The Graduate

 Today we celebrated my graduation from preschool.  Here I am with my diploma and my completely natural smile for the camera.

 This is the class of 2017!

 The ceremony included the formal march of the graduates.

 I could not wait to get this cap off.

 Afterward, I hung out at the park with my fellow graduates/pals.

Transitional Kindergarten, here I come!

Lucha Libre

 Our parents went to Mexico and all they brought back for us were these wrestling masks.

 Pretty weird, right?

I hope our parents didn't expect us to just put these masks in our costume bag.

 Wrestling is serious business.

 Guess who won this match?

I'll never tell.

Dolphin Ditch Day

 On Monday, all of the cool kids at my school -- the ones scheduled to graduate in a couple of weeks --  spent the day at the Los Angeles Zoo instead of at school.

 We took a long bus ride to get there.  Keyon and I were buddies for the field trip.

 Once we arrived, we hopped a fence out front, ate some snacks, and waited for our tickets.

 Inside, Egan and I were too cool to ride the carousel animals.  We sat in this thing while the ride went around and around.  Boring.

Keyon and I tried to figure out the map so we could navigate our way to the playground in the shortest amount of time.

 I wasn't much interested in seeing any of the animals, but I enjoyed hanging out with my friends for one big day of fun before we all head on our way to different schools.

After School, Special

                                                                           Photos courtesy of Egan's dad

After school, I like to hang out with my friends for a while.  Following a long day of studying, it's fun to finally spend some of our excess energy with a friendly wrestle on the grass out front.

 I'm small but scrappy.

 And, so far, no one has been seriously injured!

We sometimes wind down by eating snacks and inspecting the neighbor's exposed gas and plumbing lines.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Go-Carts and Bumper Cars

 My new friend, X, invited me to his birthday party at the go-cart track.

 I had a blast riding around on these things, and I survived with barely a scratch.

 I also tried out the bumper cars.  I was the only one there at the time, so it was a great way to figure out how to work the controls without getting whiplash every five seconds.

 Then it was back to the track for a few more spins before pizza and cake.

I think I'm ready for my driver's license.

Carnival/Cinco de Mayo Wrapup

 You know how you can go weeks without anything on the social calendar and then everything gets scheduled for the same date?  Well, that happened to me a couple of Fridays ago.  But with a little strategery and an accommodating driver I made it to multiple engagements.  Grace's school held its annual carnival, which I could not miss, especially since my mom is one of the chief planners of the event.  I got a shaved ice with every available flavor, so my day was made. The brown snow cone is the best!

 I spent quite a bit of time on the giant slide, as well.  Then I was off to the next event.

Hot-footing it back over to my school, I arrived in time for the annual Cinco de Mayo potluck, which always ends with a great pinata beat-down.  Since my friends and I are now the seniors, we waited patiently for the little ones to take their turns trying to hit the giant strawberry or chili pepper -- I don't know what that thing was supposed to be.

When it was my turn, I really whaled on that thing.

Hey, I wanted some candy! Don't judge me.

In the end, we all received our fair share of the candy.

This is definitely one of the best days of the year for me.

Spring Breakers

As spring break comes to an end, here are a few photos from our road trip up the 101 earlier in the week.

 I'll start with our family portrait.  I don't really like to have my picture taken, so I was throwing a bit of a fit for this one at Hearst Castle. 

Our first stop was a visit with our friends Isla and Shea.

 Grace, Shea, and Isla shot some hoops, while I explored the edges of their basketball court and tried to avoid getting bonked on the head by any errant shots.

 Surprising to no one, Grace is pretty good at making baskets.

 Then it was off to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle.  That's the castle in the distance.  It was a strange place, with huge rooms.  We weren't allowed to touch anything, and a docent gave me a dirty look when I accidentally stepped off the tour mat onto Mr. Hearst's original rug.  I'm sure I wasn't the first person to do that.

 Just up the road from San Simeon, we checked out the Elephant Seals, molting at this time of year.

 I'm just going to say there was a pretty bad smell in the air.  Use your imagination.

I found the seals to be pretty boring, so I occupied my time by playing in the dirt and picking up rocks.

 Heading down the coast, we stopped for a night in Morro Bay.  For this photo, Grace adopted one of her signature poses.

 Mom got silly for this one.

From our hotel we had a pretty good view of Morro Rock.

 Before leaving town the next day, we drove over to the Rock to get a closer look.  Grace did her pose several more times, but I'll just include this one.

Morro Rock is pretty big, as you can see.  It's a sacred place, so there's no climbing allowed.

 I made people nervous by getting close to this sign, but don't worry, I didn't get into any trouble here.

 The most amazing part of the trip was coming upon a real, live construction site.  It really made my trip.  I love excavators.  We spent a night in Solvang, too, but I forgot to take any photos there, so we'll have to go back sometime.