Last Day of Kindergarten

For comparison's sake, here is the first day of school...

And here is the last...

He has matured a lot this year. He is able to read, and according to his teacher, he is very responsible with his work and belongings. Most of the year, when asked, he would say that he didn't like school and his teacher was just okay.  Although, he never once complained about having to go to school.  He was always ready early and was usually asking when it was time to leave. 

As the school year was coming to an end, he would say that he didn't want to leave Mrs. Penney b/c she was a fun teacher.  He says he's going to miss Tyler and Gaige over the summer.  These are his closest friends from school.  We couldn't have asked for any nicer friends.  Both are well behaved and kind, and we really like their parents.

He sat at the same table all year, the blue table, with Owen, Gaige, Tremara, and Taegan.  

His tests scores and report card show that he mastered all Kindergarten skills and he's very ready for first grade.  

He has his arm around his girlfriend, Adalyn.  I'm not ready for this.  He tends to put his arm around whomever is next to in a picture, so I'll just pretend that is what he's doing here.

I took a half a day off work to celebrate the last day of school.  I wanted Miles to know that he did a great job and it was worthy of celebration.  We planned for his friend, Tyler, to come home with us and play for the afternoon.  I thought of several things that might be fun, but decided that boys just really like to play at home.  I picked them up in a chaotic car line and had a small gift bag for each of them.  Most of it came from the dollar aisle at Target.  The Pokemon cards were the biggest hit.  When Miles saw the bags, he said, "You got us presents?" and immediately leaned up to the front seat to give me a kiss.  That's a sweet boy I have.

The boys played dodge ball outside, ate popsicles, played video games, and traded their Pokemon cards for hours.  Miles was shocked every time he asked to do something and I never said no :)  I think they had a fun afternoon. 

As I've said already, I can't believe how fast this year has flown by.  I'm thankful for a resilient little boy that fought through the hard part of change and had a successful first year of school.  Change doesn't come easy for him, but he worked it out.  In the process, he developed some great friendships, memories, and hopefully confidence to build on.