end of school.

Amelia's first grade picture, taken at the beginning of the year. Couldn't they have fixed her collar!?!?

Amelia finished school last Friday. She is incredibly excited about summer vacation. She loved her first grade class and received the school's "Really into Reading" Award and the Citizenship Award. She is mostly excited about having a lot of free time to read chapter books this summer.

Amelia with her teacher, Ms. Canty, on the last day of school:

 I loved walking Amelia home from school every day and hearing her report on the day. Elsa and Oliver were always so excited to see her. Amelia and Elsa had a very specific routine on the way home. There were certain barking dogs that they always ran past and they were always collecting treasures (garbage) from the ground. They also loved to collect flower petals and "thingy grapes" (a term they created for fallen crab apples). We had quite a large pile of them in our yard by the end of school. They also found a dead bird a few weeks ago and insisted on locating it every day, until it finally decayed beyond recognition.

A conversation from one of our walks home:

Amelia (nearly in tears): Everybody quit the butterfly club. Nobody could agree who was going to be president and vice president and everyone was fighting so then people started to quit.
Me: What's the butterfly club?
Amelia: Me and Ishrat started the butterfly club. We collect beautiful things to attract butterflies. Then we asked other people to help us. And then everyone wanted to be in charge. Ms. Canty said we can't have clubs anymore. Some kids want to start a new club. The ladybug club.

Next day...

Amelia: I have good news! The ladybug club is going great!

I loved having lunch with Amelia on occasion. It was fun to see her interact with her friends. All of the kids would always yell out "Hi Amelia's mom!" when I arrived. And they always freaked out about how much Elsa looks like Amelia.

 

Elsa also finished up preschool a few weeks ago. She loved her class and loved all of the social interaction with friends. She was sad to see it end and is already looking forward to her next preschool class.

Ms. Lori and Ms. Amy on the last day: