Goodbye Kindergarten, First Grade Here We Come

Noelle is officially done with Kindergarten. I can hardly believe it. This year flew by and Noelle went from a brand new 5 year old who was too afraid of adult strangers at her school to tell someone when she needed to go to the bathroom, to a reading, writing, confident young lady. I can't even believe how upset I was the week before school began in August when I learned she would have to change teachers and classrooms for her health accommodations. She ended up with the most wonderful teacher and most amazing Kindergarten experience and at least so far, this Catholic school mommy is sold on the local public school.

Noelle and Mrs. Bushman. Noelle has already cried since the end of school that she won't have her next year.

Noelle had a series of events to end the school year. First up, summer birthday celebration. As a room mom, I organized a game and ice cream sundae bar for the kids to celebrate the 6 kids in Noelle's class with summer birthdays. It was a nice hot day after a week of wet and cold days for late spring so it hit the spot. In Noelle's class of 19 there were 3 kids that don't turn 6 until August so Noelle was the second youngest in her class. She was intimidated by that at first but now that she knows she is good at reading and math and remains super tall I don't think she'll have the same anxiety about it in first grade!

Yum. Ice cream!

Kindergarten favorites question ball

 

Next, family picnic and field day. I ate lunch with Noelle and then volunteered at the field day and was glad to be assigned a water event in the blazing sun. The kids were broken into groups mixed with different kids from the six Kindergarten classes and went through stations for the afternoon, having a blast. I loved field day growing up and Noelle also definitely had a great time!

Noelle is under that hat eating her blackberries :)

Sponge Relay - I could only get pics at my station.

Popsicles after an afternoon in the sun.

Finally we had a Kindergarten concert the last full day of school. The six classes sang in a very warm cafeteria for about 30 minutes and it was adorable. I was glad to have this over a graduation ceremony since I think that is a little overdone in 2015 - these kids all graduated from pre-k last year so can wait for another graduation at least until they are ready for middle school. It was hard to see Noelle in the sea of 120ish kids but she sang her heart out and I did shed a few happy tears as she told me I would...
 

Two of the 6 classes belting out I Believe I Can Fly...Noelle's group got the worst song but it was still cute.

I can't believe how big my baby girl has gotten this year, We are so proud of Noelle and all she has accomplished! Goodbye Kindergarten!

See Ya Kindergarten!

What a Difference A Year Makes!

So It's Been A Month

I'm not killing the blog - I really do like that we have it, but this is the first time I've gone over a month since 2009 without a post. Every time I think things can't get any more insane, they do. My work has honestly been more busy than ever before. Between extra sites, several full-time people departing, and my assistant being on maternity leave, life has been crazy. But there is always something and we are going to survive. And the rest of life just keeps getting busier as the kids get bigger!

So what has gone on over the past month?

Noelle had a field trip to the farm. Kindergarten apparently is a big year for field trips as they did 6 in total. I am pretty excited about that actually. Between specials each day, two recesses, and center time each day the kids had a lot of play time this year which I think was great for the little ones. The field trips were just bonus fun. We have now been to Elioak Farm A LOT but it was still a good time. They did do a different program for the Kindergarteners which was nice!

I took the kids to the zoo on my own one glorious Saturday morning. It was hot but great. I also took Kellen on a solo trip after he journeyed to work with me on one Friday. The first trip included free rides on the carousel so we rode about 6 times and the second trip included seeing the polar bear in the water and an otter sighting so both visits were pretty exciting!

 

 

The pool opened, Noelle joined swim team, and she had her first meet. Well it was time trials. She had been to about 90 minutes of practice before it and swam her 25 free in 58:59 and 25 back in 1:02:15. Not winning any medals yet but she is showing lots of promise as a 5 year old and we are excited to see her have fun and improve over the year! And Kellen is doing some great swimming in the big pool! We also had our first swim team potluck which included cupcakes...

We went to Big Truck Day and it was sort of a bust...

 

We had a crazy Saturday where I hosted two deck parties. Both were fun and it was kind of nice to just get ready once instead of twice...

My mom visited and helped restore some semblance of sanity to our lives. She helped clean my house. Not that our house is ever really that bad but it was amazing coming home to a super clean abode after being at work long hours each of the ten days prior to her visit. I am pretty sure Bryan is now convinced hiring a cleaning person is worth our money and sanity. My mom also came to the meet, we took Kellen to Storyville, and watched the kids so Bryan and I could do a date night, and it was awesome.

And we are growing a garden and it is looking amazing! The pictures below are seriously only like 2.5 weeks apart! We are growing tomatoes (regular and red and yellow cherry ones), cucumbers (regular and pickling), peppers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, basil, watermelon, and down the hill figs, blueberries, and pumpkins. Everything but the cherry trees that we need to return because they are super dead are doing great!

So we are good. Stressed and tired but good. I am not sure that blogging is going to get any better until August but we'll see - depends on my summer sites which open Monday! Fingers crossed that the summer is smoother than the rest of the year!