Moving On

This was Henry's last week of kindergarten. It's impossible to wrap my head around how quickly it's gone. On Monday they had a trip to the park. Cari and I teach together the last week of school, so I was able to slip away and take some pictures. The room moms brought ice cream. It was so hot that it was hard for them to eat it before it melted completely.

One of the other moms asked me if Henry had been playing in the water. I had to explain that he's just a sweater.

Here he is with his teacher, Mrs. K and his classroom aide, Mrs. Hendle. They were a great team!

When I got home from work that night I found the kids in the backyard like this.

Wednesday was the actual last day. They had a moving--up-to-first-grade celebration. Again, I was thankful for my ideal work situation as it was easy for me to slip away.

Mrs. K showed a slideshow of pictures from throughout the year. It was accompanied by music such as You've Got A Friend In Me (from Toy Story) which made me cry.

Then I cried some more when the kids sang a cute little song to the tune of New York, New York. "I'm gonna be a part of it, First Grade! First Grade!"

Henry was so proud.

Mrs. K and Mrs. Hendle had put together memory books of many of their special projects, photos and pieces of work- all in a nice binder. The kids were so excited to look through them.

Here he is again. I'm so amazed by this guy.

The other side of my life this week has been getting my own classroom packed up for the big summer project. We had to have everything boxed by eleven PM last night. Cari and I did pretty well and we out by 7 PM. I took these pictures this morning before the kids came in for their final 20 minute day of school. This shot is from behind our desk. The cabinets on the right in this photo, and the wardrobe by the door will be pulled out and replaced with movable cabinetry, which we'll probably put along that far wall. When Clara looked at this picture the first thing she noticed was that the t.v. was taken down. She wants to know where they'll watch t.v. when they visit Mama's room now, and where they'll have their snacks!?!?

This is a picture from the opposite corner. You can kind of tell what a miserable stormy day it was outside. It was a little sad to dismiss the kids out into the rain, when all they wanted to do was run off to the pool or beach. Cari and I didn't count, but from these pictures I think I can determine that we packed up at least 55 boxes of stuff. We threw plenty away and gave many things away as well. On our last full day, yesterday, we let the kids "shop" through a bunch of the random crap we had left. I'm sure their parents were delighted when they came home with Mardi Gras beads, plastic sunglasses, fish-shaped bowls, junky toys and old magazines!

I already know that as soon as I blink I'll be posting pictures of this room at the end of the summer, with its new paint job, new carpeting and furniture and we'll be getting ready to head back to school! 

Invention Fair

I'll make this Mothers' Day post about my kids....as per usual. Last week Henry had his Invention Fair. While Dad and Kathie were in town last weekend Henry and his grandpa thought over a few ideas and sketched out some plans for a possible invention. Then Henry and his dad did some assembly to make it real. It was kind of important to me that Henry really thought this out, rather than just throwing together some junk or building something someone else had thought of. So, even though this wasn't an idea no one else had ever thought of before, Henry really created the invention on his own, thus making it seem like a true invention to me. 

 As you can imagine, he was very proud to show his invention at the fair. He titled it The Keepitin. It is basically a lap tray for the car, which straps around your seat and holds your book and coloring supplies.

 He may have been more interested in reading his book (supposed to be for display purposes only) than in participating in the fair.

 Of course, when a few of the girls from his class came by he was ready to explain everything to them in painstaking detail.

 However, we all know girls can be fickle. They quickly moved on to Jake's "Bug Gym". Henry recovered quickly with the help of his pal McCartney. We were proud of our boy! And of all of the kindergartners with their cool inventions.

I owe a public thank you to my husband and kids for a wonderful mothers' day! They treated me very well all day long and I had a nearly perfect day. Happy day to all of those other special moms, grandmas, step-moms and mothers-in-law out there too!

50's Day

Henry is celebrating his 50th day of school today. 50 days of kindergarten!!! They had homework last night where they had to count out 50 of something to take in to share (Henry chose Legos) and today they will have a sock hop.
It may not be very 50's, but there are flames on the sides of his Converse. His choice. He also has a comb in his back pocket. My choice.
We were ready for school a little early and it's my Wednesday off, so he and I walked up to Starbucks for a 50's hot chocolate before walking back to school. He held my hand the whole way. We also did some big adding. "Mom- I know what 3,000 plus ten is." But be careful what you say. I've been a little lax in what I say in front of him lately and he's starting to get a bit of a big head. Yesterday he told Will he was smarter than him and then proceeded to tell the story of how his teacher asked if they could find any words in the word November (be, or....) Henry raised his hand and said "venom!" He came home with a Word Wizard award. What can I say? The kid is smart. Just don't tell him that. I'm trying to refocus on being resourceful and curious and trying hard, rather than being smart. Our other key phrase with him these days is "kind and helpful". As in "when you pushed your sister and yelled in her face were you being kind or helpful?"

Okay...still to come: photos of Baby Vivian!

Gobble Gobble Gobble you up!

Henry's November "family funwork" project was to disguise Tom Turkey so the farmer can't find him when it's time for dinner. Henry, of course, chose to disguise his as a dinosaur.

Sunday and Today

Sunday we had the drive from hell on the way home from Minneapolis. Okay, well, it could have been worse if we had had weather or sick kids, but the traffic sucked. Notice the taillights.
We did go for the nuclear option and let the kids watch a movie after their nap. We let them watch another one after dinner, because yes- we were still in the car after dinner. Here's how they looked when we would look back. Henry was in the Ponyo zone and Clara wanted more snacks.
Flash forward to today. Henry had grandparent day at school. I know his out-of-town grandparents will be jealous, but we promise to find some other special things for them as well. Bampa and Grandma Mary got the chance to come in and hang out. From what I hear there were special treats (Cookies! Halloween-shaped pretzels!) and games. There were also grandparents taking movies of each other with their iphones, which is so cute.
Here's a picture Grandma took of Henry by his recent addition to a "we can read" bulletin board.
Hooray for Grandparents!!

Ready, Set, Go!

(Here begins the month of post-a-day.)
Kindergarten is going well! So far Henry has negotiated recess, music class, library (with a checkout of a book called Barfburger Baby) before-school care and various pick-up arrangements. Today I got to drop him off and pick him up all by myself, which was kind of a treat. We went to have a special lunch with dad. Henry requested Potbelly.

KINDERGARTEN!!

Today was the big day! So last night Henry opened the bag of "Ready Confetti" that his kindergarten teacher had given him. He sweetly shared some with his sister.
He placed it under each of their pillows.
And then he did a funky dance.




The boy's got moves. Here he is this morning, not wanting to give me a straight picture.
I did get a couple of nice ones.


Here he goes, off on his way! Of course he had a whole parade following him: me, Grammie, Dad, Clara in the wagon...
Hooray!!
The kids did a little milling about, trying to size each other up, I suppose. Henry looks like he's going into his Sue The Dinosaur impersonation here.
Then they lined them up for our Kodak moment. This is while we were all still holding it together. As soon as that kindergarten door opened, Henry ran back to me and said "Actually! I do feel a little sad!!!!" and then burst into tears. Oy!! Of course that put me in tears too...and Grammie. I think Pete stayed in control.
Mrs. K swooped in for a quick rescue. She took Henry by the hand, promised him (and me) a great day and then they were off.
I was told all tears ended before he even entered the classroom. I'm pretty sure I believe that. All reports at pick-up time were positive! I'm sure there will be lots more stories to come!!