Last Day of School

Ah, the last day of school.  It feels like just yesterday that we were posting about the first day of school!  Oh, er...hmm.  Well, time flew, that's for sure.  Here is the gang at the busstop (there are two boys and an older girl who also wait with us, but they weren't feeling the whole photo-documentation thing we had going on).

 We went to see Clara and Elena read their books to the class on "Kindergarten is the best because..."
Especially charming in Clara's book was that "we get to read with Mom" was in there (so she noticed that volunteer time!) and "I get to be with my sister" (confirming some of our decision to keep them in the same classroom together next year).

 

Elena's book featured Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus.  Very notable for her was her reading enthusiasm - some kids chose not to read, and Elena has sometimes been self conscious about her reading skills.  But she seems to not be concerned now, and was so proud to read her book! 

  

 Clara got her certificate of achievement for finishing kindergarten.

 Elena basking in Mrs. Malchi's love and her certificate of achievement:

And here the bus rumbles down the block at the end of the day, bringing them home for the very last day as kindergarteners.

We decided to have a celebration to mark the last day of school - can you guess what we thought might be a fun way to work off some of the excess energy of the last-day excitement?

Not a hard guess, huh?  Pinata time!

The role of hitting and the role of raising/lowering the pinata were equally coveted.  Joining us were Moana (the best friend of both girls, met just on the first day of school, who was in the same class with them all year and who happily lives just down the block) and her mom, Casey.

All the girls stuck with this for much longer than we would have thought - this pinata was pretty impenetrable!

But success was finally ours (after Casey swung the bat for a few well-aimed bashes):

Then there was reveling in the parent-approved snacks from the pinata (fruit snacks and oreo crackers) and Zimorino's pizza.  Yum!

And we topped off the party playing with these foam pellets - they are essentially vibrantly dyed packing peanuts.  You dab a side of them with a wet paper towel, and when you put another pellet against it they stick!  And when you're done you dump water on them and they dissolve. 

Clara's creation - a bird.  Can you see it?

And no "last of" post is complete without a little retrospective.  So first day is on the left, last day is on the right - that's a year of kindergarten right there.  It's not the physical growing that is really notable, but it is incredible how their minds have developed this year.  Kindergarten rocks!