I no longer have a kindergartner... I have a first-grader!  Conner finished up his first official year of school on Thursday with a fun field day.  Audrey and I (and Weyla Marge and Papa Doug) went to his Kindergarten Recognition Ceremony on Wednesday at his school.  It was really cute - they lined up around the gym and walked in two at a time to stand up front on some risers.

Here he is taking his turn walking to the front:

They sang 5 songs (in addition to the one they walked in to), then each student had the opportunity to come to the microphone and say his/her name before walking off the stage to get their certificate.  I'm sure as a 6-year old I would've been scared to death to do this, but Conner did great!



We then all went to the cafeteria, where they had cookies and juice available.  After hanging out for a little bit, we were ushered out so that they could get ready for the lunch that was soon to start.  I'd discovered on Monday night from a fellow mom at baseball practice that most parents take the kids to lunch and then don't go back to school for the rest of the day.  I'd taken the whole day off and could've done this, but then someone else told me that Mr. Bailey (the principal) didn't like the practice and was discouraging parents from doing this.  I ended up leaving it up to Conner.  He decided Wednesday after the program that he wanted to stay. It turned out that there were only 5 kids in his class (out of 20) but he had a ball.  They still had their normal library and computer times, but also got to go to an extra gym class. 

After we left, Audrey and I went to New Richmond Elementary for her preschool screening.  I was really worried going in that she would be all shy and not want to talk to anyone - we'd discussed it several times, and she knew that she needed to be herself (outgoing, funny, smart) but I didn't know if she'd actually do it!  She had no problems going off with the teacher when it was her turn for the screening and was chatting as they walked.  I'm very hopeful that she kept it up; I think she did.... Aud told me that she spelled her name for them and sang her ABC's (but who knows if that's really true or not!).  We'll hopefully find out early next week if she got in or not.

After a quick trip home to change clothes, Aud and I then went to get her hair cut and had lunch at McDonald's.  She does her best when I'm trying to take a picture not to look at the camera - what a goofball! 

We made it home for about an hour before picking Conner up at school (a little early) and then going to my school for a student/teacher wiffleball game.  All in all a very busy (but fun!) day.

It's been really warm this week (mid to upper 80's... definitely not what I wanted to happen before school got out!) so I took this kids to Coney Island this morning for our first trip of 2010.  They had a ball even though the water was a bit chilly.  Actually, they didn't even acknowledge that the water was cold - that was all me.  After a little bit of freaking out about floating around by herself in her floatie, Aud ended up loving to jump off of the "island" in the middle of the pool and then didn't want me to even touch her floatie.  Conner went off the diving board once (with me waiting for him in the water) but tried to do a dive and ended up doing a belly-smacker.  He didn't want to try it again.  I don't think that will last long, though!  (As we swam over to the ladder where Audrey was waiting, I discovered her standing there peeing.  Lovely.)  We stayed for an hour and a half before heading home for lunch and a nap for Audrey (who desperately needed one).

This evening we all piled in the Jeep and headed down to the Taste of Cincinnati that was being held downtown.  It was a nice festival-like atmosphere with lots of different restaurants represented in booths.  Audrey and I had pizza (mine was a yummy chicken bacon caesar), Conner had fish and chips, and Eric had some sort of steakburger.  We also got fried pickles and a giant soft pretzel.  Then we went to Dairy Queen for dessert. Can't beat that!

I'm not sure how much I've mentioned this on the blog, but I started jogging in January.  After struggling through 2 15-minute miles at the beginning, I've worked my way to 3+ miles at a sub-10 minute pace.  I actually ran in my first 5K last weekend and didn't do as well as I'd liked but then I looked it up on a map online and found that instead of being 3.1 miles it was actually about 3.3.  There were also some crazy hills that weren't pleasant.  I finished in 30:51, which was 19th out of 48 in my age group.

Just 3 more days of school for me!

Conner's told me a few interesting things in the past couple of days....
1.  First, while sitting at Wendy's on Saturday evening, he told me I was his BFF.  Thought that was sweet.
2.  Yesterday, while he was mad at me for something or other, he told me that when he gets mad at me he wants to kill himself.
3.  Today, he told me that sometimes he wants to run away.

I don't think he seriously means #2 or #3 (or #1, for that matter!) and has probably just heard other kids saying things or seen it on tv or something... but to hear him say it is disturbing.

On a lighter note, here are a couple of pictures from the past couple of days.

Our last two weekends have been very soggy - I just wish the rain would stop!  Last Sunday, we suffered through Conner's soccer game in the (cold) rain.  It was definitely not a lot of fun.  I had book club immediately following and didn't think to bring a change of shoes, so I was still freezing (and wet) when I got home later.  Fortunately, today's game was canceled.

Conner had his first baseball game on Friday night (for which the weather was beautiful, thank goodness!).  This year has been quite a change for the way they're playing.  Because he's now in the D-Instructional league, they play real positions, can strike out on three swings, and play 3 outs per inning.  (None of which happened last year.)  They also play 5 innings instead of the two in t-ball.  Conner did a great job - he played 4 innings at second base, stopped the ball every time it was hit to him, and even threw a boy out at first. (Yay!)  He was up to bat 3 times and hit the ball each time.  They got him out at first once, but he made it safely every other time.  All in all, a great night.  Oh, and they "don't keep score", but the team won 12 - 5 (I'm the scorekeeper.).

He got a set of Legos for his birthday from Weyla Ruth and has been playing with them on an almost-daily basis, so yesterday Conner and Audrey and I went to Toys 'R Us to see what other Legos we could find for him.  We raided his piggy bank for some money before we left so that he would (hopefully) feel more responsible for them.  Conner wanted to get a set that made a pretty neat-looking firetruck, but I wouldn't let him (yes, I interfered even though I didn't intend to) because that would've been most of his money to make one thing. We ended up agreeing on a tub of 200+ Legos and an additional small kit that makes a cool helicopter.  When we got home, he sat for over an hour and made a couple of versions of the helicopter - it was definitely a hit!

I grabbed a few dollars from Audrey's bank before we left, too.  She picked out a little Dora bubble holder and a yellow water bottle with a straw.  She even had a dollar left!  As we were leaving, we decided that we were going to go to Wendy's for dinner - Aud said that she would pay for dinner with her dollar.  Luckily, the girl at the counter played along and humored her (Audrey actually asked for my "card" to give the girl with her dollar - she's a girl who knows her money!).  I sent her and Conner back up to the counter with dollars in hand a little later to get frostees.

We had an interesting week last week - after heading up to Pickerington for Saturday night (Eric and I went to a MercyMe concert at OSU), Mom and I decided that Audrey would stay with her for a couple of days. We decided to meet Tuesday at the Jeffersonville outlets to trade her back.  Everything was fine; we met, caught up, the kids and I went to a couple of stores and then headed out. On our way out of the mall, a girl (probably college-aged) hit us with her car.  It was crazy. She ran right into the front left corner of the Flex. It scraped up the wheel and dented up the corner. Luckily, the car was drivable though my hands were at more of a 1-and-7 position than 10-and-2 to keep the car going straight!  We left it at the Ford dealer closest to our house; Doug came and picked us up to take us home. I hadn't been able to get ahold of Eric because he was outside working all night. Everything's turned out ok with the insurance and all. I've been driving a rental car since Wednesday and will hopefully get the Flex back next Friday (though the dealership cautioned that it could take longer because they had to order parts). I actually talked to the girl's dad yesterday. He was very open about her accepting blame (as she should) and said he'd talk to his insurance agent about whether he should just pay it out of pocket or use his insurance.  I'm just glad that everything worked out ok!  It's actually been kinda nice to drive a car for a few days (it feels much zippier than my Flex!) but it's not nearly as comfortable.