Riley the Smiley

Riley's nickname is Riley the Smiley and for those of you who know Riley, she is just that!  Her whole face lights up when she smiles and I love the stage she's in right now.  She's so much more mellow, sweet, and yet still full of enthusiasm for life!  Here's what she was doing the last couple months of Kindergarten:

Riley had her dance recital with Miss Jeni and of course she loved every minute of it!  She did 2 dances this year called "Bad to the Bone" and "My Boyfriend's Back".  I'm disappointed I didn't get a picture of Riley with her best friend, Jaida.  They were both so cute and hilarious on stage (especially Jaida!) getting into their dances. Dance recitals with little kids are always pure entertainment.

These are some of Riley's favorite art items from their farm unit in Kindergarten.  She just loved her teacher, Mrs. Moore and really blossomed into a bright and enthusiastic student.  Can I just say how nice it is to have a child who actually gets so excited to come home and do their homework?!  Let's hope that continues on into 1st grade!

One of my favorite things they do in Kindergarten is the Mother's Day brunch.  Riley was so excited to get dressed up and serve me brunch, sing me songs, and give me the portrait she made of me.  I need to scan those in so you can see them!  I think she ended up putting my age at 25 (yesss!), my best friend as "Sister Watson" (which got a few funny looks from the teacher at the sister part), and my favorite tv show as Dancing With the Stars. So cute and so funny!

At the end of the year the kindergarten classes do a field day where they play games and eat lunch at the park next to the school.  Riley was excited to wear the t-shirt she made at school and of course play with her school bestie, Gabriana. I like to go and help out with the different stations but ended up just trying to keep Josh from squirting the kids in the eye with the squirt guns and dumping out all of the bubbles. Super fun day for Riley and for me?  Not so much.

Riley loves to write stories, letters, cards, you name it!  She has worked hard at becoming a more independent writer and sounding out words herself and remembering her capitals and periods.  She earned an award at school for "Best Effort in Writing".  She was so proud and so was her momma!

The last week of school was crazy with Jake's activities ending elementary school and Riley's activities finishing kindergarten.  She had one more singing program (they had like 5 programs this year!) which was pretty torturous with the kids singing 20 songs about school and kindergarten to tunes like Row Row Row Your Boat and Mary Had a Little Lamb.  However, afterwards they had a nice activity in the classroom where the teachers handed them their certificate of completion for kindergarten.  There were a few tears when I realized I have only one more to go to kindergarten but then I realized, only one more to go to kindergarten!  Woo hoo!