First and Last

It's so hard to believe that the first day of school is almost a blur now!  Alex and Emily have gone from my sweet little First-grader and Kindergartener, walking to the bus stop together, getting up early and excited to get to school...

{aw...look at those sweet little faces...sigh...all dressed up, hair fixed and brand new backpacks, eager to ride the bus and meet new friends!  That seemed so long ago...yet it all happened so fast!}

...to the last day of school...

{...hair barely combed, barely awake, barely ready to go!  Alex, wake up!  Just after I took this picture the sky let go...lightning, thunder and pouring down rain...so I took them to school!  It's a bummer because they both had things planned outside today.}

Now Emily is a big First-grader and Alex a grown-up Second-grader.  They haven't walked to the bus stop together in a long time...Alex is usually slow going and Emily sometimes waits for an older boy down the street and walks with him {oh boy!  I'm not sure the older boy is as excited to have little Emily waiting on him! ha!}

Yesterday I was able to visit Emily's class for the last time.  They sang a couple of songs and received certificates.  Emily was the only one in her class to get Perfect Attendance!  {Alex has only missed one day total for both years...he was so close!}  Then they had a fun day outside playing with water, bubbles and sidewalk chalk!  I love the end of school!

{the class getting ready to sing for us}

{Emily and her two good friends she met this year}

{playing with the bubbles}

{chalk talk}

{trying to get a class picture...so funny!  Emily is the only one posing and looking at me!}

{they did a little better once they had their popsicles to keep them happy!}

That night we went to Movie Night for the first-grade classes to celebrate all the AR readers for meeting their goals and to recognize the top readers...Alex was not one of the top 5 readers in his class...I'm so proud of him for meeting his required goal...but he wasn't much of a reader beyond that...but he's starting to enjoy his chapter books now and actually read two of them recently...for fun!

It's been a great year and we're so proud of all Alex and Emily have learned and accomplished, the good friends they've made...and look forward to new firsts next year! 

Now let's get the summer started!
{If I'm not around much...we'll probably be in the pool!  Are you tired of pool pictures yet?!  Alex and Emily start VBS next week and then we'll be taking a break after that and finishing up baseball and just relaxing...I hope!  Yay!}