End of School Stuff, and Elise's Art

The week after we got back from Yosemite, Connor and Elise had Speech Meet at school.  It's an evening event where they have a fundraising raffle, a concert, and then the kids split up to recite memorized poetry in their classrooms.  Ryan was in Chicago for work, but the kids reenacted it for him later.  This year the Eagle Academy kids were put in with the day classes, so I got to hear all the other kindergarten and second graders, too.  It was adorable.  Elise recited "Somersaults" by Jack Prelutzky, and Connor did "The Crocodile's Toothache" by Shel Silverstein.  They both did amazing jobs! 
  

  
Elise's Daisy troop did a field trip to the Pasadena Humane Society.  They delivered fleece blankets they had tied for the animals, and we got to take a guided tour and learn about how the place works.  It's a really nice animal shelter.  The dog runs have retractable rain shields and heated beds, and they have space for wild animals, too.  One program I thought was funny was that they ship chihuahuas to the East coast, where apparently there is a shortage.
  

  
We found this alligator lizard on our screen door one afternoon.  They're bigger (and angrier-looking) than the normal fence lizards we usually see around the yard.  The kids thought he was pretty cool.
  

  
Park Day did their semi-annual "Swap and Sell."  Connor and Elise were super excited for it, and spent a lot of time getting ready.  They sold a mix of old toys, gems, and (Elise) paper hair bows, and pretty much sold out.  I thought it would be a great chance to declutter a bit while teaching the kids entrepreneurial skills, but they came home with way more stuff than they sold.

  
Since Elise is studying stars and black holes, we took a field trip to the Griffith Observatory with our friends, the Vances.
  

  
We went to the La Canada Memorial Day parade, with the older kids in their scout uniforms.  It was the perfect size parade.  There were basically no floats, just lots of cars and fire trucks and marching bands and preschools.  We might make that a Memorial Day tradition.
  

  
The solar heat has made it so we could finally invite people to swim without apologizing!  This day it was the Hillquists and Kennys.
  

  
Elise had her birthday party, with a whopping eleven guests!  It was a "unicorn" party, so everybody did unicorn art projects, pinned the horn on the unicorn, played horse, horse, unicorn, and decorated elaborate cupcakes.  Oh, and smashed a unicorn pinata.  Elise got a little sad in the middle, so we had to have a talk about using words instead of running away and being upset, but the cupcakes cured her.
  

  

  
Connor got his bobcat patch at the last pack meeting of the year.  It's cool that Ryan gets to be his den leader.
  

  
The rest of this is art from Elise's school portfolios.  I'll post Connor's, too, but I thought one at a time would be more manageable.
  

Foam Stamp and Print - Ocean Creatures

Aboriginal Dot Art

  

House

Monster and  Hearts

Horse Foil Art

Deep Sea

Still Life

Hills, Mountains, and Sky

Inside a Fish

Cave Paintings

Egyptian Pyramid

Tissue-Paper Mosaic

I'm thinking about framing this - I like the colors.