Tumbleweed Graduation/Duniway First Day

Yes, our little Elsie graduated from pre-school.  It was a cute and wonderful ceremony at beloved Tumbleweeds.  Below we see the graduating class of '12:

Mommy even got a little teared up:

 Elsie proudly accepts her "diploma":

...and then the next week she entered kindergarten at Duniway, our neighborhood public school.  Here she is getting ready to leave for her first day:

Elsie rode her bike to school:

Arrival with cousin Ida, who also was starting kindergarten, and Theo who was there for moral support:

Theo and Miki got the day off and they put on fancy dresses to go meet Daddy at the airport as he returned from the DNC in Charlotte.  Note Theo's snappy new haircut!

By the time we returned to pick up Elsie at school the younger siblings were pooped:

Proud Daddy picks up Elsie from her first day.  She liked it!

Elsie's projects

 Like her mom, Elsie loves a good project.  Below we see a salad she spearheaded, made with pickings from our garden.  Theo is skeptical:

Nest we see the bus stop sign.  One day Elsie saw Maggie running for the bus and afterwards she ran to her project table and made this sign.  "Now Mommy doesn't need to run to the bus stop because she can hold up the sign and the bus will stop right there for her."  Maggie uses it all the time, much to the annoyance of the city bus drivers.

Finally we see the squirrel trap.  Earlier this summer while in a Brooklyn park, Elsie decided she wanted to catch a squirrel.  So she gathered up lots of acorns and put them in a pile.  Then she sat next to the pile with this large rock held aloft, waiting for a hapless squirrel to examine the nuts.  We finally convinced her to leave, by propping the rock up with a stick and getting our friend Adam to promise to check the trap once a day.  Elsie still mentions this trap and wonders if there will be a squirrel waiting for her on her next trip to NYC.