Last Day of Kindergarten

Thursday was the last day of school for Gina. I had her quickly make thank you notes for her teacher and teacher's aide last night. I had also bought some gift cards from Peets to put in the cards but when I went to get them, they were gone. I asked Vic at least three times if he had seen them and I checked all the usual places, but no gift cards. So in the morning before the kids were up, it was back to Peets to buy two more. Here is Gina showing the cards that she made to her friend Aidan.
After dropping Gina off at school, I went back home to take the boys to Dylan's daycare. Vic handed me an envelope that Andrew had decorated and had given to Vic as a present, complete with two Peets gift cards!

After recess, the parents were invited to join the class for the last hour of school. I got one last picture of Gina playing in the dirt,Gina's teacher had made a video of the kids saying the alphabet letters next to a page that they had made from their alphabet photo books. It was very cute. And then it was time to sing songs, including This Land is Your Land, Puff the Magic Dragon (luckily Gina was sitting on my lap, that song always makes me cry) and Hush Little Baby.Vicki gave each child a little bucket with crayons, a lucky penny, a chocolate kiss and a packet of forget me not seeds, and of course a big hug. And then the school year was over. Gina is excited about summer vacation but sad because she misses her teacher.


She has grown a lot in the past year. Besides growing about three inches, she started out the year reading simple words and now she wants to read books. She picked up Harry Potter today and tried to read the first few pages on her own. In the fall she didn't want anything to do with team sports and now she is really excited about playing soccer. I've enjoyed spending a few hours each week in Gina's class, seeing how she interacts with the other kids. Kindergarten has been quite an adventure and 1st grade promises to be just as interesting. We find out next week which class she will be in.

A Whole Lot of Driving

I've been doing a lot of driving the past four weekends. It started with my mom breaking her hip. Since she was going to be recuperating for an extended period of time, I didn't want to leave her car sitting in Sacramento. So we loaded up the kids and drove up to Sacramento. I then visited my mom with her car while Vic drove the kids back in my car.

Then the following weekend, we visited my mom up in a Rehab place in Petaluma. I took the kids by myself. Luckily my mom didn't have a roommate at the time so it was fine to hang out in her room for a while and then wander up and down the hall way. After about an hour I took the kids to a nearby park to run around for awhile before heading back so they slept the whole way home.

Last weekend, my mom got to go to her sister's house in Santa Rosa so we took the kids up for another visit, and this time Vic came along. Gina was getting antsy while we were driving through the City so I suggested she look for signs with the letter A. Her response was : Why should I do that? Obviously we haven't played too many games in the car.

And now this weekend, we drove up to Sacramento to celebrate Vic's father's 80th birthday. We actually got on the road before 9am which was a record and we made it up there just before noon, in time for lunch at the Red Lobster restaurant. We made our usual stop in Fairfield, more coffee for Vic and me and a trip through Petco for the kids to look at the animals The kids were very well behaved at the restaurant though Dylan was getting tired at the end. Once he had finished eating, he did not want to sit at the table so we visited the lobster tank and the fish tank a lot.

Hopefully all these car trips are good preparation for our big driving trip in July: up to Seattle for a few days and then to Montana.

Fathers Day Coffee

On Friday, Gina's class held a Father's Day Coffee for all the dads. I got to help out since it was my aiding day so it was fun to see all the dads with the kids. I spent the first part of the morning in the staff kitchen heating up the scones the kids made in cooking class.
The first part was in the courtyard with the kids singing songs and then everyone got to take part in a reading of Good Night Good Knight. The kids were the three different dragons and the dads got to read the part of the Good Knight. The kids enjoyed it, especially when they got to roar really loud, and the dads seemed to enjoy it as well.
Then it was time for coffee and juice. One of the dads also brought a crock full of sausage to make sure the spread wasn't too girlie, ie scones and fruit. Vic hasn't had much chance to visit Gina's class so he had fun seeing all the art on the walls and meeting some of the other dads. After eating, it was off to the playground. Gina got to show off on the monkey bars. Some of the dads got a chance to play four square with the kids and others climbed up on the play structure.