Tuchus: June 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Clara went scuba diving!

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as part of a wonderful week away with her grandparents....

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Mama and Dada

Heading out for a day of tubing on the river!

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

She's off, too!

And Clara has gone off with Nana and Pa for her own adventure! She's having a great time!

Monday, June 20, 2016

Molly Maui 1

The view from the hotel room balcony .
Sincerely,
Molly Franklin

Here's a picture of Molly heading off to the lovely island of Maui for a week with her bud Lucy, and family! I've already gotten reports back that they had been in two swimming pools by 8:45am on the first day. Molly's figured out how to post her own blog posts, so stay tuned for updates directly from the island!

Promotion Day

Molly is off in Hawaii (more on that soon!), and I have a moment to gather photos from last Friday, which marked Molly's Promotion from Elementary School to Middle School. This is a major milestone in the Berkeley Schools, which breaks things up into Elementary (K-5th), Middle (6th-8th), and High (9th-12th) schools. Molly attended John Muir Elementary for Kindergarten, and we switched to Malcolm X Elementary for First Grade, simply because it is two blocks from our house (Berkeley assigns schools based on a very complex lottery, which means all the schools are awesome, but choosing schools is not exactly possible - long story, but the result was that we had Molly switch schools after Kindergarten).

The Promotion ceremony itself was absolutely beautiful: beautiful (well rehearsed!) choral singing interspersed with very short statements of gratitude from all ~80 5th graders.

Pictures:
Our family card (Zach dug up an absolutely amazing picture of Molly & Clara on Molly's first day of Kindergarten); Molly & Clara on their last day of school together; Molly giving her "gratitude" speech; on stage with classmates; receiving her certificate; post ceremony celebrations with Zach; Ms. Arroyo (her 1st grade teacher); and with Ms. Speiglman (her 5th grade teacher).

No particular reason

I miss y'all.

Sincerely,
Molly Franklin

On the plane to Hawaii!

I'm on my way! I am going to Hawaii for a week with my friend Lucy, without my family.
Love, Molly

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Clara's persuasive speech

For their final "publishing party", clara and her classmates deli were their persuasive speeches this morning. Clara's was on why there should be no gum in school. And, just to be clear, she let me know after that it was just no gum IN school. She is all for gum outside of school.

Other speeches covered why we should: let elementary school kids have cell phones, not let them have cell phones, protect animals, protect the environment, save the rainforest, use the metric system, be kind to others, stop Trump, let kids eat more sweets in school, and eliminate homework.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The countdown began weeks ago for the kids, but for me it seems to have hit today. Three days left! Or, really, two, since today has started, and Friday only sort of counts.

So, two more days of watching Molly & Clara zoom off to school on their scooters! And just two more days of having them both in the same school.

Everyone is appropriately excited, nervous, sad, and happy! One thing that Clara expressed concern about is getting to school on her own - for the past year they've been walking and/or scooting on their own, and now she'll be without her buddy. I assured her we wouldn't make her walk on her own if she doesn't want to! :)