Merci beaucoup, teach!

Here are the teacher gifts that I chose to treat our much-loved teachers with this year! The Chocolate Ooh La La boxes are made by a nearby mom and filled with delicious handmade local chocolates. And a touch that I found really sweet and personal - the box is padded with paper shreds printed with a message: "Thank you for being so sweet.... with love from Isabella & Jadyn" (or Cole). Ooh la la, indeed! The girls came home today and told me that their teachers opened the box right away, and shared a chocolate with them. Now that is a sweet teacher! That says it all about the preK team this year. So with some chocolates and a restaurant gift card, we said thank you and good-bye to the women who have taught and cared for our brood all year.

The kids said that as the bus pulled away from the school, they looked out and saw all their teachers lined up beside the school, waving good-bye to them. That really made me tear up... because that is the sense you get from the staff of our school. True caring and compassion - and the strong drive to push academics.


In that vein, let me celebrate Cole!

He had a great year, but what I was most delighted with was his Writing Assessment. It was a "That's my boy" moment when I read that he had exceeded standards in 3 out of 4 categories! (The 4th writing category was organization... yeah, we'll get to that another year. Both of us.) I am fumbling with words here - ironic, yo! What I want to say is that I am so proud of him for working hard and achieving what he is capable of. That is a tight-wire deal for a clever yet energetic boy. It was truly a daily family effort - from banishing Phoenix and his projectile toys, to the girls being sequestered in the playroom during Cole's homework and study time. And you know there was some parental mental torture in there...
So to see the pay-off on paper... Well. It was a moment. The boy moves on to 4th grade with flying colors and a reward. Straight A's = Super Soaker water-projectile-fun. Yowza!

Now begins the 3 month hiatus: In Which I Contemplate My Love-Hate Relationship With Summer. You'll be the first to know which way the pendulum swingeth.
Happy Summer, friends!