Sucker for Sweetheart

I'm such a sucker for my kids. Zana graduated from kindergarten last week and received an award for earning above average grades in every category all year. She's a smart cookie with a good head. Now, when I say she graduated, it's no joke. People in my community take a small thing and make it into a huge celebration. It's usually a lot of overkill but if you don't at least show up with something like a balloon, you're definately going to be on the biggest LOSER list and your kid just may be humiliated. I'm glad Zana's teachers provided each kid with a lei. What a cute group.

Zana with her good friend Angie

She also had her gymnastics "Spring Olympics" two weeks ago and is coming along with her strength and agility skills. Admittedly while watching her gymnastics classes throughout the year, I sometimes wondered if they were pushing her hard enough. It looked like just a lot of goofing off most of the time but now I see the wisdom in easing the Level 1-3 kids into the program and give them confidence as they develop the muscle and coordination required to move on to more challenging skills and technical abilities. She may not be the most flexible or naturally gifted gymnast but she loves working at it so it's all worth it.



It seems most of Zana's friends are now mastering games on their Nintendo DS systems. I kept telling Zana we'd put it on her birthday wish-list but after several months of that stalling tactic (her birthday is in December!), I started rationalizing what a great travelling aid (entertaining time killer) it'll be for our upcoming vacation in Tahiti next month and she did excel in kindergarten and has been the best big sister Zeth could ever ask for and I didn't want it to become one of those things she longed for until it was obsolete like the letterman's jacket I got just before graduating from HS after swimming varsity for 4-years which I never wore because what's the point of a high-school jacket when you're a college girl away on a tropical island? But I digress.

So as a result of much prodding and begging, I caved to the pressure and bought Zana her own pink DS as a kindergarten graduation present. (I know, I'm pitiful. What can I say?) She couldn't be more thrilled. Now she's mastering Cooking with Mama 2 and learning French. That's the great thing about the DS, there are some cool educational games that are really fun to play. I'm hoping Zana can get a real basic grasp of some French before we get to Tahiti and she's totally lost when it comes to playing with all her cousins. This will be Zana's 3rd trip to Tahiti but this time, I suspect the language barrier will become an issue since kids play a lot differently at age-5 than they did at age 1 or 3 like on our last visits.

Zana started practicing with a Tahitian dance school recently had her first real performances (two of them) last weekend. She danced a solo at one of the events and loved the thrill of being on stage. She's quite the little performer.