Reading: A recent Entertainment Weekly, which has a blurb on Colin Needham. He is the creator of the Internet Movie Database, one of my favorite sites.

Weather: Beautiful day: low 90s, sunny, breezy, low humidity. I wish it could be like this all summer long.

RIP: After five years and hundreds of loaves of bread, my bread machine has finally given up the ghost. So I had to resort to making French bread for dinner the old fashioned way: in the Kitchen Aide mixer with a dough hook. Once upon a time I used to hand knead bread, but after the kiddies came along, I had rarely had time to make it any more.

Pomp

Daniel's kindergarten graduation was this evening. Since tickets were limited to two per child and since parents were discouraged from bringing younger siblings, Tab took Stephanie to the dress rehearsal this afternoon. Then she stayed home in the evening with the twins while Tab and I attended the real ceremony.

Before leaving for the rehearsal, Tab discovered that our video camera was not working properly. Fortunately it is still under the extended warrantee. Even more fortunately, we were able to borrow a video camera from one of Tab's co-workers for the ceremony this evening.

At Tab's urging we arrived nearly forty-five minutes early in order to get front row seats. Daniel wanted to give his present to Miss Dawn right then, and it seemed a good time to do so then before everyone arrived. Tab had picked up both the Lego Star Wars snow speeder and land speeder at Zany Brainy for her. Miss Dawn and her boyfriend collect Star Wars stuff and had not been able to find the speeders, so she was very pleased. Daniel signed the card himself, and also included a little paper on which he had drawn a frog (her favorite animal) and had written, "I love Miss Dawn."

The ceremony was held in the pre-K room. A temporary two-tiered stage had been constructed along one end, and chairs, most of them child-sized, were placed in rows facing the stage. Another considerable advantage to being early is that we were able to sit in adult-sized folding chairs rather than suffer for a more than an hour in the uncomfortable dwarf chairs. The walls were decorated with pictures and the posters the kindergarten class made. Balloons emblazoned "Class of 99" festooned the ceiling.

The small room quickly filled up with proud parents and grandparents. At ten minutes before 7, the kids were herded upstairs to prepare for their big entrance.

The theme of the program was "Teaching Peace." The eighteen kids in the pre-K class and the seven kids in Daniel's class came out together, with the kindergarteners standing in front on the lower tier. They sang a song together, then the kindergarten class left and the pre-K kids sang a song. Then they left and the kindergarten returned and sang another song. And so it went, each song alternately sung by each class. I think the kids spent more time shuffling onto and off the stage than they did singing.

The climax of the program was the entrance of the pre-K kids wearing pale blue mortarboard caps, followed by the kindergarteners in white caps and gowns. Miss Patty, who had been pounding an electric keyboard for musical accompaniment throughout the program, played "Pomp and Circumstance" as they marched in. A collective "Awww" arose from the audience at the sight. Each child's name was called in turn as he or she walked across the stage to receive a "diploma" (actually a rolled-up piece of paper tied with a ribbon) from the school's executive director.

Quite frankly, I find the idea of a graduation ceremony for pre-schoolers and kindergarteners ludicrous. Daniel, at the age of 6, has now had two graduations--as many as I've had in my entire life (high school and college). I had to keep from laughing at the silliness of it all. Still, when it's your little blond boy up there looking so adorable in cap and gown, it's easy to squelch the inner scoffer and just enjoy the moment.

After the ceremony, everyone went upstairs for refreshments and pictures. We took Daniel's class out into the backyard playground for pictures in their caps and gowns. Tab ended up organizing the shots; not surprising, since he is used to setting up group photographs in his freelance photography business.

All but one of the kids in Daniel's class will be attending the school's summer camp, so there weren't a lot of long farewells. The exception is Samantha, a tall, quiet dark-haired girl who always seems a little absent-minded. In fact, she sort of reminds me of myself as a school child. Her mother and Miss Dawn have both said that Samantha would rather read than do anything else.

Daniel was a little upset at first when he realized he probably wouldn't be seeing Samantha again, but with the resiliency of the young, he soon put the matter behind him.

Then we went home to eat ice cream and show the video to Stephanie.

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