Goodbye, Kindergarten

Well, Brynn is now a first grader. It sounds so strange coming out of my mouth, and yet it is so. Thursday was her last day of Kindergarten, and I was not emotional about it until one of the staff members walked her and Lauren out to the van and said with enthusiasm, "You did it, girls! You finished Kindergarten!" And then it hit me that it was over, and when she had to go back to school, it would be all day long and she would be coming home every day with tired eyes and only a few hours left in which to do homework, dinner and a bath before going to bed. And I started to bawl right there in the car line.

My friend Jenn and I (okay, it was her idea) had planned to take the girls for a little surprise right after school. We share the carpool duties--she takes them and I pick them up in the afternoon. So I did the (emotional) pick-up and then we went to the Dairy Queen, where Jenn and little brother were waiting for us. We all went in and had some fun snacks, ice cream cones, and silly bands. And we celebrated first grade, even though neither Mommy was very happy about the fact of it.

Brynn had a very good year, and we are super proud of her. No behavior problems--which was great--and she has just learned so much. She is reading now, and that still blows my mind. Today we took a little adventure to the bookstore to meet her current favorite personality from books... Junie B. Jones. It was really fun, and I hope to see her love of reading continue as she grows. It would be so fun to have that in common with her and read books together. She asked me the other day when she can read Harry Potter, and I told her we'd see about it when she was twelve. Hehe.

Katy is not to be outdone by her sister's achievments. Today at the Junie B. show, I said to her, "Isn't Junie B. so silly?" She responded with a grave tone, "And ruuuuuuuuuuude! I heard her say the word stupid." She shook her head as if she highly disapproved. It's true, stupid is not permitted at our house, but Katy is a fine one to call out poor Junie for inappropriate behavior. Katy is rarely asleep within 90 minutes of her bedtime and had been known to make belching noises in order to get a laugh. (We blame this last offense on influence from Uncle Chris and those Hutcherson boys.) :)

We cannot believe how fast the girls are growing. Pictures of Brynn from only a few months ago show a much more "baby" face than she is wearing these days, and Katy nearly knocked me over the other night when I realized Katy's shoulders were now higher than our kitchen table. I asked Jim, "Is she standing on something?"

We are planning visits to see all the family over the summer, and I will be making a trip to Milwalkee for a Southern Living At HOME (soon to be Willow House) convention. I am excited about this, but nervous, too... as it will be the first time I've really left like this since the kids were born. But it should be a fun summer, though I know it will fly. Hope yours is getting off to a good start as well!