Last Days of First Grade

First day of first grade.

Last day of first grade. 

The outfit still fit but she definitely got longer as evidenced by where her head hits on the Peabody sign and the baby face is slowly fading away. Her rainbow shoes were too dirty to wear but those still do fit. 

Sammy said goodbye to her buddy Brayden who moved to SF this summer. :(

Mr. B (Barrett) ended up stepping in the last few weeks of school for Samantha's class. We had a whirlwind of teacher transitions for first grade. Originally a team teaching classroom with Mrs. Godlis and Mrs. Lopes, Mrs. Doering (a long term sub at Peabody and Peabody parent that we really like) ending up stepping in for Mrs. Lopes until May when she decided not to return after maternity leave. THEN, Mrs. Godlis had a planned family vacation the last few weeks of the school year to Italy and well, that is where we were left with Mr. B which is not a bad thing at all. He is really funny, great with the kids and has been with them since day one as their student teacher. I'm sure that was all thoroughly confusing but we were happy with each of the teachers and how smoothly they transitioned things.     

Sweet Mrs. Lopes did come in to the end of the year class party to see all the kids. We really REALLY like her. Perhaps Thatcher will get to be in her class someday ;) 

Samantha made the Jog-A-Thon Wall of Fame that will go up in the office for next year. 

She took first place in the hurdles and long jump at the track meet. 

End of the year kickball game against the parents and teachers.

Received her end of the year book with lots of great memories. 

This was Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley was a project where you send him to someone far away and then they dress him and tell the story of what Flat Stanley did. Samantha chose to send Flat Stanley to Boulder, Co. to visit our new friends, the Torvik family, we met last Thanksgiving who were visiting our neighbor at the time. We will see them soon in August when they come to visit. 

This was from Samantha's big buddy, Charlotte. It makes me laugh that the sun is saying "word." 

Of course it is rain in this drought! 

Number 2 makes me laugh. Samantha has talked non-stop about getting her 2nd grade school supplies. The annual back to school trip to Target is pretty exciting for her. I wonder if it would be as exciting if we actually had a Target in Santa Barbara?!

Here are some of my favorite journal entries she did. We are working on the spelling this summer ;)

She chose the right gifts for each of us especially the Lulu for me ;) 

Who would have thought it would end up to actually be FOUR teachers this year! ;) 

Samantha's reading group went through several books over the course of the year. After each book they had to create their own book report. 

Nice work Sammy in first grade and hooray for summer!!! 

State Street Mile

These sweet kids all ran the State Street Mile a few weeks ago. This year we skipped the family race and just had the kids run the 14 and under category. In full disclosure, the Paskin and Fallon families decided the night before that they might do it and arrived to the race about 15 minutes before it started. One time down State Street is enough when you are half awake. 

Thatcher hasn't learned the "pace yourself" rule of running a race. He sprinted out as fast as he could and then looked over at me with a worried look. 

I was thankful to see Mike and Jack coming right up behind Thatcher as I feared he was about to have a meltdown. 

Thatcher was back on track running with Jack by his side. 

Last year Samantha was the fastest 6-year-old in the 14 and under category running an 8:14. This year, Samantha was the fastest in her age group again running a 7:20. Proud of our little Thatcher too running a 9:57 for his first time in this category. And actual photo evidence above shows both of our kids finishing a second faster than recorded but I'll hold the correction submission for a race over a mile. ;) 

Cheers to the post-race celebration at the Mesa Cafe!