Notre Dame Pre-K Graduation

Catherine graduated from pre-kindergarten a couple of weeks ago and they had a lovely ceremony at school. The children wore caps and scarves and received "diplomas." When asked what they liked most about pre-k the overwhelmingly popular response was playing outside with their friends on the playground.

The art teacher worked for a month with the children to do a landscape painting on canvas as a gift for the parents

With the wonderful pre-k teacher, Mrs. James

Catherine is very excited to be a kindergartner now and is looking forward to going to Peabody Charter School in the fall. Peabody is just a couple of blocks away so she is already practicing riding her bike to school.

I Madonnari Street Painting Festival

One of the most popular Memorial Day weekend festivities in Santa Barbara is the I Madonnari Festival. It is a street painting festival based on those they have in Italy, so-called because the artists traditionally painted pictures of the Madonna.

The Santa Barbara festival was created over 20 years ago and takes place in front of the beautiful Old Mission. Countless artists work over a 3-day period to create masterpieces out of pastels on the ground in front of the Mission. In addition, there are food booths with traditional fare, including gelato, which you bet we had!

Here are pictures of a few of our favorites:

In progress

This one looks familiar!

The artist at work


Doesn't it look like you could step right into this one?

Sesame Street Live

We have had a very busy couple of weeks and I have lots to report. Mommy promises she'll get it all on the blog but it might be out of order.

First up on the long Memorial Day weekend we drove an hour south to Thousand Oaks to see Sesame Street Live. Even though I don't often watch Sesame Street anymore, I loved it and I recognized all the characters - Abby Cadabby, Bert & Ernie, Elmo, Zoe, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch...they were all there. It was so much fun to see them all come to life. There was a lot of singing and dancing - both on stage and in the audience! I brought my own Abby Cadabby along to see all her friends and she and I danced and sang along with everyone else.

Me and Abby Cadabby ready for the show

Abby & Elmo doing the hula

With my Elmo balloon

San Francisco!

My fifth birthday celebration continued in San Francisco with Papa and Nana. We had such a great time exploring the places I'd read about in my books "Maybelle the Cable Car" and "This is San Francisco." We went to Fisherman's Wharf, rode a cable car, a bus and a trolley, went to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park and Steinhart Aquarium. One of the best things was taking a ferry ride in the Bay - we went right under the Golden Gate Bridge and past Alcatraz Island!

Riding a cable car with Nana and Mommy

Wow! The Golden Gate Bridge is ginormous, especially seen from the water below.

Papa and I sharing dessert in a North Beach restaurant.

The Big 5!

I love opening presents!

My new jewelry/music box!

My new Minnie Mouse flip-flops

I am five years old now! My birthday was so much, we celebrated the whole month of April. First, Aunt Barbi came to visit for my birthday. We took her to the beach and she was here for my party. I had a party for some of my school friends in the backyard. We played musical chairs, pin the tail on the giraffe and we even had a pinata. It was really hard to break it open so Daddy had to do it.

Spring Break in Arizona

We drove from Santa Barbara to Scottsdale to spend Easter and Spring Break with Papa and Nana. It was a long drive but fun to go through the desert -- and I got to see some of Daddy's wind turbines in Palm Springs!

I had so much fun in the pool.

We went to the Sugar Bowl twice!

Me and Papa being silly

We went to Butterfly Exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden

A butterfly landed on my hat - twice! This one is a Malachite.

Student of the Month

Catherine was chosen by her teacher as the Pre-Kindergarten Student of the Month for March. Each month, there is one student from each grade who is chosen as the best representation of the Student Learning Expectations for Notre Dame. The acronym is SAINTS and it stands for Social Justice, Academic Excellence, Inspiration, Needs of Others, Traditions, Success. We are very proud of our girl!