Last Day of Kindergarten

Kindergarten has finally come to an end. It was an amazing year and I'm excited to move on to first grade, but Mommy is sad because she thinks kindergarten is a special year and she wants me to be five years old forever.

Anyway, we had a couple of fun surprises for our last day of school. We had been told to bring and keep our teddy bears at school for the past few weeks, and they were included in all sorts of classroom activities. On our last day, we tucked our teddy bears into their handmade beds and went to the library for a story. When we came back, they were gone! Turns out they had left us for a surprise teddy bear picnic.

"Hockey Bear," named because when I got him he was wearing a hockey shirt.

Bears waiting to picnic with us.

Four kindergarten classes anxiously rushing to the field to look for their bears.

We all loved the surprise! It was such a relief too - some of the kids had been so worried about their bears to the point of tears...phew!

We capped off the day with a class party. There was an art project, photo booth station, and snacks and popsicles. The parents were invited to join at the end, and we took lots of photos and said our goodbyes for the summer. What a great end to a great year. 

Me and my teacher, Ms. Taddeucci

What I Did at Camping, by Colin

Here are some more details from our camping trip that Kaitlyn had left out. This year we joined sixteen(!) other families at Manresa State Beach. This was my real camping trip, as it was the first time sleeping overnight in a tent. Everything went fine, except for the first night when I woke up in the middle of the night screaming and practically woke up the entire camp. It was also challenging because I refused to nap during the day, so by evening I was an overtired mess. On our second day, Daddy had to take me for a drive so I could get a decent nap in the car. Other than that, I loved being outdoors all day and exploring and getting really dirty!

We're pretty sure Brady had a good time too. He met a new friend that was twice his size, and got to sleep in the tent with us.  

We spent our entire first day at the beach. I loved it!

On the second day we took a drive to a nearby berry farm to pick raspberries. There were some chickens and a rooster there, and for some reason I kept insisting on showing this rooster my belly button. I thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Can you guess which was my basket?

Here's a video of all the kids testing out a homemade rocket ship (a soda bottle attached to a bicycle pump). I'm not even sure what it was, but I was so into it.

What I Did At Camping, by Kaitlyn

Dear Ms. Taddeucci, May 28, 2016: We are eating veggie straws and we ran around the campsite and we roasted marshmallows. May 29, 2016: Today we went on our bikes and went to the beach but oops! I got a little sandy. I took a shower and wiped off the sand and went to the temple [this little amphitheater at the campground that the kids called a temple]. I swung in the hammock.

May 30, 2016: Me and my brother played hop on pop [aka jumping on Daddy while he lay on the air mattress]. After that we went for a hike and then I climbed a tree. Oops again I forgot to brush my teeth. I brushed my teeth after that I ate a snack.

We went berry picking and we came back with berries. Then I had a quiz with my friends Jamie and Rita. After that I drew my dog Brady and swung in the swing and had a late night feast and saw 20 fireworks!

May 31, 2016: We woke up and had marshmallows for breakfast. Then we drove home.