SO MUCH!

So much has been going on these last few weeks it is hard to keep up with it all and definitely hard to find the time to blog about it all.  I'll try to blog about a few of the highlights in the next few days.  First off, SCHOOLS OUT!  The kids are so excited and for the first time I am not making them go to summer school.  They usually do enjoy the fun classes the school has over the summer, but are very excited to just hang out here and SLEEP IN!  The kids all had a really great school year.  I am going to brag just a little bit........

All three of my kids have gotten nothing but praise from their teachers and they all have gotten great grades.  Porter came home on the last day of school with a ton of awards and certificates.  The most noteworthy being the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence (which we later learned he was one of only three boys in his grade that got this........not sure how many girls) and a medal for his HAL group tying for 3rd place nationally in the WordMasters challenge (a competition where they are given word analogies with very advanced words).   Paige got praised by her teacher because she was one of only 4 kids in her class recently that took it upon themselves to do an extra assignment the teacher had offered them.  She also has volunteered to help out in the special needs class and wherever else she is needed.  And Ben's teacher is always saying how good he is in class.  The teachers give out WOW notes to kids who deserve recognition and then there is a weekly drawing from all the WOW notes and those kids get a prize.  At Ben's Kindergarten celebration I was talking to one of his classmates mom and she said that her daughter told her that Ben is the only kid in the class that gets more WOW notes than her.  Ben is very excited to FINALLY be moving on the first grade.  When he turned six in November the first thing he asked was if he got to go to first grade now.  He asked me that almost everyday for a while and then again when school started after Christmas.  And now finally I can say YES, you get to go to first grade.  So I got to go to two graduation celebrations this year, Ben's from Kindergarten and Porter's from 6th grade.  Two big milestones.

I am having a hard time with Porter going to Middle School next year.  It will be a whole new world for all of us.  His teacher thinks that he is ready and will do a great job, but I am not sure.  I guess I'll have to wait and see.  For right now we are just going to enjoy our summer!