Monday, July 16, 2018

School Comes Crashing to an End

Remember how Emma cried her way through her birthday? Well, we kind of had a repeat on the last day of school. Emma is so sweet and extremely sentimental and as sad as she was that she was done being 8, she was just as sad or more that she was done being a 3rd grader. I'm sure this had a ton to do with the fact that, as I have mentioned, she had an absolutely wonderful teacher this year. I'm a little sad myself that our year with Ms. Wiscomb had to come to an end. Of course, I wasn't all that sad that my year working at the school was over. I didn't hate the job by any means. There was a lot I really enjoyed. However, the last month of school was spent on testing, which testing happened largely in the computer lab and I had to help with it. It was tedious beyond description. I was so done by the end of May. So the last day was not sad for me, but since my daughter was a weeping heap of mess, she covered all the sad our family needed.

Here she is during the final school day at the school sing-along:



She was such a wreck she could not sing along at all! Happily, we hung around a little after most of the kids had fled. She was greatly cheered up by Mr. Grandy, a most excellent 1st grade teacher, who allowed her to cart him around on a wheeling chair. Good sport. I'm a big fan of his. He's the one who gave me a banjo. Did I mention that in a previous post? I think so. 


As well as the hallway antics, beloved Ms. Wiscomb noticed that there were several of her students sort of hanging around and proposed a quick trip to the neighborhood cafe for some lunch. That was just what I needed. What a treat to get to enjoy lunch with your teacher, especially since she seems to genuinely enjoy the company of her students - a trait I confess I did not always (if ever) exhibit in my work at the school. Really, I do like kids very much, but teaching is not my natural gift. 



I had Emma rest and veg out for the rest of the afternoon while I helped prepare for the school carnival, the Family Fun Fest. It's such a massive undertaking. I was happy to sit in the shade and sell thousands of tickets to families. Sadly, Emma totally crashed at the carnival. And when I say crashed, I mean literally. She tripped over a cord and badly scraped her knee and bruised her hip in a very colorful way. I felt so bad! Luckily Troy was there to help her because at the moment it happened I was totally swamped in ticket-hungry customers. I was so glad Troy was there and felt horrible. I was surprised that after a trip home to get bandaged up she came back for more fun. But she had the mark on her hip for a while:

It took her a few days to recover from the end of school, but we had that first week of summer to just quietly enjoy before anything was scheduled. Here are the girls showing off the new recipe for Brazilian Limeade they discovered - super delicious. Has sweetened condensed milk in it. Need I say more? I'm so glad Emma cheered up even though it's so sweet that she was so attached to her teacher and her 3rd grade year. 


The bigger kids had a much easier time being okay with school ending. I'll go ahead and say that Chase especially was not that sad, and I'll just cryptically say here that his German teacher is super awesome and though he spent the last couple days of school in her classroom doing makeup papers, he ended up with a good grade in her class. I owe her my first born. 

I know he had a great year - not that he especially enjoyed most of his classes, but he made so many friends and by the end of the year ended up getting involved in some clubs that I'm really thrilled about. He tried out for a dance team and made it. (!!!!!) He also tried out for a'cappella and made it. (!!!!!!!) The fact that he wants to be involved and do things is so exciting for me. 

The very next day after school got out Chase started a driver's ed course. Believe me when I tell you he was not super excited for this. Luckily he had a friend in his class. He was a good sport about going, although we still have a lot of driving to do (like....ALL of it....) before he can get his license. His other big news is that he applied to be a zoo volunteer for the summer and made the team. I think they pretty much took everyone this year which I was very grateful for. I think it used to be pretty competitive in the past. He absolutely loves his days there. He works a 7 hour day at least once a week, sometimes more if he wants. I know he really enjoys being behind the scenes. He gets to interact with the bird show and the giraffes at feeding time, and helps people at different exhibits. I'm so proud of him. 


He also spent his first week off of school digging dirt out of our basement in order to earn part of a PS4 game he was hankering for. It's a Jurassic Park zoo game that he happily played for hours once his hours of digging were done. He's getting muscles. It's very helpful.


Romney's school year ended without much ado - she was done a day early since 8th grade promotion is on the last day of school. I don't think I even have a picture of her! She also had a great year. Most of her best buddies were a year older than her this year and I'm so hoping she doesn't miss them too painfully next year. I was glad she had a week to just flop because her summer took off in a big way after that. More on that next time....

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