Top Banana and Mary the Monkey {Riley}

One week ago when I went to pick him up from school, Riley came bounding to the car exclaiming, “I’m the Top Banana! I’m the Top Banana!” Ms. Amanda followed behind him with his schoolbag, an amused expression on her face. She had indeed selected Riley-bean as her VIP Student of the Week. He was so proud.

The first thing each new SOTW gets to do is bring home the class mascot, Mary the Monkey, for the weekend. Mary comes with a little storybook and a journal, which the SOTW has to write in (with a little help from Mom and Dad), telling the rest of the class what Mary did over weekend. We actually didn’t have any specific plans last weekend, but we ended up doing plenty of fun things with Mary. And of course I took plenty of pictures.

On Friday right after school, we went to Whole Foods. Riley found one of the biggest mangos I have ever seen, but Mary wasn’t impressed…..all she wanted were some bananas. I also let Riley pick out a special treat for being SOTW; he chose a salted caramel cake ball.

Then we went to Nola and Nopsi’s to introduce them to Mary. Riley and Mary watched the dragons movie, Mary met Jem, and Rory snuggled with Mary for a nap. And when Riley went to bed that night, Mary got to meet Giraffey.

On Saturday morning Mary and Giraffey slept in late but got up in time to help Kenny make pancakes for breakfast. Then Riley and Mary played with trucks, and later in the day all of us went for walks in the rain. Mary also got to stay up late to watch the LSU game with Kenny and me.

On Sunday morning the boys and Mary helped me make French toast, and then I took Riley and Mary to a playdate at Bridget’s house for a couple of hours. We picked up Wendy’s for lunch on the way home and had an inside picnic while we watched the Saints game.

On Monday while Riley was at school, Mary was quite busy: she sat in the swing with Rory, she did some reading, she played with Giraffey, and she even found time to take a bubble bath. That silly monkey. Riley got to sleep with Mary one last time, and then we had to send her back to school.

Mary went back to school with Riley on Tuesday. Riley also got to share his special “Top Banana” information sheet that Ms. Amanda sent home in his folder last Friday. Since when is his favorite sport baseball? What about football, dude???

On Wednesday, Riley got to bring two special items into school with him to share with his class (kind of like a show and tell). He surprisingly chose to bring a stuffed whale that used to be mine (not Giraffey!) and his small green Tonka garbage truck.

On Thursday, his last day as SOTW, Riley got to present his journal entry and share what he and Mary had done over the weekend. I know this kind of thing is common for younger grades, but I think it’s a great way to make kids feel special. However, I think I had more fun with Mary than Riley did! I especially enjoyed working on the journal…..it brought me right back to my scrapbooking days.

 

As SOTW, Riley also got to be Ms. Amanda’s special helper all week long…..he was line leader, he dressed the class weather monkey, and he demonstrated the letter of the week. Big thanks to Ms. Amanda for sending me these two pictures of my boy at school.

Congratulations on your special week as the Top Banana, Riley-bean. Daddy and I are so proud of you!