Promotion

This morning Ezra left my care a kindergarten boy.   When I picked him up, he was a first grader.  Just like that.  Ugh.  Monday his class went to the park for a "walking field trip".  There were fun activities like balloon hats, sidewalk chalk, bubble guns, kick balls and tag.  The teacher read lovely poems about each kid detailing the "important thing" about each child.  

Ezra really loves his teacher.  So do we, thankfully, because next year she will be Caroline's teacher.  Isn't she cute?

 Two girls coming home with me after kindergarten drop off.  Next year only one little girl will be climbing back into that van. 

 Look at Nora and I in the school bathroom mirror, we have matching dorky smiles.

 Walking home to summer freedom! 

Summer celebration blueberry lemonade, running through the sprinkler and pool time!

 Just a little recap--here he is the first week of kindergarten...

And here he is on the last day.  

 3 inches taller and a whole grade smarter.  Proving to me that there is indeed no slowing down time.

Confession Time

 So, remember this guy?  Tommy Sea Turtle?  Birthday gift to Nora?  Well, I have a confession to make.  NO!  I did not kill him.  Not on purpose.   Not by ripping him to pieces with my bare hands because I feared him biting me as I did in a terrible and oh-so-realistic nightmare I had the night after I first cleaned his tank.  And not on accident by forgetting to feed him, or refusing to clean the tank and allowing him to choke on his own poop, or by stepping on him or letting Ezra's kindergarten class touch him too much when he went in for a class visit.  None of those fates met Tommy. 

 But something did happen to him.  He moved on.  To a new house.  To a new family.  Away from Nora.  Yep.  We took away her birthday present.  Our kids' one and only pet.  Aren't we terrible parents?  After only 4 months of smelling his stink and watching his back side while he hid under his rock and refused to look at us, we gave up.  A nice man named Russ came and picked him up Monday.  Nora wasn't too upset, actually.  And Caroline, who shared her room with Tommy, was pretty happy.  She didn't like smelling him all night.  Anyhow, Russ has a lovely pond and two other turtles.  The pond has fish for Tommy to chase.  He can swim around--which he couldn't do in his tiny, yet expensive tank at our house.  I asked Russ to send us a couple pictures of Tommy in his new home since he seemed like a nice guy.  He kindly obliged.  Tommy is the swimming speck off in the right side of the pond in the first picture.

 And there he is up close, swimming as if his life depended on it...oh wait, it does.  Isn't Russ's pond and landscaping beautiful?

Russ told us that "Joe" the Turtle liked his new home.  Um, but what about Tommy?  Hehe.  Either he couldn't remember the name we gave him, or he promptly changed it.  The kids are glad that Tommy is happy.  They were amazed to see his flippers opened up like that because he couldn't do that in his little tank.  They are now pestering for fish to fill the tank.  Or chicken for the backyard.  Or a dog.  Or, or, or.... My point is, they've moved on.  Hopefully they are not scarred for life.  As they surely would have been had my nightmare been real.

Just Checkin' Things Off My List!

 I'm posting a picture of Ezra's science fair project specifically for the Idaho Grandparents.  And for everyone who now thinks that Ezra just sits around burping in class : )    His project was an animal study on crocodiles.  On to all the fun things we are checking off as done...

 Science Fair:  done!

 Gymnastics:  done!

 Baseball AND the end of the season party:  done!

 And in a week and a half school will be done.  Then we can wear pajamas and color in giant coloring books ALL DAY LONG if we want to.

 

Pretty soon I'll have a new list to be putting check marks beside.  It's the vacation packing list.  Can't hardly wait!

Willie the Burper

For the last few weeks of school Ezra's teacher has been sending home poems for the kids to read and memorize.  After they  have their poems all polished up, they recite them to the teacher and bring home a new poem to work on.  Today Ezra came home with a new poem to memorize.  There was a note at the top:  "This one is special for Ezra."  Here is his new poem to memorize.

Willie the Burper

By Bill Dodds

Some kids can talk like Donald Duck,

some kids know how to chirp.

But Willie J. can swallow air

and then rip off a burp.

He'll belch at home and in the car

and at his grandma's, too.

His grandpa always laughs and says,

"That's what I used to do."

"It's not my fault," he tells his mom,

"that they're inside of me.

I feel them run around down there

and want to set them free."

It's hard to say what causes this,

but there's no use to try.

I wonder how a zillion burps

fit in this little guy.

Gymnast

 We have a gymnast in the house these days.  Last Tuesday she had her "evaluation" and I took the opportunity to snap a few shots.  Unfortunately being evaluated means that a teacher is beside her (and in my way) the whole time.

 Forward, backward and sideways on the beam.

 Bar holds. 

 Balance and jumping.

 She does the "straddle on" jump quite well. 

And there's my girl noticing the camera.