Park Daze

Around here, probably as in many school districts around the country, it's tradition (apparently) to end the school year with a day in the park. Both kids had a day in the park. Turns out it was the same park, just two days apart. Mam's "park day" was first. Her preschool always puts on a spectacular event for all the little kids...complete with a bouncy house, a bouncy caterpillar to crawl around in, face painting, fishing for prizes, a "snack walk", bean bag toss, treasure hunt, bubble, popcorn, ice cream. You name it. I had to take Smunch this year since he wasn't in school 'til the afternoon, but we all had a good time...despite Mam just having recovered from her miserable stomach thing.Here's our Mam with one of her favorite teachers, Mrs. P, doing the treasure hunt.She came home with lots of crap loot. I loved Mam's teachers this year. They were truly fantastic. I was really excited to find out she'll be having one of them again next year. She was thrilled too.

Smunch's park day happened on Wednesday, which was also his last day of kindergarten. It's hard to believe it was over so fast. It was a similar kind of event, also featuring bubbles and face painting, but adding more snacks, spin art... and the most fantastic game ever - the donut eating "contest". The only prize for eating your donut was that you got to eat a donut, but that was reward enough. This was the best photo op ever!It was sort of a bittersweet day, at the end. Without a year-long teacher to show for all the effort, the class took happy photos with their "long-term" sub, who was with them for a week and a half. I give her a lot of credit for taking over. She did a really good job, working with very little other than 17 kindergarteners who had gotten awfully squirrelly before she showed up. Did I mention the face painting?

So, it's over. Wow. It feels more momentous than I'd imagined. Despite all the difficulties with speech, with hearing, with just sitting still...Smunch got a glowing literacy report to go with his pretty, new diploma. You would have thought he'd just graduated from med school with how fast I ran out and bought a frame for him. I'm proud of the little guy and it turns out...he's pretty proud of himself too!