Pomp and Circumstance

I was hoping to post this the day it happened, but we were so anxious to kick off our summer.

Akiko has completed kindergarten! Yay! She is super excited for first grade, but I just want her to enjoy her summer before we have to start thinking about school again.

Graduation day! Recognize the dress?

The whole kindergarten had a little assembly for the parents in the cafeteria at first. They sang songs for us. Then we left to go to the individual classes for the graduation. Thank heavens! The cafeteria was soooo hot! And anytime I got a good shot of Akiko, someone would step right in front of me and block her. Grr! Anyway, I'm glad we didn't have to sit through 100 kids, that we didn't know, getting their certificates.

Mrs. P. was such a sweet teacher. She was so willing to help us with Akiko's work. Anytime we mentioned that Akiko was getting bored or that she found the work too easy, she would get a little packet together for extra harder work for Akiko to work on. It challenged Akiko more, but she's better off because of it.

Akiko! You did it!

 Akiko has very mixed emotions about the whole thing. She's sad that she won't see her friends over the summer, but she's excited for first grade. She is looking forward to the break, but she won't be able to spend a whole lot of time with Mrs. P. anymore.

We also got Akiko's final report card for the year. She started out pretty strong, but overall improved in all areas. Her report card is stellar. I hope she can keep up those marks for the next 12 years. ;)

One of the boys in her class was sitting next to us during our picnic at the park. Akiko read something off a wrapper she had been eating out of and the boy said, "Wow Akiko! You can read that? I can't. You're the best reader in the class!" I had one of those awkward mixed emotion moments where, all at once, I thought it was such a cute, sweet thing to say, and I was proud of Akiko, but I also pitied the other boy. I was all sorts of twisted up.

And to end it all, here's the cherry on top of Akiko's kindergarten sundae of awesomeness:

No surprise here, right?

We love you Akiko! Keep up the great work!