Last Day of 1st

The last day of 1st grade - wow!!  Here she is saying "peace out" to 1st grade and hello to 2nd grade!  She was excited and also sad for the last day.  As I have the last few years, we did an end-of-year interview.  Here it is...

Was this a good year of school for you?

Yes! (thumbs up)

What was your favorite thing that you learned?

that a tree really has a stem, but the bark is covering it

What was the hardest thing to learn?

The hardest thing was how to make a triorama because you have to make it stand up with only 1 sheet of paper.

What is your favorite part of the school day?

Recess!

What other things do you do while you are at school?

eat lunch and DEAR time

Is there a part of the school day you don’t like?

No!

Let’s talk about Mrs. Haskins.  Tell me about her and what makes her a great teacher.

She’s nice and she takes us on field trips.

Do you know Mrs. Haskins first name?

Adrienne.  She told us!

How tall is Mrs. Haskins?

Umm….8 feet tall

What does Mrs. Haskins like to do when she’s not at school?

She teaches Cameron how to talk.  Cameron is only 3.

What do you think Mrs. Haskins will do this summer?

Teach Cameron to swim

Finish this sentence:  I love Mrs. Haskins because……….she’s a great teacher.

What is something that Mrs. Haskins always says to you?

“Write your name!”

What does she do to make you laugh?

She talks about stuff like the word “but” doesn’t mean your heiny-butt.

What is Mrs. Haskins really good at doing?

Teaching!

If you could give anything in the world as a gift to Mrs. Haskins, what would you want to give her?

a flower pot with aliens on it

Do you think Mrs. Haskins will have a baby girl or boy?  What should she name him/her?

A girl! She should name her Soriya, it’s the only name I can think of because she is my friend at the Y and Soriya is all I can think about.

What would you like to say to all of your friends that you’ve made this year?

Thank you for being my friend.

What are your plans for the summer?

the pool, camp, and learn to do a sling shot

What are you the most excited about doing this summer?

Camp and growing up because I will get to shoot a BB gun.

You know you’re not going to be shooting a BB gun, right?

yeah

What are you looking forward to about 2^nd grade?

learning more cursive

Are you nervous about anything for the 2^nd grade?

Yes, homework.  Homework is either 2 things or 3 things in 2^nd grade.

Adventures with Mrs. Haskins

The final 2 weeks of school, Claire's teacher had all kinds of fun things planned with a theme each day.  They had a western day, an 80s day, and a "beach" day with a picnic in the classroom.  Mimi and Samara came to join Claire for the picnic!

They had a day that they all dressed like their favorite character from a book and then walked to the library to talk about checking out books for the summer.  Claire had just gotten her very own library card so she was excited for that day.

I even got to join her one afternoon for an ice cream party and a slideshow with pictures of the kids throughout the year.  Unfortunately this is the only picture I got which is a little blurry.  Claire has loved Mrs. Haskins and school this year - I hope her love of learning continues for a long time and that she will be just as excited every day to go to 2nd grade as she has been this year.
During the slideshow, one of the songs Mrs. Haskins played was a Rascal Flatts song called My Wish.  I feel like I might have quoted that song before on here, but I can't remember.  I thought it was the perfect message for Mrs. Haskins to send to the kids she has taught, nurtured and loved for the last 9 months.

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

On the next-to-last day they had their Academy Awards.  The kids dressed up fancy (excuse her hair, this was by 5:30pm.)  They each got an award and walked across the red carpet to get it while their friends clapped for them.  It wasn't a big surprise that Claire won the Rockstar Reader award.

This has been a fabulous year for Claire, even with our major life changes thrown in a few months ago.  I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see what the next school year brings.

Torchbearers for MB

On Saturday May 30, the Special Olympics torch relay came through Richmond on it's trip across the country.  It also happened to be the one year anniversary of my best friend's sister's passing.  Mary Beth had Downs Syndrome and had participated in the Special Olympics.  Meredith got a small team together including Ben, Mary Beth's special friend and I couldn't think of a better way to remember Mary Beth and celebrate her on that beautiful Saturday morning.

I had imagined that it would just be a small group of us, maybe 1 or 2 people assisting from the Special Olympics and just walking down the sidewalk.  I was so surprised when I got there and saw all the police cars and Special Olympics crew.  There were local police as well as officers from LA that will be making the entire trip.

We lit our torch from this miner's lamp that is carrying a flame from Greece!

Here we are starting out in the parking lot and then we turned onto Broad street and did our 1/2 mile portion of the relay.  It was SO cool.  I even got to carry the torch for a while (it was heavy so we took turns.)  Cars were honking for us and waving and shouting out encouragements.

Memorial Day

Whoops, a little out of order here.  I forgot I had these pictures on my phone.  We went to the river for one day during Memorial weekend.  It was just us and Popa and we had a really nice, relaxing day.  Fielder even asked to REST!  Rob laid down in the bed with him and I don't think he ever went to sleep but they rested for a while and I even had a chance to read a little.  Then we went for a long boat ride.  It was a gorgeous day and of course there were a lot of people out on the river.  We had one oh-no-we're-going-to-have-to-get-towed moment, but the guys figured out what was wrong and we were on our way.  The kids loved the boat.  Then we sat out on the porch, had a cookout, and celebrated Bob's birthday!

 One of my favorite pictures of my 2 boys...

Father Daughter dance

Last night was the Father Daughter dance at the Y.  She was SO excited for it!  I had gotten her a new dress to wear and she asked to put it on around 7am.  I think I held her off at least until after lunch.  I let her put on a little makeup (lip gloss and blush) and she chose her jewelry.  It was a very special night and they had a lot of fun!

 Pictures taken at the dance!

Claire's dance recital

Claire has been taking ballet and jazz at the Y again this year.  She continues to enjoy it and I love that it's fairly low-key and fun for the kids.  I especially love that the recital was about 20 minutes long and we didn't even have to buy tickets!  Not that I wouldn't have loved to sit through 3 hours of a dance recital like all the other ones I heard about on facebook.  (It was definitely dance recital weekend!)  Claire's teacher did a great job and aside from some "costume drama" she really loved dancing on the stage and being a part of the recital.  

 I invited the whole family and they came out to support this beautiful dancer!  Mimi, Papa, Uncle Andy, Aunt Tara, Samara, Popa, Aunt Bradford, Patti, Mommy, Daddy, and Fielder were all in the audience.  She was most excited that Samara was coming.  :-)

 Here she is with Alison and Mallory - she has had such fun with these girls every Friday night!

The whole crew came back to our house for pizza and ice cream sundaes to celebrate.  It made the day very special for her - thank you to all our family for crossing the river to make it!!

Catchin' Up

Just a few recent pictures from April/May...

Healthy Kids day at the Y....Fielder's first time getting his face painted.  I was shocked at how still he was.  (It's a smiley face)

We Heart Harlie Day - I ran the 5K in the morning and Rob came with the kids later.  They had a great time in the bouncy house and having popsicles!  Afterwards we had a Mother's day lunch at Mom and Dad's house with Andy, Tara, and Samara.  No other pictures but it was a fun day!

On Sunday (Mother's Day) I somehow didn't get a single picture with the kids!!  I woke up early that morning so I settled in on the couch with a cup of coffee and my book....and then I heard rustling and down the stairs came Claire.  She had wrapped my gifts and couldn't wait any longer to give them to me.  She gave me some cards, a wonderful book she made me, and a few things she found in her dresser. ??  The book was my favorite - and my favorite page said "My mom likes wine and salad."  (True!!)  Fielder also had made me some beautiful pictures at school that he gave me.  Rob gave me some time alone (a MUCH appreciated gift) and later in the day Claire and I went shopping together.  We were just in the Target parking lot but I got this sweet picture of her smelling the flowers.  They drive me totally insane at times, but I love being a mommy to these two!

The neighborhood Spring carnival....it happened to be the same night as her dress rehearsal for her dance recital which made for a long day, but since we had to drive right past it there was no way I was getting out of taking her to the carnival!  We got to see Jonathan Austin perform (I even got called up to help him) and I finally got to try the Boka Taco truck - YUM!!