... slip slidin' away...

And when I say that, I mean that I'm losing ground on all the posts I've intended to write but somehow haven't yet managed to get to.

Which means that tonight I'm writing about last week's "Purple Room Class Tea," at which M and I were feted with sparkling punch, a fruit-kabob a piece, and a gummy worm. All served up by K, who also helped her class decorate (garden theme, with lots of bird drawings and paintings, and did I mention the gummy worms?).

Service, with a smile

What's so wonderful about this experience, besides seeing how excited and nervous the children are about the fanciness of it all, is getting to see the arc of K's growth over the last 3 years. The tea is an annual affair, coming every spring, with a new theme each time. K's first year, when she was just 4yo, was Charlotte's Web. Her teacher read them the story, and the kids all drew pictures of farm life, and everywhere in the classroom were pigs (which, apparently, her teacher collects). Last year was... I don't rightly recall. And this year.... gummy worms, remember?

But what I most remember about the first year was how, carrying the first cup of punch to our table, K managed to drop it, immediately after which she collapsed in a heap, completely undone. Her assistant teacher helped her recover, and we made it through the next 20 minutes, but it was tremendously stressful for her (and thus, a bit for us as well). This year, well, K knows the ropes now, and it went as smoothly as you can imagine. She was proud and full of things to show/tell us, and where 2 years ago she wouldn't have put up with something like this, last week we were able to eat our gummy worms like a family ought to eat gummy worms:

Beauty and the... worm

I may have started it....

Proof positive that K has learned to take some of what we do in stride!

We're proud of her as she finishes up this year of kindergarten and looks ahead to First Grade!

Note: L had a tea as well (the "Blue Room Tea") at which I did not have my camera. And I have it in my list of posts-to-get-to. Which I may actually do. Or not. But it was as fun (and nervous-making) as K's first tea, and though we had no spilled sparkling lemonade, the cup I was served held about 1/4 inch of liquid, about which L looked extremely concerned and asked "It that ok Dada?" and I of course said that it was. And I was not lying.