If I Don't Post Now....

If I don't post now (when I should be cleaning the downstairs bathroom... my brother's family is en route), it will be another 2 weeks and I'll have 10,000 more pictures to sift through.... SO, I'm going to try and cram in the next-to-last week of school, the last week of school and Kara's birthday. The last 2 weeks have been a doozie. There are so many end-of-the-year activities, I could scream!!! Mostly they were fun and we've had the most beautiful weather, so all in all, it was a good time.

Let's start with the next-to-last-week-of-school...

Clay had his animal report.. it was on the cheetah. A kindergartner doing an animal report translates out to mom doing the animal report.. except for the horrible handwriting. That was all Clay. He wanted a picture of a cheetah hunting. There are some good ones online. This was pretty much the only one that was appropriate for kindergartners...

Kara's end-of-the-year choir concert. She LOVES choir even though I'm skeptical about her natural singing abilities. Anyway, it was a fun year for her and made her more confident musically and for that, I'm grateful.

Mother's Day fell in there somewhere.. we had dinner at Sullivan's (a favorite of mine) with our friends the Hollingers. They're moving (BOO!!!) in about 10 days and we're trying to squeeze in as much time with them as possible.

Last week of school... CrAaaaaZZZZZZyyyy!!! Seriously. Field Day... outside in AK.. it was pretty chilly that day but the kids had a ball. I was glad that both kids had field day at the same time so that I could multi-task and kill two birds with one field day, as it was.

Field day was followed by an author's tea in Kara's class that night. Kara spent a great deal of time writing books this year. She discovered a love for reading and she read A TON! I love seeing her challenge herself with new books. She loves certain mysteries and she loves Clementine series. The author's tea was my favorite of the week because of how excited Kara was. Clayton was able to make the tea on his way to the airport and to Seattle for a few days.

Baby chicks that had just hatched in her classroom. Poor little friends.. pecking their way out of the eggs to be received by a room full of second graders!! AAAArrrrggghhH!!!

The next day was a kindergarten field trip to the Eagle River Nature Center... Not my favorite place this time of year as it is normally pretty muddy (all the melting snow) which leads to many small birds some people call mosquitoes. They're kamikazee freaky bugs and I hate them! And they're gigantic. However, this year it was warm, dry and bug-free (if you don't count 50 kindergartners).

Clay's very awesome kindergarten teacher.. she was such a blessing and an answered prayer for sure. Clay had a GREAT year and he ended up loving school thanks in no small part to Mrs. Hardy.

The whole group... what a back drop!?!?

Ooops.. Somewhere in there was the kindergarten performance.. sort of a little end-of-the-year celebration.. but not a graduation, thankfully! Those kind of drive me nuts :) Clay's in the top row, middle.

The last day of Kindergarten and 2nd grade at Alpenglow Elementary. Where did the year go?!? My grandmother is one of the wisest people I know. A long time ago, I must have just graduated college, I was commenting on how fast the 4 years had gone. She kind of laughed at me and said "You ain't seen nothing yet". She's right. The years FLY by. So very proud of Kara and Clay and all they accomplished this last year.

Upon reflection... I will give Kara's birthday its own post.. but I will post a teaser.. Kara wanted one thing for her birthday this year. That was for Karen to come from Denver. We told her it wasn't going to work out for Karen to come but that she would have 3 surprises for her birthday.. the first one was a redecorated room. She came home from the last day of school (oh yeah, that's what I worked on in my free time the last week of school... while Clayton was in Seattle) to her new room. She was STOKED! These aren't good pictures, I'll post more later but I like her surprised face :)