Another Last

The end of the school year seemed to come up in such a rush, that I barely figured out what I needed to do before it was all over. I was responsible for organizing a portion of each of the end-of-year picnics - 1st grade and 3rd grade. And I got tasked with collecting donations for a gift for Smunch's teacher...not my favorite activity since I went crazy on that stuff when Smunch was in 1st grade.

So, in the end, I just took photos of the kids with their teachers. I'll certainly miss them all. I couldn't have been happier when I learned that we'd have these teachers this year. It seems like just moments ago that I was delivering their school supplies and introducing myself. This year flew by in something even faster than a blur.

Here's Smunch and his teacher, Mrs. Panec. Despite my freaking out over Smunch's oral presentation, I have to say that she is possibly one of the warmest, most wonderful teachers I've ever met. If you'd asked me at the beginning of the year, I would have said that warm and wonderful were not the qualities I really looked for in a teacher for my son. Structured and strict were more like it. I didn't know how this year would go. But you know what? It was his best year yet.

Mam had two teachers this year. They split the week with the class and they've been teaching as a team for years now. They complement each other very well and I hadn't dared hope she'd be chosen for their class. It was just what I wanted.Unfortunately for the teachers, they didn't get the easiest class ever. They were chatty, they were loud, there were several fairly disruptive children. Mam wasn't one of them. She did fine and she had a fine time. She liked everyone. Everyone seemed to like her. She had at least one "boyfriend" at any given time during the year.Her teachers seemed to manage the class with just about as much grace as any teachers could possibly muster. And as much as I know that class drove them crazy, there were still tears on the last day. I'll miss them as well.

I only hope we're so lucky next year!

Another Season Down

Here it is December 31st. I'm coming to the realization that if I don't get to do some blogging here on New Year's Eve, I will have left much of 2010 behind as my blog moves to 2011. And sometimes that makes me think I should just pack the whole thing in. But there were things that deserved blogging. They really did. The kids' last day of soccer is a prime example.

Although the league canceled a day of soccer games during the season because it looked like rain...but didn't actually rain...they apparently didn't have the heart to cancel the very last games of the season, even though they should have. And that was fine because it made for a really, really funny...if very damp...day.

Mam's game was first. It was raining before we arrived and didn't let up the entire time. Although the opposing team didn't seem to mind getting wet, Mam's team opted to play in raincoats. I have a feeling Mam would have been happy to get wet, but since everyone else was in a raincoat, she was too.I guess I might've suggested taking her glasses off...or getting her some windshield wipers. I have no idea how well she could see out there!Her team was losing badly by the time they called the game, shortly after the end of the first half. There was really no reason to continue getting bludgeoned in the rain and calling the game gave the girls time to go home and change before heading off to their post-season pizza party.No doubt, Mam finds that kind of fuss entirely overrated.I only dropped Mam off at her pizza party because I had to jet off to Smunch's final game, where he declared he didn't need a water bottle. If he got thirsty, he'd just stick out his tongue. And so he did.Smunch's team was playing with two fewer players than the opposing team, but the boys chose to keep it that way...making it an official game...rather than have two of the other teams' players switch sides, making it a forfeit game. In keeping with this year's theme, the Silver Sharks were fairly well obliterated yet again. But they were proud of themselves and their acting coach (since the head coach was one of the absentees) was proud of their moxie.The Sharks were done just in time for me to pick up my happy and dry Orange Super Monkey and her trophy from the pizza parlor and head home.

The season seemed awfully short this year...probably because most of their games overlapped each other and I probably only saw half of the games for either of the teams. This seems to be where life is headed. Daddy and I, dividing and conquering.

No More Pencils...

This was the look on Smunch's face as he walked out of school on his last day of first grade. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I brought the camera, but it's probably the look I deserved for trying to preserve his last minute as a first grader.

It was so much harder than I'd expected it to be. Maybe it's because I was the room mom this year. I got to know his teacher pretty well. I was in the classroom a lot. I talked to all the parents so I kinda knew everyone. I knew all the kids well enough to have opinions about all of them...and to have corrected my errant first impressions of some of them. Smunch made new friends and so did I.

But maybe it was how much Smunch grew this past school year. Naturally, I don't mean he's suddenly tall. That sort of growth isn't his strong suit. He just changed so much. It's hard to believe he was the kid who really, really didn't want to go to his second day of first grade after being completely overwhelmed on day one. Gosh, I still get teary re-reading that entry. That second day? That was the last day he said he didn't want to go to school.

He quickly made a best friend...something he'd never, ever had before. And his teacher wasn't so scary after all, even if this wasn't quite what Smunch had in mind when I asked if I could take a picture of him with her. He started off the year playing with a group of other first graders in the sand box, but by the end of the year he was playing "shoot out" with a group of 3rd graders every recess. (I don't know what that is, except that it's vaguely basketball-related.) They autographed his T-shirt before the last day of school. So much for the big, scary playground and lunch recess that was too long.

Despite having very obvious struggles to speak in class, when I was there and the teacher asked for volunteers, his hand always shot straight up along with those of all the other kids. And he didn't hesitate to speak, even if it was hard for him to get through whatever he wanted to say. And it changed him outside school as well. My kid who wouldn't dare go to a counter and ask for a cookie or ice cream, even when he had the money in his hand? He now brings his own money to swim class and goes and asks for his favorite cookie when he's done swimming. And at the bowling alley last week? When they didn't have the ball he needed, he not only went up to the counter to ask (they keep the light balls back there), but when the guy wasn't at the counter, he went and tracked him down!

He's getting so independent and has gained so much self-confidence. He's happy. He's looking forward to being a second grader, but psyched to have summer first...even though he doesn't know a single kid going to any of the camps he wanted to go to. They're mostly sports camps, so he's not going to care.

And then there's that. How many kids can sit through a baseball game? Sure you can make them, or at least tolerate the fidgeting, but how many of them are actually riveted to everything going on? That kid loves baseball in ways I can't quite begin to fathom. So, the NHL playoffs ended yesterday. He can tell you who won, but it's not a big deal. And the NBA playoffs are going on. He doesn't seem to care. Hey, Michael Phelps is swimming in a local swim meet. Couldn't care less. But he couldn't sleep tonight, not knowing the final score of the SF Giants game. He's going to drive some poor woman crazy someday.

Until then, he's seven and Mam is five and it's summer. What could be happier?

And, She's Outta There!

Mam walks out the door on her last day of preschool (which she went to after listening to her brother read his story at the Authors' Breakfast). So much confidence as she walks out the door. It made me a little sad that she seemed to be in such a hurry, despite all my declarations about how much fun kindergarten is. But then, this has got to be just what they want in their preschool graduates, right? She's ready to get out there and see what the world has to offer.