floats and farewells

Life at home was as busy as it was before we left for vacation as when we returned.  The day after we got home, we ran in a 5k race for Pray America that was part of the Tulip Time race.  Then we hustled back to Borculo for our beloved Dandelion Festival.  Natalie got to ride on the preschool float, which we all thought was a pretty big deal.  Our good friends, Brian and Dorothy had drove in from their home in Florida to attend the festival... among other things, I suppose.  We enjoyed lunch with our good friends and Jordan got back to work on one of his side jobs.

On Thursday, we went to Natalie's Preschool Graduation!  My little girl is growing up too fast!  Seems like she just had her first day!  She sang a few songs with the others and joined with the motions about halfway through.  It brought back memories of my own preschool graduation.  Instead of doing the motions, I chose to twirl my hair.  There are many things that I will teach my kids out of my own experiences, and many of them are 'what not to do'.  I am so proud of Natalie.  She learned so much in the last 9 months and was always eager to tell all of us about it.  Along the wall were self portraits the students had drawn of themselves.  Natalie's portrait was crying but had a huge smile as well.  Natalie is a veeerrrrrrrry sensitive girl and it doesn't take much for the tears to form in her eyes.  Luckily, these were 'tears because I'm so happy' she told us.  And, in the corner of her picture, is another happy crier... me!  And the best part of the whole night for Natalie was that her grandpa and grandma Barkel took us out for ice cream to celebrate!