Biking-pt 2!

So today my girl and I ventured to the Great Dismal Swamp Trail to bike 6 miles on hard-top, which was a lot easier for Aubs to bike on, so she liked it a lot more! We had a picnic lunch, got eaten by flies, and just had a GREAT time. (Although she did tell me that once she was 18, she was no longer going to bike with me every summer, but I am hoping by then she'll really want to!) 

Packed in real tight in the car...

Start of the trail...there were lots of "what to do if you encounter a bear" signs.

Picnic lunch...

This was our turn around spot...and on the way back she was hot and told me she was a "melting popsicle". :)

This is maybe where I lost my wallet :( but a Mr. W found it and turned it into the police department. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prayer sticks

I saw this on Pinterest and so wanted to do it with Aubs. We pray every night, but our prayers were getting a bit monotonous. This will definitely bring variety and cause us to focus our prayers on others and their needs. Now I just need more Popsicle sticks!!!!

Ps so fun to write out names she thought of and decorate with her so she has ownership over it:) 

Biking!

I have always loved biking, and now that Aubrey is old enough, she will too:) Ha! I decided that every Wednesday this summer would be our "bike day". We will throw our bikes in my Rav4 and drive to a trail and head out. Yesterday was our first trip to Newport News Park and we biked 5.3 miles in GREAT weather! Aubrey did fantastic...so proud of her:) 

We followed the signs...

Look how much my other babies have grown?!

I can't believe another school year is over!!! I have never cried as much as I did this year with a class on the last week of school (it wasn't even only the last day, but a whole week of tears, everyday!) All that, and when I looked back at some of the older posts on this blog, I saw a picture of them that I posted in September here: http://hansongirls.blogspot.com/2012/09/ack.html

These are the reasons I have come up with for my daily tears:

1) My baby was also completing her first year of K, so I could easily relate to the parents and how they were feeling. I could also just picture my baby in this photo.

2) I was these kids first teacher...mind you, that's good, bad and ugly! And that also means there are lots of things that I am looking forward to changing next year.

3) A few of these kids caused me TONS of grief; maybe those are more relief tears! ha :) 

4) They have LEARNED so much...I was amazed to see their reading growth from the BOY (beginning of the year) to the EOY (end of the year).

5) Probably the most important, God taught me LOTS of life lessons this year through these kids and has deepened my relationship with him. Praise the Lord! My prayer is that I retain them.

With all that said....HELLO SUMMER!!!!!! 

Last day of Kindergarten!!!

My baby is officially a FIRST GRADER!!!

Here she is singing songs at their Kindergarten EOY performance...

Here she is getting her certificate and book...

Here she is checking it all out! 

We also have a tradition on the first and last day of school! We eat our dessert first...so here's Aubs eating her THREE SCOOPS of Rainbow Sherbert after school :) 

You can check out her year of learning at her teacher's blog: http://branchsbulletin.blogspot.com/