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.