Riley graduated kindergarten the morning of Thursday, May 19. Kenny, Rory, and I were of course there, as well as Nola, Nopsi, Grandma, and Grandpa. And Luke! I dropped Riley off at normal time (he looked SO handsome) and then the rest of us met in the gym around 10. The kindergarten teachers reserved seats near the front for all of the room mothers and their families, which was so nice.
Some of the other room moms and I helped decorate the gym the day before with big flowers with the kids’ faces on them. Dana actually took all of the flowers to work and laminated them, and then I helped her cut them all out. Such a cute keepsake from their ceremony. Riley’s and Claire’s flowers were hung near each other in the front of the gym; they couldn’t be next to each other because they both chose blue petals!
Once the ceremony began, the kindergarteners all processed in from the back of the gym and took their designated places on the risers in the front. After catching a glimpse of the cake, Riley smiled the whole way to his spot; I was pleasantly surprised.
Riley and Claire stood very near each other, so she was in almost every picture I took and Riley was in almost every picture that Dana took. Worked out great!
The kids practiced for their program for weeks and did such a great job. Each student had a speaking part that they had to memorize. One of the first things they did was to spell out “KINDERGARTEN,” and Riley’s line was “I is for imagination we use every day.” He did great!
Then they counted to 100 by 5’s and 10’s and recited a couple of poems. They also sang a bunch of songs and did hand gestures to go along with the words.
After that is when I started noticing Riley messing with his left ear. Earlier in the week, he woke up at 5:30am crying because it was hurting him but quickly recovered and didn’t mention it again. Until his ceremony. (More about this later.)
Claire’s speaking part was next; she spoke loudly and clearly. Great job, Claire!
The teachers said a few words after that, and then it was time for the end-of-the-year slideshow. I expected to cry during this, but it turned out that there were so many pictures and they went by so fast with barely enough time to tell who was in them to get too emotional. The kids enjoyed watching themselves on the big screen, though.
Finally it was time for them to get their graduation certificates and recess out. Each student said their name into the microphone before they were handed their certificate, which I thought was a nice touch. All of their little voices slayed me.
I went to the back to grab the new graduate, who incidentally did not want cake after all. He suffered through some pictures by himself and with the family, and then with Mrs. Allison and Mrs. Ceci. Love those two ladies!
Then Dana and I made Riley and Claire take some pictures together. Here’s that adorableness.
We left school and headed to Lakeview. Riley requested that we go to Backyard NOLA for lunch, so that’s what we did. Dana, her mom, Claire, and Colin came too. We had a good lunch, but that’s when I noticed Rory’s eye looked pink and goopy. Add that to Riley’s ear issues and knowing we were leaving for Disney in two days, I ended up taking both boys to the doctor that afternoon.
Dr. N unfortunately wasn’t there, but we saw Dr. B, who was great. The not great news was that Riley had the beginnings of an ear infection and Rory had pinkeye. Super. This only added to my stress; I wanted this to be an amazing trip and this wasn’t in my plans!
Luckily, the meds that Dr. B prescribed for both boys worked well, although Rory HATED having drops put into his eyes. And we had to do it 4 times a day for 7 days. Not fun. But they both started feeling better fairly quickly, and we got to Orlando with no issues.
Riley-bean, Daddy and I are so very proud of you for finishing kindergarten the way you did. You did an amazing job in school this year. I know you didn’t always like everything you did, but you progressed so much in so many different aspects. We can’t wait to see how much you will learn next year in first grade. We love you!
Recap of our surprise trip to Disney coming up next…..
