This is bittersweet. It’s our last kindergarten event. Ever.
The principal, who was my assistant principal 25 years ago, suggested that I just have two more. I told her I would do that if she promised to stick around to see them through elementary school. No deal.
Here are a few pictures from Tristan’s field day. At least the part before it got rained out.
This morning was Mackenzie’s awards day and program. She received the “green team” award, for staying on “green” every day this year. Basically, you start on green and progress to yellow (warning), red (note home), and then blue (office visit). My sweetheart never left green.
She also got an accelerated reader award. Each kindergartener who earned 5 points received a certificate. The student with the post points in each grade level wins a bicycle, donated by the local mason lodge. Mackenzie won the bicycle with 57 points!
After the program and awards, we stuck around for a sack lunch picnic.
Kindergarten Cookie Day is perhaps the best kindergarten activity of the year. Two years ago, we went to Tristan’s cookie day and this year, we weren’t about to miss Mackenzie’s. She didn’t let her injury prevent her from missing a bit of the fun.
It was so much fun, that afterwards, Kimberlie told me that “we should have another kid just so we can do cookie day again”. I’m not so sure about that, but I do agree that it was fun.
Yesterday, not too long after arriving at work, my phone started ringing. I saw it was the kid’s school. It was just 30 minutes after we dropped them off, so I knew nobody was sick and I know Tristan learned his lesson about sticking things where they don’t belong. What could it be?
It was the school nurse. Apparently on the way to her class, Mackenzie got her finger slammed in the door. OK, I thought. Just put some ice on it. Nope. They wanted someone to come and take her to the urgent care center. I couldn’t reach my wife, so off I went.
After lots of waiting and paperwork, we finally went back. Let me just say that urgent care doctors are worthless. They are usually at the bottom of their profession, like public defenders are at the bottom of the legal profession or how the Geek Squad is at the bottom of the IT profession. Mackenzie had some x-rays and the doctor told us all was well and just to put ice on it. What a relief!
By that time, she had missed her normal lunch period at school so I took her out for a happy meal and some ice cream. For some reason, chemically enhanced food and high fructose corn syrup tends to make children happy. We were nearly back at the school (and 30 minutes from the urgent care center) when the doctor called and told us that the radiologist had just looked at her scans and to return immediately. I’m not sure why the radiologist would read scans of discharged patients, unless it is simply a way to bill us for more services.
When we returned, a nurse put a temporary splint on Mackenzie’s finger and informed us that we had an appointment the next morning with an orthopaedic hand specialist due to a crack in the bone.
This morning, we saw the doctor and were told that because of her age, she should get a cast. She was a little nervous, so I showed her a picture of her friend Savannah who recently got a cast and that eased her nervousness a bit. She was completely fine when she found out that she would be able to choose a color and she even started acting silly.
After deciding on pink, and then pink and purple, she finally went with a Christmas cast. It’s the most expensive Christmas decoration we’ve ever bought.
She will get it off a few days before Christmas, followed by more x-rays. Then we will go from there.
Never a dull moment in our house!
This year I only have to do one post for the first day of school because BOTH of my kids are in elementary school! I still can’t believe that my “baby” is in kindergarten and I have a second grader!
And, in case you missed it . . .
Last year:
Even older:
My “baby” graduated from 4K tonight. It is sad that she is leaving the wonderful preschool that she has been a part of for three years. Now she will be at the mercy of the public education system, which is miserable.
Make sure to check out the video and the photos below:
Did you see my poor baby trip? She was the shortest in her class and her cap and gown were a little large!
Congrats to Tristan! He received a scholastic award for first grade! He didn’t get perfect attendance, because he has cool parents who believe that some things are more important than school — especially public school.
Today was the first time I’ve used vacation leave at the new job. Why? First grade field day!
