Endings and beginnings

In the past couple of weeks, Ryann has graduated from preschool, my mom has moved out of our big, 'ol, 4-bedroom, 2.5-bath house and into a great condo just down the street (she actually moved closer to us), Max has been wrapping up his first year of "real" school (Kindergarten), Adam has started slathering at the bit to begin preschool (he cried for 15 minutes this morning when he realized he didn't get to start school as soon as Max and Ryann were done with their years), I applied for and did not get a new job, I've been to several doctors to try to get my health in order and things are looking up in some areas and are still question marks in others.  It's been stressful.  But I've been managing very well if I do say so myself.

I helped my mom as much as I could to empty out her houseful of stuff and the other day she brought me a bin of Barbies, books, and snapshots.  This morning I'm feeling very nostalgic and will share some of the snapshots soon.  But first - this post is to capture the best (in my opinion and in one case, Max's opinion) of the best of what Max brought home from school yesterday.  When I checked his school bag, I found "My Second Kindergarten Journal" (I have no idea where the "First" journal went/is??), "My Egg Journal", "Kindergarten Memories", and "My Kindergarten Dictionary".  Although I wish I could share every sweet page with you, I chose a few faves:

This was my favorite.  I scanned it to the computer and then handed Max his "My Second Kindergarten Journal" back to keep looking at.  He called me a few minutes later and said, "Look Mom - this is my best picture of the year!"  See - we're in agreement.  I teared up when I saw it for the first time last night.  I mean c'mon - GAMPA TOM?!  How can you not cry?

It looks like each kid got one or two letters assigned to them for the "Kindergarten Dictionary".  Max got "g" and "w"

A boy after his mom's and dad's hearts!  I like to think that Max is so gleeful about eating in his picture, that he's clicking his heels together!  Max is watching me post and has corrected me - he was "sitting 'criss-cross-applesauce'"

When a boy loves his Dad!  This made me cry, too.

Max's best friend is Camden.  I'm sure they are depicted playing with Legos together here.  Camden lives a few houses down the way and around the corner from us.  Stu and I couldn't be happier.  Max picked the sweetest kid (I'm sure there are other sweethearts in his class, we just didn't get to spend as much time with them as we did with Cam) and his parents and little sister are great, too!  (Max inserts - "At the beginning of the year, Camden wasn't sweet to me.  He kept bossing me around.  He really did.") 

Stay tuned for a post coming soon with cute and hilarious pictures of lil ol me that got dug up during the big move...