First Day of Second Grade

 

Where does the time go? How can Rudy be starting Second Grade today? He has been so excited for it. Yesterday he woke up excited because it was the last day of vacation. Today he was up and ready and excited to start school Of course, if you ask him, he'll tell you he doesn't like school, but we know he really does. He has a male teacher this year and we're really hoping he has a great year again.

Rudy really wanted a picture of the three of us, so we had to do the old hold the camera out trick. It ended up pretty well.

Good-bye First Grade

Today was Rudy's last day of first grade! He had an amazing teacher this year and has learned and grown a lot. Because of a rainy morning, we had to take our customary last day of school pictures inside (and some of them turned out odd colors, so I played with the settings!)

Father and son....

Mother and son (Yes, apparently he is up to my shoulder already!)

The boys... take one...

The boys...take two...

Finally! The boys...take three...

And the student himself, just hours away from officially being a second grader (and soon to find out that he got the teacher he wanted for second grade).

Showing a little excitement about his last day.

Group portrait... (my hand is blurry because I kept grabbing Rudy's hand as he made bunny ears behind me).

Last Days

Thursday was Rudy's last day of Kindergarten. He had some struggles along the way, but ultimately had a great year thanks to his teacher, Mrs. Mathews, who was the perfect teacher for him. He thoroughly enjoyed school (although if he asked he's likely to tell you it's boring or they do too much work) and learned so much. In true Rudy fashion, he felt the need to dress up for his last day.

We all walked to school together.

Rudy wanted to get flowers for his teacher, but once we got to school, he was a little reluctant to hold them, so before Paul and I left, I tucked them into his backpack. Hopefully they survived the five minutes left before he went into his classroom.

Saturday was Rudy's last day of tee ball. The kids had a fun day instead of games. They played different games of tag. Rudy and his friend, L, are in the blue shirts.

And they had relay races.

And then the teams got medals.

Rudy's coach pulled his team together and gave them a little speech and some treat bags. It was a great first year of tee-ball and next year he will graduate to actual baseball.

After fun day, the kids continued to run and play. Here is Rudy with some of his classmates.

And then the fun moved over to the playground. Rudy and K were spinning each other (next year they will be in the same class).

And Rudy and N had fun on the swings.

Imagination Station

The other night after dinner, Paul was working, so I asked Rudy is he wanted to go out to ride his bike or take a walk. He wanted to take his bike over to school and ride around. So we loaded up his bike (and my roller blades) and headed to the school.
In the car on the way over, Rudy put on his helmet, and he had brought his light saber. These pictures are taken with my phone, so they aren't really clear, but he ran around the playground climbing and chasing and fighting. He is very good at amusing himself and creating big stories and battles that he's a part of!

Oh, and the bike? He took it from the car, rode it to the side of the building, parked it, and it stayed there, until the very end when he rode around a little. (This also meant that I could really only roller blade on the bumpy blacktop by the playground for most of the time.)

And just to show what a great mom I am, see the little plastic tie at the top of his helmet?

And also right in front of his forehead? That is from where the tag was when we bought this helmet - last year. I think on the way home from the store, Rudy must have pulled the tag off, and we never got around to removing the plastic part. I only notice it when we are out somewhere, and I don't have scissors with me.I think it adds character at this point. :)

Second Day of School

Okay, so day two didn't go quite as well. I should have known it when he told me in the car "no work. Mommy school". But he wasn't upset as we talked on the way to school. And he wasn't upset when we pulled into school. He wasn't even upset when we got out of the car. It started when we walked into the classroom. His lip started to quiver and he got very clingy. Fortunately his teacher came in at that moment to take his class to their own room. So I stayed and walked over with him. Then he started to cry. I said good-bye and was reassuring him when his teacher came over and took him. As a former preschool teacher, I know this is best and I know that I needed to walk right out and not drag it out. So I did. And yes, a few tears may have been shed in the car on the way to work. But he was fine and was being lured with cookies when I left. Hopefully day three will be easier on both of us.

First Day of School

Rudy had his first day of school today. As expected, he was excited to see all the toys and really didn't care that Mommy was leaving. He seemed to have fun - lots of talk about cars, camions and ninos. Mommy survived the day as well. :)