End of the School Year

The weather may not show it, but the end of the school year is here. Mitchell's last day of preschool was last Thursday, the 14th. His class celebrated in style by going to "Super Jump," a fun bouncy house play place with inflatable slides, bouncy trampolines and all sorts of fun kid play structures inside.

Mitchell was very excited for this day and hopped right on the slide. He's been to this place a few times before, but they recently got a new slide and it was going extra fast this day and really flew these little kids down the slide at an extra fast pace. It shot him right off the end of the slide and scared him pretty good. So much, in fact, that he would only go down two more times the entire day. The second time was with his teacher and with the weight of the two of them, it made them go even faster and it scared him even more. The third time was with me right at the end- the thought he was feeling brave again, but got to the top and remembered how scary it was and started crying again. I literally had to force him down with me, crying and screaming the whole way. It was sad.

After the scary slide, Mitch and his friends played it safe and played other games.

They loved rolling these balls. Over and over and over.

Mitch was so sweet to play with Leah for most of the morning.

Lexi got brave and tried the slide all by herself. She loved it and went on it again and again.

After the kids played for awhile, they gathered together to preform some songs for the parents. This is the a combined shot of the morning class and afternoon class. Mitch was in the afternoon class with 6 other kids.

Mitch with teacher Miss Cindy- the best preschool teacher ever.

One of the Miss Cindy's teacher helpers made this cake. Isn't it awesome? Not only was it amazing looking, but it was absolutely delicious. Each layer was a different flavor. There was cookie dough and mint chocolate. I tried the cookie dough and it was to die for.

With pizza and juice as well, it was the best day ever for food for the kids!

Mitch and one of his preschool buddies, Josh

Mitch's certificate

Miss Cindy also makes each child a collage of pictures she takes throughout the year of them. I love this.

I also love the personalized little note she writes about each child (click on it for a larger view to read). She truly is the best teacher ever. She treats every child like her favorite and gets to know each and every one of them on a very personal level. Mitch has a fall birthday so he won't start Kindergarten next year, and I was actually going to put him in another year of Miss Cindy's preschool until I heard about another program that a neighboring school district does. It's a program specifically designed for kids with Fall birthdays who just miss starting Kindergarten by a few months (like Mitchell- his birthday is in October and school starts in September). It's a full day pre-kindergarten class, 2 days a week one week and 3 days every other week. And best of all it's free. Can't beat that. I think it will be really good for him.

But I am sad that he has to leave Miss Cindy's class. She is wonderful.

Mitchell got to take home his place mat. Mitchell is not defined by lines, that boy.

Mitchell's favorite preschool buddy Jacob. They had lots of play dates throughout the preschool year at each other's houses and his mom and I carpooled all year long. They saw lots and lots of each other and loved it. Mitch loved watching out the window every Tuesday and Thursday for Jacob's van to pull up to our house. Twice a week for 9 1/2 months I heard the question, "Mom, is it time to start watching for Jacob?" He usually started asking this question at least 2 hours before it was time for school.

Way to go buddy! You went off to preschool a boy and returned a BIG boy! :)

The end of the school year brought lots of fun things for Chloe.

The first fun activity was the much anticipated First Grade Mother's Day Tea. All of the Mother's come for a special program at the school. As soon as we arrived at the classroom, we got a special paper flower corsage pinned on us and had our picture taken with our child.

Chloe then escorted me to her desk, seated me, then brought me a plate of food (cookies, cheesecake, and other yummy treats), and 2 cups of punch. We shared the treats and got to visit with each other and she pointed out fun things she had made around her classroom. She was so excited I was there.

Next, we all went down to the gym where the mother's sat in the audience and all the first graders stood on risers for the cutest, sweetest little performance you ever saw.

They sang their little hearts out (the song like "You are my sunshine" melts your heart).

They sang and read parts from the book "I'll Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. That was my favorite part. That is such a sweet book (I think every mom loves that book) and to hear 100 first graders singing "I love forever, I'll like for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be" is very touching. And Chloe had one of the talking parts and she didn't even tell me. She kept it a surprise. She did such a good job, too. I was so proud of her.

Towards the end of the school year, our elementary school puts on a school play. Chloe really wanted to try out this year, which really surprised me because she does not like to perform in front of big audiences at all. With her being timid, and with so many people trying out as well, I knew there was a good chance she wouldn't make the play, so we talked about the possibility of that. She said she was fine with that and we she still wanted to try out.

Long story short, she didn't make the play and was absolutely devastated. It was heartbreaking to watch her cry when she didn't find her name on the cast list. Before we knew that she hadn't made the play, we had decided that if she didn't get a part that we would sign up for an after school art class at school. Chloe has always loved to draw. She leaves papers and drawings scattered all over the house, and tapes and pins up her creations on my walls (which I don't really allow) all over the place. I was not happy that she was so sad about the play and had to go through something so devastating like that, but I knew that she would love the art class and was excited that she would get the opportunity to get to take a class relating to one of her talents and hobbies.

Her class was once a week for 7 weeks and I took a picture of each of her creations. Of course I'm a little biased but I think she did awesome.

Orca whale

Lady bug on a leaf

Cat in a can

Chloe claims this to be her best one- dog and cat

Meerkat

A character from Pokemon (Chloe can't remember)

Fairy- (my favorite)

Chloe also earned the Star Reader award this year for reading 5000 minutes. She got to attend the Star Reader party at school where they got ice cream and all sorts of toys. She worked hard to earn this award. She earned it last year as well, but this year a lot of these minutes were earned by her reading to herself/on her own, or by reading to her siblings, whereas last year, a lot of the reading was done by reading to her.

On the second to last day of school (this past Monday, the 18th), was the much anticipated Father's Field Day at school where all the fathers of the first graders go to the school and spend the day with their child. Chloe has been looking forward to and worried about this day for months. I say worried because she was worried that Ben wasn't going to be able to come. We didn't know if he would be able to take time off work for it either. We found a note that she had written to her teacher (that never got taken to school) that said something to the effect of "I don't think my dad is going to be able to come to the Father's Field Day because he has been in Hawaii for 2 weeks." Ben pulled some strings and was able to take the day off to be there for this special day.

The day started off with the Reptile Man show. He has lots of really cool reptiles.

I'm shocked that Ben didn't volunteer to go up and hold the big snake (ha ha- Ben hates snakes).

Chloe was brave and petted the snake. Much braver than her father.

The kids and dads ate lunch together, then spent the rest of the day playing games (in the rain).

It was a blast. (I guess the little girl in the white fancy dress missed the memo about it being a field day... oops!)

The games ended with a friendly/competitive game of kick ball. Ben said most of the first graders had no idea how to play kick ball.

At the very end, the first graders sang a few songs for their dads. I'm so glad Ben was able to go. It made Chloe's whole year!

Tuesday, June 19th was Chloe's last day of 1st grade. Here she is with her buddy Adam that we carpooled with this year. My baby made it through her first year of all day school! She had such a great year and her report card was amazing- she is one smart cookie and truly excels at everything she does. Her strongest areas are counting, comparing and ordering numbers and most things math (she gets that from her dad) and all things reading. Her teacher could not say enough kind things about Chloe. On her report card she wrote: "Shows leadership ability. I have enjoyed getting to know Chloe this year. She is such a sweet girl! She is a wonderful role model for other students. Chloe is meeting or exceeding standards in almost every area. She is especially proficient in math, and is exceeding standards for counting, writing, comparing & ordering #s to 120, understands place value very well, and has good number sense when it comes to grouping objects. Her reading and writing skills are all very solid, and she is performing at standard in science and social studies. She will make an excellent 2nd grade student." We are so very proud of her. Our Chloe is quite the girl!

Now onto summer... after just 2 days of summer break, my very structured girl who loves school and needs something to look forward to every day is already bored. Uh oh... How many days until school starts again?