And the school year ends. . .

This post may bounce around a bit, but I'll at least keep the pictures in chronological order.

The month of May went by as we knew it would - quickly.  Gabriel and Corban both finished school on the same Thursday, followed by a trip to Atlanta for a week starting the Sunday three days later.  Gabriel's May included a field trip, field day, T-ball games, and the end of school.  Corban finished out his swim lessons and did an end of the year program for school.

Field Day

Mommy came to help

Using a light saber to point and tell me all
about every Lego box and character

Field trip to SEEDS

Butterfly Gabriel

Part of being a part of a church in a college town AND having your dad be the youth pastor means that you say "goodbye" to a lot of people.  Graduating high school students, grad students that come for a few years and then move on, medical school students leaving for residency.  This year means saying "goodbye" to more people that are important to our boys than most, along with the fact that Gabriel is much more aware of what people leaving means.  In addition to several favorite youth group members and babysitters starting college, we had our last Sunday yesterday with a VCOM couple who are moving for residency and Gabriel kept bringing it up.  He wanted to pray for them at bedtime and then was so sad and had a hard time saying why.  Another woman who has been in our home group for years and has also been his Sunday school teacher is moving back overseas after completing her masters degree.  Her send off reception is next Sunday and he has, again, brought this up many times.  He maybe wouldn't notice as much if there weren't parties or prayer times at church to send off these people, but it's hard to see him hurting and sad over the "goodbye"

Found a Highlights recipe for pumpkin
  pie that he wanted to try making

 On to the end of school:

                  First day of 3 year old preschool              Last day of 3 year old preschool 

About sums up his end of the year performance.  Biting his nails and
occasionally yelling the words to a song.  According to Gabriel though
 "Corban did such a good job!  He did better than I did in preschool!"

Ms. Brenda

Per Corban this is "MY Ms. Lisa"
He has already asked me more than once if she will be his teacher next year too. 
I have explained that he will be just across the hall from her and that
he will see her during music time and recess.  That is not ok with him.

               First day of kindergarten                                                  Last day of kindergarten 

I have had such mixed emotions about the school year being over for Gabriel.  Part of me is happy to have him home more and have the pace of things slow down.  Part of me isn't sure how I'm going to do with the noise of two boys playing (and fighting).  One thing I do know, is that I am so thankful for this year of school for him.  He had the most patient teacher that exists, who loved and cared about not only his academic growth, but more importantly his social, emotional, and spiritual development.  She was always so patient, consistent, calm, and disciplined.  We were at Wal-Mart the day before school ended and Gabriel saw some little plastic panda bears.  He said "Mrs. Meyer loves pandas.  Can we please buy these for her?"

Gabriel has changed so much this year and I'm not even sure how to put it into words.  He is more confident in his reading.  He loves math.  He is a considerate and compassionate friend.  He is creative and his active mind is always thinking about the next thing.  He is working so hard to understand and control his emotions and I see the struggle and the progress that he is making.  He really likes younger kids and is great at engaging anyone around him.  I could go on and on.  His strong will and talkative demeanor can be challenging and frustrating but I see a boy who is trying to figure out the world and who cares a lot about the people around him.

On the last day of school his class had a "Readers Theater" where they each read a book to the class and parents.  He did a great job reading a very long book.  He was nervous but he practiced a lot.

The day after school ended they had an awards day.  Gabriel got a reading award since he's finished most of the reading stuff for 1st grade.  He also got the "Encyclopedia Award" since he likes to share the wealth of knowledge that he has with others, some examples being about Star Wars, Theology, and Narnia.

I can't make this flip properly.  Oh well.

A couple days after school ended we headed to Atlanta for some cousin time.  I love that Gabriel and Corban are friends with their cousins.

Gabriel loves Jane.  He saw another child her ago the other day and said
 "I like them but they aren't nearly as cute as Jane."

This is what happens when two cousins who are great friends and can never
stop talking find a way to block each other out for a while

And a final thing to start the summer, T-ball officially ended last week.  Unfortunately the first game and last game of the season got rained out, but Gabriel still had lots of fun playing and was proud of the couple of "outs" that he got!

Corban playing under the bleachers

Last game

The boys have been wanting this dragon for about 4 months.  They finally had enough money to pool together and buy it.  When they showed it to someone at church Gabriel exclaimed "We saved $23 and mommy bought this off of Amazon!"  They build it a fortress at church.

Reading at the library with Daddy