The End of The School Year

End-of-Year-itis has well and truly kicked in in recent weeks - but school has finally finished for the year.

This is always such a great/hard time of year - with the end of the school year comes all the excitement and emotions of finding out whose class you're in next year (and believe me this is a BIG deal to the kids) and all the sadness of leaving your old class behind.....

Not to mention all the excitement of Christmas coming and summer and late nights and all the other things that come with December.

So we've had a mixed up time lately, split between hanging out at the beach, and resting after school with quiet play and DVDs as much as possible.

Not that school's actually been very hard work in an academic sense. The last month of school always seems crazy, and the last week in particular is quite ridiculous! They spent one day playing in the school pool; on another day they arrived to find giant inflatables in the field and spent all day playing on them; and another day was dress-up day (Molly went as Harriet Potter!). They also had shared lunches with the parents, watched movies, and ate countless candy canes all day and brought their lunch home without eating it. 

The kids both brought great school reports home this year. Some of my favourite excerpts are below:

"Alfie really enjoys writing....he writes with expression, personal voice, and some entertaining anecdotes. Alfie really enjoys writing about his soccer exploits and games the Phoenix play. Keep up the fantastic work Alfie, I always enjoy reading your stories!"

"Molly's strength of character has shone through this year. She has proven that she is a strong and resilient student. This has shown in her learning too, where she has taken risks and accepted challenges".

We had some extra excitement in the last week of term when Alfie lost his first tooth! And the very next day Molly lost one too!

There've been some other great childhood developments recently too: the kids have learnt how to make a good gin & tonic!

Summer has arrived, and although school's finished up, Jake is still working until Xmas Eve. But no worries for Jake - we have been bringing picnic dinners and picking him up from work to go to the beach. Happy sunny evenings....! 

 

 And finally, some random news - we've been entering a few competitions lately and over the last week we have managed to win a new smartphone and a hairless doll (from an NZ-based Alopecia organisation) for Molly!