Looking forward to the menucha

This week was not the most productive, yet I seem to be exhausted by it! Shabbat is a welcome visitor...
Last night was Ariella's mesibat siyum from gan chova. It was really very sweet and we were so proud of our little graduate, who of course has two more weeks of gan left afterward. The party was scheduled early to accomodate the families who are starting the annual mass exodus very early this year. Personally, I look forward to the quiet that the summer brings, though not the extreme heat. But enough tangent. Ariella did a very good job of singing all the songs, dancing and doing hand motions. I was sitting next to Nicky, whose son Kovy has been in gan with Lola for the last three years and was also enthusiastically performing. We were both a little worked up thinking about how far they have both come - at their three year nursery Chanuka party, neither Ariella nor Kovy were exactly lively participants, and now here they are ready for first grade! Speaking of which, the graduates spent the day visiting the mamad today, seeing what kitah alef will be like. Ariella was excited, but had some reservations at first. "Imma," she said,"Did you know that in kitah alef you have to sit in the same seat all day long? How boring!" But she was clearly over that by the end of the day (euphemism for 11:45 Friday dismissal), when she thoroughly enjoyed classwork in reading, writing, math, and parashat hashavua. Also, getting an ice pop at the end was clear incentive.
Finishing up baking for this Shabbat took a while - the lack of productivity I mentioned. I will try to post photos after Shabbat, as there is no time now even for the typing I am doing. This week's flavors were Sacher torte sandwiches, cranberry orange white chocolate cookies, hermit sticks, tuxedo brownies, and chocolate cinnamon squares, a new flavor. I will have to monkey around with them a bit, since I did not love them, but David and the kids did, so who am I to argue?!
Looking forward to a quiet Shabbat - just going to a seuda shlishit for a bat mitzvah, but otherwise hoping for lots of rest.
Shabbat Shalom,
Dvora