End of the school year

 

The school year came to a quick end this year! Molly finished preschool in late May, and what I thought would be a bittersweet ending to preschool for our family was not bittersweet at all! We're excited about her going to kindergarten next year, and I am very happy that my days will no longer be fragmented into dropping off and picking up kids every few hours. Molly had a great year at her new preschool, and now we are heading into a loooong summer.

 

Her preschool ended with a program for parents, and here Molly is giving me the "stop taking my picture, Mom" as she walks to the front of the church. The kids sang a few songs, and then all of the families had a picnic outside the church.

Josh finished second grade two weeks later, and we made sure to check that the "promoted to third grade" box was checked on his report card he brought home on the last day of school! Second grade is a bit of a wasteland as his school -- all second grade classroom are in trailers outside the main school building, so we're looking forward to Josh and his peers rejoining the rest of the school next year. He made a lot of progress in second grade, most notably learning to be a good sport in kickball and writing in cursive. 

Next up was Molly's dance recital, which brought an end to an excruciating year of dance lessons. Molly decided around Christmas that she no longer wanted to take dance, but because the dance school cleverly charges you $120 for the recital costume and "fee" in early December, we were committed to finishing out the year. I have employed many forms of bribery to get her to go to class without crying, and I will be relieved not to have to endure dance class drama every week anymore! 

Molly is fifth from the left in the line of girls below. She did fine in the recital -- I'm not sure what bothers her so much about dancing, but she's definitely made her opinions clear.

 

Josh and I attended the dress rehearsal and Chris attended the recital. I was thrilled to run into an old college friend as Josh and I were waiting to pick Chris and Molly up after the recital, then a bit mortified when Josh told immediately told my friend (who I haven't seen in at least 10 years) that he "came out of my mom's belly in September 2003." A simple "hi" would have sufficed!