End of School

The last part of June is always busy with the wind down of all our activities and the last fun days of school.  Evan had a field trip to the zoo that I was able to go on with Aaron.

Here is our little but had my-hands-full group.  The zoo was packed that day since a few other schools also had the great idea of visiting too.  I think I counted 9 other school buses there when we arrived.  This is one of the first hot days that we experienced.  The kids were tired after all the walking around and excitement. 

 Here is the famous Lucy the elephant.  She is old and all alone and lots of animal rights people want her to be moved to an elephant sanctuary.

After we stopped walking around and looking at some of the animals we had lunch and then played with the parachut.  Aaron was even able to join in.  He had a blast and so did Evan as you can see.

On Sunday Megan had her final piano recital for the year. 

 Here's our group outside Concordia University where the recital was held.  We got some rain earlier in the day but then it turned out quite nice. 

Here is Megan waiting in the correct seating position before the recital began.  She kept saying that she was extremely nervous and she just might have been.  But as usual she did a fantastic job.  The students had to say thier name and what they were playing.  The old ladies finally couldn't complain because they couldn't hear anyone.  Megan spoke slow and clear and loud. 

Here's my boys trying to sit still and behave. They choose to sit on the bleachers while I sat in a chair on the floor. 

Here is Megan playing the Bear Necessities. She took her music up just in case but I don't think that she used it.  This is her second year of piano.   Great Job! Megan. 

Next up was getting the teacher gifts ready for the last day of school along with birthday party invitations.  Busy, busy, busy. 

 Here is Evan's Lego Party invitation.

 Megan's popcorn invitation -- we'll be watching the movie Hugo.

These are some gifts for the teachers.  Cute clip boards and a thank you note. 

Sorry for the sideways picture but these are some gifts for the teacher helpers in Evan's class; some key/ID tags holders (the fabric was cute ladybug and flowers) along with some apple hand sanitizer. 

On the last day of school the kids/teachers helped to organize and put on a talent show.  Of course Megan participated and was pretty good.  She sang a song called Girls Can Too.  Sorry I can seem to upload the video. 

Some of the other talent included a puppet show, magician, dancing, singing and Kung Fu routine.  It was really entertaining.  Spencer took some time off work for an hour in the morning to watch Megan perform.  We hope it continues for next year as we are already helping to plan Megan's routine. 

The last day of school here are the kids teachers/helpers.
 

This is the famous Mrs. Casali.  She is a wonderful Kindergarten teacher.  She kept 28 kids organized and learning all year long.  She also saw that she could challenge Evan a little more and did so through out the school year in order to help him keep focused and out of trouble. 

This is Miss B a teacher assistant and below is Mrs. M another teacher Assistant.  I don't actually know what their last names are since Evan always referred to them in this way.  They were great ladies as well. 

 This is Mrs. Thompson, she was Evan's teacher for the last 3 or 4 months.  They divided the kinders into two classes for some extra teaching focus and to better help prepare the kids for grade 1.  She also taught Megan in grade 2.  She would teach Evan's class in the morning and then go and teacher her regular grade 2 class in the afternoons.  

 This is one of Megan's teachers Mrs. Rygus.  She is also the assistant principle.  She is a great lady who has been at the school for 20 years. 

This is Megan's other teacher, Mrs. Reklow, she is also the Music teacher for the school. 
After being a mother I think that being a teacher is the toughest job.  These are people who are  educating our children, spending 6 hours a day 5 days a week with them and who have such an important impact on our children that I believe they should be compensated accordingly.  I think that our sports heros that make millions for a few years of effort at playing a sport don't really deserve that and that society just may have their priorities mixed up. 

These teachers did a wonderful job this year and my children have loved this school year and learned many new things.  Thank you.  Good luck in the fall.  Everyone of them is leaving to pursue new opportunities, except for Evan's kindergarten teacher (i'm not sure about the teacher assistants).