The kids wrapped up the school year. We had the first grade picnic and the Kindergarten graduation. They received their final report cards and we excitedly started summer break.
The first grade picnic was fun, we got to meet some of the kids' friends and their parents. Phone numbers were exchanged, promoting the possibility of summer playdates. It was a rough ending for Jack. He thrives on routine and genuinely enjoys school. It is particularly difficult because the majority of his close friends will be going to the new school next year. His best friend is a little girl who was also in his Kindergarten class. They played together at recess, sat next to each other on the carpet, and talked about each other often. In fact, I was mildly relieved to hear from her father that this was not a one-sided affection and that she considers Jack as good a friend as he considers her. As the end of the year got closer and closer, Jack would often comment about how much he was going to miss his friends. It has been a rough year with far too many friends moving away and this school rezoning is only exacerbating the problem. Regardless, the picnic was fun. Unfortunately, it was on an excruciatingly hot day. As we walked up, families were quickly throwing their blankets in the shady yard perimeter. We decided to set up in the large gazebo, which was nice. The kids played and we all ate pizza and snacks. We even pulled Kara out so she could be a part of it.
Kara had her Kindergarten graduation the following week. She was chosen to read some sentences. They only chose one kid from each class, so I was excited for her. We practiced her lines and speaking with emphasis and she was fantastic. She had them memorized and was so cute in her delivery. Her lines were, "Hollywood is a great place to learn about nature. This year we learned about many different creatures. Here is a song about some of our favorite ones." She was the only kid that received applause and I even heard a couple of random comments behind me talking about how well she did. It was so cute! I was actually nervous for her. Her class went last and I was just holding my breath the whole time. I didn't even know I was a stage mom!
 |
| Our little performer |
Their report cards were all solid. Everyone is on track and performing well. Their teachers had nice things to say and behavior was overall good. I have been uniformly impressed with their teachers. We have had excellent communication and felt that the teachers genuinely cared about our children. As a result, we tried to get nice end of the year gifts. The kids filled out a teacher's about me sheet (my favorite response was on Jack's, where he responded with "get a kid' when asked what he thought his teacher was going to do this summer); a Target gift card, and a note pad that said "from the desk of" with their name on it. We also wrote detailed thank you notes. The kids were so excited to bring in the gifts and I am happy any time we can get them in the giving mood.
 |
| Our cuties on the last day of school (Kara chose to wear the same outfit that she wore on the first day) |
 |
| We went to Brusters with our some of our bus stop friends right after school |
Our summer is off to a good start. The kids spent the week at Vacation Bible School singing the world's catchiest tunes. I seriously have been singing "We all fall short; we all fall down, God's love is turning our hearts around," about 16 hours out of each day. They had a great time and it really is a huge gift to the community. I can't imagine the effort that went into entertaining all those kids for 3 hours a day. And, it was free!
After their "concert" Friday, we went straight to Kings Dominion. My friend Jennifer's mom came up to celebrate her grandson's first birthday. She is staying with us, because we have more room, and she came with us. That was awesome because she kept the kids while Thomas and I finally got to ride Volcano (scary!). We tried to ride Flight of Fear, which we have attempted to ride 3 times. As has happened in the past, the ride down right as we got to the front of the line. I am starting to think someone is trying to tell us something. Fortunately, the lines were short. We stayed until closing and finally got to see the fireworks. It was a perfect day to be there, the weather was great and we walked on just about every ride. I asked one of the workers if the crowd was typical of a Friday and she said not at all, but that it was similar to a Wednesday. So, we have decided Thomas needs to take some random Wednesday off this summer so we can try to repeat the experience.
 |
| Luke loved the fireworks. Here he is wide awake at 10pm. He went all day on a 1-hour nap. We tried laying him back and he would just pull himself right back up. He didn't want to miss out on any of the fun. Fortunately, he stayed in a really good mood and caught up on his sleep the next day. |
The kids have swim lessons for the next two weeks, then a week at St John's Summer Camp. Then, I think we have a couple of weeks with no plans followed by one more week at St. John's. We are hoping for a busy, fun summer. Although, I don't want the kids to feel like they have to be entertained. There is plenty of free time where I expect them to play and find something to do without me having to structure some activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment