Another year ended...

Well, today was Sara's and Evan's last day of school.  The year went by so fast I think and now I've got to start thinking of fun things to keep my kids busy, playing, and thinking.  

Here is Sara on her first day of 3rd grade.  

And here she is today on her last.  

She's grown up!  It always amazes me how different the kids look after just 9 months.

 When we walked in the house from picking them up from school Sara sat on the couch and started BAWLING because school was out.  She loves school - especially this year because she loved her teacher.  We wish Mrs. Williams could move up right along with her. 

Here's Evan's first day of 1st grade...

 

And look how much older he looks today - his last day.

 We LOVED his teacher, Mrs. Bremer, too.  He had a great year and loved it.  He's gotten really good at reading (although he doesn't love it as much as I want him to) and is always finding math problems everywhere.  He's sad, too, that school is out but I think he's more excited to have summer here though.

These are the teacher thank you gifts I made this year.  They're sticky note holders for their desks made out of those cheap, little acrylic frames.    I just added paper to the back, ribbon, and their monogram.  (The blue one is for our computer desk at home.)  Then included a short note from me on the first sticky note. I thought they were cute.

 When they got to the end of the stack of notes there's a little surprise for them...

 

Then I had the kids answer some questions and draw pictures on a little booklet for them. There were things like..."My favorite field trip this year was..." and "My favorite thing about you is...." and "My favorite thing to do during free time in your classroom was...." and "My favorite thing you taught me was..." and a few more.  

(for some reason the picture turned - sorry)

 

They had an awards assembly on Monday for the school.  Each class/teacher chose a student to recognize as "the most academic".  Both Sara and Evan received that award and got a certificate.   Sara also got the most Accelerated Reader points in her class and got a medallion.  I was very proud of them and for their hard work this year.  We were going to go out and celebrate, but we can't find a night we are available so we went outside today and had ice cream bars to celebrate their achievements and the last day of school.