Last Day of Preschool

Today was O's last day of preschool - until the two summer sessions that I await with baited breath. There was much planned, including a trip to the Dairy Bar for ice cream. This field trip was strategically timed so that they would return to the school hopped up on sugar with about 90 minutes left. Of course, this was also O's day to bring a snack (or just "snack" as I have discovered the proper preschool term is), so just as the ice cream sugar high was wearing off, we pulled out my awesome Jackrabbit cookies to replenish the sugar fix. Yes, yes, you are very welcome parents. Now, in all fairness, I did stay and help out in the classroom for over 2 hours and I went on the field trip, so I did get the full force of 20 children hopped up on HFCS and my sugar cookies. It was insane. I'm not sure how the teachers do it every day. I have a hard enough time with college kids.

Thanks, Miss Kami!

Thanks, Miss Dusty!

The problem with praising mediocrity

I know some of you will think I am a cynical, mean mom, but I know I'm not the only one. Monday night was O's preschool "graduation." There was a ceremony and a party. They wore caps and gowns and each child received a diploma. To me, graduation should be something earned, worked for - it's not an automatic (or shouldn't be, anyway) - and preschool is certainly not one of these earned occasions. The same goes for kindergarten, too. I think kids need to understand what it means to work hard for something, and the fact that we so easily praise automatics explains much about the entitlement attitude I see far too often today.

So, needless to say, we did not go to the ceremony. O would have refused to get up on the stage anyway. His teachers were a bit sad he wasn't there, and I do feel a little bad about that. They've done a great job with O's class this year. So yesterday when we picked O up from preschool, I let his teacher put the cap on his head and we snapped a picture. We picked up his diploma. Ah, praise for mediocrity (not that O is mediocre). It's a cute picture, though.

Front Deck is Stained

Matt stained the front deck yesterday - yay! It looks great. Too bad he didn't start until the afternoon - he had the full late afternoon sun on him and almost passed out twice. It hit 90 here yesterday. I'm sure the oil fumes didn't help. either. But it looks great! We still have to tackle the screen porch and it's three times the size...

Lake Poinsett

Last Friday was the first of many summer day trips. O will be home with us all day until he starts K in August - no daycare! - so we have to find various ways to entertain the kiddo. Driving around the county visiting lakes, state parks, small towns seems like a good plan, yes? Anyway, O LOVED going to the lake. He loved throwing rocks in the lake. For three hours. He almost cried when we left. I think we need to get this kid out more often. We are terrible parents...

We purchased a state park pass, so I plan on putting it to good use. Now if I could only get M to go camping...