The Lander Whitings: School's Out, Scream & Shout!!!

Today was the last day of school. We spent this morning at the school attending the awards ceremonies. The 2-3 grades' was first, and the 4-6 grades' was last. I received a letter in the mail saying that both Jamey and Micah were receiving awards. Here is Jamey receiving his award: An AR award. He wasn't the top reader, but he was one of the top 5 readers in his class. I think it's amazing how he has grown in reading over this past year. He was disappointed that his name would not appear on the plaque like Micah's has every year since 2nd grade, but maybe next year, at the rate he's going!

Micah spent the time during his awards ceremony getting up and down, up and down, up and down. First he received an art award, then Student Council, awards for Science Fair, Geography Bee, National Physical Fitness Award (he tried REALLY hard to get the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, retrying his events several times, but he never could do enough pull-ups or stretch far enough to qualify, so he was pretty disappointed to only get the National Physical Fitness Award), an award for Advanced Band, the President's Education Awards Program Outstanding Academic Excellence award that came with a letter from President Obama, and last but certainly not least, the top AR reader award, not only for his grade, but for the entire history of South Elementary. The old record was 822. A girl in Micah's class beat the record, earning 913. Micah had 1050.7 AR points. It will be hard for anyone to beat that, but maybe Jamey will someday... His classmates were pretty excited about it. And, of course, Micah was very happy about it too. Here's some photos of the many times that Micah came to claim an award:

The first kids home on the last day of school: Jamey & Micah

Jamey sat down in the grass and looked like he was going to cry. He already misses his teacher so much. Mrs. Foxley is a very nice teacher, but I didn't know he loved her that much! He said, "even if someone gets straight A's, could they still take 3rd grade over again?" We went back to the school to take pictures of Micah by the AR readers plaques and Jamey said goodbye to Mrs. Foxley again.

Jamey moping on the couch:

Ian and Teancum making their way home:

And Ethan was VERY excited to get home. He ran from 5th street to the house with a huge grin on his face and gave me a big hug.

Micah's AR certificate and medal:

Micah's awards spread out on the couch:

Cameron arrived home, messy hair and all:

He spotted himself in the yearbook several times: band, science club, weight lifting club, & school store. He pointed out the signatures of several girls. :)

Here are the plaques that Micah's name is listed on, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, and finally, 6th grade. In 2nd grade he only had 137 AR points. He sure has grown since then!