end of the school year

And yes, it has spread to Europe: The habit of doing a 'graduation' for kindergartners. As ridiculous as that is, it did make for a nice picture or two.



Monty will go to first grade, God help his poor teacher. On the upside, there will only be eight kids in his class, so hopefully this will work in the benefit of both teacher and Monty. It's hard to say at this point what will happen. Monty can do most things just fine, but gets himself all worked up when he doesn't remember how to do something and at times completely flips out. He'll be in my prayers.

Stoney will go to third grade. He has an excellent rapport card, with a 97% for math - the math genes most have skipped a generation - but strangely enough he doesn't like math at all. He is not interested in it and takes forever and a day to complete his school and homework. We had almost hoped that he had ADD, because at least it would be an explanation as to why he uses his pen as a space ship rather then doing the math, but no dice. They tested him, but he doesn't have it. Oh well, hopefully he'll grow out of it. I guess it is mostly a matter of him enjoying playing much more then working. And with playing i also mean climbing.



Another thing that doesn't help matters when it comes to concentrating on schoolwork, is that both these kids will not go to sleep at night. We blame Day Light Savings time, but even without that we'd be in trouble i guess. It gets dark so stinking late here (sun doesn't set till ten) and these kids just won't go to sleep as long as it is light out.
The other day we went to check on the boys (at 11, when they are finally asleep) and found this in his bed. He build an entire zoo in his bed (mom, it is a saloon, duh!) and then curled up to the far end to find a place to sleep. Crazy child.

party time

The boys had their annual end of the school year party. As usual, the kids perform a dance of some sort. Monty is still in to this. Stoney, on the other hand, not so much. He said: "i don't mind that i have to wave my hands, but why do i have to shake my hips? That's just stupid." I feel your pain kiddo.



Also as usual: Leland and i have a great time snickering about the way people dress around here. Just some observations:

• If you only have two teeth left in your mouth, and your legs are covered in varicose veins, a mini skirt is probably not a good choice
• If you are over a 180 pounds you should not wear skin tight leggings
• If you are going to wear hip hugging jeans that will reveal every bump from the waist down, at least make sure that your bud crack is not poking out
• Florescent green has it purposes in life, however, using it as eye liner is not one of them
• Wearing 4 inch heal pumps, a mini skirt and a top that just barely keeps your boobs from popping out, may be acceptable in some professions, however when you are a kindergarten teacher, at the very least it is not a practical choice.
  
• A burlap sack-dress may be very fashionable on a catwalk in Paris, (I really wouldn’t know), however, it looks somewhat out of place at a party for an elementary school, no matter how cute your shoes are.
• If you have a five year old, but the skin of your face looks a cracked leather substance, it is time to get rid of the tanning bed.

And then now for some cute pictures of Monty:
His class did two songs, one about the color red (hence the red clothes) and one French song, about FlonFlon, le petit mouton (hence the French flag)