Will's Last Day of School

Obviously, this blog is not in chronological order, but with the summer business upon us, I am lucky to get any blogs created!

Will's last week of school was full of fun and was a perfect ending to a perfect school year. We are so proud of Will and his accomplishments this past school year. He went into his Kindergarten classroom not knowing a single person and left with a room full of friends, some of which I believe he will have for a lifetime. He entered Kindergarten reading a few words and left being able to read some simple chapter books. He has found a new love - math, even though he still writes some numbers backwards and sometimes has to think for awhile before identifying certain numbers. He gave his first kiss, much to Mom's disapproval and Dad's cheers. We can easily say that Will has grown both physically and emotionally. He is different person than he was before entering Kindergarten and we LOVE him.

We owe so much to Will's first teacher, Miss Davis. Will could not have been matched with a better person/teacher. They have such similar personalities and thankfully, Miss Davis appreciated and encouraged Will for who he is. Thanks to Miss Davis, Will was able to express himself. And as anyone who knows Will knows, he LOVES to express himself. On the last day of school, Miss Davis handed out awards to each of the children for their individual gifts and traits. She waited until last to give Will his. She couldn't even begin speaking because she had started to cry - and continued to cry throughout the whole speech! Well, this of course, made ME cry. Yep, I am going to be one of THOSE moms. :) So, I thought I had recorded the whole thing, but I didn't press down hard enough on the button and I got nothing. I will forever beat myself up over that! Anyway, Miss Davis gave Will the "Best Storyteller" award. At the risk of sounding too obnoxious, I have to say that Miss Davis said that Will is a student that she will never forget and neither will the rest of her family and friends. She always had a "Will Story" to take home each night. Evidently, she knows A LOT about our family. She went on to say that she could always count on Will to investigate a subject (to death!), ask lots of questions about a variety of subjects and entertain everyone.

As a mom, I certainly love my children with all of their faults as well as their attributes. I do however, realize that other people may not always see their attributes as clearly as I do and I certainly do not expect others to appreciate my children the way that I do. That being said, I really felt like my heart was going to burst with pride and love on that last day of school. I realized that there is someone else, besides Allan and myself, that really appreciates and loves Will for who he is. I really think that is big.

I know this is pretty sappy and I may not have conveyed my thoughts quite clearly, but it just had to be said. Going to Kindergarten was huge. Until that point, Will had been under my influence and control 90% of the time. When he started school last fall, in just one day, he had the influence of other adults and at least 17 other children working on him from 8 am until 3 pm, Monday through Friday. That was pretty scary for a controlling mom like me. I have to say though, Will did a great job of remaining who he is and he made lasting impressions because of that.

OK! Now that I am done with the emotional mommy bit, I best continue on with Will's story! Aside from this last day of fun filled with awards, Will also had activities the other four days of his last week. Emma, Jack and I participated in a family pizza party with Will in his classroom and Water Day. On Water Day, Will went to about 7 different stations where he participated in water activities. It was HUGE fun for everyone and even some of the parents and teachers got wet. By far, the most popular station was the shaving cream. The kids each had a can of shaving cream that they used to spray all over each other. It was a riot! Here are some pictures from Water Day.

Will and Emma reading a book that the Kindergarten class wrote and illustrated.

All creamed up!

Miss Davis has been waiting to do this all year!

Jack joins in on the bubble fun.

Miss Davis and her kids

After getting out of school early on the last day, we went home and had our own water fun with balloons, sprinklers and a pool (made out of a wagon, Neat Sheet and LOTS of water). Of course, the kids had to take a break for some popsicles! We are ready for summer!