Finishing out the school year

Is it pathetic to be doing the end of last year's school year during the middle of THIS year's first semester? Well, whatever. I'm all about continuity. Let's look at the end of school/beginning of summer in pictures:
Above, Kate does her spotlight and tells her class a bit about herself with the help of her amazing teacher, Miss Prescott.


Emma plays in her final, end-of-the-year band concert. She LOVED band, even though she could just about use the euphonium case as a spare bed.


Gracie got the academic achievement award for her class! We were really proud of her, and we LOVE her teacher, Miss Garber, who is a math-teaching genius (though she's no slouch in other areas, either!). Emma had Miss Garber, too, and Kate has her this year. Hooray!


Max plays with members of Emma's class, above and below. I often took him to school with me on Fridays to help in Ms. Egbert's classroom, and he became sort of a class mascot. The kids were great to him. I often said throughout last year that there's NO WAY it will ever be QUITE this good again: each of the girls in a class of great kids, with a teacher who's about as good as a teacher could be. What a blessing it was! (Having said that, I must say this year is going pretty swimmingly, as well — DOUBLY blessed!)

To celebrate the end of school, we went to Myung Ga, a great local Korean restaurant, with our friends Alex, Jacqueline and Cindy Bruce. In the pic above, Kate is totally ecstatic because soup is her favorite food, and this is the BIGGEST BOWL OF SOUP EVER!


What can I say? My oldest daughter is a goofball just like me. She's wearing Max's clothes in a very creative fashion in this pic in an attempt to appear even MORE mutant-like.

Above and below, we had a tea party to celebrate the end of the year, complete with our own little tea sets, sparkling grape juice, various other treats and (the centerpiece of the festivities) gorgeous mini cupcakes from So Cupcake, a local bake shop that we love. All those cupcakes you see in the center of the table are different delicious flavors: strawberry cheesecake, cinnamon sugar, vanilla, lemon, chocolate brownie ... mmmmm.
Side note: check out my fashionable hand wrap. I was just starting physical therapy for my hand after having surgery at the end of May. Soooo glad we're past that stage.