The Last Day

Today was Marina's last day of school. Didn't I just take her for the first day? I can't believe she has completed Kindergarten! Marina enjoyed this year. She made lots of friends. Every morning she would say "Good morning" to every classmate she saw as we walked in, even if they weren't in hearing distance yet!

But what made this year special was the three wonderful teachers she had for her morning Kindergarten class and Enrichment in the afternoon. We owe them a huge "Thank you" for all they did for her this year!

Piano Recital

Marina performed her first piano recital today. Miss Patty, her teacher, had scheduled her to play third. But Marina requested to go sixth, because she is six years old. So Miss Patty agreed. Marina played two very short pieces, "Freight Train" and "Key of C" (better known to us as the Turkey Song). She seemed quite comfortable in front of everyone.



After she was done she was so proud of herself! The hard part for her was waiting for everyone else to play their songs before she could have cake!

Song of Dreams - Ballet Recital

Marina's ballet recital was a neat one. It was called "Song of Dreams." The girls were all dressed like fairy princesses. Marina, as usual, waved to me when she found me in the audience. Actually, she did it twice. She seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to get through it, finishing each movement faster than everyone else. But she was happy about it. If there is one thing Marina loves it's being on the "big stage."

If you weren't able to be there, here is the video I took of the dress rehearsal. Marina is in the back row on the far left end.

Kindergarten Family Celebration

To mark the end of the year, the kindergarten staff had a "Kindergarten Family Celebration." It started with the kids performing. They did many of the same songs they had done at their big show in April. But here are a few new ones.

Hello



Down By the Bay



(My camera had an error while filming the next one, "Everything Grows," so I only have the last 30 seconds or so. But since it was a new song, I went ahead and added what I got.)

Everything Grows



The music was followed by a video presentation of pictures the kids had taken of each other during the year. Many of them were very silly. We also got to see pictures of each student as a baby and now. That was fun!

Field Day

Today was Field Day at Marina's school. There were quite a few fun activities set up for th kids. They started off with a relay race and obstacle course, followed by the Frisbee toss and tug-o-war. They used a four way rope, I'd never seen one like that before. But Marina was happy to be on the winning team.

The parent involvement started after the potato sack race. The kids were supposed to run the three-legged race with their parent. However, one of her friends whose parents were not there convinced Marina to race with her. I didn't take it personally.


The water balloon toss was set up for adults and kids. Marina's friend partnered with a middle school volunteer. I was impressed with the catches Marina made. We made it pretty far into the competition.

The activities concluded with popsicles for the kids. I think that was Marina's favorite part.

First Communion

Marina has been taking a communion class at our church for the past six weeks. Today they had the conclusion with a ceremony to mark the completion. I was told most of the girls would be wearing white dresses, so I put Marina in her Easter dress. She insisted on wearing her "diamond" necklace and earrings with it. She was quite excited about the whole ceremony.

After the service was a reception. Marina was mostly interested in making sure she got a balloon to take home,

Mother's Day

Marina was actually excited about Mother's Day this year. She gave me a card she made at school (two days early, I guess she couldn't wait). The card had a butterfly decorated with watercolors. My surprise for her was that I had bought mother-daughter dresses to wear today. We even had matching shoes (although Marina's were two sizes too big for her, but she insisted on wearing them anyway).


We had a busy day. First we went to church. Then we visited Grandma. Marina gave her an angel she'd painted. She also got to look for roly polys with Uncle Mike. After that, we went out to dinner with friends. We were both exhausted by the time we came home. But it was a good day.