The last day of first grade

Spencer had his last day of school yesterday.  He is done with first grade. Five more years and he will be an elementary school graduate, seven more years and he will be a junior high graduate and eleven more years and he'll be a high school graduate.

We were eating dinner on Tuesday night when I remembered that it was his last day the next day and I had nothing to give to his teacher, the nurse and the bus driver, which is something we had talked about doing.  So, after the kids were in bed I consulted my teacher appreciation board on pinterest and made a quick trip to Target.

We went with a pink theme for his classroom teacher- a chocolate bar with a pink label, a pink candle, pink lip balm and pink hand cream.

The school nurse is not coming back next year.  She has been wonderful with Spencer's asthma the last two years, so we wanted to give her a little something to let her know we appreciated her.

We went with an orange theme for her.  I know there is a picture of a peach on the body wash, but I promise it was orange and kiwi scented.  And the nail polish had the word orange in it.  Maybe orange sunset or something like that.

And finally, Spencer has taken the bus home every day except for maybe three days this year. I wanted to give the bus driver a little something to show our gratitude.

We were up bright and early on Wednesday, because the first and last days of school always call for an involved multi-location photo session.  Luckily Spencer is nice and quick.  I don't have any idea how we're going to do this for Elliott.  And let me take this opportunity to conduct a pole.  I do not have all of these pictures in these places for Spencer in preschool because we didn't live in this house.  My plan is to take the same pictures in the same locations on the first and last days of school until they graduate from high school and then put them all together in a massive book.  Do I start with Elliott on the first day or preschool and have two extra years for him (two years of preschool) or do I wait and start on the first day of Kindergarten so that they are equal?  Should I just take them anyway and I don't necessarily have to include them in the book in the year 2030?  Does it even matter?  I've worried about it a lot. 

Anyway......the last day of school photo shoot.  

Side note: I freaked out last night because I haven't seen this board since the first day of first grade.  Luckily, and miraculously, I knew just where to look for the board and the markers.  The writing was still on it from the first day so I just had to change "1st" to "Last:.

Once all of that was done we loaded up and headed to school.  I have already informed Michael that he has to take July 20th, their first day of school, off from work because there is no way I can handle getting two kids to two schools at the same time on the first day with all the pictures.

We first stopped off to see our beloved nurse.  She really has been great.  She always checks his oxygen and pulse when he comes in to do his albuterol and calls me with updates.  We're really going to miss her.

Then we walked to his class.

I blurred out his teacher's shirt because it said the name of the school.  Her chest doesn't normally look like that.

While Elliott napped in the afternoon I put together all of the side by side comparison collages.  The first day is on the left and the last day is on the right.

He's used this backpack for two years.  It is filthy and falling apart on the bottom.  We'll be buying a new one this summer.

And then, because, back in July, I neglected to do side by side comparisons of the first day of kindergarten and the first day of first grade and Jess called me out on it, here are side by side comparisons of the last day of kindergarten and the last day of first grade.  I didn't do all of the pictures though.  I mean, I'm not THAT crazy.

Once Spencer got home from school we took the second annual picture of him wearing his class of 2026 XL shirt.

Side by side of Kindergarten and 1st grade.

And here is another concern.  I already ordered a Class of 2030 shirt for Elliott.  I did it at the same time I got Spencer's.  Do I start his pictures in preschool even though I didn't start Spencer's until Kindergarten?  Honestly, tell me what to do. I can't handle these decisions. 

After we took those pictures Michael came home from work and took the kids to Spencer's very last Aikido class.  Last ever.  His teacher is retiring and she can't find anyone to take over the dojo, so Aikido of Phoenix is done. We're kind of sad about it.

And then finally, after Aikido we went out to dinner.  We weren't going to, but Spencer mentioned that we celebrated the end of kindergarten by going out to eat so he said we should do the same with the end of 1st grade.  Well twist my arm.