Hooray

We did it! Friday was our last day of school! Yippee! I was seriously limping across the finish line this year and am so thankful God carried us through. BIG sigh of relief.

Thursday night I stayed up way too late full of thought about our year and feeling sentimental. Maybe even just a little bit proud. We have accomplished a lot this year. We have had some HARD days. We have also had some amazing successes! I did some lame celebratory decorating and found this "End of School Wrap Up!" that I printed for each of the kids.

The bottom half of the page (which I did not think to photograph before filling out), had "Thoughts from Mom." It was so good for me to think through what I see as growth for each kid and put it in writing for them to see.  These were the statements for me to respond to:

1) I'm proud of you because:

2) One of my favorite memories of you this year was:

3) It has been fun to watch you:

4) Three things I love about you:

5) An area you grew in was:

6) You strengthened our family by:

I'm not going to lie. It was hard to respond to some of the questions for certain kids, but it was so good for my heart to TRY and be able to come up with something. (And so good for their hearts to read! The light in their eyes as they read through their papers Friday morning was worth remembering.) I enjoyed reading THEIR answers to my questions too.  Win win.

 After a special surprise breakfast, we started our day with our daily morning walk and Bible time. Although today when they asked to ride bikes rather then walk, I said SURE! So we took a quick spin around the neighborhood before we got started on our final tests.

 Tests, tests, tests... these kids worked hard. Luke enjoyed the benefit of his hard work through out the year and worked on a puzzle all morning. However, the other kids had several tests.

Apparently shirts are optional for some boys during test time.

My most squirmy and active boy has really matured in that department this year. I've figured out some good systems to meet his needs so that he can accomplish his work. He sprinted across the finish line and deserves a medal for his hard work. Two years ago, I would never have been able to anticipate his growth academically. All glory be to God! Now I can focus in on praying for other areas that need growth. ;) God's not done with Ethan yet. 

Thanks to a gift card from a generous friend, I surprised the 

kids by taking them to get frozen yogurt after lunch. Yum!

We're jumping in to summer! 

What a fabulous last day of school.