Last day of 2nd grade

Today was Gracie's last day of 2nd grade. She likes to say that she's now a 3rd grader. However, Chris says he isn't ready for that and that he'll call her a "2nd & a half grader!" Here is a picture of the first day of 2nd grade in Aiken and then a picture of her today. I forgot to take her picture this morning so this picture is from after school. It was about 2000% humidity at the time this picture was taken (or maybe that was just the 35 weeks of my pregnancy talking!!!) but it was hot, humid, & bright out-as you can probably tell from the squinting.

I had so much anxiety about choosing her school for these last few weeks of school (28 days to be exact) but I don't know that she could have done much better! She made the transition so well, and we're so proud of her and thankful to God for his leading, protection, & provision. She left today with a smile on her face and a straight A report card! I spoke with one of the PE teachers yesterday and she said Gracie seems to have found her 'niche' there. We feel so blessed that things went so well for her.

I was at the school yesterday because they were having 'talent day' in music class. Gracie had talked for weeks about wanting to play the violin for this. After a little confusion, we discovered that 'talent day' was yesterday so I took her violin to the school then Katie & I went back later in the day to watch her. She did good. Did she play every note correctly? Um...no. BUT, I was impressed with her courage & confidence in wanting to do this (there were 2 classes combined to watch). Her music teacher conversed with her in such a way that allowed her to show what she knew beyond just playing her short rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and I thought that was good. The pictures turned out horrible-our camera can't zoom due to 'technical difficulties,' so I wasn't able to get too many good ones since I was also trying to video at the same time. I was really impressed that the teacher had each child, after their performance, choose 3 or so students to give compliments and she worked with them to make it relate specifically to what the child had done for their talent. I thought that was sweet. Let's see if this video works (I encourage you to watch past her actual playing of the song. It needs some work, but I like how the teacher gave her an opportunity to show other things she has learned.):


Today Chris took off part day and came with Katie & I to school to watch Gracie perform in her 'Reader's Theater.' Again, it was 2 classes combined since she switched each day to have 1 teacher for Language Arts and 1 teacher as her 'main' teacher. It was hot, crowded, and my knees were killing me by the time I got up off the little kid chair BUT so worth it to watch her be in her little play. :-) I really do love going to all these kinds of school activities and it would take something pretty big to make me miss any of them! She did really well-spoke up loudly and with feeling. I'm going to try to load a You Tube video of it. I guess there were a total of 8 different skits and each were based on things the counselor had talked to the kids about as far as conflict resolution type problems-things they could do rather than just going to an adult (choosing a different activity, walking away to cool off, talking it out, etc.)

Here is the You Tube I'm hoping will work:



After her skit, we were able to get her report card, some test results, the last school newsletter, a thank you note from one of her teachers for her little end-of-the-year gift, and be on our way! Another school year down! Here she is with one of her friends who also happens to go to our church.

Here are my 2 sweet girls loving on each other. Katie is very excited that today was Gracie's last day of school for awhile. She looks forward to having her home more often and truth be told, so do I!

Here is my sweet Katie Boo posing for a pic and one of the girls next to a really pretty carousel we found inside one of the local malls.

I'm about to head to bed. I've had a bit of a sore throat the past 2 days, along with congestion & headache, etc. I called the doctor's office today to see what I can take and was told to watch for fever 'cause they'd want to know if it was strep. I don't think it is-I really think it's sore from drainage junk. I am feeling better than earlier today so that's good.

We have a fun weekend planned, so I'm sure I'll post with lots of great pictures soon! Baby seems to be doing well by the way!!!!!!! Moving all around most of the time! Won't be long until these posts consist of lots of pictures of her!!!!!!!!!!