Can I Graduate?

If you didn't know it (and I'm very positive you didn't), the title of this post is also a great song by an early 2000's rock band called Third Eye Blind. It's also appropriate because I shouldn't go much further into the summer without letting you all know I actually graduated Kindergarten.

I know, not everybody does it, it's a very difficult thing to do so we should celebrate the fact that I made it through.

Here's the old group shot of all the Kindergardeners singing and there's li'l old me right there in the middle.

Now it's time for the most important walk of my life. Let's go get that medal.

PAUSE - So here's the thing. Mom and Dad let me dress myself, right? Doesn't really matter the occasion. It's probably because they're both running around trying to take things out of Pax's mouth or wash his hands off of toilet water or basically just ensure he lives through the day. Either way, after I came down they mentioned that most of the girls would probably be in dresses and dress shoes and they just wanted to let me know in case I wanted to skip the comfy for a day. Well, as you can see, I didn't. And they were right - I was the only one who looked like she came straight from gym class that day, but that's cool... I'm sure I was also the only one whose feet didn't hurt in those silly looking dress shoes.

On to the medal.

Then it was party time and some pics with my friends.

Here's one of my best friends Ella; she's moving to Dallas next month.

Here's one of my other best friends, Gwen; she moved to Iowa two weeks ago. Noticing a theme here?

Here's the honorary Nadia-Finley and Nadia-Mabel-Finley shot from basically everything we do. Nadia is not moving anywhere, she still lives 3 blocks away, thank goodness.

And here are the lovely ladies who made it all possible. The top pic is Miss Stefanec. She was the teacher's assistant and such an unbelievably nice lady. She cried the entire time during graduation and then the entire time in our classroom party afterwards. Something tells me she's going to miss our little group.

And then there's the big dog - Ms. Emily Matus. Walk in her class and you might as well say "Reporting for duty, Ms. Matus." She kept it in order, let me tell you, and I think you'd have to if you were her with drooling boys acting like they were all hopped up on some amphetamines every morning at 8:00. Yet at the same time, Ms. Matus was an amazingly loving person who got to know me right to my core and understood what made me tick, and then she taught me based on that knowledge. And I could not have had a better teacher, I'll probably remember her for the rest of my life.

Well, that's a wrap.

Father's Day

The Big Dog, The Main Man, The Enchilada, Chief Blackhawk... he goes by a lot of things in this house (even a couple things Mom has called him over the years that I'm not sure what they mean but they don't sound particularly wonderful).

I call him Dad, and that's good enough for me.

And here is three generations of my homeboys.

Oh, and one clarifying statement: you don't see Mabel Jane in any photos because she was a nasty hag that day and refused to be in any (turns out she had 104 temperature, but whatever, no excuses in my book).

Ya know, I was gonna end the post right there but I decided in honor of this day I wanted to take a look back at my pops and me over the years, just hanging like only we know how.

I could have totally included pictures coming up of Dad with Mae and Pax, too, but they don't call this blog Mabel's Fabels, do they? Or Pax's Picnic? Nope, they don't.

Summer Vacation!!!

Okay, so it's only been a week or so but school's out and we've been taking full advantage. Here's a little laundry list of fun stuff we've been doing:

I learned to jump rope

We've taken hundreds of wagon rides already this year. (I swear, you could put Pax in the wagon and walk to San Francisco and I don't think he'd make a peep).

Festival season is in full swing, which means ponies and face paint and all kinds of other fun stuff.

Hanging with friends (that's Sid in the wagon with Pax and Ana walking with Mae - those are our best friends)

Teaching Mae how to make bracelets

Mae is taking swimming lessons

Speaking of teaching and learning, we learned that Pax loves mac and cheese almost as much as Mae and I do (oh, and he's very particular about eating with a fork).

And a trip to one of our favorite summertime destinations - 31st St. Beach, where we literally had to drag Pax away from the sprinklers... kid was in LOVE.

Piano Recital, Circa 2014

So you remember my piano recital last year? Well, this year was even better. For one, I wasn't nervous because I had done it before so it was old hat. And for two, well, I'm just much better at piano these days.

Anyway, not much narrative needed. You'll know all about what follows - piano - a solo and then a duet of Take Me Out to the Ballgame with Miss Victoria, my home slices Nadia and Mini-Mae, me with my moms and my pops, Nana and Papa, and one with Miss Victoria.

And if you click on this link it will take you to the video of me playing my two songs, and you can also hear Pax singing in the background, which is pretty sweet.

The rest of the recital Pax, well, he needed to be out in the parking lot because he wouldn't stop trying to sing along with everyone else's songs, so Dad took him out and he basically brushed his teeth in the parking lot for 45 minutes, and then got behind the gate and Dad figured this was a shot that we are all hoping is not foreshadowing into the future because no one is picking up his bail.

Mother's Day 2014

Started off a-ma-zing with a special Mother's Day salute in our classroom on Friday afternoon. All the moms came in and we did a bunch of awesome stuff with them. Here's a little selfie action.

Then on Mother's Day it was actually also Paxton's birthday, which was kind of cool because they got to share the day. He woke up early and made Mom a Mother's Day card.

Later in the afternoon I went outside in front and made mom a couple chalk drawings on the sidewalk.

And then later we went down to the lakefront and ran around a little bit. We stopped by one of our favorite old stomping grounds - Buckingham Fountain - and took in a long walk and an overall awesome evening to wrap up Mother's Day.

Here's a shot of all of us and Dad, which is a bit strange seeing that it was Mother's Day, but Mom wanted a shot of her gang so here it is.