and fighting for those eggs.

In the afternoon, we went to Ivan's brother's home. Charisse's cousins Michelle and Toby went egg hunt at a local church in the morning too. They got more than 200 eggs home and many little gifts. Since the egg hunt at the park wasn't fun, we had a mini egg hunt game at their home.

East Egg Hunt

Charisse's 3-Year-Old Birthday

From On Charisse's 3rd Birthday

Both Ivan and I took a day off on Charisse's birthday. In the morning, we took Charisse to watch Disney On Ice - 100 Years of Magic at Oakland Coliseum. Almost all Disney characters were there in the show. The show could be a bit too long for kids like Charisse's age. There was an intermission after about 1 hours 15 minutes, Charisse thought the show was over and asked us to leave. I had to explain to her that it was just a 15 minutes break. I like the show very much. It was a combination of colorful cartoon characters and skillful skating performance.

In the afternoon, we took Charisse to Nut Tree Theme Park. I couldn't believe it felt like winter on Charisse's birthday party, but after a week, it was so hot. The park was in Vacaville which was quite far away from home. Why we picked this place? Because Charisse was tall enough to take bumper car at this park, and the rides were unlimited with a day pass ($11 per person). The park was pretty small, but it had every ride that Charisse liked - bumper cars, carousel and other kid rides. Because we went there on a weekday, there weren't many people in the park; Charisse played Flight School at least 10 times without getting off the flight. We also played bumper cars many time. Actually, I personally think that little kids shouldn't be allowed to play bumper cars because the impact could be too strong especially when two cars were hit head on. There were 2 crazy girls playing the bumper cars with us. Many times, I was hit by them, my neck was hurt and my glasses were flied off few times. Luckily, Charisse was in the car with Ivan. Charisse was petrified for at least 15 minutes after we got off the bumper cars.

We had a great time, I hope Charisse felt the same too. But the fun wasn't over yet, we took Charisse to another fun place on the next day. Where was it? Stay tune.

First School Field Trip

This is our very first class picture. Charisse had her first school field trip at Bob's Pumpkin Patch in Half Moon Bay. This pumpkin patch didn't have anything but pumpkins and corn field. Besides running around, the students didn't have much to do. And the ragged truck on the field became the point of interest.

First School Field Trip - Pumpkin Patch