Last Day of Kindergarten..

Today was Maggie's last day of kindergarten - she officially will experience her first summer break!! The morning started with Maggie and I sleeping five minutes later then usual - not sure what possessed me to hit the snooze a second time. I got up and we hurried around throwing on our clothes and brushing our teeth so we could get out the door in time to make a special run to Weigles for a donut. Once we finished eating them in the parking lot of the school, we realized as we were getting out that Mrs. Stouder was parked beside us and we were going to get to walk in with her. I could tell she was having as much trouble as I was with the day. She said she didn't sleep at all last night and that she is always in denial until the last day - it's hard to say goodbye when you have watched them grow up for a year. As we talked in the cafeteria, her eyes filled with tears and instantly tears were streaming down my face. I never dreamed that I would be as emotional on the last day of school as I was the first day of school. As I wrote in Mrs. Stouder's card, the first day it was hard to imagine her being under someone elses instruction all day and I quickly realized there was no one I would rather her be with. The last day was filled with the anxiety that what if there's never another teacher as caring and devoted to the students as she has been.. I shed a lot of tears today, but from now until August I will just turn my worries over to God. I prayed for a good teacher and a classroom full of good kids this year and God answered that prayer. Maggie scored perfect on her report card again!! I am SO proud of her.. Her reading level skipped from D to F!! She is great at reading. She is also showing a lot of interest in learning how to write in cursive, so we will work on that this summer.
All of the girls were so excited about the pool party (all day). I have really been trying to teach Maggie not to brag and the first thing she said when she got in the car was that all of the girls were bragging that they were coming to her house. I think it embarrassed her a little since I didn't invite the boys. We had 15 kids total (including two babies). Molly loved having all of Maggie's friends here today. They all got along really well and enjoyed swimming, playing with chalk and jumping on the trampoline. I hope that it works out to have several of them over during the summer to keep Maggie from getting bored. My Aunt Peggy is in town, so she got to ride over on my Mom's motorcycle and observe that 9 five year olds that are full of excitement are like. Mike was able to take the day off and enjoy seeing Maggie is rare form with all of her friend's. He had to leave at 4:30 to report for inventory duty!!