Last Day of School

The last day of school for the boys was May 14th.  We really like that the boys get out of school for two and a half months for the summer!  (Most days we're glad...Ha!)  :)  Matthew wasn't really diggin' my need to take pictures that morning either...

 I went to school with the boys and helped them deliver gifts to their teachers.  I am always a slacker and end up doing gifts the last day of school instead of during Teacher Appreciation Week.  Hey Jack, it's the thought that counts!  I also stayed for Jacob's DARE graduation and awards ceremony.  Here is Jacob in line for his certificate and medallion...

 Getting his medallion from Trooper Biven.

 Jacob getting his certificate for Accelerated Reader points.

 His reading teacher recognized students who had earned over 75 points; Jacob had 161.5!!  Jacob loves to read and most of his books are big books with lots of pages.  (And you can pretty much guarantee those books will contain either dragons or Greek mythology.)  After getting his award I told him that all of those times I would hound him to be sure he took an AR test paid off.  So many times in the last few years, he would read lots of books and never test over them.

 I am very proud of Jacob and his grades for this year.  This was a year of a lot of adjustments and those adjustments are hard for a 10-year-old.  He made all A's and B's. (more A's than B's though!)  At the first of the year, we stressed a bit because he made one B...it didn't take me long to realize that I was just glad he was passing the class and that we would take a B all year long...and be happy about it!  After talking to several people, it seems that the curriculum and standards changed this year, and I'm pretty sure most everyone struggled with it a bit.  There was some of that math homework that I was trying to google; and some of the homework I helped him with barely made a passing grade! Ha!!

This is Jacob with Mrs. Angie...his homeroom and social studies teacher.  He LOVED being in her class this year, and it made me feel SO much better for him to have a teacher that I knew would take care of him for me.  Mrs. Angie and Mrs. Jessica were a huge help to us at the first of the year!! (Oh, and I think Mrs. Angie might be tip-toeing in this picture.)  ;)

 Jacob with one of his buddies...

 Jacob and Robert...

 While I'm still talking about Jacob's school year, he did give me a rundown this afternoon of his favorite classes.  Here they are in order...PE (ha!), Spanish (that boy can roll those R's!), Arts & Humanities, Social Studies, Reading, Math and Chess.  I couldn't believe chess came in last, but he informed me that they only got to play chess two days a week and had to do consumer math the rest of the time.  (He is such a BOY!)  It's hard to imagine that my "baby" will be a SIXTH GRADER next year!

 

Now...even harder for me to grasp is the fact that Matthew Travis will be going to high school next year.  BOOHOO.  This is NOT the Kodak moment I had hoped to snap, but this was the THIRD attempt to get a picture of Matthew with his teachers and it was as good as it was gonna get...

 Ms. Barbara and Ms. Carol have had Matthew for the last five years.  I said that if I could find a way to sneak him back in, I would leave him there forever.  ;)  They have taken wonderful care of him, but more than that, they have TAUGHT him.  Ms. Pearl has been in the classroom for the last two years and she has been a wonderful help too!  One of the nicest things about this year has been having my two boys in the same school.  (That hadn't happened since Jacob's kindergarten and Matthew's fourth grade years.)  I am going to have to practice leaving home a bit earlier so that I can get them both to school on time!  Ha!!

Matthew's awards and card from his teachers...there was also a Cracker Barrel gift card inside.

 We have a long-standing tradition of taking the boys to Cracker Barrel on the first and last days of school, but Jacob had a ball game that night.  I was still optimistic that even though it was the late game, we would still be able to make it before they closed.  Well, I hadn't thought about the game prior to ours going way over the time limit and our game starting almost an our late.  Nor had I considered the possibility of someone from one of the other fields turning off the lights to our field instead of their own and then us having to wait a good fifteen minutes for the lights to come back on.  As soon as the game was over, (yes, Matthew knew the exact moment) he looked at me and said, "cracker barrel?"  UGH...it brought tears to my eyes to have to tell him we couldn't go.  :(

Jacob played short stop...

 Matthew was really wishing the game would be over!

 During the "lights out" event, the boys just plopped down on the field to wait.

I told Matthew that we'd go to Cracker Barrel the next night, so when Daddy finished mowing, we went.  Matthew couldn't wait for them to bring his food!

I'm not sure if this kid was that happy to be at Cracker Barrel or that school was out in general!  :)

We have already had some fun summer days!  Jacob thinks he is supposed to sleep until at least 10:00 (later is preferred) and stay up until at least midnight (later is preferred there too.)  I finally told him that he could extend his bedtime, but he was going to have to start going to bed earlier.  "But Mom, it's summer vacation!!"  Have the teenage years started early?!  Happy Summer!!