On Sunday it was nice to be with my Primary class again (after 2 weeks of being out of town). When the Bishop welcomed a YM who had just returned from his mission, he started by saying "We would like to welcome back someone who has been away for awhile..." Lucy commented to me, "We've been away for awhile! Are they welcoming us?"
I didn't think I would be subbing on the last week of school but Ben's teacher caught the flu so I got to sub for his teacher on Monday. They were able to bring their stuffies to school so for snack time we brought them outside and had a little picnic. Also, while I was there, we held a class spelling Bee and Ben made it into the top 3. I didn't realize he was such a good speller!
I spent most of Tuesday rooting through piles of junk only to have the kids bring home the entire contents of their desk that afternoon- super great. That night, as my prize for all the organizing, Stefanie and I went kayaking at Kensington. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had such a good time.
On Wednesday Lucy had a field trip the Flint Children's Museum and Benjamin had a field trip to the Howell Nature Center so Penny and I went on our own field trip of sorts to the farm at Kensington. We had a nice time seeing all the animals (the baby bunny and the horses were her favorite), we had the upstairs play area all to ourselves, we read some books and we threw some rocks into the lake. At one point she gathered all these rocks to throw in the lake, set them down in the tall grass and then couldn't find them again- I feel sorry for the lawnmower that will find them someday.
After our Kensignton field trip we played at Central Park for a bit and then met dad at Americus for lunch. It's always nice when we get to have lunch with him- I miss the days when he would come home for lunch.
Wednesday night Lucy's school had a STEM night. Ann Arbor Hands On had a bunch of stations that the kids could go to. They had a lot of fun playing with Oobleck, poking pencils through bags of water and other various activities. After the activities we went and got a slice of pizza and I got to hear the kids complain that they were still hungry- apparently one slice of pizza is not enough. We attempted to go do some more science activities but the kids started getting extra whiny so it wasn't long before we left.
Thursday Penny and I met little Lucie and her mom at our beach and then went out to Arby's. After Arby's little Lucie wanted to give Penny a hug and Penny was totally awkward about it- she clearly takes after me.
Thursday I had the kids bring their teachers their gifts. I had made some note cards and Lucy's teacher sent home a note telling me that another teacher loved my mustache thank you card ("moustache gracias") and would like 25 of them. Well me feeling flattered and ambitious decided to see how many I could chug out that night. I made 12, only to find out the next day that she liked the mustache idea but wanted it to say something different. Now I have 12 mustache thank you cards for myself, yay.
Friday was the kids last day of school and it was a half day. In my rush to chug out some mustache note cards, I forgot to make the kids a last day of school sign so I made this one about 5 minutes before we needed to leave and snapped some quick pictures. I can't believe how old my kids are getting
For Lucy's last day of school they had a picnic outside and Penny and I got to join in. She has made a lot of good friends this year and only one of them will be going to the same school as her. I think it was a bittersweet day for Lucy. I know she's excited to be out of school for the summer but she's also sad to say goodbye to her friends and to Mrs. Richter. She has has such a positive first year in school and she has learned so much. She came in only knowing the letters in her name and now she is starting to sound out words and read. She is so ready for Kindergarten!
Ben had his candy bar award ceremony while I was at Lucy's party but I came in afterwards and snap some pictures of him with his friends. He such good buddies with basically everyone in that class that when I asked him to take a picture with his friends, it quickly went from 1 to 2 kids to the entire class. He has had a good year with Mrs. Boyd, she really loves each kid in that class.
I also managed to grab a quick picture of Steven with Mrs. Petrak. I know she struggled with getting him to focus and I am very grateful for her patience with him. I can't believe this kid only has one last year at elementary school and then it's on to middle school for him. I also can't believe it was the kids last day at Kurtz Elementary. We've been there since we moved to Michigan and this was the place I stuck my foot back into that teaching door. It's the place where my kids have made so many friends and I have gotten to know the staff well. Ben's teacher asked me how I was doing when I was in her classroom and I started to get teary eyed- embarrassing. I quickly recovered but I think it just hit me hard at that moment how much I am going to miss that school. It's going to be hard to start over for not just the kids but me too!
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After school we had our friends, the Mays, join us at our beach. We had a moment in the beginning when Steven melted down because he forgot the boogie board and another moment when he refused to help Penny but other than that it was a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure we're going to be spending a lot of time here this summer.
After the beach we went out to eat to continue celebrating the end of school and then we went to a movie night at a friend's house and the kids got snow cones and popcorn. I ended up leaving early with Penny which was good since she's been emotional enough. The rest of the kids didn't get home until 11pm with Tyler. He had Woodbadge all day Saturday so he wasn't worried about dealing with the consequences of their lack of sleep- lucky guy.
Saturday we went to a piano recital done by a young woman in our ward who just graduated. She was super talented and it was good for the kids to get some culture. I think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been on my own with my 4 kids but they did surpisingly well. Lucy and Ben insisted on drawing during it but Steven and Penny actually just sat and listened which was nice.
After the recital we went to the library for their kick off party for summer reading. They had a bounce house and Batman and Wonder Woman paid a visit which was fun. Wonder Woman was super social and the kids had fun playing trains and building words on the magnet wall with her. Batman was kind of socially awkward and just followed Wonder Woman around. But funny enough, Penny was kind of socially awkward too and started just following Wonder Woman around too ;)
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