To celebrate the end of the kindergarten school year another way, Nathan’s class had a pool party at his friend Brody’s house. They had a blast seeing each other outside the school grounds! “Too bad the playground can’t have a pool!” Nathan told me!

I loved having a personal photo shoot with Nathan in my college graduate gown (much like I did with Baylee two years ago). He warmed up quickly and got pretty silly!

Our Graduate Nathan

Our kindergartner, Nathan, is a graduate! I truly feel like this year went by in a blink and am sad that it’s over! Nathan had an incredibly marvelous, mind-blowing school year. He learned so much from his amazing teacher, Lauren Zavisch, and made some remarkable bonds of friendship with some truly wonderful kids.

So tonight the celebration began on stage, a week before the school year comes to a close. The kids entertained us beyond measure with their songs and movements, speaking parts, poetry, and heartfelt photo slide show. I couldn’t help but tear up many times and also praise God for the courage and confidence he gave Nathan during his performance. Just two years beforehand, I vividly remember Nathan being in tears out of stage fright. Now look at him! We’ve witnessed a total transformation!

After the graduation performance we headed to Organ Stop Pizza for dinner. Nana, Papa D, Grandma Sally, Aunt Linda, Uncle Jimmy, Cousin Laura, Kaydon, and Kasey all joined the party (which made it even more special)! The organist even played a set just for Kaydon and Nathan full of Star Wars and Indiana Jones music. They thought that was so cool! And the night wasn't complete without going for dessert to Bahama Bucks!
(Nana and Papa D)

(Grandma Sally)

(Aunt Linda and Uncle Jimmy)

(Our family...Nathan's biggest cheerleaders!)

Kindergarten is the most precious school year of a child’s life. Don’t you agree?

Science "ROCKS" (and so does Baylee)!

It’s Science Fair time and Baylee’s cottage topic this year was rocks and minerals. She diligently worked on her project with the intense focus of a surgeon in an operating room and proudly displayed her findings as any scientist would. I sure love seeing this great brain at work!

Happy Mother's Day...take two!

Mother’s Day was a bit uneventful this year since Jon had to work so he made up for it by taking us out tonight to my favorite restaurant, Benihana of Toyko. What a blast we had watching the kids see this type of cooking for the first time. I think they could live off of the fried rice! But come to think of it, without the presentation of an erupting onion, a flying egg, and much more, the fried rice at home could be second-rate in their book!

Splish Splashing Fun

By leaps and bounds, Baylee reached the hundred hour reading goal this school year so an invitation to her water day was easily in her reach. I had the opportunity to be a volunteer, walking the kids from station to station and even took advantage of the huge blowup water slides myself. There’s nothing like splashing in a bunch of dirty warm water {not}. Regardless of the water style, those type of water slides are a blast!

A Cold Treasure

We’re still experiencing “firsts” at this stage of life and tonight was no exception. As we were inside hanging out we heard music outdoors that caught our attention. Much to our surprise, we saw an ice cream truck and the kids began going bonkers! Baylee, Nathan, and Owen loved picking out a cold dessert treat and hopes it returns again over and over again so they can try everything on the menu!

The Kempiak Laboratory

Professor Baylee opened up our Party of Five science laboratory for her mad scientist friends today for a round of ‘testing’ and ‘experimenting’. It was her belated birthday party and well worth the wait! We were oozing with fun!

Our first order of business, critical thinking style, was to have our mad scientists figure out how to get a hard boiled egg inside a glass bottle without harming it. Do you have any idea? Our laboratory of scientists do now, knowing what happens when molecules get heated up! Hint…just light a birthday candle that’s pieced into the egg and see what happens!

There are many names for it; Gak, Goo, and Slime, but no matter what you call it, our science party wouldn’t have been complete without making this rubbery, slimy, stringy putty sensation! With only a few ingredients and quite a bit of stirring action on each scientist’s part, we were quickly on our way to learning about the properties of polymers. (Don’t you just love the expressions on Professor Matthew and Professor Kristin’s faces?)

We were erupting with fun as the scientists made their own volcanoes and brought them outdoors for the lava to freely flow. We were all fired up and excited to explore one facet of earth science!



5-4-3-2-1…Blast Off! Each scientist made personal rockets out of film canisters and had a chance to launch them as well, using water and Alka Seltzer tablets.
Have you done the experiment with Mentos and diet soda before? We did! Who would have ever guessed that dropping those chewy mints into a bottle of diet soda would produce such a gigantic reaction, a 20 foot geyser! With red, white, and blue sodas (colored with food coloring) we set the three of them off simultaneously for a ‘homemade’ firework show that the kids greatly cheered about.

Our drink of the day was my version of those yummy Sonic Cherry Limeade. To make it “science like” we filled it with dry ice so it would “smoke”. What a hit!
{Note to self…if I ever need to get the kids to eat or drink anything ever again…dry ice may be the key ingredient!}
Our experiments weren't the only things erupting with fun! We served an explosive, steamy chocolaty cake with hot cherry lava pouring out. Poor Baylee, when it was time for her to blow out the sparkler candles, she was a bit frightened and backed up quite a bit. Boy did that girl have to show off her lungs and ability to blow a lot of air from far away!

This party could have lasted days. In fact as the laboratory closed for the day, Professor Baylee pleaded, “Can I have another science party next year?” To me, why not…there are so many other experiments just waiting up my lab coat to pull out!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Water Baseball

I was asked if I’d run the end of the season baseball party again for Nathan’s team and tonight was the night! We had a great time eating pizza, passing out trophies, and the highlight…playing baseball with water balloons with the coach as the catcher!

This season was extra special for Nathan since he had two close buddies join him from school; Michael and Andrew and two others he’d played ball with before, Tony and Isaiah. We love cheering on Nathan and his endeavors.

His Toothless Grin

Yep, it’s official! It’s undisputable…Nathan is now a genuine kindergartner. He’s hit the right of passage by losing his first tooth and now has his name on the tooth chart in class. He’s so thrilled to join in on that “not so” elite club. I adore his beautiful new smile and giggle each time I catch him checking himself out in the mirror (over and over again)! I could keep this toothless grin forever!

(Nathan holding up this handmade" tooth cup that held his tooth for the Tooth Fairy. Left behind from her was fairy dust, a note, and a little cash.)